Hymn To The Penates.

Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.     The words of Agur.     The Title of the following Poem will probably remind the Reader of Akenside's Hymn to the Naiads, but the manner in which I have treated the subject fortunately precludes comparison.     HYMN to the PENATES.     Yet one Song more! one high and solemn strain     Ere PAEAN! on thy temple's ruined wall     I hang the silent harp: there may its strings,     When the rude tempest shakes the aged pile,     Make melancholy music. One Song more!     PENATES! hear me! for to you I hymn     The votive lay. Whether, as sages deem,     Ye dwell in the [1]inmost Heaven, the [2]COUNSELLORS     Of JOVE; or if, SUPREME OF DEITIES,     All things are yours, and in your holy train     JOVE proudly ranks, and JUNO, white arm'd Queen.     And wisest of Immortals, aweful Maid     ATHENIAN PALLAS. Venerable Powers!     Hearken your hymn of praise! tho' from your rites     Estranged, and exiled from your altars long,     I have not ceased to love you, HOUSEHOLD GODS!     In many a long and melancholy hour     Of solitude and sorrow, has my heart     With earnest longings prayed to rest at length     Beside your hallowed hearth--for PEACE is there!     Yes I have loved you long. I call on you     Yourselves to witness with what holy joy,     Shunning the polished mob of human kind,     I have retired to watch your lonely fires     And commune with myself. Delightful hours     That gave mysterious pleasure, made me know     All the recesses of my wayward heart,     Taught me to cherish with devoutest care     Its strange unworldly feelings, taught me too     The best of lessons--to respect myself!     Nor have I ever ceas'd to reverence you     DOMESTIC DEITIES! from the first dawn     Of reason, thro' the adventurous paths of youth     Even to this better day, when on mine ear     The uproar of contending nations sounds,     But like the passing wind--and wakes no pulse     To tumult. When a child--(for still I love     To dwell with fondness on my childish years,     Even as that Persian favorite would retire     From the court's dangerous pageantry and pomp,     To gaze upon his shepherd garb, and weep,     Rememb'ring humble happiness.) When first     A little one, I left my father's home,     I can remember the first grief I felt,     And the first painful smile that cloathed my front     With feelings not its own: sadly at night     I sat me down beside a stranger's hearth;     And when the lingering hour of rest was come,     First wet with tears my pillow. As I grew     In years and knowledge, and the course of Time     Developed the young feelings of my heart,     When most I loved in solitude to rove     Amid the woodland gloom; or where the rocks     Darken'd old Avon's stream, in the ivied cave     Recluse to sit and brood the future song,     Yet not the less, PENATES, loved I then     Your altars, not the less at evening hour     Delighted by the well-trimm'd fire to sit,     Absorbed in many a dear deceitful dream     Of visionary joys: deceitful dreams--     Not wholly vain--for painting purest joys,     They form'd to Fancy's mould her votary's heart.     By Cherwell's sedgey side, and in the meads     Where Isis in her calm clear stream reflects     The willow's bending boughs, at earliest dawn     In the noon-tide hour, and when the night-mists rose,     I have remembered you: and when the noise     Of loud intemperance on my lonely ear     Burst with loud tumult, as recluse I sat,     Pondering on loftiest themes of man redeemed     From servitude, and vice, and wretchedness,     I blest you, HOUSEHOLD GODS! because I loved     Your peaceful altars and serener rites.     Nor did I cease to reverence you, when driven     Amid the jarring crowd, an unfit man     To mingle with the world; still, still my heart     Sighed for your sanctuary, and inly pined;     And loathing human converse, I have strayed     Where o'er the sea-beach chilly howl'd the blast,     And gaz'd upon the world of waves, and wished     That I were far beyond the Atlantic deep,     In woodland haunts--a sojourner with PEACE.     Not idly fabled they the Bards inspired,     Who peopled Earth with Deities. They trod     The wood with reverence where the DRYADS dwelt;     At day's dim dawn or evening's misty hour     They saw the OREADS on their mountain haunts.     And felt their holy influence, nor impure     Of thought--or ever with polluted hands     Touched they without a prayer the NAIAD'S spring;     Yet was their influence transient; such brief awe     Inspiring as the thunder's long loud peal     Strikes to the feeble spirit. HOUSEHOLD GODS,     Not such your empire! in your votaries' breasts     No momentary impulse ye awake--     Nor fleeting like their local energies,     The deep devotion that your fanes impart.     