Of their egression endlessly; with ever rising new From forth their sweet nest; as their store, still as it faded, grew,

And never would cease sending forth her clusters to the spring,

They still crowd out so; this flock here, that there, belabouring

The loaded flowers; so from the ships and tents the army's store

Troop'd to these princes, and the court, along th' unmeasur'd shore.

G. CHAPMAN, 1580.

CONSTANCY.

WHO is the honest man?

He that doth still and strongly good pursue; To God, his neighbour, and himself most true : Whom neither force nor fawning can Unpin, or wrench from giving all their due.

Whose honesty is not

So loose or easy that a ruffling wind
Can blow away, or, glittering, look it blind.
Who rides his sure and even trot,

While the world now rides by, now lags behind.

Who, when great trials come,

Nor seeks nor shuns them, but does calmly stay, Till he the thing and the example weigh;

112

LITTLE CHILDREN.

All being brought into a sum,

What place or person calls for, he doth pay.

Whom none can work or woo

To use in any thing a trick or sleight,
For above all things he abhors deceit.

His words, and works, and fashions too, All of a piece, and all are clear and straight.

Who never melts or thaws

At close temptations. When the day is done His goodness sets not, but in dark can run. The sun to others writeth laws,

And is their virtue.

Virtue is his sun.

HERBERT.

LITTLE CHILDREN.

SPORTING through the forest wide;
Playing by the water-side;

Wandering o'er the heathy fells ;
Down within the woodland dells;
All among the mountains wild,
Dwelleth manya little child!
In the baron's hall of pride;
By the poor man's dull fireside ;
Mid the mighty, mid the mean,
Little children may be seen;
Like the flowers that spring up fair,
Bright, and countless, every where !

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S

HOMER.

MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen:
Round many western islands have I been,
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne ;
Yet never did I breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific-and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise-
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

KEATS.

FROM CHAPMAN'S TRANSLATION OF HOMER.

ILIAD I.

The Banquet.

THE youths crown'd cups with wine

Drank off and fill'd to all again: that day was held divine,

Consumed in pæans to the sun; who heard with pleased ear;

When whose bright chariot stoop'd to sea, and twilight hid the clear,

110

NESTOR'S SPEECH.

All soundly on their cables slept ev'n till the night

was worn:

And when the lady of the light, the rosy-finger'd

morn

Rose from the hills, all fresh arose and to the camp retired,

While Phoebus with a foreright wind their bark inspir'd.

ILIAD II.

Nestor's Speech on the Dream of Agamemnon.

"Princes and councillors of Greece, if any should relate

This vision but the king himself, it might be held

a tale,

And move the rather our retreat: but since our

general

Affirms he saw it, hold it true; and all our best means make

To arm our army." This speech used he first the council brake.

The other sceptre-bearing states arose too and

obey'd

The people's victor.

overlaid

Being abroad, the earth was

With flockers to them that came forth; as when

of frequent bees,

Swarms rise out of a hollow rock, repairing the degrees

THE COMMONWEALTH OF BEES.

And utter now and then an awful voice,
But had a blessing in its darkest frown,
Threat'ning at once and nourishing the plant.
We lov'd, but not enough, the gentle hand
That reared us. At a thoughtless age, allured
By every gilded folly, we renounc'd

115

His shelt❜ring side, and wistfully forewent
That converse which we now in vain regret.
How gladly would the man recall to life
The boy's neglected sire! A mother too,
The softer friend, perhaps more gladly still,
Might he demand them at the gates of death.
Sorrow has, since they went, subdued and tamed
The playful humour; he could now endure,
(Himself grown sober in the vale of tears),
And feel a parent's presence no restraint.
But not to understand a treasure's worth
Till time has stol'n away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is.
The few that pray at all pray oft amiss,

And seeking grace t' improve the prize they hold,
Would urge a wiser suit than asking more.

COWPER.

THE COMMONWEALTH OF BEES.

So work the honey-bees:

Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach
The art of order to a peopled kingdom.