Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Richard Hurrell Froude (1803–1836)New and Old Self
NEW SELF WHY 1 sitt’st thou on that sea-girt rock | |
| With downward look and sadly dreaming eye: | |
| Play’st thou beneath with Proteus’ flock, | |
| Or with the far-bound sea-bird wouldst thou fly? | |
OLD SELF I sit upon this sea-girt rock | 5 |
| With downward look and dreaming eye; | |
| But neither do I sport with Proteus’ flock, | |
| Nor with the far-bound sea-bird would I fly. | |
| I list the plash so clear and chill | |
| Of yon old fisher’s solitary oar: | 10 |
| I watch the waves that rippling still | |
| Chase one another o’er the marble shore. | |
NEW SELF Yet from the splash of yonder oar | |
| No dreamy sound of sadness comes to me: | |
| And yon fresh waves that beat the shore, | 15 |
| How merrily they splash, how merrily! | |
OLD SELF I mourn for the delicious days, | |
| When those calm sounds fell on my childish ear, | |
| A stranger yet to the wild ways | |
| Of triumph and remorse, of hope and fear. | 20 |
NEW SELF Mourn’st thou, poor soul! and wouldst thou yet | |
| Call back the things which shall not, cannot be? | |
| Heaven must be won, not dreamed; thy task is set, | |
| Peace was not made for earth, nor rest for thee. 2 |
| Note 1. The Rev. R. H. Froude, elder brother of the historian, J. A. Froude, was one of the pioneers of the Oxford movement. He died aged 33 years, of consumption. It was owing to his ill-health that the voyage was undertaken to Italy, on which Newman accompanied him, and to which we owe the “Lyra Apostolica.” [back] | ||||
Note 2.
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