Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ With his well-filled net and glittering spoil:
Well has the noon-tide repaid its toil.
While the ships that lie in the distance away,
Catch on their canvass the crimsoning ray;
Like fairy ships in the tales of old,
When the sails they spread were purple and gold.
Then the deep delight of the starry night,
With its shadowy depths and dreamy light:
When far away spreads the boundless sea,
As if it imaged infinity.
Let me hear the winds go singing by,
Lulling the waves with their melody:
While the moon like a mother watches their sleep,
And I ask no home but beside the deep. ”

“ Methinks ’tis hard to be
A wanderer, rifled of thy own,
Banished from thy ancestral throne.
It is in vain to say, content
Dwells with the lowlier lot;
That careless smile, and brow unbent,
Are what a king knows not. ”

“ Yet still the vast shrine and the temple
Seem to speak of a mightier race
Than ours, which exists by the minute,
And builds but by contract and steam,
Till the spirit has no where to wander,
And the heart has no rest for its dream. ”

“ Whene'er a person is a poet,
No matter what the pang may be;
Does not at once the public know it?
Witness each newspaper we see.
"The parting look," "the bitter token,"
"The last despair," "the first distress;"
"The anguish of a heart that’s broken—"
Do not these crowd the daily press? ”

“ Stands a lady as lovely as lady can be.
Short speech tells a love-tale;—the bard's sweetest words
Are poor, beside those which each memory hoards:
Sound of some gentle whisper, the haunting and low,
Such as love may have murmured—ah, long, long ago. ”

“ The world is put aside, within the heart
Those hopes arise
Thrice sacred mysteries,
In which our earthly nature has no part.
Oh, Christian Fane, the soul expands in thee,
Thine altar and thy tomb
Speak of the hope and doom,
Which leads and cheers man to eternity. ”

“ Let any one ride down Highgate Hill on a summer’s day, see the immense mass of buildings spread like a dark panorama, hear the ceaseless and peculiar sound, which has been likened to the hollow roar of the ocean, but has an utterly differing tone; watch the dense cloud that hangs over all—one perpetual storm, which yet bursts not—and then say, if ever was witnessed hill or valley that so powerfully impressed the imagination with that sublime and awful feeling which is the epic of poetry. ”

“ Love’s likeness o’er love’s shadow spread:
Since then, what passion and what power
Has dwelt upon the painter’s art;
How has it soothed the absent hour,
With looks that wear life’s loveliest part. ”

“ Wreathe the bright tresses—let sweet voices sing,
They chase not the past from thy spirit, O king;
From the dead and their shadows thou never may’st flee,
And the blood thou hast shed is for ever with thee. ”

“ The gradual closing in of night, whose empire is here disputed by the lamps linked in one long line of light,—each holding its imprisoned flame, and, last, the triumphal arch at Hyde Park, while the open space behind is shrouded in unbroken darkness. ”

“ Half minstrel and half knight was he.
How many a lonely mountain glade,
Lives in his verse anew,
Linked with associate sympathy,
The tender and the true;
For nature has fresh beauty brought,
When animate with life from thought. ”

“ All things are signs in nature, still there are
Subtle analogies we dimly trace.
Perhaps our moral world has but its day,
Of which the great sun is the glorious type;
And intellect will run its course, and set. ”

“ Lodge, "exhibits a character so abounding in sagacity, prudence, loyalty, grandeur of spirit, and active heroism, as to beguile us for a moment into a feeling of regret, that the social policy of all climates and ages should have agreed to restrict the amiable sex to the power of pleasing, and to repress those energies which, in spite of its regulations, occasionally burst forth, and always with a degree of splendour, which is rarely found to adorn even the finest of masculine sentiments or actions. ”

“ The earth, the heaven, the year, all in their prime,
When not a leaf has fallen from the trees,
And the rich green is deepest: scarce the sun,
Though shining as he shines on harvest’s month,
Can penetrate the shadowy boughs, and give
Colour to small bright myriads of wild flowers,
That fill the grass. ”

