Anna Barbauld

“ The hope of Judah's line;
Corruption never could take hold
On aught so much divine.
And now his conquering chariot wheels
Ascend the lofty skies;
While broke, beneath his powerful cross,
Death's iron sceptre lies. ”

“ Dulci digne mero! Horat.
Of strange events I sing, and portents dire;
The wondrous themes a reverent ear require:
Though strange the tale, the faithful Muse believe,
And what she says, with pious awe receive. ”

“ Of lively crimson through their dusky veins.
Some shoot like living stars athwart the night,
And scatter from their wings a vivid light,
To guide the Indian to his tawny loves,
As through the woods with cautious step he moves. ”

“ No tears a wandering heart recall.
Cease, cease to grieve, thy tears are vain,
Should those fair orbs in drops of rain
Vie with a weeping southern sky:
For hearts o'ercome with love and grief
All nature yields but one relief ”

“ There the thick and twisted foliage
Spreads the browner gloom of night.
This is sure the haunt of fairies,
In yon cool alcove they play;
Care can never cross the threshold,
Care was only made for day. ”

“ Without the added rage of Scythian skies?
The snow of time my vital heat exhaust,
And hoary age, without Sarmatian frost?
Yet storm and tempest are of ills the least
Which this inhospitable land infest:
Society than solitude is worse,
And man to man is still the greatest curse. ”

“ Lo, the bright train their radiant wings unfold!
With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold:
On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower
They idly fluttering live their little hour;
Their life all pleasure, and their task all play,
All spring their age, and sunshine all their day. ”

“ With every purer virtue: gave him all
That lifts the hero, or adorns the man.
Gave him the eye sublime; the searching glance
Keen, scanning deep, that smites the guilty soul
As with a beam from heaven; on his brow
Serene, and spacious front, set the broad seal
Of dignity and rule ”

“ The full-formed brood, impatient of their cell,
Start from their trance, and burst their silken shell;—
Trembling awhile they stand, and scarcely dare
To launch at once upon the untried air:
At length assured, they catch the favouring gale,
And leave their sordid spoils, and high in ether sail. ”

“ Beauty, like thine, could never reach a charm
So powerful to subdue, so sure to warm.
On her lov'd child behold the mother gaze,
In weakness pleas'd, and smiling thro' decays,
And leaning on that breast her cares asswage;
How soft a pillow for declining age! ”

“ These cleave the crumbling bark for insect food;
Those dip their crooked beak in kindred blood:
Some haunt the rushy moor, the lonely woods;
Some bathe their silver plumage in the floods;
Some fly to man, his household gods implore,
And gather round his hospitable door,
Wait the known call, and find protection there
From all the lesser tyrants of the air.
The tawny Eagle seats his callow brood
High on the cliff, and feasts his young with blood. ”

“ But heroes scorn'd the idle boy,
And love was but a shepherd's toy:
When Venus, vex'd to see her child
Amid the forests thus run wild,
Would point him out some nobler game,
Gods, and godlike men to tame. ”

“ Earth's blooming face with rising flowers he drest,
And spread a verdant mantle o'er her breast;
Then from the hollow of his hand he pours
The circling waters round her winding shores,
The new-born world in their cool arms embracing,
And with soft murmurs still her banks caressing. ”

“ The potent sounds like light'ning dart
Resistless thro' the glowing heart;
Of power to lift the fixed soul
High o'er fortune's proud controul;
Kindling deep, prophetic musing;
Love of beauteous death infusing ”

“ But tell each land,—while every toil they share,
Firm to sustain, and resolute to dare,—
Man is the nobler growth our realms supply,
And souks are ripened in our northern sky.
Some pensive creep along the shelly shore;
Unfold the silky texture of a flower;
With sharpened eyes inspect an hornet's sting,
And all the wonders of an insect's wing. ”

“ Were born for pleasure and delight alone.
Gay without toil, and lovely without art,
They spring to cheer the sense, and glad the heart.
Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these;
Your best, your sweetest empire is—to please. ”

“ Wrought in each flower, inscrib'd on every tree;
In every leaf that trembles to the breeze
I hear the voice of GOD among the trees;
With thee in shady solitudes I walk,
With thee in busy crowded cities talk,
In every creature own thy forming power,
In each event thy providence adore. ”

