Robert Southey

“ The Second Book She spake, and lo! celestial radiance beam’d
Amid the air, such odors wafting now
As erst came blended with the evening gale,
From Eden’s bowers of bliss. An angel form
Stood by the Maid; his wings, etherial white,
Flash’d like the diamond in the noon-tide sun,
Dazzling her mortal eye: all else appear’d
Her Theodore.
Amazed she saw: the Fiend
Was fled, and on her ear the well-known voice
Sounded, tho’ now more musically sweet
Than ever yet had thrill’d her charmed soul,
When eloquent Affection fondly told
The day-dreams of delight. ”

“ Robert Southey, man of letters and poet-laureate, was born at Bristol on August 12, 1774, and received at various schools a desultory education, which he completed by an idle year at Oxford. Here he became acquainted with Coleridge; and Southey, who had practised verse from early boyhood, and acquired a strong taste for the drama, being also an ardent republican and romanticist, was easily enlisted by the elder poet in his scheme for a model republic, or "Pantisocracy," in the wilds of America. They married two sisters, the Misses Fricker, and a third sister married Robert Lovel, also a poet. ”

“ Nor had the Maiden’s footsteps ever reach’d
The insulated coast, eternally
Rapt round the endless course; but Theodore
Drove with an angel’s will the obedient bark.
They land, a mighty fabric meets their eyes,
Seen by its gem-born light. ”

“ There was in him so much kindliness and sincerity, so much of upright purpose, and generous feeling, that the belief is forced on the mind, that, through the whole range of biographical annals, few men, endowed with the higher order of intellect, have possessed more qualities commanding esteem than Robert Southey; who so happily blended the great with the amiable, or whose memory will become more permanently fragrant to the lovers of genius, or the friends of virtue. ”

“ Very similar was the experience of Robert Southey, who, disowned by friends, and without money, came to London seeking literary employment, in which alone he found content and happiness.
“For it,” say his biographers, Messrs. Austin and Ralph, “he sacrificed proffered rank and power; and joyfully devoted to its service a toiling life of unexampled industry. Yet this man so wedded to his absorbing vocation, in the social capacity of husband, father, relative, and friend, stands above reproach.
“His life is one emphatic denial of the daring falsehood, that genius and virtue are incompatible. ”

“ Allowed Zorobabel one vacant hour,
He lov'd on Babylon's high wall to roam,
And stretch the gaze towards his distant home,
Or on Euphrates' willowy banks reclin'd
Hear the sad harp moan fitful to the wind.
As now the perfum'd lamps stream wide their light,
And social converse chears the livelong night,
Thus spake Zorobabel, "too long in vain
"For Sion desolate her sons complain;
"In anguish worn the joyless years lag slow,
"And these proud conquerors mock their captive's woe. ”

“ Faint gleams the evening radiance thro' the sky,
The sober twilight dimly darkens round;
In short quick circles the shrill bat flits by,
And the slow vapour curls along the ground.
Now the pleas'd eye from yon lone cottage sees
On the green mead the smoke long-shadowing play;
The Red-breast on the blossom'd spray
Warbles wild her latest lay,
And sleeps along the dale the silent breeze.
Calm Contemplation, 'tis thy favourite hour!
Come fill my bosom, tranquillizing Power!
Meek Power! I view thee on the calmy shore
When Ocean stills his waves to rest ”

“ Flashing brief splendor thro' its clouds awhile,
That deepen'd dark anon and fell in rain:
But pleasant is it now to pause, and view
Thy various tints of frail and watery hue,
And think the storm shall not return again.
Such is the smile that Piety bestows
On the good man's pale cheek, when he in peace
Departing gently from a world of woes,
Anticipates the realm where sorrows cease.
SONNET VIII. With many a weary step, at length I gain
Thy summit, Lansdown; and the cool breeze plays,
Gratefully round my brow, as hence the gaze
Returns to dwell upon the journeyed plain. ”

“ Always was he Robert Southey, and no representative of a party. At one time of his life he contemplated the profession of the law, and studied for the bar. What sort of lawyer he might have made, if he had been able to give up his mind to the study, or what the practice of Westminster Hall might have made of him, there is no saying; but there was never any literary men, earning subsistence by his pen, who had less of the spirit of the retained advocate. A self-willed, untamed, quite individual manner of looking at things, is always breaking out. ”

