Robert Southey

“ XXXIII.
⁠Link'd as they were, where each to each was all,
⁠How might the poor survivor hope to bear
⁠That heaviest loss which one day must befall,
⁠Nor sink beneath the weight of his despair.
⁠Scarce could the heart even for a moment dare
⁠That miserable time to contemplate,
⁠When the dread Messenger should find them there,
⁠From whom is no escape,—and reckless Fate,
Whom it had bound so close, for ever separate.
XXXIV.
⁠Lighter that burthen lay upon the heart
⁠When this dear babe was born to share their lot;
⁠They could endure to think that they must part. ”

“ Retain'd a childish heart, fond, simple, and sincere.
XIX.
⁠They had no sad reflection to alloy
⁠The calm contentment of the passing day,
⁠No foresight to disturb the present joy.
⁠Not so with Monnema; albeit the sway
⁠Of time had reach'd her heart, and worn away,
⁠At length, the grief so deeply seated there,
⁠The future often, like a burthen, lay
⁠Upon that heart, a cause of secret care
And melancholy thought: yet did she not despair. ”

“ II.
⁠Fair promise be this triumph of an age
⁠When Man, with vain desires no longer blind,
⁠And wise though late, his only war shall wage
⁠Against the miseries which afflict mankind.
⁠Striving with virtuous heart and strenuous mind
⁠Till evil from the earth shall pass away.
⁠Lo, this his glorious destiny assign'd!
⁠For that blest consummation let us pray,
And trust in fervent faith, and labour as we may.
III.
⁠The hideous malady which lost its power
⁠When Jenner's art the dire contagion stay'd,
⁠Among Columbia's sons, in fatal hour. ”

“ XXXVII.
⁠The seeds of death were in her at that hour.
⁠Soon was their quickening and their growth display'd:
⁠Thenceforth she droop'd and withered like a flower,
⁠Which when it flourished in its native shade
⁠Some child to his own garden hath convey'd,
⁠And planted in the sun, to pine away.
⁠Thus was the gentle Mooma seen to fade,
⁠Not under sharp disease, but day by day
Losing the powers of life in visible decay. ”

“ The feet are the part which in the fabric of the human body are placed nearest to the earth; they are meant therefore to be the humblest part of his frame, but gallants take away all humility by adorning and setting them forth in bravery. This so displeases the Creator, that having to make man an animal who should walk upon the earth, he made the earth of such properties, that the footsteps should sink into it. The foot which is lifted from the ground, leaves its own grave open, and seems as if it rose from the grave. ”

“ XLIII.
⁠Nor was the Father filled with less surprize;
⁠He too strange fancies well might entertain,
⁠When this so fair a creature met his eyes.
⁠He might have thought her not of mortal strain;
⁠Rather, as bards of yore were wont to feign,
⁠A nymph divine of Mondai's secret stream;
⁠Or haply of Diana's woodland train:
⁠For in her beauty Mooma such might seem,
Being less a child of earth than like a poet's dream. ”

“ XXXVII.
⁠Far other tie this solitary pair
⁠Indissolubly bound; true helpmates they,
⁠In joy or grief, in weal or woe to share,
⁠In sickness or in health, thro' life's long day;
⁠And reassuming in their hearts her sway
⁠Benignant Nature made the burthen light.
⁠It was the Woman's pleasure to obey,
⁠The Man's to ease her toil in all he might,
So each in serving each obtain'd the best delight. ”

“ XI.
⁠Unwept, unshrouded, and unsepulchred,
⁠The hammock where they hang, for winding sheet
⁠And grave suffices the deserted dead:
⁠There from the armadillo's searching feet
⁠Safer than if within the tomb's retreat.
⁠The carrion birds obscene in vain essay
⁠To find that quarry: round and round they beat
⁠The air, but fear to enter for their prey.
And from the silent door the jaguar turns away.
XII.
⁠But nature for her universal law
⁠Hath other surer instruments in store,
⁠Whom from the haunts of men no wonted awe
⁠Withholds as with a spell. ”

“ And happiness like youth has here no second spring.
XXI.
⁠So were her feelings to her lot composed
⁠That to herself all change had now been pain.
⁠For Time upon her own desires had closed;
⁠But in her children as she lived again,
⁠For their dear sake she learnt to entertain
⁠A wish for human intercourse renew'd;
⁠And oftentimes, while they devour'd the strain,
⁠Would she beguile their evening solitude
With stories strangely told and strangely understood. ”

