Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LINES WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF LA PEROUSE'S VOYAGES, by THOMAS CAMPBELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Loved voyager! His pages had a zest Last Line: His watery course -- a world-encircling line. Subject(s): Galaup, Jean Francois (1741-1788); Travel; La Perouse, Comte De; Journeys; Trips | ||||||||
LOVED Voyager! his pages had a zest More sweet than fiction to my wondering breast, When, rapt in fancy, many a boyish day I tracked his wanderings o'er the watery way, Roamed round the Aleutian isles in waking dreams, Or plucked the fleur-de-lys by Jesso's streams -- Or gladly leaped on that far Tartar strand Where Europe's anchor ne'er had bit the sand, Where scarce a roving wild tribe crossed the plain, Or human voice broke nature's silent reign; But vast and grassy deserts feed the bear, And sweeping deer-herds dread no hunter's snare. Such young delight his real records brought, His truth so touched romantic springs of thought, That all my after-life -- his fate and fame Entwined romance with La Perouse's name. -- Fair were his ships, expert his gallant crews, And glorious was the emprise of La Perouse, -- Humanely glorious! Men will weep for him, When many a guilty martial fame is dim: He ploughed the deep to bind no captive's chain -- Pursued no rapine -- strewed no wreck with slain; And, save that in the deep themselves lie low, His heroes plucked no wreath from human wo. Twas his the earth's remotest bound to scan, Conciliating with gifts barbaric man -- Enrich the world's contemporaneous mind, And amplify the picture of mankind. Far on the vast Pacific -- 'midst those isles, O'er which the earliest morn of Asia smiles, He sounded and gave charts to many a shore And gulf of Ocean new to nautic lore; Yet he that led Discovery o'er the wave, Still fills himself an undiscovered grave. He came not back, -- Conjecture's cheek grew pale, Year after year -- in no propitious gale His lilied banner held its homeward way, And Science saddened at her martyr's stay. An age elapsed -- no wreck told where or when The chief went down with all his gallant men, Or whether by the storm and wild sea flood He perished, or by wilder men of blood: The shuddering Fancy only guessed his doom, And Doubt to Sorrow gave but deeper gloom. An age elapsed -- when men were dead or gray, Whose hearts had mourned him in their youthful day; Fame traced, on Mannicolo's shore, at last, The boiling surge had mounted o'er his mast. The islesmen told of some surviving men, But Christian eyes beheld them ne'er again. Sad bourne of all his toils -- with all his band To sleep, wrecked, shroudless, on a savage strand! Yet what is all that fires a hero's scorn Of death? -- the hope to live in hearts unborn Life to the brave is not its fleeting breath, But worth -- foretasting fame, that follows death. That worth had La Perouse -- that meed he won; He sleeps -- his life's long stormy watch is done In the great deep, whose boundaries and space He measured, Fate ordained his resting-place; But bade his fame, like th' Ocean rolling o'er His relics -- visit every earthly shore. Fair Science, on that Ocean's azure robe, Still writes his name in picturing the globe, And paints -- (what fairer wreath could glory twine?) His watery course -- a world-encircling line. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RICHARD, WHAT'S THAT NOISE? by RICHARD HOWARD LOOKING FOR THE GULF MOTEL by RICHARD BLANCO RIVERS INTO SEAS by LYNDA HULL DESTINATIONS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES TO H. B. (WITH A BOOK OF VERSE) by MAURICE BARING BATTLE OF THE BALTIC by THOMAS CAMPBELL DOWNFALL OF POLAND [FALL OF WARSAW, 1794] by THOMAS CAMPBELL |
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