Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LINES SPOKEN IN THE THEATRE, OXFORD, ON LORD GRENVILLE'S INSTALLATION, by REGINALD HEBER Poet's Biography First Line: Ye viewless guardians of these sacred shades Last Line: Our boast before, -- our chief and champion now! -- Subject(s): Praise; Scholarship & Scholars | ||||||||
YE viewless guardians of these sacred shades, Dear dreams of early song, Aonian maids! -- And you, illustrious dead! whose spirits speak In each warm flush that tints the student's cheek, As, wearied with the world, he seeks again The page of better times and greater men; If with pure worship we your steps pursue, And youth, and health, and rest forget for you, (Whom most we serve, to whom our lamp burns bright Through the long toils of not ingrateful night,) Yet, yet be present! -- Let the worldly train Mock our cheap joys, and hate our useless strain, Intent on freighted wealth, or proud to rear The fleece Iberian or the pamper'd steer; -- Let sterner science with unwearied eye Explore the circling spheres and map the sky; His long-drawn mole let lordly commerce scan, And of his iron arch the rainbow span: Yet, while, in burning characters imprest, The poet's lesson stamps the youthful breast; Bids the rapt boy o'er suffering virtue bleed, Adore a brave or bless a gentle deed, And in warm feeling from the storied page Arise the saint, the hero, or the sage; Such be our toil! -- Nor doubt we to explore The thorny maze of dialectic lore, To climb the chariot of the gods, or scan The secret workings of the soul of man; Upborne aloft on Plato's eagle flight, Or the slow pinion of the Stagyrite. -- And, those grey spoils of Herculanean pride, If aught of yet untasted sweets they hide; -- If Padua's sage be there, or art have power To wake Menander from his secret bower. Such be our toil! -- Nor vain the labour proves, Which Oxford honours, and which Grenville loves! -- On, eloquent and firm! -- whose warning high Rebuked the rising surge of anarchy, When, like those brethren stars to seamen known, In kindred splendour Pitt and Grenville shone; -- On in thy glorious course! not yet the wave Has ceased to lash the shore, nor storm forgot to rave. Go on! and oh, while adverse factions raise To thy pure worth involuntary praise; While Gambia's swarthy tribes thy mercies bless, And from thy counsels date their happiness; Say, (for thine Isis yet recalls with pride Thy youthful triumphs by her leafy side,) Say, hast thou scorn'd, 'mid pomp, and wealth, and power, The sober transports of a studious hour? -- No, statesman, no! -- thy patriot fire was fed From the warm embers of the mighty dead; And thy strong spirit's patient grasp combined The souls of ages in a single mind. -- -- By arts like these, amidst a world of foes, Eye of the earth, th' Athenian glory rose; -- Thus last and best of Romans, Brutus shone; -- Our Somers thus, and thus our Clarendon; Such Cobham was; -- such, Grenville, long be thou, Our boast before, -- our chief and champion now! -- | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GILES JOHNSON, PH.D by FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS ADDRESS TO THE SCHOLARS OF NEW ENGLAND by JOHN CROWE RANSOM VERSES, READ AT MY INITIATION INTO THE O.K. by GEORGE SANTAYANA VERSES, SUNG AT MY INITIATION INTO THE PUDDING by GEORGE SANTAYANA FOR BILL NESTRICK by FRANK BIDART THE SCHOLAR GIPSY by MATTHEW ARNOLD A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL by ROBERT BROWNING THE SCHOLARS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS EVENING HYMN by REGINALD HEBER |
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