| |
| THE CURFEW tolls the knell of parting day, | |
| The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, | |
| The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, | |
| And leaves the world to darkness and to me. | |
| |
| Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, | 5 |
| And all the air a solemn stillness holds, | |
| Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, | |
| And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: | |
| |
| Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower, | |
| The moping owl does to the moon complain | 10 |
| Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, | |
| Molest her ancient solitary reign. | |
| |
| [Hark! how the holy calm that breathes around | |
| Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease; | |
| In still small accents whispering from the ground | 15 |
| The grateful earnest of eternal peace.] 1 | |
| |
| Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade, | |
| Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap, | |
| Each in his narrow cell forever laid, | |
| The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. | 20 |
| |
| The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, | |
| The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, | |
| The cock’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, | |
| No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. | |
| |
| For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, | 25 |
| Or busy housewife ply her evening care; | |
| No children run to lisp their sire’s return, | |
| Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. | |
| |
| Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, | |
| Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; | 30 |
| How jocund did they drive their team afield! | |
| How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! | |
| |
| Let not ambition mock their useful toil, | |
| Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; | |
| Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile | 35 |
| The short and simple annals of the poor. | |
| |
| The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, | |
| And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, | |
| Awaits alike the inevitable hour. | |
| The paths of glory lead but to the grave. | 40 |
| |
| Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, | |
| If Memory o’er their tomb no trophies raise, | |
| Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, | |
| The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. | |
| |
| Can storied urn or animated bust | 45 |
| Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? | |
| Can honor’s voice provoke the silent dust, | |
| Or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death? | |
| |
| Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid | |
| Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; | 50 |
| Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, | |
| Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre; | |
| |
| But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, | |
| Rich with the spoils of time, did ne’er unroll; | |
| Chill penury repressed their noble rage, | 55 |
| And froze the genial current of the soul. | |
| |
| Full many a gem of purest ray serene | |
| The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; | |
| Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, | |
| And waste its sweetness on the desert air. | 60 |
| |
| Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, | |
| The little tyrant of his fields withstood, | |
| Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest, | |
| Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country’s blood. | |
| |
| Th’ applause of listening senates to command, | 65 |
| The threats of pain and ruin to despise, | |
| To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land, | |
| And read their history in a nation’s eyes, | |
| |
| Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone | |
| Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; | 70 |
| Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, | |
| And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, | |
| |
| The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, | |
| To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, | |
| Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride | 75 |
| With incense kindled at the muse’s flame. | |
| |
| Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, | |
| Their sober wishes never learned to stray; | |
| Along the cool sequestered vale of life | |
| They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. | 80 |
| |
| Yet even these bones from insult to protect, | |
| Some frail memorial still erected nigh, | |
| With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, | |
| Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. | |
| |
| Their name, their years, spelt by th’ unlettered muse, | 85 |
| The place of fame and elegy supply; | |
| And many a holy text around she strews, | |
| That teach the rustic moralist to die. | |
| |
| For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, | |
| This pleasing anxious being e’er resigned, | 90 |
| Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, | |
| Nor cast one longing lingering look behind? | |
| |
| On some fond breast the parting soul relies, | |
| Some pious drops the closing eye requires; | |
| E’en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, | 95 |
| E’en in our ashes live their wonted fires. | |
| |
| For thee, who, mindful of th’ unhonored dead, | |
| Dost in these lines their artless tale relate, | |
| If chance, by lonely contemplation led, | |
| Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate, | 100 |
| |
| Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, | |
| “Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn | |
| Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, | |
| To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. | |
| |
| “There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, | 105 |
| That wreathes its old, fantastic roots so high, | |
| His listless length at noontide would he stretch, | |
| And pore upon the brook that babbles by. | |
| |
| “Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, | |
| Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove; | 110 |
| Now drooping, woful-wan, like one forlorn, | |
| Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. | |
| |
| “One morn I missed him on the customed hill, | |
| Along the heath, and near his favorite tree; | |
| Another came; nor yet beside the rill, | 115 |
| Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he; | |
| |
| “The next, with dirges due in sad array, | |
| Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne. | |
| Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay | |
| Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.” | 120 |
| |
THE EPITAPH Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth | |
| A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown; | |
| Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth, | |
| And Melancholy marked him for her own. | |
| |
| Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, | 125 |
| Heaven did a recompense as largely send; | |
| He gave to Misery all he had, a tear, | |
| He gained from Heaven (’t was all he wished) a friend. | |
| |
| No farther seek his merits to disclose, | |
| Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, | 130 |
| (There they alike in trembling hope repose) | |
| The bosom of his Father and his God. | |
