Lines Written in Boston on a Beautiful Autumnal Day
As late we lived upon the gentle stream,
Nature refused us smiles and kindly airs;
The sun but rarely deigned a pallid gleam;
Then clouds came instantly, like glooms and tears,
Upon the timid flickerings of our hope;
The moon, amid the thick mists of the night,
Had scarcely power her gentle eye to ope,
And climb the heavenly steeps. A moment bright
Shimmered the hectic leaves, then rudely torn
By winds that sobbed to see the wreck they made,
Upon the amber waves were thickly borne
Adonis’ gardens for the realms of shade,
While thoughts of beauty past all wish for livelier life forbade.
So sped the many days of tranquil life,
And on the stream, or by the mill’s bright fire,
The wailing winds had told of distant strife,
Still bade us for the moment yield desire
To think, to feel, the moment gave,—we needed not aspire!
Returning here, no harvest fields I see,
Nor russet beauty of the thoughtful year.
Where is the honey of the city bee?
No leaves upon this muddy stream appear.
The housekeeper is getting in his coal,
The lecturer his showiest thoughts is selling;
I hear of Major Somebody, the Pole,
And Mr. Lyell, how rocks grow, is telling;
But not a breath of thoughtful poesy
Does any social impulse bring to me;
But many cares, sad thoughts of men unwise,
Base yieldings, and unransomed destinies,
Hopes uninstructed, and unhallowed ties.
Yet here the sun smiles sweet as heavenly love,
Upon the eve of earthly severance;
The youthfulest tender clouds float all above,
And earth lies steeped in odors like a trance.
The moon looks down as though she ne’er could leave us,
And these last trembling leaves sigh, “Must they too deceive us?”
Surely some life is living in this light,
Truer than mine some soul received last night;
I cannot freely greet this beauteous day,
But does not thy heart swell to hail the genial ray?
I would not nature these last loving words in vain should say.
Footnotes
1 “He who would do great things must quickly draw together his forces. The master can only show himself such through limitation, and the law alone can give us freedom.”
2 Except in “La belle France.”
3 Eckermann’s Conversations with Gœthe, translated from the German by my sister, form one volume of the “Specimens of Foreign Literature,” edited by Rev. George Ripley, and published in 1839. This volume has been republished by James Munroe & Co., Boston, within a few years.—Ed.
4 The name of Macaria is one of noblest association. It is that of the daughter of Hercules, who devoted herself a voluntary sacrifice for her country. She was adored by the Greeks as the true Felicity.
5 “By the Author of Essays of Summer Hours.”
6 The Life of Beethoven, including his Correspondence with his Friends, numerous characteristic Traits, and Remarks on his Musical Works. Edited by Ignace Moscheles, Pianist to His Royal Highness Prince Albert.
7 See article on Beethoven, in Margaret’s volume, entitled “Art, Literature, and the Drama.”—Ed.
8 Ormond, or the Secret Witness; Wieland, or the Transformation; by Charles Brockden Brown.
9 The Raven and other Poems, by Edgar A. Poe, 1845.
10 The Autobiography of Alfieri, translated by C. E. Lester. Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Roscoe.
11 Although the errors here specially referred to by my sister have been corrected in this volume, I let her statement remain as explanation of any other errors which may possibly have crept into type, in this volume, through the illegibility of some of her manuscripts from which I have been compelled to copy for this work.—Ed.
12 Napoleon and his Marshals, by J. T. Headley.
13 Physical Education and the Preservation of Health, by John C. Warren.
14 Physiological and Moral Management of Infancy, by Andrew Combe, M. D.
15 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by himself.
16 Philip van Artevelde, A Dramatic Romance, by Henry Taylor.
17 For a translation by my sister of this Drama, see Part III. of her “Art, Literature, and the Drama,” where it is now, for the first time, published, simultaneously with the appearance of this volume.—Ed.
18 The Poetical Works of Percy Bysche Shelley. First American edition (complete.) With a Biographical and Critical Notice, by G. G. Foster.
19 Festus: A Poem, by Philip James Bailey. First American edition, Boston.
20 Balzac, Eugene Sue, De Vigny.
21 Etherology, or the Philosophy of Mesmerism and Phrenology: Including a New Philosophy of Sleep and of Consciousness, with a Review of the Pretensions of Neurology and Phreno-Magnetism. By J. Stanley Grimes.
22 A German newspaper.
23 Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, by Thomas Carlyle.
24 I conclude the poor boy Oliver has already fallen in these wars; none of us knows where, though his father well knew.
25 Sir Philip Warwick’s Memoirs, (London, 1701,) p. 249.
26 Essays, Second Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
27 A Defence of Capital Punishment, and an Essay on the Ground and Reason of Punishment, with Special Reference to the Penalty of Death New York, 1846.
28 [In refusing to repeal what are technically and significantly termed her “Black Laws,” relating to the settlement of colored men, and their rights within that state.—Ed.]
29 John Quincy Adams.
30 For her treatment of a sister republic in our late war with Mexico.
31 Miss Delia Webster.
32 Hon. Samuel Hoar, sent to Charleston, S. C., to test in the courts her laws, and driven thence with his daughter by a mob.
33 It is well known that in this sketch my sister gives an account of an incident in the history of her own school-girl life. I need scarcely say that only so far as this incident is concerned is the story of Mariana in any sense autobiographical.—Ed.
34[Agis, king of Sparta, the fourth of that name. “One of the most beautiful characters of antiquity.”—Ed.]
35 [In New York.—Ed.]
36 Meta, the wife of Klopstock, one of Germany’s most celebrated poets, is doubtless well known to many of our readers through the beautiful letters to Samuel Richardson, the novelist, or through Mrs. Jameson’s work, entitled the Loves of the Poets. It is said that Klopstock wrote continually to her even after her death.
37 Fact, that this is affirmed.
38 Facts.
39 Facts.
40 Facts.
41 The destruction of Mr. Clay’s press by a mob.—Ed.
42 Margaret means Pearl.—Ed.
43 Published in the New York Tribune, Aug. 1, 1846, just previous to sailing for Europe.—Ed.
44 Gœthe says, “A little golden heart, which I had received from Lili in those fairy hours, still hung by the same little chain to which she had fastened it, love-warmed, about my neck. I seized hold of it—kissed it.” This was the occasion of these lines. The poet now was separated from Lili, and striving to forget her in journeying about.—Ed.
45 Buddhist term for absorption into the divine mind.
46 This horse, Konick, was caught early, marked, and then let loose again, for a time, among the herd. He still retains a wild freedom and beauty in his movements.
47 A sweet and beautiful singer.—Ed.
48 A musical instrument of the ancients, employed by the Egyptians in the worship of Isis. It was to be kept in constant motion, and, according to Plutarch, was intended to indicate the necessity of constant motion on the part of men—the need of being often shaken by fierce trials and agitations when they become morbid or indolent.—Ed.
49 Diana is represented as driving the chariot of the moon, as Apollo that of the sun. Mythology states that while enlightening the earth as Luna, the moon, she beheld the hunter Endymion sleeping in the forest. With her rays she kissed the lips of the hunter—a favor she had never before bestowed on god or man.—Ed.
50 These lines were written without her signature attached.—Ed.