Household Book of English Poetry

A
HOUSEHOLD BOOK
OF
E N G L I S H P O E T R Y

SELECTED AND ARRANGED
With Notes
BY
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D.
ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN
LONDON
M A C M I L L A N A N D C O.
1868
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

PREFACE.

The first question which I asked myself, when I resumed a purpose long ago entertained, and then for a long while laid aside, of publishing such a selection of English Poetry as the present, was this, namely, whether Mr. Palgrave’s Golden Treasury had not so occupied the ground that there was no room for one who should come after. The selection is one made with so exact an acquaintance with the sources from which his Treasury was to be replenished, with so fine a taste in regard of what was worthy to be admitted there, that this was the conclusion to which at the first I was disposed to arrive. Presently, however, I saw reason to change my mind. The volume which I meditated was on so different a scheme and plan from his, that, while no doubt I should sometimes go over ground which he had gone over before, it was evident that for the most part our paths would be different, and my choice not identical with his. This to so great an extent has proved the case, that of more than three hundred pieces which compose this volume, less than seventy have appeared in his. And it is easy to perceive how this should be. His is a Treasury of the best songs and lyrical poems in the English Language, and of these exclusively; but within this circle he proposes to include all which is of first-rate excellence in our language by authors not living. My scheme is at once broader and narrower; broader, in that I limit myself to no one particular class of poetry, and embrace the living and the dead alike; narrower, in that I make no attempt to be exhaustive, or to give more than a very few samples even of the best and greatest of our poets.

But if Mr. Palgrave had not forestalled me, I certainly did not feel that any other had so done. Most of the collections which have fallen under my eye have failed to give me the impression of being the result of direct and immediate investigation on the part of the collector into the treasures of our English Poetry. There is so much there which invites citation, and which has never been cited yet in any of our popular anthologies, that it is difficult to think that any one who had himself wandered in this garden of riches would not have carried off some flowers and fruits of his own gathering; instead of offering to us again, as most do, though it may be in somewhat different combinations, what already has been offered by others. When I see, for example, ‘Queen and huntress chaste and fair,’ doubtless a very graceful lyric, with one or two other familiar poems, doing duty in one collection after another as the specimens of Ben Jonson’s verse, it is hard to suppose that his rich and pleasant Underwood has been wandered through; since in that case something which others have not brought already would surely have been brought away from thence; while the specimens from other poets provoke a similar misgiving. Whatever merit or demerit this may imply, the volume here presented lays claim to a certain originality—or, if that word cannot in this matter be allowed,—to a certain independence of judgment. There has not, indeed, been any attempt, as certainly there has been no desire, to reverse the general judgment and decision about the great poems of the language. He who should offer to do this would merely betray his own presumption, and his unfitness for even so humble a task as that here attempted. But in poems of a very high merit, which yet do not attain to the highest rank of all, there is ample space for the play of such an independent judgment, and I have not hesitated to exercise this. Many, which almost all collections have hitherto contained, will be looked for in vain in this; not a few which, so far as I know, none have included, have found room in it. It is not always that I have considered what I bring forward better than what to make place for it I set aside; but where I have only considered it as good, it has seemed a real gain to put new treasures within the reach of those who are little able, or, if able, are little likely, to go and discover such for themselves. But in very many instances I feel sure that what I have made room for is not merely as good, but better than that which to make room for it I have dismissed; nor has it been a little pleasure to draw from obscure retreats, or from retreats only familiar to those who have made English poetry more or less of a special study, and acquainted themselves with its bye ways no less than its high ways, poems which little merit the oblivion into which they had fallen.

I have called this volume a Household Book of English Poetry, by this name implying that it is a book for all, that there is nothing in it to prevent it from being confidently placed in the hands of every member of the household. I wish I could have kept it within a moderate size by no more than the excluding from it everything of inferior value; but it will be evident to all who are at all acquainted with the inexhaustible opulence of English Poetry that I could only do this by continual acts of self-denial, having, at every step of my progress, to set my seal to the truth of that Eastern proverb which says, ‘You may bring a nosegay to the city, but you cannot bring the garden.’ This is indeed all which in this anthology I have attempted. To have allowed it to grow to a larger bulk would have defeated my hopes that it might be a volume which the emigrant, finding room for little not absolutely necessary, might yet find room for it in his trunk, and the traveller in his knapsack, and that on some narrow shelves where there are few books this might be one. But indeed the actual amount which such a volume contains, whether it be much or little, will be of less consequence in our eyes, when once we have apprehended that Horace was only under the mark when he affirmed of good poetry that ten times repeated it will please. It would be truer to say of a poem which in motive, in form, in diction, in melody, in unity of plan, satisfies all conditions, that it is ‘a joy for ever.’ It is impossible so to draw out the sweetness of it that it shall not still have as much to yield us, or it maybe more than it had at the beginning. How many another book, once read, can yield no more pleasure or profit to us—but poems of the highest order are in their very essence sources of a delight which is inexhaustible. However much of this has been drawn from them, as much or more remains behind.