“ Tho fair the extended vale, and fair to view
The falling leaves of many a faded hue,
That eddy in the wild gust moaning by.
Even so it fared with Life! in discontent
Restless thro' Fortune's mingled scenes I went,
Yet wept to think they would return no more!
But cease fond heart in such sad thoughts to roam,
For surely thou ere long shall reach thy home,
And pleasant is the way that lies before.
SONNET IX. Fair is the rising morn when o'er the sky
The orient sun expands his roseate ray,
And lovely to the Bard's enthusiast eye
Fades the meek radiance of departing day ”

“ An old batchelor I warrant him, and mustier than his books.
Pedant!
Satirist!
Libeller!
Wretch!
Monster!
And Miss Virginia Vinegar compleats the climax by exclaiming with peculiar emphasis, Man!
All Indigo-land is in commotion; and Urgand the Unknown would be in as much danger proh-Jupiter! from the Stockingers, if he fell into their hands, as Orpheus from the Mænades. Tantæne animis cælestibus iræ?
Why Ladies! dear Ladies! good Ladies! gentle Ladies! merciful Ladies! hear me,—hear me! In justice, in compassion, in charity hear me! For your own sakes, and for the honour of feminality hear me! ”

“ With power exclusive o'er the willing world,
That blest prophetic Mandate then fulfill'd,
Peace be on earth!) An happy while but brief
She seem'd to wander with assiduous feet,
And heal'd the recent harm of chill or blight,⁠335
And nurs'd each plant that fair and virtuous grew.
But soon a deep precursive sound moan'd hollow:
Black rose the clouds, and now, (as in a dream)
Their red'ning shapes transform'd to warrior hotss,
Cours'd o'er the Sky, and battled in mid air.⁠340
The Sea meantime his Billows darkest roll'd,
And each stain'd wave dash'd on the shore a corse. ”

“ In the same paper, he spoke arrogantly and offensively of Leigh Hunt, his own political enemy, and Lamb’s most dear and most unjustly persecuted friend. From so close a companion as Southey had been, and one who knew him so thoroughly, this hurt Lamb deeply, and he wrote to Bernard Barton: “But I love and respect Southey, and will not retort. I hate his review and his being a reviewer.” And in the London Magazine he put forth the manly “Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esq.;” of which the latter said that “no resentful letter was ever written less offensively.” ”

“ Hill was Chaplain to the British Factory at Lisbon, and had a well-grounded faith in Southey's genius and character. He secured for his nephew some years of education at Westminster School, and when Southey was expelled by an unwise headmaster for a boyish jest, his uncle's faith in him held firm, and he was sent on to Balliol College, Oxford. Those were days of wild hope among the young. They felt all that was generous in the aspiration of idealists who saw the golden cities of the future in storm-clouds of revolution. Robert Southey at Oxford dreamed good dreams as a poetical Republican. ”

“ You can go nowhere that you will be more sincerely welcomed. And may God bless you.
"Robert Southey."
In waging war with the Lake school of poetry, the Edinburgh Review had dealt harshly with Southey. [Pg 21] His poems of "Madoc" and "The Curse of Kehama" had been rigorously censured, and very shortly before the appearance of "Roderick," his "Triumphal Ode" for 1814, which was published separately, had been assailed with a continuance of the same unmitigated severity. ”

“ Reader! ponder the condition to which this great and good Man, not without merciful alleviations, was doomed, and learn from his example to make timely use of thy endowments and opportunities, and to walk humbly with thy God.
COPY OF THE PRINTED INSCRIPTION Sacred to the Memory of Robert Southey, whose mortal remains are interred in the adjoining churchyard. He was born at Bristol, October 4th, 1774, and died after a residence of nearly 40 years at Greta Hall, in this Parish, March 21st, 1843. ”

“ Daniel seldom went to Ingleton without looking in upon Guy, if it were between school hours. Guy on his part would walk as far with him on the way back, as the tether of his own time allowed, and frequently on Saturdays and Sundays he strolled out and took a seat by Daniel's fire side. Even the wearying occupation of hearing one generation of urchins after another repeat a-b-ab, hammering the first rules of arithmetic into leaden heads, and pacing like a horse in a mill the same dull dragging round day after day, had neither diminished Guy's good-nature, nor lessened his love for children. ”

