Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ Unruffled by the breath
Of man's vain life or death,
Calm as the heaven upon thy bosom sleeping.
Still dost thou keep thy calm and onward motion,
Amid the ancient ranks
Of forests on thy banks,
Till thou hast gained thy home—the mighty ocean.
And thou dost scatter benefits around thee:
Thy silver current yields
Life to the green rice-fields,
That have like an enchanted girdle bound thee.
By thee are royal gardens, each possessing
A summer in its hues,
Which still thy wave renews,
Where'er thou flowest dost thou bear a blessing. ”

“ I have a steed, to leave behind
The wild bird, and the wilder wind:
I have a sword, which does not know
How to waste a second blow:
I have a matchlock, whose red breath
Bears the lightning's sudden death:
I have a foot of fiery flight,
I have an eye that cleaves the night.
I win my portion in the land
By my high heart and strong right hand. ”

“ A human sorrow deepens in her eyes;
For e’en the very words of prayer she sayeth,
A sad and lingering memory supplies.
She leans beside the vault where sleeps her mother,
The tablet has her name upon the wall—
Her only parent, for she knew no other;
In losing whom, the orphan lost her all.
Young, very young, she is, but wholly vanished
Youth’s morning colours from her cheek are gone;
All gayer and all careless thoughts are banished
By the perpetual presence of but one. ”

“ Then his jealous fancies rose,
(Our Lady keep the mind from those!)
Like a fire within the brain,
Maddens that consuming pain.
Henceforth is no rest by night,
Henceforth day has no delight.
Life hath agonies that tell
Of their late left native hell.
But mid their despair is none
Like that of the jealous one.
'Tis again the fatal day,
When the ladye must away,
To her lonely palace made
Far within the forest shade,
Where the mournful fountains sweep
With a voice that seems to weep.
On that morn Lord Raymond's bride
Ere the daybreak leaves his side. ”

“ Where are the haughty Templars and their powers?
Their forts are perished—but not so their shrine.
Like Memory veiled, Tradition sits and tells
Her twilight histories of the olden time.
How few the records of those craggy dells
But what recall some sorrow or some crime.
Of Europe's childhood was the feudal age,
When the world's sceptre was the sword; and power,
Unfit for human weakness, wrong, and rage,
Knew not that curb which waits a wiser hour.
Ill suited empire with a human hand,
Authority needs rule, restraint, and awe ”

“ —Oh, tranquil earth and heaven—but their repose,
What influence hath it on the mourner there?
Her eye is fixed in terrible despair,
Her lip is white with pain, and, spectre-like,
Her shape is worn with famine—on her arm
Rests a dead child—she does not weep for it.
Two more are at her side, she'd weep for them,
But that she is too desperate to weep:
Dust has assumed dominion, she has now
No tenderness, nor sweet solicitudes
That fill the youthful mother with fond fears. ”

“ Architecture was the first wonder of the world. Alike gigantic—the pyramid, the temple, and the tomb are the written language of earth's earliest records. No details of builder or of building have come down to our distant day. Yet the principle in man's nature which led to their erection remains the same. ”

“ Whose highest gifts that red-cross flag is bringing.
Already much for man has been effected;
The weak and poor man's cause
Is strengthened by the laws,
The equal right, born with us, all respected.
But much awaits, O England! thy redressing;
Thou hast no nobler guide
Than yon bright river's tide
Bear as that bears—where’er thou goest, blessing!
Will General Fagan permit me to quote an expression of his which struck me most forcibly? "We have," said he, "been the conquerors of India: we have now to be its benefactors, its legislators, its instructors, and its liberators." ”

“ We called the South Sea islands, each flower a different isle.
No golden lot that fortune could draw for human life,
To us seemed like a sailor’s, mid the storm and strife.
Our talk was of fair vessels that swept before the breeze,
And new-discovered countries amid the Southern Seas.
Within that lonely garden what happy hours went by,
While we fancied that around us spread foreign sea and sky.
Ah! the dreaming and the distant no longer haunt the mind;
We leave, in leaving childhood, life’s fairy land behind. ”

