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  • Fears in Solitude[;] Written in April, 1798, During the Alarm of an Invasion

Fears in Solitude[;] Written in April, 1798, During the Alarm of an Invasion

  1. 1A green and silent spot, amid the hills,
  2. 2A small and silent dell! O'er stiller place
  3. 3No singing sky-lark ever poised himself.
  4. 4The hills are heathy, save that swelling slope,
  5. 5Which hath a gay and gorgeous covering on,
  6. 6All golden with the never-bloomless furze,
  7. 7Which now blooms most profusely: but the dell,
  8. 8Bathed by the mist, is fresh and delicate
  9. 9As vernal corn-field, or the unripe flax,
  10. 10When, through its half-transparent stalks, at eve,
  11. 11The level sunshine glimmers with green light.
  12. 12Oh! 'tis a quiet spirit-healing nook!
  13. 13Which all, methinks, would love; but chiefly he,
  14. 14The humble man, who, in his youthful years,
  15. 15Knew just so much of folly, as had made
  16. 16His early manhood more securely wise!
  17. 17Here he might lie on fern or withered heath,
  18. 18While from the singing lark (that sings unseen
  19. 19The minstrelsy that solitude loves best),
  20. 20And from the sun, and from the breezy air,
  21. 21Sweet influences trembled o'er his frame;
  22. 22And he, with many feelings, many thoughts,
  23. 23Made up a meditative joy, and found
  24. 24Religious meanings in the forms of Nature!
  25. 25And so, his senses gradually wrapt
  26. 26In a half sleep, he dreams of better worlds,
  27. 27And dreaming hears thee still, O singing lark,
  28. 28That singest like an angel in the clouds!
  1. 29My God! it is a melancholy thing
  2. 30For such a man, who would full fain preserve
  3. 31His soul in calmness, yet perforce must feel
  4. 32For all his human brethren--O my God!
  5. 33It weighs upon the heart, that he must think
  6. 34What uproar and what strife may now be stirring
  7. 35This way or that way o'er these silent hills--
  8. 36Invasion, and the thunder and the shout,
  9. 37And all the crash of onset; fear and rage,
  10. 38And undetermined conflict--even now,
  11. 39Even now, perchance, and in his native isle:
  12. 40Carnage and groans beneath this blessed sun!
  13. 41We have offended, Oh! my countrymen!
  14. 42We have offended very grievously,
  15. 43And been most tyrannous. From east to west
  16. 44A groan of accusation pierces Heaven!
  17. 45The wretched plead against us; multitudes
  18. 46Countless and vehement, the sons of God,
  19. 47Our brethren! Like a cloud that travels on.
  20. 48Steamed up from Cairo's swamps of pestilence,
  21. 49Even so, my countrymen! have we gone forth
  22. 50And borne to distant tribes slavery and pangs,
  23. 51And, deadlier far, our vices, whose deep taint
  24. 52With slow perdition murders the whole man,
  25. 53His body and his soul! Meanwhile, at home,
  26. 54All individual dignity and power
  27. 55Engulfed in Courts, Committees, Institutions,
  28. 56Associations and Societies,
  29. 57A vain, speech-mouthing, speech-reporting Guild,
  30. 58One Benefit-Club for mutual flattery,
  31. 59We have drunk up, demure as at a grace,
  32. 60Pollutions from the brimming cup of wealth;
  33. 61Contemptuous of all honourable rule,
  34. 62Yet bartering freedom and the poor man's life
  35. 63For gold, as at a market! The sweet words
  36. 64Of Christian promise, words that even yet
  37. 65Might stem destruction, were they wisely preached,
  38. 66Are muttered o'er by men, whose tones proclaim
  39. 67How flat and wearisome they feel their trade:
  40. 68Rank scoffers some, but most too indolent
  41. 69To deem them falsehoods or to know their truth.
