The wilderness shall hear the lion roar; But, long as cock shall crow from household perch To rouse the dawn, soft gales shall speed thy wing, And thy erratic3 voice be faithful to the spring! YARROW REVISITED The gallant youth, who may have gained, Was but an infant in the lap 5 Once more, by Newark's Castle-gate I stood, looked, listened, and with thee, 1 Camoens was banished from Lisbon partly because of his passion for Donna Caterina. After her death, he lamented her in his Rimas. 2 The myrtle was a symbol of love; the cypress, of mourning. A reference to Dante's love sonnets (found in his Vita Nuova) and Divine Comedy. 3 wandering 4 companion (See Hamilton's The Braes of Yarrow, p. 13.) In 1814. See Yarrow Visited (p. 308). Scott (a reference to his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border). Then, to the measure of that heaven-born light, Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content: The stars pre-eminent in magnitude, 5 And they that from the zenith dart their beams, (Visible though they be to half the earth, Though half a sphere be conscious of their brightness) Are yet of no diviner origin, No purer essence, than the one that burns, 10 Like an untended watch-fire, on the ridge Of some dark mountain; or than those which seem Humbly to hang, like twinkling winter lamps, Among the branches of the leafless trees; All are the undying offspring of one sire: 15 Then, to the measure of the light vouchsafed, Shine, Poet, in thy place, and be content. |