“ An infant, perfectly helpless, and unconscious, smiling perhaps in innocence, is laid in a narrow entrance to a village, or a fold, through which there is barely room for cattle to pass, several of which are driven violently in, and made to pass over the spot on which the child is placed, while the parents, with agonizing feelings, stand by waiting the result. If the oxen pass over without injuring the infant, the omen is propitious; the powerful and evil destiny is removed, and the parents may, without apprehension, embrace and cherish their offspring. ”

“ We have no home—we have no friends,
They said our home no more was ours;
Our cottage where the ash-tree bends,
The garden we had filled with flowers. ”

“ Fair Paris caught the crimson hue —
Well may I call it fair,
With its pure heaven of softest blue,
Its clear and sunny air—
Soft fell the morning o’er each dome
That rises mid the sky;
And, conscious of the day to come,
Demand their place on high.
⁠7.
Round the Pantheon’s height was wrought
A web of royal red;
A glory as if morning brought
Its homage to the dead.
And Notre Dame’s old gothic towers
Were bathed in roseate bloom,
As Time himself had scattered flowers
Over that mighty tomb. ”

“ Here, where "sad memory brings the light of other days around us," the solitude of day is succeeded by the terrific sounds that disturb the night—the bark of the prowling wolf, the melancholy scream of the night-bird, and the awful roar of the lordly lion. ”

“ But in the Caves of Elephanta not a trace remains, to account for one of the most singular revolutions that ever took place in public opinion; taking place, too, in a country where every thing is so immoveable. Strange, for the religion to remain the same, when its altars are deserted! There are some mysteries, like the statue of Isis, from whose face science never lifts the veil. ”

“ An infant’s misery makes!
We overrule, and over-teach,
We curb and we confine,
And put the heart to school too soon,
To learn our narrow line.
No; only taught by love to love,
Seems childhood’s natural task ”

“ A French officer, in imitation of the Gaul of olden time, attended by 500 followers, landed at the foot of the sandy slope, and, aided by the darkness of night, reached the highest point of the rock in safety. From this rendezvous they were to have rushed down and surprised the garrison, while a second party was to commence an attack from below. Their courage proved superior to their powers of attack and defence, and the morning only shone, to light the garrison of Gibraltar to the destruction of this brave little band of heroes. ”

“ And letters dated years ago, and poems half complete,
In picturesque disorder flung, would make a dwelling meet
For the young poet anchorite, who from our world hath flown,
To build, in solitude and song, another of his own. ”

“ When thoughts chase thoughts, like the tumultuous billow,
Whose very light and foam reveals unrest?
We say, the song is sorrowful, but know not
What may have left that sorrow on the song;
However mournful words may be, they show not
The whole extent of wretchedness and wrong.
They cannot paint the long sad hours, passed only
In vain regrets o’er what we feel we are.
Alas! the kingdom of the lute is lonely—
Cold is the worship coming from afar. ”

“ The village of Rydal is situated on the north side of the Lake, and Rydal Hall, the magnificent seat of the Le Flemings, seems embosomed in a beautiful park that occupies the declining front of the mountain. Near to the principal gate of entrance, the cottage residence of the poet Wordsworth peeps forth from the woods, as if endeavouring to recall to memory a name that can never be forgotten. The distance, and the whole background of the landscape, is composed of that mountain-chain in which Langdale Pikes and Silver How are the most elevated and conspicuous. ”

“ Soft is the music—no tempest is near.
Shine, thou bright beacon, though I may no more
Rejoice in the radiance thou fling'st on the shore,
Yet doth thy glory remembered impart
Light to my slumber, and hope to my heart. ”

“ Gradually an open space is gained, and we come suddenly on the grand entrance of a magnificent temple, whose huge massy columns seem to give support to the whole mountain which is above. The entrance into the temple, which is entirely hewn out of a stone resembling porphyry, is by two massy pillars forming three openings, under a steep rock overhung by reeds and wild shrubs. ”

“ This lonely avenue, that formerly resounded with the trampling of the high-spirited steeds, as they drew, through crowds of admiring citizens, the gorgeous chariot of their imperial master, is now trodden, at long intervals, only by the Christian traveller, who, as his footstep falls, the sole interruption of a death-like silence, disturbs occasionally the lizard or the leffah, basking in the heat of noon. ”