“ XXXIV.
⁠Nor is their virtuous hope devoid of fear;
⁠The perils of that enterprize they know;
⁠Some savage horde may have its fastness here,
⁠A race to whom a stranger is a foe;
⁠Who not for friendly words, nor proffer'd show
⁠Of gifts, will peace or parley entertain.
⁠If by such hands their blameless blood should flow
⁠To serve the Lamb who for their sins was slain,
Blessed indeed their lot, for so to die is gain! ”

“ VII.
⁠For this, in fact tho' not in name a slave,
⁠The Indian from his family was torn;
⁠And droves on droves were sent to find a grave
⁠In woods and swamps, by toil severe outworn,
⁠No friend at hand to succour or to mourn,
⁠In death unpitied, as in life unblest.
⁠O miserable race, to slavery born!
⁠Yet when we look beyond this world's unrest,
More miserable then the oppressors than the opprest. ”

“ Wherewith canst thou be blest, if not with these content?
XVI.
⁠Mild pupils, in submission's perfect school,
⁠Two thousand souls were gather'd here, and here
⁠Beneath the Jesuit's all-embracing rule
⁠They dwelt, obeying him with love sincere,
⁠That never knew distrust, nor felt a fear,
⁠Nor anxious thought, which wears the heart away.
⁠Sacred to them their laws, their Ruler dear;
⁠Humbler or happier none could be than they
Who knew it for their good in all things to obey. ”

“ XXXI.
⁠Nor ever did irreverent feet intrude
⁠Within that sacred spot; nor sound of mirth,
⁠Unseemly there, profane the solitude,
⁠Where solemnly committed earth to earth,
⁠Waiting the summons for their second birth,
⁠Whole generations in Death's peaceful fold
⁠Collected lay; green innocence, ripe worth,
⁠Youth full of hope, and age whose days were told,
Compress'd alike into that mass of mortal mould. ”

“ X.
⁠It was a land of priestcraft, but the priest
⁠Believed himself the fables that he taught:
⁠Corrupt their forms, and yet those forms at least
⁠Preserved a salutary faith that wrought,
⁠Maugre the alloy, the saving end it sought.
⁠Benevolence had gain'd such empire there,
⁠That even superstition had been brought
⁠An aspect of humanity to wear,
And make the weal of man its first and only care. ”

“ The gallant puts his foot to the ground, and remains looking at it. The shoemaker rises, wipes the sweat from his forehead with his fingers, and draws his breath like one who has been running. All this trouble might have been saved by making the shoe a little larger than the foot. ”

“ XXIX.
⁠Patience itself that should the sovereign cure
⁠For ills that touch ourselves alone, supply,
⁠Lends little aid to one who must endure
⁠This plague: the small tormentors fill the sky,
⁠And swarm about their prey: there he must lie
⁠And suffer while the hours of darkness wear;
⁠At times he utters with a deep drawn sigh
⁠Some name adored, in accents of despair
Breathed sorrowfully forth, half murmur and half prayer. ”

“ XII.
⁠Thou who despisest so debased a fate,
⁠As in the pride of wisdom thou may'st call
⁠These meek submissive Indians' low estate,
⁠Look round the world, and see where over all
⁠Injurious passions hold mankind in thrall!
⁠How barbarous Force asserts a ruthless reign,
⁠Or Mammon, o'er his portion of the ball,
⁠Hath learn'd a baser empire to maintain,
Mammon, the god of all who give their rouls to gain. ”

“ In swarms they pour
⁠From wood and swamp: and when their work is o'er
⁠On the white bones the mouldering roof will fall;
⁠Seeds will take root, and spring in sun and shower;
⁠And Mother Earth ere long with her green pall,
Resuming to herself the wreck, will cover all. ”

“ The more ghastly in proportion as more of the appearance of life is preserved in the revolting practice. Such, however, it was not to the feelings of the Egyptians, who had as much pride in a collection of their ancestors, as one of the strongest family feeling could have in a collection of family pictures. The body, Diodorus says, is delivered to the kindred with every member so whole and entire that no part of the body seems to be altered, even to the very hairs of the eyelids and the eyebrows, so that the beauty and shape of the face seems just as before. ”

“ I have ever thought the perturbation arising from the nature of the attack to have a considerable share in the fatality alluded to, especially as I never knew any one wounded by a tiger to die without suffering for some days under that most dreadful symptom, a locked jaw! ”