“ Resolved and calm. Before her lay that Book
That hath the words of Life; and as she read,
Sometimes a tear would trickle down her cheek,
Tho’ heavenly joy beam’d in her eye the while.
Leaving her undisturb’d, to the first ward
Of this great Lazar-house, the Angel led
The favour’d Maid of Orleans. Kneeling down
On the hard stone that their bare knees had worn,
In sackcloth robed, a numerous train appear’d:
Hard-featured some, and some demurely grave;
Yet such expression stealing from the eye,
As tho’, that only naked, all the rest
Was one close fitting mask. ”

“ Could never equal: wandered thro’ its halls
A numerous train; some with the red-swoln eye
Of riot, and intemperance-bloated cheek;
Some pale and nerveless, and with feeble step,
And eyes lack-lustre.
Maiden? said her guide,
These are the wretched slaves of Appetite,
Curst with their wish enjoyed. The epicure
Here pampers his foul frame, till the pall’d sense
Loaths at the banquet; the voluptuous here
Plunge in the tempting torrent of delight,
And sink in misery. All they wish’d on earth,
Possessing here, whom have they to accuse,
But their own folly, for the lot they chose? ”

“ SONNET V. Hard by the road, where on that little mound
The high grass rustles to the passing breeze,
The child of Misery rests her head in peace.
Pause there in sadness. That unhallowed ground
Inshrines what once was Isabel. Sleep on
Sleep on, poor Outcast! lovely was thy cheek,
And thy mild eye was eloquent to speak
The soul of Pity. Pale and woe-begone
Soon did thy fair cheek fade, and thine eye weep
The tear of anguish for the babe unborn,
The helpless heir of Poverty and Scorn.
She drank the draught that chill'd her soul to sleep. ”

“ Days after days unvarying come and go, And neither friend nor foe Approaches them in their sequestered bower. Maid of strange destiny ! but think not thou Thou art forgotten now, And hast no cause for farther hope or fear. High-fated Maid, thou dost not know What eyes watch over thee for weal and woe ! Even at this hour, Searching the dark decrees divine, Kehama, in the fulness of his power, Perceives his thread of fate entwin'd with thine. The Glendoveer, from his far sphere, With love that never sleeps, beholds thee here, And, in the hour permitted, will be near. ”

“ The singular perfection of his character, considered in respect to its capacity for active intellectual labor, came from his almost miraculous confidence in his faculties and content with himself. He has so high an opinion of Robert Southey as to be unconcerned about any thing which lies beyond the grasp of his powers, and, accordingly, however much we may find reason to doubt or deny many of his statements, they ever have a joyous raciness which tingles pleasantly on our perceptions. ”

“ The bird was brought, but young Daniel had not the strength of young Gargantua; the goose, being prevented by William from drawing back, prest forward; they were by the side of the brook and the boy by this violent and unexpected movement was, as the French would say in the politest and most delicate of all languages, culbuté, or in sailors' English capsized into the water. The misfortune did not end there; for falling with his forehead against a stone, he received a cut upon the brow which left a scar as long as he lived. ”

“ How each smooth arm, and each soft wrist, By richest Cosees35 might be kiss’d, While some my taper ankles round, With sunny radiance tinged the ground.
See how he kisses the lip of my rival, and imprints on her forehead an ornament of pure musk, black as the young antelope on the lunar orb! Now, like the husband of Reti, he fixes white blossoms on her dark locks, where they gleam like flashes of lightning among the curled clouds. On her breasts, like two firmaments, he places a string of gems like a radiant constellation ”

“ Novelist, historian, poet, he excelled in whatever
style of literature he attempted. His best-known poems are "The Lady
of the Lake," "Marmion," and "The Lay of the Last Minstrel." He died
in 1832.
Robert Southey was born at Bristol, August 12, 1774. He was
expelled from Westminster School for writing an article against
school flogging. Later he studied at Balliol College, Oxford. He was
an incessant worker, laboring at all branches of literature, from
his famous nursery story, "The Three Bears," to "The Life of Nelson." ”