Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Hindoo Temples and Palace at Madura
By Letitia Elizabeth Landon (18021838)L
Too little,—’t is not well!
For careless ones we dwell
Beneath the mighty shadow it has cast.
We share its mighty spoil,
We live on its great toil,
And yet how little gratitude it hath.
From whence to the far north
The human mind went forth,
The moral sunshine of a world divine,—
The elements of art,
Mankind’s diviner part;
There was young Science in its cradle nurst.
Its temporary home;
From whence those lightnings come,
That kindle from a far and better day.
For glorious were its pains
Amid those giant fanes,
And mighty were the triumphs it achieved.
One who upon the scroll
Flung the creative soul
Disdainful of life’s flowers and of its rest.
For she was of a race
Born to the lowest place,
Earth insects, lacking wings whereon to rise.
How many a dream above
Of early hope and love,
Must that young heart have closed on like a tomb!
To ask the stars their lore,
And from each ancient store
Seek food to stay the mind’s consuming fire.
She struck are yet alive;
Not vainly did she strive
To leave her soul immortal on her words.
A lesson we should take,
Whose first task is to make
The general wish to benefit our kind.
A nobler conquest far,
The mind’s ethereal war,
That but subdues to civilize its plains.
Let us around dispense
Light, hope, intelligence,
Till blessings track our steps where’er we go.
Be thy great empire known
By hearts made all thine own
By thy free laws and thy immortal creed.