THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. O mortal man! who livest here by toil, For though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail And curse thy star, and early drudge, and late, Withouten that would come a heavier bale,7Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale. 6 In lowly dale, fast by a river's side, With woody hill o'er hill encompassed round, 8 Than whom a fiend more fell 9 is nowhere found. It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground: And there a season atween June and May, Half prankt 10 with spring, with summer half embrowned, A listless climate made, where, sooth to say, No living wight" could work, ne 12 carèd even for play. 13 Was nought around but images of rest : Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between ; And flowery beds that slumberous influence kest,13 From poppies breathed; and beds of pleasant green, Where never yet was creeping creature seen. Meantime unnumbered glittering streamlets played And purlèd everywhere their waters sheen ; 14 That as they bickered through the sunny glade, Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made. 1 Estate, condition or lot. 2 Emmet, an ant. 3 Moil, to work very hard. 4 Is a sad sentence, etc. : "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."-Gen. iii. 19. 5 Certes, certainly. 6 Withouten, without. 7 Bale, misery; only found now in the word baleful. 8 Wizard, an enchanter; ¿.e., indolence personified. 9 Fell, cruel. 10 Prankt, adorned in a showy manner. 11 Wight, a person. 12 Ne, nor. 13 Kest, cast. 14 Sheen, bright. 2 Joined to the prattle of the purling1 rills, Full in the passage of the vale above, Where nought but shadowy forms were seen to move, And up the hills on either side, a wood Of blackening pines, aye waving to and fro, Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood; And where the valley winded out, below, The murmuring main 7 was heard, and scarcely heard, to flow. A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; 1 Purling, flowing with a murmuring sound. 2 Vacant, unoccupied. 3 Philomel, the nightingale. 4 Coil, a noise. 5 Yblent, blended; they being the sign of the old past participle. 6 Aye, ever. 7 Main, the sea. 8 Eke, also. 9 Noyance, annoyance. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. (1728-1774.) BORN at the village of Pallas, in the county of Longford (Ireland), where his father was the clergyman on "forty pounds a year.' Studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards spent twelve months in travelling (mostly on foot) through France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. On his return settled in London, where he gained the friendship of Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, and other great men. Life with Goldsmith was one continuous struggle against poverty. He died in 1774, and a monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey, for which Dr. Johnson wrote a Latin inscription. Goldsmith's poetical works are: The Traveller, The Deserted Village, The Hermit, Retaliation, etc. His chief prose works are The Vicar of Wakefield, A History of the Earth and Animated Nature; and two dramas, viz., The Good-Natured Man, and She Stuops to Conquer. THE TRAVELLER. Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend, 1 Or, either. 2 Scheld or Scheldt, a river which rises near Cambray in France, and flows through Belgium and Holland into the North Sea. 3 Po, a river of North Italy, which flows into the Adriatic. 4 Carinthia, a part of Austria. 5 Campania. The poet evidently means, not that part of Italy of which Naples and Capua may be regarded as centres, but the Campagna di Roma, an unhealthy and desolate district in the neighbourhood of Rome. Blest that abode, where want and pain repair, Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail, But me,3 not destined such delights to share, Some fleeting1 good, that mocks me with the view ; Even now, where Alpine solitudes ascend, That good which makes each humbler bosom vain? Ye glittering towns, with wealth and splendour Ye fields, where summer spreads profusion round; 1 Ruddy, of a red, healthy colour. 2 Pranks, sport. 8 Me. What governs this pronoun in the objective case? 4 Fleeting, passing or flying away rapidly. 5 The circle bounding, etc., the horizon. A pensive hour, a thoughtful hour. 7 Sympathetic mind, a mind that has feelings in common with those of other minds. Ye lakes, whose vessels catch the busy gale ; As some lone miser, visiting his store, Where my worn soul, each wandering hope at rest, 1 Swains, peasants. 2 Alternate passions rise, i.e., one passion after another rises. 3 Tenant of the frigid zone, inhabitant of the frigid or very cold parts of the earth. 4 Long night, in the frigid zone the length of the night varies from one to six months. 5 The line, the equator, or the equinoctial line; i.e., the torria or hot parts of the earth. 6 Tepid, moderately warm. |