“ The fort of freedom; that amidst the waves
Stands like a rock of adamant, and dares
The wildest fury of the beating storm.
And are there yet, in this late fickly age
(Unkindly to the tow'ring growths of virtue)
Such bold exalted spirits? Men whose deeds,
To the bright annals of old Greece oppos'd,
Would throw in shades her yet unrival'd name,
And dim the lustre of her fairest page! ”

“ Drest up with sun, and shade, and lawns, and streams,
A mansion fair and spacious for its guest,
And full replete with wonders. Let me here
Content and grateful, wait th' appointed time
And ripen for the skies: the hour will come
When all these splendours bursting on my sight
Shall stand unveil'd, and to my ravish'd sense
Unlock the glories of the world unknown. ”

“ That I no more may change than she;
But still with duteous zeal love on,
When every gleam of hope is gone.
Leave me then alone to languish;
Think not time can heal my anguish;
Pity the woes which I endure ”

“ O Wisdom! if thy soft controul
Can sooth the sickness of the soul,
Can bid the warring passions cease,
And breathe the calm of tender peace,
Wisdom! I bless thy gentle sway,
And ever, ever will obey. ”

“ There pleasure's silken banners spread,
And willing souls are captive led.
See where rebellious passions rage,
And fierce desires and lust engage;
The meanest foe of all the train
Has thousands and ten thousands slain. ”

“ One kind relenting glance has heal'd my breast,
And balanc'd in a moment years of pain.
O'er her soft cheek consenting blushes move,
And with kind stealth her secret soul betray;
Blushes, which usher in the morn of love,
Sure as the red'ning east foretels the day.
Her tender smiles shall pay me with delight
For many a bitter pang of jealous fear;
For many an anxious day, and sleepless night,
For many a stifled sigh, and silent tear.
Delia shall come, and bless my lone retreat;
She does not scorn the shepherd's lowly life ”

“ But now despotic o'er the plains
The awful noon of beauty reigns,
⁠And kneeling crowds adore;
These charms arise too fiercely bright,
Danger and death attend the sight,
⁠And I must hope no more. ”

“ When winter's hand the rough'ning year deforms,
And hollow winds foretel approaching storms,
Then Pleasure, like a bird of passage, flies
To brighter climes, and more indulgent skies:
Cities and courts allure her sprightly train,
From the bleak mountain and the naked plain ”

“ Æstatem increpitans seram, Zephyrosque morantes.
Virgil.
In vain the sprightly sun renews his course,
Climbs up the’ ascending signs and leads the day,
While long embattled clouds repel his force,
And lazy vapours choke the golden ray. ”

“ As wretches feel who wait their doom;
Nor must one ruder thought presume
Tho' but in whispers breath'd, to meet her ear.
It is to hope, tho' hope were lost;
Tho' heaven and earth thy passion crost;
Tho' she were bright as sainted queens above,
And thou the least and meanest swain
That folds his flock upon the plain,
Yet if thou dar'st not hope, thou dost not love.
It is to quench thy joy in tears ”

“ The empire of the passions is coming on; a new world opens to the youthful eye; those attachments begin to be formed which influence the happiness of future life;—the care of a mother, and that alone, can give suitable attention to this important period. ”

“ To wander o'er their sphere; where hung aloft
Dian's bright crescent, like a silver bow
New strung in heaven, lifts high its beamy horns
Impatient for the night, and seems to push
Her brother down the sky. Fair Venus shines
E'en in the eye of day; with sweetest beam
Propitious shines, and shakes a trembling flood
Of soften'd radiance from her dewy locks.
The shadows spread apace; while meeken'd Eve
Her cheek yet warm with blushes, slow retires
Thro' the Hesperian gardens of the west,
And shuts the gates of day. ”

“ When the storm thickens, when the combat burns,
And pain and death in every horrid shape
That can appall the feeble, prowl around,
Then virtue triumphs; then her tow'ring form
Dilates with kindling majesty; her mien
Breaths a diviner spirit, and enlarg'd
Each spreading feature, with an ampler port
And bolder tone, exulting, rides the storm,
And joys amidst the tempest. Then she reaps
Her golden harvest; fruits of nobler growth
And higher relish than meridian suns
Can ever ripen ”

