(CHAPLAIN TO THE ENGLISH FACTORY AT HAMBURGH. WRITTEN IN THE AUTHOR'S EIGHTEENTH YEAR) HENCE, my epistle--skim the deep--fly o'er Yon smooth expanse to the Teutonic shore! Haste--lest a friend should grieve for thy delay-- And the gods grant, that nothing thwart thy way! I will myself invoke the king, who binds In his Sicanian echoing vault the winds, With Doris and her nymphs, and all the throng Of azure gods, to speed thee safe along. But rather to ensure thy happier haste, Ascend Medea's chariot, if thou mayst; Or that, whence young Triptolemus of yore Descended, welcome on the Scythian shore. The sands, that line the German coast, descried, To opulent Hamburga turn aside! So called, if legendary fame be true, From Hama, whom a club-armed Cimbrian slew. There lives, deep-learned and primitively just, A faithful steward of his Christian trust, My friend, and favourite inmate of my heart, That now is forced to want its better part. What mountains now, and seas, alas, how wide! From me this other, dearer self divide, Dear as the sage renowned for moral truth To the prime spirit of the Attic youth! Dear as the Stagyrite to Ammon's son, His pupil, who disdained the world he won! Nor so did Chiron, or so Phoenix shine In young Achilles' eyes, as he in mine. First led by him through sweet Aonian shade, Each sacred haunt of Pindus I surveyed; And favoured by the Muse, whom I implored, Thrice on my lip the hallowed stream I poured. But thrice the sun's resplendent chariot, rolled To Aries, has new-tinged his fleece with gold, And Chloris twice has dressed the meadows gay, And twice has summer parched their bloom away, Since last delighted on his looks I hung, Or my ear drank the music of his tongue: Fly, therefore, and surpass the tempest's speed; Aware thyself that there is urgent need! Him, entering, thou shalt haply seated see Beside his spouse, his infants on his knee; Or turning, page by page, with studious look, Some bulky Father, or God's holy book; Or ministering (which is his weightiest care) To Christ's assembled flock their heavenly fare. Give him, whatever his employment be, Such gratulation as he claims from me; And, with a downcast eye, and carriage meek, Addressing him, forget not thus to speak! "If, compassed round with arms, thou canst attend To verse, verse greets thee from a distant friend. Long due, and late, I left the English shore; But make me welcome for that cause the more! Such from Ulysses, his chaste wife to cheer, The slow epistle came, though late, sincere. But wherefore this? why palliate I the deed, For which the culprit's self could hardly plead? Self-charged, and self-condemned, his proper part He feels neglected, with an aching heart; But thou forgive: delinquents, who confess And pray forgiveness, merit anger less; From timid foes the lion turns away, Nor yawns upon or rends a crouching prey; Even pike-wielding Thracians learn to spare, Won by soft influence of a suppliant prayer; And Heaven's dread thunderbolt arrested stands By a cheap victim, and uplifted hands. Long had he wished to write, but was withheld, And writes at last, by love alone compelled; For Fame, too often true when she alarms, Reports thy neighbouring fields a scene of arms; Thy city against fierce besiegers barred, And all the Saxon chiefs for fight prepared. Enyo wastes thy country wide around, And saturates with blood the tainted ground; Mars rests contented in his Thrace no more, But goads his steeds to fields of German gore: The ever-verdant olive fades and dies, And Peace, the trumpet-hating goddess, flies, Flies from that earth which Justice long had left, And leaves the world of its last guard bereft. "Thus horror girds thee round. Meantime alone Thou dwell'st, and helpless, in a soil unknown; Poor, and receiving from a foreign hand The aid denied thee in thy native land. O ruthless country, and unfeeling more Than thy own billow-beaten chalky shore! Leavest thou to foreign care the worthies given By Providence to guide thy steps to heaven? His ministers, commissioned to proclaim Eternal blessings in a Saviour's name? Ah, then most worthy, with a soul unfed, In Stygian night to lie for ever dead! So once the venerable Tishbite strayed An exiled fugitive from shade to shade, When, flying Ahab and his fury wife, In lone Arabian wilds he sheltered life; So from Philippi wandered forth forlorn Cilician Paul, with sounding scourges torn; And Christ himself so left, and trod no more, The thankless Gergesenes' forbidden shore. "But thou take courage! strive against despair! Quake not with dread, nor nourish anxious care! Grim war indeed on every side appears, And thou art menaced by a thousand spears; Yet none shall drink thy blood, or shall offend Even the defenceless bosom of my friend. For thee the AEgis of thy God shall hide, Jehovah's self shall combat on thy side: The same, who vanquished under Sion's towers, At silent midnight, all Assyria's powers; The same, who overthrew in ages past Damascus' sons that laid Samaria waste! Their king he filled and them with fatal fears By mimic sounds of clarions in their ears, Of hoofs, and wheels, and neighings from afar. Of clashing armour, and the din of war. "Thou, therefore (as the most afflicted may), Still hope, and triumph o'er thy evil day! Look forth, expecting happier times to come, And to enjoy, once more, thy native home!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: WILLIAM AND EMILY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SONNET: 151 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ON SOME BUTTERCUPS by FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN THE BRITISH PHILIPPIC by MARK AKENSIDE AT BAY RIDGE, LONG ISLAND by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |