Old Ocean was Infinity of ages ere we breathed Existence, and he will be beautiful 125 When all the living world that sees him now 130. In thundering concert with the quiring winds ; The power of thought to reach, bard after bard 135 LINES ON THE CAMP HILL, NEAR HASTINGS In the deep blue of eve, Ere the twinkling of stars had begun, Of the skies and the sweet setting sun, I climbed to yon heights, Where the Norman encamped him of old, And his banner all burnished with gold. At the Conqueror's side There his minstrelsy sat harp in hand, And they chanted the deeds of Roland. Still the ramparted ground With a vision my fancy inspires, And I hear the trump sound, As it marshalled our Chivalry's sires. On each turf of that mead 15 Stood the captors of England's domains, That ennobled her breed And high-mettled the blood of her veins; 20 Over hauberk and helm, As the sun's setting splendour was thrown, Thence they looked o'er a realm And to-morrow beheld it their own. NOTES. THE PLEASURES OF HOPE. INTRODUCTION. THIS poem was first published in April, 1799, when Campbell was twenty-one years old. Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, but still more Rogers's Pleasures of Memory, published only seven years previously and written in a similar style, doubtless suggested the subject and method of treatment to the author. See General Introduction, p. xiii. ANALYSIS. Part I. The poem opens with a comparison between the beauty of remote objects in a landscape and those ideal scenes of felicity which the imagination delights to look forward to (11. 1-14). The influence of anticipation upon the other passions is next delineated (ll. 15-30). An allusion is made to the well-known fiction in pagan tradition, that when all the guardian deities of mankind abandoned the world, Hope alone was left behind (ll. 31-44). The consolations of this passion in situations of danger and distress-the seaman on his watch-the soldier marching into battle (ll. 45-100). Domestic felicity, how intimately connected with views of future happiness—picture of a mother watching her infant when asleep (Il. 101-162). From the consolations of individual misery a transition is made to prospects of political improvement in the future state of society -the wide field that is yet open for the progress of humanizing acts among uncivilized nations (11. 163-190). From these views of the amelioration of society we are led to reflect upon the hard fate of a brave people conspicuous in its struggles for independence-description of the capture of Warsaw-the massacre of the Polish patriots at the bridge of Praga-there is hope still for Poland (191-252). The wrongs of Africa--and of India (261-320). Part II. The disposition to combine, in our imagination, all that is pleasing in our estimate of happiness, compared to the 80 skill of the artist who personified perfect beauty, in the picture of Venus, by an assemblage of the most beautiful features he could find-description of the summer morning and evening of one who wishes for the union of friendship and retirement (321-356). The last and most sublime influence of Hope in the predominance of a belief in a future state over the terrors attendant on dissolution (357-416). The baneful influence of that sceptical philosophy which bars us from such comfortslife a failure without this hope of the future (417-522). Conclusion (523-530). NOTES. 7. A line so frequently quoted as to have become proverbial. 10. unmeasured, untravelled, not yet passed over. 11. dim-discovered, dimly-disclosed, indistinctly viewed.' For discover' in this sense, cf. Milton, Par. Lost, i. 63, 64: "Darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe." 13. every form, etc. The imagination projects half-forgotten happy events of the past into the future, and pictures them there in glowing colours to the "musing eye." 66 14. there, in the scene (1. 11) or prospect of the future. 'Every form " = each detail. 15. raptured, for 'enraptured,' transported with joy. 18. pledge, 'promise, foretaste.' The meaning is Can wisdom give us this foretaste of future happiness?' 20. horizon, limit of her vision. 22. 'Tis Nature... true. Wisdom, taught by experience, is apt to take too gloomy a view of the future. 24. remotest rapture, rapture over events furthest removed from the present. 27. sister band, band of similar passions or feelings, such as Joy, Love, Fancy, etc. 31. Hope is a nominativus pendens, resumed in 1. 40. دو Aönian Muses. Aonia was an ancient name of Boeotia, a region of Greece frequented by the nine Muses. Hence "Aönian Muses = Greek poets, who have told how with the coming of the Iron Age, all the Virtues abandoned the Earth, Hope alone being left. Cf. also the story of Pandora's box, whence all evils and plagues spread over the world, Hope only remaining at the bottom. 34. malignant stars, adverse fate, evil destiny. Cf. disastrous. F 36. her iron car. Campbell personifies War as feminine, thinking probably of Bellona, the goddess, rather than of Mars, the god of war. Old mythology gave the latter a chariot drawn by two furious horses. 38. viewless winds. From Shakspere, Measure for Measure, III. i. 124: "To be imprisoned in the viewless winds." The epithet is repeated in 1. 51 below. 41. Elijah's burning wheels. The Jewish prophet Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire from the other side of the river Jordan opposite Jericho, 80 miles distant from Mount Car mel. See Bible, 2 Kings, ii. 11-13. Hence "Carmel's heights in the next line is a mistake of the poet's. 45-52. The meaning seems to be that Hope encourages the toilers and relieves the sorrowful; that those who are suffering under life's trials have recourse to her, and are soothed, calmed, and consoled by her benign influence. 50. handmaid spirits, assistant spirits. See note to 1. 27. 51. What viewless... play. The breezes murmur soothingly, like an organ played by unseen hands. Æolus was the Roman god of the winds. 53. explore, 'range over,' a regular Popian use of the word. 57. Atlantic. The chain of the Andes is near the west coast of South America, and therefore would be seen from the Pacific, and not from the Atlantic Ocean. See General Introduction, p. xxix. 58. western star, poetical for 'the west.' 58-60. It was these lines that Wordsworth said were "sheer nonsense. What has a giant to do with a star? What is a meteor standard?" The expression probably alludes to the flame of volcanoes, of which there are an enormous number in the Andes. Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, i. 337: "The imperial ensign . Shone like a meteor streaming in the wind.” And see Mariners of England, 31. 62. Behring's rocks, i. e. Behring Straits, between north-eastern Siberia and America, so called after Vitus Behring, their Danish discoverer in 1741. 66. Oonalaska, one of the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific. 68. wreck, break down, impair, harass. 72. the spirit, i.e. the gloomy influence. 73. streamer, tongue of light shot out from the Aurora Borealis. Tennyson (Morte d'Arthur, 139) has "a streamer of the |