There is another reflection which may console us in leaving so much untouched, namely, that almost every considerable poet has written something, in which all that he has of highest and most characteristic has come to a head. Thus I remember that Wordsworth used to speak of Shelley’s Ode to a Skylark as the expression of the highest to which his genius had attained. Wordsworth’s own Lines on revisiting the banks of the Wye, or, higher perhaps even than these, his Lines suggested by a picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, I should regard as fulfilling for him the same conditions; and what is true of these two, is no less true of other poets out of number.

I have nowhere given extracts from larger poems, but only poems which may be regarded as complete in themselves. It is true that I have sometimes made room for such as, through their length, or through some other cause, must otherwise have been shut out, by omissions; but only where I believed these omissions to be real gains; and I do not think I have anywhere done this without giving warning to the reader. There are, no doubt, certain inconveniences which attend a resolution only to give entire poems and not extracts; and this the chief one—that the space allotted to different poets cannot in all or nearly all instances represent or correspond to their several importance. Some poets have thrown all or well nigh all their poetic faculty into the composition of one or two great poems; and have very seldom indeed allowed themselves in briefer excursions into the land of song. Others on the contrary, of not higher, or it may be not nearly so high, a gift, have put a large part of their strength into these occasional poems, and will therefore yield for a volume like the present infinitely more than their more illustrious compeers. Under the action of this rule, and dramatic poetry being of necessity excluded, there is nothing of Shakespeare’s to choose from but his Sonnets and his Songs—these certainly being in themselves much, but still little when compared with what is passed by. Again, one who does not believe in Alexander’s Feast, and still less in the Ode on the Death of Mrs. Killigrew, finds it hard, indeed impossible, to deal anything approaching to justice to Dryden, or by specimens which are at his command to afford any true representation of the range of his powers or the eminence of his place in English literature. It is the same and nearly to the same extent with Pope; while others, like Gray and Campbell, get justice and more than justice; though, yielding what they do, one does not grudge this to them in the least. The inconvenience would certainly be a grave one, if the volume presented itself as primarily a Manual of English Poetry, or an assistance to the study of the history of this; but having quite another as its primary object, it is one which may very well be borne, while the advantages of such a rule of selection are undoubted.

I have attached a few notes to this volume. I had intended to add many more, but under the pressure of events which now claim, and for a long time to come are likely to claim, nearly all one’s thoughts and leisure, have been obliged to renounce the carrying of this intention out, and only to print those which were ready. If in them there is little or nothing with which professed students of English literature are not already familiar, I can only urge that this volume was not designed, and still less were the notes designed, for such; but for readers who, capable of an intelligent interest in the subject, have yet had neither time nor opportunity for special studies of their own in it, and who must therefore rely more or less on the hand-leading of others; nor I trust shall I be found fault with that I have sometimes taken upon me in these notes to indicate what seemed worthy of special admiration; or sought in other ways to plant the reader at that point of view from which the merits of some poem might be most deeply felt and best understood. If I am, I must plead in excuse that for myself in other regions of art, as in music or painting, where I have comparatively little or no confidence in my own judgment, I have been and often am most thankful to those, being persons whom I could trust, who have told me what to admire, and given me the reasons for so doing. If we set aside a few intuitive geniuses, it is only thus that any of us can ever hope to be educated into independence of judgment; and I am sure that some, acknowledging this, will be grateful for notes of admiration, by which I have sometimes called their attention to that which otherwise might not obtain it, or might not obtain it to the full of its deserts.

London: May 8th, 1868.

A
HOUSEHOLD BOOK
OF
E N G L I S H P O E T R Y

PART THE FIRST.

I
A MEDITATION UPON THE FRAILTY OF THIS LIFE.

O trifling toys that toss the brains,

While loathsome life doth last;

O wishèd wealth, O sugared joys,

O life when death is past;

Who loaths exchange of loss with gain? 5

Yet loath we death as hell.

What woeful wight would wish his woe?

Yet wish we here to dwell.

O Fancy frail, that feeds on earth,

And stays on slippery joys; 10

O noble mind, O happy man,

That can contemn such toys!

Such toys as neither perfect are,

And cannot long endure;

Our greatest skill, our sweetest joy, 15

Uncertain and unsure.

For life is short, and learning long,

All pleasure mixt with woe;

Sickness and sleep steal time unseen,

And joys do come and go. 20

Thus learning is but learned by halves,

And joy enjoyed no while;

That serves to show thee what thou want’st,

This helps thee to beguile.

But after death is perfect skill, 25

And joy without decay;

When sin is gone, that blinds our eyes,

And steals our joys away;

No crowing cock shall raise us up,

To spend the day in vain; 30

No weary labour shall us drive

To go to bed again.

But for we feel not what we want,

Nor know not what we have;

We love to keep the body’s life, 35

We loath the soul to save.

Anon.

II
LOVE THE ONLY PRICE OF LOVE.

The fairest pearls that northern seas do breed,

For precious stones from eastern coasts are sold;

Nought yields the earth that from exchange is freed;

Gold values all, and all things value gold.

Where goodness wants an equal change to make, 5

There greatness serves, or number place doth take.

No mortal thing can bear so high a price,

But that with mortal thing it may be bought;

The corn of Sicil buys the western spice;

French wine of us, of them our cloth is sought. 10

No pearls, no gold, no stones, no corn, no spice,

No cloth, no wine, of Love can pay the price.

What thing is Love, which nought can countervail?

Nought save itself, ev’n such a thing is Love.

All worldly wealth in worth as far doth fail, 15

As lowest earth doth yield to heaven above.

Divine is Love, and scorneth worldly pelf,

And can be bought with nothing but with self.

Anon.

III
A POESY TO PROVE AFFECTION IS NOT LOVE

Conceit, begotten by the eyes,

Is quickly born, and quickly dies;

For while it seeks our hearts to have,

Meanwhile there reason makes his grave:

For many things the eyes approve, 5

Which yet the heart doth seldom love.

For as the seeds, in springtime sown,

Die in the ground ere they be grown;

Such is conceit, whose rooting fails,

As child that in the cradle quails; 10

Or else within the mother’s womb

Hath his beginning, and his tomb.

Affection follows Fortune’s wheels,

And soon is shaken from her heels;

For following beauty or estate, 15

Her liking still is turned to hate;

For all affections have their change,

And Fancy only loves to range.

Desire himself runs out of breath,

And, getting, doth but gain his death; 20

Desire nor reason hath, nor rest,

And, blind, doth seldom choose the best:

Desire attained is not desire,

But as the cinders of the fire.

As ships in ports desired are drowned; 25

As fruit, once ripe, then falls to ground;

As flies, that seek for flames, are brought

To cinders by the flames they sought:

So fond Desire, when it attains,

The life expires, the woe remains. 30

And yet some poets fain would prove

Affection to be perfect love;

And that Desire is of that kind,

No less a passion of the mind,

As if wild beasts and men did seek 35

To like, to love, to choose alike.

Sir Walter Raleigh.

IV
LIFE.

The World’s a bubble, and the Life of Man

Less than a span;

In his conception wretched; from the womb

So to the tomb;

Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years 5

With cares and fears.

Who then to frail mortality shall trust,

But limns on water, or but writes in dust.

Yet whilst with sorrow here we live opprest,

What life is best? 10

Courts are but only superficial schools

To dandle fools:

The rural parts are turned into a den

Of savage men:

And where’s a city from foul vice so free, 15

But may be termed the worst of all the three?

Domestic cares afflict the husband’s bed,

Or pains his head:

Those that live single, take it for a curse,

Or do things worse: 20

Some would have children; those that have them, moan,

Or wish them gone:

What is it, then, to have, or have no wife,

But single thraldom, or a double strife?

Our own affections still at home to please 25

Is a disease:

To cross the seas to any foreign soil,

Peril and toil:

Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease,

We’ are worse in peace:— 30

What then remains, but that we still should cry

For being born, or, being born, to die?

Lord Bacon.

V
NATURAL COMPARISONS WITH PERFECT LOVE.

The lowest trees have tops; the ant her gall;

The fly her spleen; the little sparks their heat:

The slender hairs cast shadows, though but small;

And bees have stings, although they be not great.

Seas have their surges, so have shallow springs; 5

And love is love, in beggars as in kings.

Where rivers smoothest run, deep are the fords;

The dial stirs, yet none perceives it move;

The firmest faith is in the fewest words;

The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love. 10

True hearts have eyes, and ears, no tongues to speak;

They hear, and see, and sigh; and then they break.