“ Strangely-disfigured truths, and fables feign'd of old.
XXVIII.
⁠By the Great Spirit man was made, she said,
⁠His voice it was which peal'd along the sky,
⁠And shook the heavens and fill'd the earth with dread.
⁠Alone and inaccessible, on high
⁠He had his dwelling-place eternally,
⁠And Father was his name. This all knew well;
⁠But none had seen his face: and if his eye
⁠Regarded what upon the earth befell,
Or if he cared for man, she knew not:—who could tell? ”

“ A preservation like this is horrid. The skin discoloured, dry, and as if it had been tanned, nay, torn in some places, glued close to the bones. It is easy to imagine, from the different grimaces of this numerous assemblage of fleshless figures, rendered still more frightful by a long beard on the chin, what a hideous spectacle this must exhibit; and whoever has seen a Capuchin alive, may form an idea of this singular repository of dead friars."—Sonnini.
It is not surprising that such practises arise from superstition ”

“ XII.
⁠At first the infant to Yeruti proved
⁠A cause of wonder and disturbing joy.
⁠A stronger tie than that of kindred moved
⁠His inmost being, as the happy boy
⁠Felt in his heart of hearts without alloy
⁠The sense of kind: a fellow creature she,
⁠In whom when now she ceased to be a toy
⁠For tender sport, his soul rejoiced to see
Connatural powers expand, and growing sympathy. ”

“ Of joys unknown, whereof the expectance makes him dumb!
XLIX.
⁠O happy day, the Messenger of Heaven
⁠Hath found them in their lonely dwelling place!
⁠O happy day, to them it would be given
⁠To share in that Eternal Mother's grace,
⁠And one day see in heaven her glorious face
⁠Where Angels round her mercy-throne adore!
⁠Now shall they mingle with the human race,
⁠Sequester'd from their fellow kind no more;
O joy of joys supreme! O bliss for them in store! ”

“ Laid the recovered limb again beneath the knife.
⁠Long time upon the bed of pain he lay
⁠Whiling with books the weary hours away;
⁠And from that circumstance and this vain man
⁠A train of long events their course began,
⁠Whose term it is not given us yet to see.
⁠Who hath not heard Loyola's sainted name,
⁠Before whom Kings and Nations bow'd the knee?
⁠Thy annals, Ethiopia, might proclaim
⁠What deeds arose from that prolific day;
⁠And of dark plots might shuddering Europe tell.
⁠But Science too her trophies would display;
⁠Faith give the martyrs of Japan their fame ”

“ XXXII.
⁠Mortal, and yet at the Archangel's voice
⁠To put on immortality. That call
⁠Shall one day make the sentient dust rejoice;
⁠These bodies then shall rise and cast off all
⁠Corruption, with whate'er of earthly thrall
⁠Had clogg'd the heavenly image, then set free.
⁠How then should Death a Christian's heart appal?
⁠Lo, Heaven for you is open;—enter ye
Children of God, and heirs of his eternity!
XXXIII.
⁠This hope supported Mooma, hand in hand
⁠When with Yeruti at the grave she stood.
⁠Less even now of death they understand
⁠Than of the joys eternal that ensued ”

“ Are in the better world, beyond the tomb.
And I have brethren there, and sisters dear,
And dearer babes. I therefore needs must dwell
Often in thought with those whom still I love so well.
VIII.
Thus wilt thou feel in thy maturer mind;
When grief shall be thy portion, thou wilt find
Safe consolation in such thoughts as these,—
A present refuge in affliction's hour. ”

“ IV.
⁠The seamen who upon some coral reef
⁠Are cast amid the interminable main,
⁠Still cling to life, and hoping for relief
⁠Drag on their days of wretchedness and pain.
⁠In turtle shells they hoard the scanty rain,
⁠And eat its flesh, sundried for lack of fire,
⁠Till the weak body can no more sustain
⁠Its wants, but sinks beneath its sufferings dire
Most miserable man who sees the rest expire!
V.
⁠He lingers there while months and years go by:
⁠And holds his hope tho' months and years have past. ”

“ Dulcinea was the peerless, the immaculate, and death was denounced against all who hesitated to admit the assertion of her perfections. Surely your highness never could have imagined that Cervantes was such a knight errant as to attack knight errantry, a folly that had ceased more than a century, if indeed it was any folly at all ”