Who repays in season due
Them who have, like thee, been true
To the filial chain let down From his everlasting throne, Angels hovering round thy couch, With their softest whispers vouch, That-whatever griefs may fret, Cares entangle, sins beset,
This thy First-born, and with tears Stain her cheek in future years- Heavenly succour, not denied To the babe, whate'er betide, Will to the woman be supplied!
Mother! blest be thy calm ease; Blest the starry promises,
And the firmament benign
Hallowed be it, where they shine! Yes, for them whose souls have scope
Ample for a winged hope,
And can earthward bend an ear
For needful listening, pledge is here,
That, if thy new-born Charge shall tread
In thy footsteps, and be led
By that other Guide, whose light Of manly virtues, mildly bright, Gave him first the wished-for part In thy gentle virgin heart; Then, amid the storms of life Presignified by that dread strife
Whence ye have escaped together, She may look for serene weather; In all trials sure to find
Comfort for a faithful mind; Kindlier issues, holier rest,
Than even now await her prest, Conscious Nursling, to thy breast!
LIST, the winds of March are blowing; Her ground-flowers shrink, afraid of showing Their meek heads to the nipping air, Which ye feel not, happy pair! Sunk into a kindly sleep.
We, meanwhile, our hope will keep ; And if Time leagued with adverse Change (Too busy fear!) shall cross its range, Whatsoever check they bring,
Anxious duty hindering,
To like hope our prayers will cling.
Thus, while the ruminating spirit feeds Upon the events of home as life proceeds,
Affections pure and holy in their source Gain a fresh impulse, run a livelier course; Hopes that within the Father's heart prevail, Are in the experienced Grandsire's slow to fail; And if the harp pleased his gay youth, it rings To his grave touch with no unready strings, While thoughts press on, and feelings overflow, And quick words round him fall like flakes of snow.
Thanks to the Powers that yet maintain their sway, And have renewed the tributary Lay.
Truths of the heart flock in with eager pace And FANCY greets them with a fond embrace; Swift as the rising sun his beams extends
She shoots the tidings forth to distant friends; Their gifts she hails (deemed precious, as they prove For the unconscious Babe so prompt to love!)— But from this peaceful centre of delight
Vague sympathies have urged her to take flight: Rapt into upper regions, like the bee
That sucks from mountain heath her honey fee; Or, like the warbling lark intent to shroud His head in sunbeams or a bowery cloud,
and here and there her pinions rest
On proud towers, like this humble cottage, blest With a new visitant, an infant guest- Towers where red streamers flout the breezy sky In pomp foreseen by her creative eye,
When feasts shall crowd the hall, and steeple bells Glad proclamation make, and heights and dells
Catch the blithe music as it sinks and swells
And harboured ships, whose pride is on the sea, Shall hoist their topmast flags in sign of glee, Honouring the hope of noble ancestry.
But who (though neither reckoning ills assigned By Nature, nor reviewing in the mind
The track that was, and is, and must be, worn feet by all of woman born)—
With weary Shall now by such a gift with joy be moved, Nor feel the fulness of that joy reproved?
Not He, whose last faint memory will command The truth that Britain was his native land; Whose infant soul was tutored to confide
In the cleansed faith for which her martyrs died; Whose boyish ear the voice of her renown
With rapture thrilled; whose Youth revered the crown Of Saxon liberty that Alfred wore,
Alfred, dear Babe, thy great Progenitor!
-Not He, who from her mellowed practice drew His social sense of just, and fair, and true; And saw, thereafter, on the soil of France Rash Polity begin her maniac dance, Foundations broken up, the deeps run wild, Nor grieved to see (himself not unbeguiled)— Woke from the dream, the dreamer to upbraid, And learn how sanguine expectations fade When novel trusts by folly are betrayed,—
To see Presumption, turning pale, refrain From further havoc, but repent in vain,—- Good aims lie down, and perish in the road Where guilt had urged them on with ceaseless goad, Proofs thickening round her that on public ends Domestic virtue vitally depends,
That civic strife can turn the happiest hearth
Into a grievous sore of self-tormenting earth.
Can such a One, dear Babe! though glad and proud To welcome thee, repel the fears that crowd Into his English breast, and spare to quake Less for his own than for thy innocent sake? Too late-or, should the providence of God Lead through dark ways by sin and sorrow trod, Justice and peace to a secure abode,
Too soon-thou com'st into this breathing world; Ensigns of mimic outrage are unfurled.
Who shall preserve or prop the tottering Realm? What hand suffice to govern the state-helm? If, in the aims of men, the surest test
Of good or bad (whate'er be sought for or profest) Lie in the means required, or ways ordained, For compassing the end, else never gained; Yet governors and govern'd both are blind To this plain truth, or fling it to the wind; If to expedience principle must bow;
Past, future, shrinking up beneath the incumbent Now;
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