The Penguin Book of English Verse

by Paul Keegan

  A woodland rivulet, – a Poet’s death.

  JOHN KEATS from Endymion 1818

  But there are

  Richer entanglements, enthralments far

  More self-destroying, leading, by degrees,

  To the chief intensity: the crown of these

  Is made of love and friendship, and sits high

  Upon the forehead of humanity.

  All its more ponderous and bulky worth

  Is friendship, whence there ever issues forth

  A steady splendour; but at the tip-top,

  There hangs by unseen film, an orbed drop

  Of light, and that is love: its influence,

  Thrown in our eyes, genders a novel sense,

  At which we start and fret; till in the end,

  Melting into its radiance, we blend,

  Mingle, and so become a part of it –

  Nor with aught else can our souls interknit

  So wingedly. When we combine therewith,

  Life’s self is nourished by its proper pith,

  And we are nurtured like a pelican brood.

  Ay, so delicious is the unsating food,

  That men, who might have towered in the van

  Of all the congregated world, to fan

  And winnow from the coming step of time

  All chaff of custom, wipe away all slime

  Left by men-slugs and human serpentry,

  Have been content to let occasion die,

  Whilst they did sleep in love’s elysium.

  And, truly, I would rather be struck dumb,

  Than speak against this ardent listlessness:

  For I have ever thought that it might bless

  The world with benefits unknowingly,

  As does the nightingale, up-perchèd high,

  And cloistered among cool and bunched leaves –

  She sings but to her love, nor e’er conceives

  How tip-toe Night holds back her dark-grey hood.

  Just so may love, although ’tis understood

  The mere commingling of passionate breath,

  Produce more than our searching witnesseth –

  What I know not: but who, of men, can tell

  That flowers would bloom, or that green fruit would swell

  To melting pulp, that fish would have bright mail,

  The earth its dower of river, wood, and vale,

  The meadows runnels, runnels pebble-stones,

  The seed its harvest, or the lute its tones,

  Tones ravishment, or ravishment its sweet,

  If human souls did never kiss and greet?

  PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Ozymandias

  I met a traveller from an antique land

  Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

  And on the pedestal these word appear:

  “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

  SIR WALTER SCOTT from The Heart of Mid-Lothian

  [Madge Wildfire sings:]

  ‘Proud Maisie is in the wood,

  Walking so early;

  Sweet Robin sits on the bush,

  Singing so rarely.

  “ ‘Tell me, thou bonny bird,

  When shall I marry me?” –

  “When six braw gentlemen

  Kirkward shall carry ye.”

  * * *

  “ ‘Who makes the bridal bed,

  Birdie, say truly?”

  “The gray-headed sexton

  That delves the grave duly.”

  * * *

  ‘The glow-worm o’er grave and stone

  Shall light thee steady;

  The owl from the steeple sing,

  “Welcome, proud lady.” ’

  1819 SIR WALTER SCOTT from The Bride of Lammermoor

  [Lucy Ashton’s song]

  ‘Look not thou on Beauty’s charming, –

  Sit thou still when Kings are arming, –

  Taste not when the wine-cup glistens, –

  Speak not when the people listens, –

  Stop thine ear against the singer, –

  From the red gold keep thy finger, –

  Vacant heart, and hand, and eye, –

  Easy live and quiet die.’

  GEORGE CRABBE from Tales of the Hall

  from Delay has Danger

  Three weeks had past, and Richard rambles now

  Far as the dinners of the day allow;

  He rode to Farley Grange and Finley Mere,

  That house so ancient, and that lake so clear:

  He rode to Ripley through that river gay,

  Where in the shallow stream the loaches play,

  And stony fragments stay the winding stream,

  And gilded pebbles at the bottom gleam,

  Giving their yellow surface to the sun,

  And making proud the waters as they run:

  It is a lovely place, and at the side

  Rises a mountain-rock in rugged pride;

  And in that rock are shapes of shells, and forms

  Of creatures in old worlds, of nameless worms,

  Whose generations lived and died ere man,

  A worm of other class, to crawl began.

  There is a town call’d Silford, where his steed

  Our traveller rested – He the while would feed

  His mind by walking to and fro, to meet,

  He knew not what adventure, in the street:

  A stranger there, but yet a window-view

  Gave him a face that he conceived he knew;

  He saw a tall, fair, lovely lady, dress’d

  As one whom taste and wealth had jointly bless’d;

  He gazed, but soon a footman at the door

  Thundering, alarm’d her, who was seen no more.

  ‘This was the lady whom her lover bound

  In solemn contract, and then proved unsound:

  Of this affair I have a clouded view,

  And should be glad to have it clear’d by you.’

  So Richard spake, and instant George replied,

  ‘I had the story from the injured side,

  But when resentment and regret were gone,

  And pity (shaded by contempt) came on.

  ‘Frail was the hero of my tale, but still

  Was rather drawn by accident than will;

  Some without meaning into guilt advance,

  From want of guard, from vanity, from chance;

  Man’s weakness flies his more immediate pain,

  A little respite from his fears to gain;

  And takes the part that he would gladly fly,

  If he had strength and courage to deny.