“ To watch the firstlings at their harmless play;
With welcome shade to screen the languid flowers,
That sicken in the summer's parching ray.
Oft will she stoop amidst her evening walk,
With tender hand each bruised plant to rear;
To bind the drooping lily's broken stalk,
And nurse the blossoms of the infant year.
When beating rains forbid our feet to roam,
We'll shelter'd sit, and turn the storied page;
There see what pasions shake the lofty dome
With mad ambition or ungovern'd rage:
What headlong ruin oft involves the great;
What conscious terrors guilty bosoms prove ”

“ The second essay encourages the parent to use without scruple the power of influencing the opinions of his child which God and nature have put into his hands, and not to believe on the word of certain speculatists, that it is either necessary or desirable to abstain from imbuing his offspring with what he conceives to be important and salutary truths, from the dread of instilling prejudices and crippling the efforts of his infant reason. ”

“ Barbauld; and all, it is believed, quitted the school with sentiments towards her of high respect and attachment.
A course of honourable and prosperous exertion must always be productive of satisfaction to a well-constituted mind; and in this view Mrs. Barbauld might regard with complacency her situation at Palgrave. Its cares and its monotony were also relieved by vacations, which she and Mr. Barbauld usually passed either in agreeable visits to their friends in different parts of the country, or in the more animated delights of London society. ”

“ Barbauld's genius who did not enjoy the advantage of her personal acquaintance, a just idea of the pointed and elegant remark, the sportive and lambent wit, the affectionate spirit of sympathy, and the courteous expression of esteem and benevolence, which united to form at once the graces of her epistolary style and the inexpressible charm of her conversation.
Mrs. Barbauld composed at different periods a considerable number of miscellaneous pieces for the instruction and amusement of young persons, especially females, which will appear in a separate form about the close of the present year. ”

“ In these excellent productions we are uncertain which most to admire, the sagacious and discriminating intellect, the practical good sense and acute observation of life which suggest the remarks, or the spirited and expressive style which rouses attention, strikes the imagination, and carries them with conviction to the heart.
It appears from a letter of Mrs. Barbauld's, that she early read with great delight, though in an English translation, the Dialogues of Lucian. ”

“ For solid pudding and substantial pie;
When hungry poets the glad summons own,
And leave spare Fast to dine with Gods alone:
Our sober meal dispatched with silent haste,
The decent grace concludes the short repast:
Then, urged by thirst, we cast impatient eyes
Where deep, capacious, vast, of ample size,
The Tankard stood, replenished to the brink
With the cold beverage blue-eyed Naiads drink.
But lo! a sudden prodigy appears,
And our chilled hearts recoil with startling fears:
Its yawning mouth disclosed the deep profound,
And in low murmurs breathed a sullen sound ”

“ A warm attachment to the authors of what has been called the Augustan age of English literature,—on whom her own taste and style were formed,—was observable in the conversation of Mrs. Barbauld, and often in her writings; and she gratified this sentiment by offering to the public, in 1804, a Selection from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian and Freeholder, with a Preliminary Essay, to which she gave her name [2] . This delightful piece may perhaps be regarded as the most successful of her efforts in literary criticism; and that it should be so, is easily to be accounted for. ”

“ She was acquainted with almost all the principal female writers of her time; and there was not one of the number whom she failed frequently to mention in terms of admiration, esteem or affection, whether in conversation, in. letters to her friends, or in print. To humbler aspirants in the career of letters, who often applied to her for advice of assistance, she was invariably courteous, and in many instances essentially serviceable. The sight of youth and beauty was peculiarly gratifying to her fancy and her feelings ”

“ When the productions of a writer extend over so long a period as nearly sixty years, they become in some measure the record of an age, a document for the historian of literature and opinions; and they ought to be arranged with some view to this secondary object, by which their interest is enhanced. It is also agreeable to race the author's progress from youth to age, by changes of style, or the succession of different trains of thought. In the writings of Mrs. Barbauld, however, the character of the style varies little from the beginning to the end. ”

“ Of the pieces composed since the first publication of Mrs. Barbauld's Poems (which form the larger part of the present collection) ; the two longest, the Epistle to Mr. Wilberforce, and Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, have already appeared in separate pamphlets; and the first of them is added to the last edition of the Poems: several of the smaller ones have also been inserted in periodical works. Corrected copies of most of those now printed for the first time were found among her papers, evidently prepared for insertion in the enlarged volume which she long meditated, but never completed. ”