Anon.

VI
THE SOUL’S ERRAND.

Go, Soul, the body’s guest,

Upon a thankless errand;

Fear not to touch the best;

The truth shall be thy warrant.

Go, since I needs must die, 5

And give the world the lie.

Say to the Court it glows

And shines like rotten wood;

Say to the Church it shows

What’s good, and doth no good. 10

If Church and Court reply,

Then give them both the lie.

Tell Potentates they live

Acting by others’ action;

Not loved unless they give, 15

Not strong but by affection.

If Potentates reply,

Give Potentates the lie.

Tell men of high condition,

That manage the Estate, 20

Their purpose is ambition,

Their practice only hate.

And if they once reply,

Then give them all the lie.

Tell them that brave it most, 25

They beg for more by spending,

Who in their greatest cost

Like nothing but commending:

And if they make reply,

Then tell them all they lie. 30

Tell Zeal it wants devotion;

Tell Love it is but lust;

Tell Time it is but motion;

Tell Flesh it is but dust.

And wish them not reply, 35

For thou must give the lie.

Tell Age it daily wasteth;

Tell Honour how it alters;

Tell Beauty how she blasteth;

Tell Favour how it falters. 40

And as they shall reply,

Give every one the lie.

Tell Wit how much it wrangles

In tickle points of niceness;

Tell Wisdom she entangles 45

Herself in over-wiseness.

And when they do reply,

Straight give them both the lie.

Tell Physic of her boldness;

Tell Skill it is pretension; 50

Tell Charity of coldness;

Tell Law it is contention.

And as they do reply,

So give them all the lie.

Tell Fortune of her blindness; 55

Tell Nature of decay;

Tell Friendship of unkindness;

Tell Justice of delay.

And if they will reply,

Then give them all the lie. 60

Tell Arts they have no soundness,

But vary by esteeming;

Tell Schools they want profoundness,

And stand so much on seeming.

If Arts and Schools reply, 65

Give Arts and Schools the lie.

Tell Faith it’s fled the city;

Tell how the country erreth;

Tell Manhood shakes off pity;

Tell Virtue least preferreth. 70

And if they do reply,

Spare not to give the lie.

So when thou hast, as I

Commanded thee, done blabbing,

Because to give the lie 75

Deserves no less than stabbing,

Stab at thee who that will,

No stab the soul can kill.

Anon..

VII

1
MUNDUS QUALIS.

What is the world? tell, worldling, if thou know it.

If it be good, why do all ills o’erflow it?

If it be bad, why dost thou like it so?

If it be sweet, how comes it bitter then?

If it be bitter, what bewitcheth men? 5

If it be friend, why kills it, as a foe,

Vain-minded men that over-love and lust it?

If it be foe, fondling, how dar’st thou trust it?

2
EMBLEMA.

Friend faber, cast me a round hollow ball,

Blown full of wind, for emblem of this All;

Adorn it fair, and flourish every part

With flowers and fruits, with brooks, beasts, fish, and fowl,

With rarest cunning of thy curious art: 5

And grave in gold, about my silver bowl,

Thus rolls the world, the idol of mankind,

Whose fruit is fiction; whose foundation wind.

3
FUIMUS FUMUS.

Where, where are now the great reports

Of those huge haughty earthborn giants?

Where are the lofty towers and forts

Of those proud kings bade Heaven defiance?

When these I to my mind revoke, 5

Methinks I see a mighty smoke

Thick mounting from quick-burning matter,

Which in an instant winds do scatter.

4
OMNIA SOMNIA.

Go, silly worm, drudge, trudge, and travel,

Despising pain, so thou may’st gain

Some honour or some golden gravel;

But death the while, to fill his number,

With sudden call takes thee from all, 5

To prove thy days but dream and slumber.

5
MORS MORTIS.

The World and Death one day them cross-disguisèd,

To cozen man, when sin had once beguiled him.

Both called him forth, and questioning advisèd

To say whose servant he would fairly yield him.

Man, weening then but to the World to’ have given him, 5

By the false World became the slave of Death;

But from their fraud he did appeal by faith

To Him whose death killed Death, and from the world has driven him.

Joshua Sylvester.

VIII
THE STORY OF A SUMMER DAY.

O perfect Light, which shaid away

The darkness from the light,

And set a ruler o’er the day,

Another o’er the night;

Thy glory, when the day forth flies, 5

More vively does appear,

Than at midday unto our eyes

The shining sun is clear.

The shadow of the earth anon

Removes and drawis by, 10

While in the east, when it is gone,