  ‘But now my tale, and let the moral say,

  When hope can sleep, there’s Danger in delay.

  Not that for rashness, Richard, I would plead,

  For unadvised alliance: No, indeed:

  Think ere the contract – but, contracted, stand

  No more debating, take the ready hand:

  When hearts are willing, and when fears subside,

  Trust not to time, but let the knot be tied;

  For when a lover has no more to do,

  He thinks in leisure, what shall I pursue?

  And then who knows what objects come in view?

  For when, assured, the man has nought to keep

  His wishes warm and active, then they sleep:

  Hopes die with fears; and then a man must lose

 
All the gay visions, and delicious views,

  Once his mind’s wealth! He travels at his ease,

  Nor horrors now nor fairy-beauty sees;

  When the kind goddess gives the wish’d assent,

  No mortal business should the deed prevent;

  But the blest youth should legal sanction seek

  Ere yet th’ assenting blush has fled the cheek.

  ‘And – hear me, Richard, – man has reptile-pride

  That often rises when his fears subside;

  When, like a trader feeling rich, he now

  Neglects his former smile, his humble bow,

  And, conscious of his hoarded wealth, assumes

  New airs, nor thinks how odious he becomes.

  There is a wandering, wavering train of thought

  That something seeks where nothing should be sought,

  And will a self-delighted spirit move

  To dare the danger of pernicious love.’

  WILLIAM BLAKE To the Accuser Who is the God of This World

  Truly My Satan thou art but a Dunce

  And dost not know the Garment from the Man

  Every Harlot was a Virgin once

  Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan

  Tho thou art Worshipd by the Names Divine

  Of Jesus & Jehovah: thou art still

  The Son of Morn in weary Nights decline

  The lost Travellers Dream under the Hill

  PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY from The Mask of Anarchy

  Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester

  As I lay asleep in Italy

  There came a voice from over the Sea,

  And with great power it forth led me

  To walk in the visions of Poesy.

  I met Murder on the way –

  He had a mask like Castlereagh –

  Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

  Seven bloodhounds followed him:

  All were fat; and well they might

  Be in admirable plight,

  For one by one, and two by two,

  He tossed them human hearts to chew

  Which from his wide cloak he drew.

  Next came Fraud, and he had on,

  Like Eldon, an ermined gown;

  His big tears, for he wept well,

  Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

  And the little children, who

  Round his feet played to and fro,

  Thinking every tear a gem,

  Had their brains knocked out by them.

  Clothed with the Bible, as with light,

  And the shadows of the night,

  Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy

  On a crocodile rode by.

  And many more Destructions played

  In this ghastly masquerade,

  All disguised, even to the eyes,

  Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.

  Last came Anarchy: he rode

  On a white horse, splashed with blood;

  He was pale even to the lips,

  Like Death in the Apocalypse.

  And he wore a kingly crown,

  And in his grasp a sceptre shone;

  On his brow this mark I saw –

  ‘I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!’

  With a pace stately and fast,

  Over English land he past,

  Trampling to a mire of blood

  The adoring multitude.

  And a mighty troop around,

  With their trampling shook the ground,

  Waving each a bloody sword,

  For the service of their Lord.

  And with glorious triumph, they

  Rode through England proud and gay

  Drunk as with intoxication

  Of the wine of desolation.

  O’er fields and towns, from sea to sea.

  Passed the Pageant swift and free,

  Tearing up, and trampling down;

  Till they came to London town.

  And each dweller, panic-stricken,

  Felt his heart with terror sicken

  Hearing the tempestuous cry

  Of the triumph of Anarchy.

  For with pomp to meet him came

  Clothed in arms like blood and flame,

  The hired Murderers, who did sing

  ‘Thou art God, and Law, and King.

  ‘We have waited, weak and lone

  For thy coming, Mighty One!

  Our purses are empty, our swords are cold

  Give us glory, and blood, and gold.’

  Lawyers and priests, a motley crowd,

  To the earth their pale brows bowed;

  Like a bad prayer not over loud,

  Whispering – ‘Thou art Law and God.’ –

  Then all cried with one accord;

  ‘Thou art King, and God, and Lord;

  Anarchy, to Thee we bow,

  Be thy name made holy now!’

  And Anarchy, the Skeleton,

  Bowed and grinned to every one,

  As well as if his education

  Had cost ten millions to the Nation.

  For he knew the Palaces

  Of our Kings were rightly his;

  His the sceptre, crown, and globe,

  And the gold-inwoven robe.

  (1832)

  GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON from Don Juan

  from Canto I [Juan’s Puberty]

  So much for Julia. Now we’ll turn to Juan,

  Poor little fellow! he had no idea

  Of his own case, and never hit the true one;

  In feelings quick as Ovid’s Miss Medea,

  He puzzled over what he found a new one,

  But not as yet imagined it could be a

  Thing quite in course, and not at all alarming,

  Which, with a little patience, might grow charming.

  Silent and pensive, idle, restless, slow,

  His home deserted for the lonely wood,

  Tormented with a wound he could not know,

  His, like all deep grief, plunged in solitude:

  I’m fond myself of solitude or so,

  But then, I beg it may be understood,

  By solitude I mean a sultan’s, not