O ye whom YOUTH has wilder'd on your way,     Or VICE with fair-mask'd foulness, or the lure     Of FAME that calls ye to her crowded paths     With FOLLY's rattle, to your HOUSEHOLD GODS     Return! for not in VICE's gay abodes,     Not in the unquiet unsafe halls of FAME     Does HAPPINESS abide! O ye who weep     Much for the many miseries of Mankind,     More for their vices, ye whose honest eyes     Frown on OPPRESSION,--ye whose honest hearts     Beat high when FREEDOM sounds her dread tocsin;--     O ye who quit the path of peaceful life     Crusading for mankind--a spaniel race     That lick the hand that beats them, or tear all     Alike in frenzy--to your HOUSEHOLD GODS     Return, for by their altars VIRTUE dwells     And HAPPINESS with her; for by their fires     TRANQUILLITY in no unsocial mood     Sits silent, listening to the pattering shower;     For, so [3]SUSPICION sleep not at the gate     Of WISDOM,--FALSEHOOD shall not enter there.     As on the height of some huge eminence,     Reach'd with long labour, the way-faring man     Pauses awhile, and gazing o'er the plain     With many a sore step travelled, turns him then     Serious to contemplate the onward road,     And calls to mind the comforts of his home,     And sighs that he has left them, and resolves     To stray no more: I on my way of life     Muse thus PENATES, and with firmest faith     Devote myself to you. I will not quit     To mingle with the mob your calm abodes,     Where, by the evening hearth CONTENTMENT sits     And hears the cricket chirp; where LOVE delights     To dwell, and on your altars lays his torch     That burns with no extinguishable flame.     Hear me ye POWERS benignant! there is one     Must be mine inmate--for I may not chuse     But love him. He is one whom many wrongs     Have sicken'd of the world. There was a time     When he would weep to hear of wickedness     And wonder at the tale; when for the opprest     He felt a brother's pity, to the oppressor     A good man's honest anger. His quick eye     Betray'd each rising feeling, every thought     Leapt to his tongue. When first among mankind     He mingled, by himself he judged of them,     And loved and trusted them, to Wisdom deaf,     And took them to his bosom. FALSEHOOD met     Her unsuspecting victim, fair of front,     And lovely as [4]Apega's sculptured form,     Like that false image caught his warm embrace     And gored his open breast. The reptile race     Clung round his bosom, and with viper folds     Encircling, stung the fool who fostered them.     His mother was SIMPLICITY, his sire     BENEVOLENCE; in earlier days he bore     His father's name; the world who injured him     Call him MISANTHROPY. I may not chuse     But love him, HOUSEHOLD GODS! for we were nurst     In the same school.                         PENATES! some there are     Who say, that not in the inmost heaven ye dwell,     Gazing with eye remote on all the ways     Of man, his GUARDIAN GODS; wiselier they deem     A dearer interest to the human race     Links you, yourselves the SPIRITS OF THE DEAD.     No mortal eye may pierce the invisible world,     No light of human reason penetrate     That depth where Truth lies hid. Yet to this faith     My heart with instant sympathy assents;     And I would judge all systems and all faiths     By that best touchstone, from whose test DECEIT     Shrinks like the Arch-Fiend at Ithuriel's spear,     And SOPHISTRY'S gay glittering bubble bursts,     As at the spousals of the Nereid's son,     When that false [5] Florimel, by her prototype     Display'd in rivalry, with all her charms     Dissolved away.                      Nor can the halls of Heaven     Give to the human soul such kindred joy,     As hovering o'er its earthly haunts it feels,     When with the breeze it wantons round the brow     Of one beloved on earth; or when at night     In dreams it comes, and brings with it the DAYS     And JOYS that are no more, Or when, perchance     With power permitted to alleviate ill     And fit the sufferer for the coming woe,     Some strange presage the SPIRIT breathes, and fills     The breast with ominous fear, and disciplines     For sorrow, pours into the afflicted heart     The balm of resignation, and inspires     With heavenly hope. Even as a Child delights     To visit day by day the favorite plant     His hand has sown, to mark its gradual growth,     And watch all anxious for the promised flower;     Thus to the blessed spirit, in innocence     And pure affections like a little child,     Sweet will it be to hover o'er the friends     Beloved; then sweetest if, as Duty prompts,     With earthly care we in their breasts have sown     The seeds of Truth and Virtue, holy flowers     Whose odour reacheth Heaven.                              