LIFE AND MEMORY. From "A Confession and an Apology." I AM conscious that where all things strive 'Tis shameful to sit still. I would not live Content with a life lost In chasing mine own fancies thro' void air, Of personal joy or pain. The ages roll And to be glad, or sad, I care no more: Shame on the wretch who, born a man, foregoes This mighty universe, yet see not there Yet is there nought for shame in any thing Rather the ground that's deep enough for graves, Whose shifting surface cherishes no seed 1 scathed-injured, as by lightning. Or stagnant hollow which the storms despise * I deem that nothing suffer'd or enjoy'd Means of a soul's encreased capacity Among the spirits purified by pain, Reserved for spirits that, 'mid the general moan And, for this reason, I would yet keep fair Robert, Lord Lytton: born, 1831. Edward Robert, son of Edward Bulwer, late Lord Lytton,after nearly thirty years' diplomatic service abroad, was appointed Viceroy of India in 1876. He is the author of The Wanderer, Lucile, Chronicles and Characters, and other volumes of poetry, and is one of the truest poets of our time. A GREAT MAN. THAT man is great, and he alone, 1 pelf-gain. Strong is that man, he only strong, All powers that, in the face of Wrong, And free he is, and only he, If such a man there be, where'er Great Nature hath him in her care Who holds by everlasting law Which neither chance nor change can flaw: 2 The ages on : Who hath not bow'd his honest head Of Duty, shunn'd her eye: Nor truckled 3 to loud times: nor wed Nor fear'd to follow, in the offence Of justice unsubdued : Nor shrunk from any consequence He looks his Angel in the face 5 1 fare-live; or sometimes, travel. 2 flaw-break or blemish. 3 truckled-yielded obsequiously. 4 loud-boastful or showy. 5 his angel-an allusion to the beautiful belief that each man's life is in charge of an angel-witness or guardian. Not morsell'd1 out from day to day For tho' he live aloof from ken," The judge upon the justice-seat: The reapers reaping in the wheat : 4 In cloister cold: the prisoner lean He nothing human alien deems Man's meanest claim upon him: Because they know him Nature's friend, 7 Helping and heartening to the end 1 morsell'd out-fritter'd away. 2 aloof from ken-out of the way of social knowledge or 3 denizen-stranger-inhabitant. distinction. 4 cloister-convent: a place of retirement from the world. 5 Even the youth... gates-even the assassin or the worst of criminals. 6 alien--strange or foreign. 7 heartening-encouraging. Therefore, tho' mortal made, he can The orb of time, is his by faith, If such a man there be, where'er He goeth girt with cohorts, powers, He owes no homage to the sun : His future in himself doth lie: Lord of a lofty life is he, Loftily living, tho' he be Of lowly birth; tho' poor, The merely great are, all in all, Robert, Lord Lytton: born, 1831. (See page 24.) 1 cohorts-armies. (Among the Romans a cohort was the tenth part of a legion, a body of about 500 or 600 warriors. See page 7). |