  42. 70Oh! blasphemous! the Book of Life is made
  43. 71A superstitious instrument, on which
  44. 72We gabble o'er the oaths we mean to break;
  45. 73For all must swear--all and in every place,
  46. 74College and wharf, council and justice-court;
  47. 75All, all must swear, the briber and the bribed,
  48. 76Merchant and lawyer, senator and priest,
  49. 77The rich, the poor, the old man and the young;
  50. 78All, all make up one scheme of perjury,
  51. 79That faith doth reel; the very name of God
  52. 80Sounds like a juggler's charm; and, bold with joy,
  53. 81Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place,
  54. 82(Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism,
  55. 83Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon,
  56. 84Drops his blue-fringéd lids, and holds them close,
  57. 85And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven,
  58. 86Cries out, 'Where is it?'
  1. 87Thankless too for peace,
  2. 88(Peace long preserved by fleets and perilous seas)
  3. 89Secure from actual warfare, we have loved
  4. 90To swell the war-whoop, passionate for war!
  5. 91Alas! for ages ignorant of all
  6. 92Its ghastlier workings, (famine or blue plague,
  7. 93Battle, or siege, or flight through wintry snows,)
  8. 94We, this whole people, have been clamorous
  9. 95For war and bloodshed; animating sports,
  10. 96The which we pay for as a thing to talk of,
  11. 97Spectators and not combatants! No guess
  12. 98Anticipative of a wrong unfelt,
  13. 99No speculation on contingency,
  14. 100However dim and vague, too vague and dim
  15. 101To yield a justifying cause; and forth,
  16. 102(Stuffed out with big preamble, holy names.
  17. 103And adjurations of the God in Heaven.)
  18. 104We send our mandates for the certain death
  19. 105Of thousands and ten thousands! Boys and girls,
  20. 106And women, that would groan to see a child
  21. 107Pull off an insect's leg, all read of war,
  22. 108The best amusement for our morning meal!
  23. 109The poor wretch, who has learnt his only prayers
  24. 110From curses, who knows scarcely words enough
  25. 111To ask a blessing from his Heavenly Father,
  26. 112Becomes a fluent phraseman, absolute
  27. 113And technical in victories and defeats,
  28. 114And all our dainty terms for fratricide;
  29. 115Terms which we trundle smoothly o'er our tongues
  30. 116Like mere abstractions, empty sounds to which
  31. 117We join no feeling and attach no form!
  32. 118As if the soldier died without a wound;
  33. 119As if the fibres of this godlike frame
  34. 120Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch,
  35. 121Who fell in battle, doing bloody deeds,
  36. 122Passed off to Heaven, translated and not killed;
  37. 123As though he had no wife to pine for him,
  38. 124No God to judge him! Therefore, evil days
  39. 125Are coming on us, O my countrymen!
  40. 126And what if all-avenging Providence,
  41. 127Strong and retributive, should make us know
  42. 128The meaning of our words, force us to feel
  43. 129The desolation and the agony
  44. 130Of our fierce doings?
  1. 131Spare us yet awhile,
  2. 132Father and God! O! spare us yet awhile!
  3. 133Oh! let not English women drag their flight
  4. 134Fainting beneath the burthen of their babes,
  5. 135Of the sweet infants, that but yesterday
  6. 136Laughed at the breast! Sons, brothers, husbands, all
  7. 137Who ever gazed with fondness on the forms
  8. 138Which grew up with you round the same fire-side,
  9. 139And all who ever heard the sabbath-bells
  10. 140Without the infidel's scorn, make yourselves pure!
  11. 141Stand forth! be men! repel an impious foe,
  12. 142Impious and false, a light yet cruel race,
  13. 143Who laugh away all virtue, mingling mirth
  14. 144With deeds of murder; and still promising
  15. 145Freedom, themselves too sensual to be free,
  16. 146Poison life's amities, and cheat the heart
  17. 147Of faith and quiet hope, and all that soothes,
  18. 148And all that lifts the spirit! Stand we forth;
  19. 149Render them back upon the insulted ocean,
  20. 150And let them toss as idly on its waves
  21. 151As the vile sea-weed, which some mountain-blast
  22. 152Swept from our shores! And oh! may we return
  23. 153Not with a drunken triumph, but with fear,
  24. 154Repenting of the wrongs with which we stung
  25. 155So fierce a foe to frenzy!