When my sick Heart,     (Sick [6] with hope long delayed, than, which no care     Presses the crush'd heart heavier;) from itself     Seeks the best comfort, often have I deemed     That thou didst witness every inmost thought     SEWARD! my dear dead friend! for not in vain,     Oh early summon'd in thy heavenly course!     Was thy brief sojourn here: me didst thou leave     With strengthen'd step to follow the right path     Till we shall meet again. Meantime I soothe     The deep regret of Nature, with belief,     My EDMUND! that thine eye's celestial ken     Pervades me now, marking no mean joy     The movements of the heart that loved thee well!     Such feelings Nature prompts, and hence your rites     DOMESTIC GODS! arose. When for his son     With ceaseless grief Syrophanes bewail'd,     Mourning his age left childless, and his wealth     Heapt for an alien, he with fixed eye     Still on the imaged marble of the dead     Dwelt, pampering sorrow. Thither from his wrath     A safe asylum, fled the offending slave,     And garlanded the statue and implored     His young lost Lord to save: Remembrance then     Softened the father, and he loved to see     The votive wreath renewed, and the rich smoke     Curl from the costly censer slow and sweet.     From Egypt soon the sorrow-soothing rites     Divulging spread; before your [7] idol forms     By every hearth the blinded Pagan knelt,     Pouring his prayers to these, and offering there     Vain sacrifice or impious, and sometimes     With human blood your sanctuary defil'd:     Till the first BRUTUS, tyrant-conquering chief,     Arose; he first the impious rites put down,     He fitliest, who for FREEDOM lived and died,     The friend of humankind. Then did your feasts     Frequent recur and blameless; and when came     The solemn [8] festival, whose happiest rites     Emblem'd EQUALITY, the holiest truth!     Crown'd with gay garlands were your statues seen,     To you the fragrant censer smok'd, to you     The rich libation flow'd: vain sacrifice!     For nor the poppy wreath nor fruits nor wine.     Ye ask, PENATES! nor the altar cleans'd     With many a mystic form; ye ask the heart     Made pure, and by domestic Peace and Love     Hallowed to you.                     Hearken your hymn of praise,     PENATES! to your shrines I come for rest,     There only to be found. Often at eve,     Amid my wanderings I have seen far off     The lonely light that spake of comfort there,     It told my heart of many a joy of home,     And my poor heart was sad. When I have gazed     From some high eminence on goodly vales     And cots and villages embower'd below,     The thought would rise that all to me was strange     Amid the scene so fair, nor one small spot     Where my tir'd mind might rest and call it home,     There is a magic in that little word;     It is a mystic circle that surrounds     Comforts and Virtues never known beyond     The hallowed limit. Often has my heart     Ached for that quiet haven; haven'd now,     I think of those in this world's wilderness     Who wander on and find no home of rest     Till to the grave they go! them POVERTY     Hollow-eyed fiend, the child of WEALTH and POWER,     Bad offspring of worse parents, aye afflicts,     Cankering with her foul mildews the chill'd heart--     Them WANT with scorpion scourge drives to the den     Of GUILT--them SLAUGHTER with the price of death     Buys for her raven brood. Oh not on them     GOD OF ETERNAL JUSTICE! not on them     Let fall thy thunder!                             HOUSEHOLD DEITIES!     Then only shall be Happiness on earth     When Man shall feel your sacred power, and love     Your tranquil joys; then shall the city stand     A huge void sepulchre, and rising fair     Amid the ruins of the palace pile     The Olive grow, there shall the TREE OF PEACE     Strike its roots deep and flourish. This the state     Shall bless the race redeemed of Man, when WEALTH     And POWER and all their hideous progeny     Shall sink annihilate, and all mankind     Live in the equal brotherhood of LOVE.     Heart-calming hope and sure! for hitherward     Tend all the tumults of the troubled world,     Its woes, its wisdom, and its wickedness     Alike: so he hath will'd whose will is just.     Meantime, all hoping and expecting all     In patient faith, to you, DOMESTIC GODS!     I come, studious of other lore than song,     Of my past years the solace and support:     Yet shall my Heart remember the past years     With honest pride, trusting that not in vain     Lives the pure song of LIBERTY and TRUTH.