Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
Les Charmettes
By Thomas Moore (1779–1852)I
Of high romance which bards should know;
That holy homage which is felt
In treading where the great have dwelt,—
This reverence, whatsoe’er it be,
I fear, I feel, I have it not;
For here, at this still hour, to me
The charms of this delightful spot,—
Its calm seclusion from the throng,
From all the heart would fain forget,—
This narrow valley, and the song
Of its small murmuring rivulet,—
The flitting to and fro of birds,
Tranquil and tame as they were once
In Eden, ere the startling words
Of man disturbed their orisons!—
Those little shadowy paths, that wind
Up the hillside, with fruit-trees lined,
And lighted only by the breaks
The gay wind in the foliage makes,
Or vistas here and there, that ope
Through weeping willows, like the snatches
Of far-off scenes of light, which hope,
Even through the shade of sadness, catches!—
All this, which, could I once but lose
The memory of those vulgar ties
Whose grossness all the heavenliest hues
Of Genius can no more disguise
Than the sun’s beams can do away
The filth of fens o’er which they play,—
This scene which would have filled my heart
With thoughts of all that happiest is,—
Of love, where self hath only part,
As echoing back another’s bliss,—
Of solitude, secure and sweet,
Beneath whose shade the Virtues meet;
Which, while it shelters, never chills
Our sympathies with human woe,
But keeps them, like sequestered rills,
Purer and fresher in their flow,—
Of happy days that share their beams
’Twixt quiet mirth and wise employ,—
Of tranquil nights that give in dreams
The moonlight of the morning’s joy!
All this my heart could dwell on here,
But for those hateful memories near,
Those sordid truths, that cross the track
Of each sweet thought and drive them back
Full into all the mire and strife
And vanities of that man’s life
Who, more than all that e’er have glowed
With Fancy’s flame (and it was his
If ever given to mortal), showed
What an impostor Genius is.