“ It is curious to observe the complete oblivion that has attended all man’s greatest efforts; those which asked their immortality of brick and stone. Architecture is the earliest and the most forgetful of the sciences. The pyramids remain as eternal as the earth that bears them ”

“ And through that valley winds a little stream like a pleasant thought, ’mid the gray rocks, and the purple heath; its banks are the only green things, as if the spring loved them for the sake of seeing her face mirrored in the clear stream. Some alders grow beside, and a profusion of wild flowers; also there is good sport for the angler. ”

“ Prophetic of our life,
The chronicles where Fate inscribes
Our sorrow, sin, and strife;
All that we struggle with in vain,
All that we seek to shun,
The weird of that stern destiny,
Whose will must aye be done. ”

“ Vain these words! love never yet
Shunned or spared its own regret:
Thou art saddened and estranged,
And thy whole sweet nature changed;
Love has other love exiled,
Fare thee well, alas, my child. ”

“ The long lash hides her downcast eye,
Downcast, though glorious as the sky:
Whate’er her power, whate’er her will,
A woman is but woman still:
Her raven hair falls o’er her brow,
She's thankful for its shadow now ”

“ I know no spectacle more impressive than a great street in a great city,—take Piccadilly, for instance; the immense variety of faces that hurry past, each without interest in the other, for how rare it is to remark the greeting even of acquaintance; indeed, you may often walk for days, and not meet a creature you know. The houses, with all their daily life—associations of comfort, force you to think how man's ingenuity has been exerted for man's pleasure. ”

“ Where northern breezes blow,
And winter builds a throne of ice
Upon a world of snow:
Some will come back with plume, and pearl,
The attar, and the gem;
Little do the gay wearers think
How brave men toil for them. ”

“ Pope's hackneyed line of "An honest man’s the noblest work of God," has a companion in Cowper's "God made the country, but man made the town;" both are the perfection of copy-book cant. I am far from intending to deprecate that respectable individual, "an honest man," but surely genius, intellectual goodness and greatness, are far nobler emanations of the Divine Spirit than mere honesty. ”

“ Treryn Castle is the name given to some of those gigantic rocks, from which the idea of architecture would seem to have originated; though it is remarkable, that most mighty edifices have always been the work of flat countries. Perhaps those most accustomed to the presence of rock and mountain, shrank abashed before them. There are old legends which give the Druids Treryn Castle; but, as Dr. Paris observes, "Geologists readily discover, that the only chisel ever employed has been the tooth of time—the only artist engaged, the elements." ”

“ And for his native shore:
All but his honour he would give,
To be at home once more.
He does not know his children’s face,
His wife might pass him by,
He is so altered—did they meet,
With an unconscious eye ”

“ With its beauty to cheer decay.
"Many a garden flower grows wild:" amid the ruins of the old monasteries, many a weary hour may their cultivation once have beguiled. At Fountain’s Abbey there is still preserved a species of pear peculiar to the place. ”

“ In his early life he was much given to a solitude engrossed by the study of astrology. The rebellion of his brother called his attention from the heavens to the earth: he endured many vicissitudes of fortune, and was at one time an exile in Persia; he, however, triumphed at last, reascended his throne, where he was remarkable for all those finer qualities of mildness and humanity which generally belong to a more advanced period of civilization. ”

“ And tortures strange were heralds unto death.
’Twas an unequal struggle; but for that,
Should a free people have bent down the knee?
Is the expedient, then, our only law?
Must we give up the right, because we feel
That we are weak, and the oppressor strong? ”

“ The country is no more left as it was originally created, than Belgrave Square remains its pristine swamp. The forest has been felled, the marsh drained, the enclosures planted, and the field ploughed. All these, begging Mr. Cowper’s pardon, are the works of man’s hands; and so is the town—the one is not more artificial than the other. ”

“ That such things should be common! There are some
In youth so full of youth's divinest part,
Its hope, its ready sympathies, its joy,
That grief (our natural portion) seems to have
No part in them. Edith was one of these. ”