“ Low and love-touched the words, that are never so dear
As when battle and danger and triumph are near.
He flings the bright marks from his scarf’s silken fold—
What careth the warrior for silver or gold? ”

“ Thou hast been round us, like a viewless spirit,
Known only by the music on the air;
The leaf or flowers which thou hast named inherit
A beauty known but from thy breathing there:
For thou didst on them fling thy strong emotion,
The likeness from itself the fond heart gave;
As planets from afar look down on ocean,
And give their own sweet image to the wave. ”

“ A more capricious choice of a home has never been made, in this world of caprice and eccentricity; the land abounds with sites of beauty and richness, vales and shaded hills, screened by loftier hills, with many waters. ”

“ The warrior, sage, and poet fill their story
With all the various honours of mankind;—
May thy young reign achieve yet truer glory,
The pure, enlightened triumphs of the mind!
Too much in this wide world yet needs redressing;
But with thy reign Hope’s loveliest promise came.
May thy sweet youth be sheltered by the blessing
A nation breathes upon Victoria's name! ”

“ From all earth's loveliness I turned
To wish, Ah that the dead were here!
Oh! weary wandering to no home,
Oh! weary wandering alone,
I turned to childhood's once glad scenes
And found life's last illusion flown. ”

“ Trust me with thoughts soft as the shadowy gloom!
⁠Can you forget them?
There is no truth in love whate’er its seeming,
And heaven itself could scarcely seem more true—
Sadly have I awakened from the dreaming,
Whose charmed slumber—false one!—was of you. ”

“ The traitor is upon his way, the royal prey is found,
And by ignoble hands and chains, the monarch's son is bound;
Garbed as a slave, they lead him forth the public ways along,
But on his noble brow is scorn, and on his lip a song.†
'Tis midnight; but the midnight crime is darker than the night,
And Aurungzebe with gloomy brow awaits the morning light;
The morning light is dyed for him with an accusing red,
They bring to the usurper's feet his brother Dara's head.‡
⁠* Prince Dara was the favourite son of Shah Jehan, who associated him with himself on the throne. ”

“ Is there a spot where Pity's foot,
Although unsandalled, fears to tread,
A silence where her voice is mute,
Where tears, and only tears, are shed?
It is the desolated home,
Where Hope was yet a recent guest,
Where Hope again may never come,
Or come, and only speak of rest. ”

“ Lebanon has a hundred sites of exquisite attraction and scenery; but this lady, ever loving the wild and the fearful more than the soft things of this world, has fixed her eagle’s nest on the top of a craggy height that is swept by every wind. ”

“ The wild wings of the wandering wind?
Would we not flee away and find
Some lonely cave beside the shore?
One, where a Nereid dwelt of yore,
And sheltered in its glistening bowers,
A love almost as fond as ours? ”

“ Immortal flowers will light the immortal air.
Each human lip that drinks of that bright wave
Drinks to the Cross's triumph o'er the grave."
Life to thy river is a far course given,
But both its birthplace and its home are heaven. ”

“ Though those sweet eyes strain in sorrow,
They will search the sea in vain.
’Twas for this I bade thee meet me,
For a parting word and tear;
Other lands and lips may greet me;
None will ever seem so dear. ”

“ This view of the Rock of Gibraltar places it before the spectator in a new light, and conducts rapidly to reflection upon the boldness of those who attempted the reduction of such a fortress, as well as upon the bravery of those, who persevered in the defence of a citadel so bare, so bleak, so barren, so remote from any source of encouragement or supply. ”

“ Of murder, not of strife;
Now, Ocean, let the hour of wreck
Atone for that of life!
Many a brave heart has grown cold,
Though battle has been done:
And shrieks have risen from the hold,
When human help was none. ”

“ I hasten where Drake and where Raleigh have been.
Away to the south is the course that I hold,
If the sea has its storm—why, the Spaniard has gold.
Afar in the distance I see its light shine,
And all is fair warfare that crosses the Line. ”

“ With beauty borrowed from its place of birth.
Hence has the lute its song, the scroll its line;
Hence stands the statue glorious as its shrine;
Hence the fair picture, kings are fain to win,
The mind's creations from the world within. ”