  1. 156I have told,
  2. 157O Britons! O my brethren! I have told
  3. 158Most bitter truth, but without bitterness.
  4. 159Nor deem my zeal or factious or mistimed;
  5. 160For never can true courage dwell with them,
  6. 161Who, playing tricks with conscience, dare not look
  7. 162At their own vices. We have been too long
  8. 163Dupes of a deep delusion! Some, belike,
  9. 164Groaning with restless enmity, expect
  10. 165All change from change of constituted power;
  11. 166As if a Government had been a robe,
  12. 167On which our vice and wretchedness were tagged
  13. 168Like fancy-points and fringes, with the robe
  14. 169Pulled off at pleasure. Fondly these attach
  15. 170A radical causation to a few
  16. 171Poor drudges of chastising Providence,
  17. 172Who borrow all their hues and qualities
  18. 173From our own folly and rank wickedness,
  19. 174Which gave them birth and nursed them. Others, meanwhile,
  20. 175Dote with a mad idolatry; and all
  21. 176Who will not fall before their images,
  22. 177And yield them worship, they are enemies
  23. 178Even of their country!
  1. 179Such have I been deemed.--
  2. 180But, O dear Britain! O my Mother Isle!
  3. 181Needs must thou prove a name most dear and holy
  4. 182To me, a son, a brother, and a friend,
  5. 183A husband, and a father! who revere
  6. 184All bonds of natural love, and find them all
  7. 185Within the limits of thy rocky shores.
  8. 186O native Britain! O my Mother Isle!
  9. 187How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy
  10. 188To me, who from thy lakes and mountain-hills,
  11. 189Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks and seas,
  12. 190Have drunk in all my intellectual life,
  13. 191All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts,
  14. 192All adoration of the God in nature,
  15. 193All lovely and all honourable things.
  16. 194Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel
  17. 195The joy and greatness of its future being?
  18. 196There lives nor form nor feeling in my soul
  19. 197Unborrowed from my country! O divine
  20. 198And beauteous island! thou hast been my sole
  21. 199And most magnificent temple, in the which
  22. 200I walk with awe, and sing my stately songs,
  23. 201Loving the God that made me!--
  1. 202May my fears,
  2. 203My filial fears, be vain! and may the vaunts
  3. 204And menace of the vengeful enemy
  4. 205Pass like the gust, that roared and died away
  5. 206In the distant tree: which heard, and only heard
  6. 207In this low dell, bowed not the delicate grass.
  1. 208But now the gentle dew-fall sends abroad
  2. 209The fruit-like perfume of the golden furze:
  3. 210The light has left the summit of the hill,
  4. 211Though still a sunny gleam lies beautiful,
  5. 212Aslant the ivied beacon. Now farewell,
  6. 213Farewell, awhile, O soft and silent spot!
  7. 214On the green sheep-track, up the heathy hill,
  8. 215Homeward I wind my way; and lo! recalled
  9. 216From bodings that have well-nigh wearied me,
  10. 217I find myself upon the brow, and pause
  11. 218Startled! And after lonely sojourning
  12. 219In such a quiet and surrounded nook,
  13. 220This burst of prospect, here the shadowy main,
  14. 221Dim-tinted, there the mighty majesty
  15. 222Of that huge amphitheatre of rich
  16. 223And elmy fields, seems like society--
  17. 224Conversing with the mind, and giving it
  18. 225A livelier impulse and a dance of thought!
  19. 226And now, beloved Stowey! I behold
  20. 227Thy church-tower, and, methinks, the four huge elms
  21. 228Clustering, which mark the mansion of my friend;
  22. 229And close behind them, hidden from my view,
  23. 230Is my own lowly cottage, where my babe
  24. 231And my babe's mother dwell in peace! With light
  25. 232And quickened footsteps thitherward I tend,
  26. 233Remembering thee, O green and silent dell!
  27. 234And grateful, that by nature's quietness
  28. 235And solitary musings, all my heart
  29. 236Is softened, and made worthy to indulge
  30. 237Love, and the thoughts that yearn for human kind.
NETHER STOWEY, April 20, 1798.