“ Amid all the chances of warfare, and through the changes of desperate years, I have never forgotten that holy chapel where first I was taught to pray, and its memory has often come over me with a blessed and saving influence. Fortune has made me not only the sport of the elements, but the companion in arms of daring and unprincipled men. ”

“ Raised childlike on her arm,
And carefully her cloak was wrapt
To keep the dead one warm.
The cottage now is desolate
Upon that lonely moor;
No firelight through the lattice gleams,
No rose climbs up the door. ”

“ Your philosophers inculcate it, your poets rave about it, your every-day people look upon it as something between a pleasure and a duty—till poor London has its merits as little understood as any popular question which every body discusses. ”

“ Is with the willow-pattern plates,
That on the dresser have their station.
I give it up in pure despair;
But well the muse may turn refractory,
When all her inspiration is—
A Chinese Town, and an English Factory. ”

“ As to the antiquity of the two religions, if we allow the figure of Bhud to be the personification of fire, as some of the statutes representing this deity have a small flame on the tops of their heads, and that one of the earliest religions amongst mankind sprung from natural respect towards the sun, and also grant that the Bramins come, according to their own admission, from the northward, the preference seems due to that of Bhud. ”

“ It is a mighty thing to teach mankind
A new idolatry, to bind the weak
In their own fancies, to incite the strong
By high imaginations, future hopes,
Which fill the craving in all noble hearts
For things beyond themselves, beyond their sphere. ”

“ Over a lofty door-way, through which you enter on the southern side, are some Arabic inscriptions in Togra letters, which are sculptured in alto-relievo. The characters are gilded, and the ground is granited with a liquid preparation of rajaward, or lapis lazuli, which gives the whole an appearance of a beautiful distribution of gold and enamels. All the inscriptions that I shall have occasion to mention are sculptured and ornamented after this fashion; and being disposed in all varieties of shape and figure, have a very elegant effect. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of Lancaster, are the dangerous sands alluded to in the above poem. They are fordable at low water; but darkness, fogs, or unexpected tides, have led to many melancholy accidents. ”

“ Has a wife been too extravagant, or a husband too gay, all is settled by their agreeing to reform, and live in the country. Is a young lady to be a pattern person; forsooth, she must have been brought up in the country. ”

“ Perchance the night comes on, and what we deem
Meridian is our setting.
Lord Munster, in his "Overland Journey from India," observes, when speaking of his visit to the Caves of Ellora—"I felt a sensation of gratitude, and almost of esteem, towards the religion which had effected a labour so immense and so remarkable. Every thing around me spoke of other times, of individuals, nations, and arts long since past away ”

“ All accounts of the Hindoos speak of a most dreadful persecution carried on by the Bramins, the sect of Bhud, many years ago, and the subsequent expulsion of the latter, whose doctrines extend over Ceylon, Thibet, Tonquin, Cochin China, throughout China, exists largely in Japan, and is without doubt the religion which has the most numerous followers in the world. Next to this, I suppose, the Christian can boast the greatest number of believers ”

“ There is a brief but most affecting memoir of Lord Collingwood, in Fisher’s National Portrait Gallery. Feeling every hour his health failing him, he repeatedly petitioned to be recalled—his services were too valuable, and he died in his "high command." I know nothing more touching than the affectionate regrets he expresses in his letters to his children, that they are growing up in ignorance of their father. ”

“ Forbid it, England—by thine own great self,
By thine own yet unviolated hearths,
By the proud flags which in thy churches wave,
Each one a victory by land or sea,
Witnesses and thanksgivings to that God,
Whose arm upheld thee; ”

“ From drooping leaves, and bending flowers,
Exhaled the midnight dews!†
Like love that from its inmost thoughts
Its own sweet life renews
Like floating islands on the air, ”

“ It is curious to observe how general is the tradition of man’s deterioration: the Bramins say, that the Ganges first rose at Benares—a more sinful generation saw it recede to Hurdwar—a third had to follow it to Burahat—and the fourth age finds it still further off, as it has now its source amid the heights of Gungoutri. ”