THE WARNING
A SEQUEL TO THE FOREGOING
THE WARNING
LIST, the winds of March are blowing; Her ground-flowers shrink, afraid of showing Their meek heads to the nipping air, Which ye feel not, happy pair! Sunk into a kindly sleep. We, meanwhile, our hope will keep; And if Time leagued with adverse Change (Too busy fear!) shall cross its range, Whatsoever check they bring, Anxious duty hindering, 10 To like hope our prayers will cling. Thus, while the ruminating spirit feeds Upon the events of home as life proceeds, Affections pure and holy in their source Gain a fresh impulse, run a livelier course; Hopes that within the Father’s heart prevail, Are in the experienced Grandsire’s slow to fail; And if the harp pleased his gay youth, it rings To his grave touch with no unready strings, While thoughts press on, and feelings overflow, 20 And quick words round him fall like flakes of snow. Thanks to the Powers that yet maintain their sway, And have renewed the tributary Lay. Truths of the heart flock in with eager pace, And FANCY greets them with a fond embrace; Swift as the rising sun his beams extends She shoots the tidings forth to distant friends; Their gifts she hails (deemed precious, as they prove For the unconscious Babe so prompt a love!)– But from this peaceful centre of delight 30 Vague sympathies have urged her to take flight: Rapt into upper regions, like the bee That sucks from mountain heath her honey fee; Or, like the warbling lark intent to shroud His head in sunbeams or a bowery cloud, She soars–and here and there her pinions rest On proud towers, like this humble cottage, blest With a new visitant, an infant guest– Towers where red streamers flout the breezy sky In pomp foreseen by her creative eye, 40 When feasts shall crowd the hall, and steeple bells Glad proclamation make, and heights and dells Catch the blithe music as it sinks and swells, And harboured ships, whose pride is on the sea, Shall hoist their topmost flags in sign of glee, Honouring the hope of noble ancestry. But who (though neither reckoning ills assigned By Nature, nor reviewing in the mind The track that was, and is, and must be, worn With weary feet by all of woman born)– 50 Shall ‘now’ by such a gift with joy be moved, Nor feel the fulness of that joy reproved? Not He, whose last faint memory will command The truth that Britain was his native land; Whose infant soul was tutored to confide In the cleansed faith for which her martyrs died; Whose boyish ear the voice of her renown With rapture thrilled; whose Youth revered the crown Of Saxon liberty that Alfred wore, Alfred, dear Babe, thy great Progenitor! 60 –Not He, who from her mellowed practice drew His social sense of just, and fair, and true; And saw, thereafter, on the soil of France Rash Polity begin her maniac dance, Foundations broken up, the deeps run wild, Nor grieved to see (himself not unbeguiled)– Woke from the dream, the dreamer to upbraid, And learn how sanguine expectations fade When novel trusts by folly are betrayed,– To see Presumption, turning pale, refrain 70 From further havoc, but repent in vain,– Good aims lie down, and perish in the road Where guilt had urged them on with ceaseless goad, Proofs thickening round her that on public ends Domestic virtue vitally depends, That civic strife can turn the happiest hearth Into a grievous sore of self-tormenting earth. Can such a One, dear Babe! though glad and proud To welcome thee, repel the fears that crowd Into his English breast, and spare to quake 80 Less for his own than for thy innocent sake? Too late–or, should the providence of God Lead, through dark ways by sin and sorrow trod, Justice and peace to a secure abode, Too soon–thou com’st into this breathing world; Ensigns of mimic outrage are unfurled. Who shall preserve or prop the tottering Realm? What hand suffice to govern the state-helm? If, in the aims of men, the surest test Of good or bad (whate’er be sought for or profest) 90 Lie in the means required, or ways ordained, For compassing the end, else never gained; Yet governors and governed both are blind To this plain truth, or fling it to the wind; If to expedience principle must bow; Past, future, shrinking up beneath the incumbent Now; If cowardly concession still must feed The thirst for power in men who ne’er concede; Nor turn aside, unless to shape a way For domination at some riper day; 100 If generous Loyalty must stand in awe Of subtle Treason, in his mask of law, Or with bravado insolent and hard, Provoking punishment, to win reward; If office help the factious to conspire, And they who ‘should’ extinguish, fan the fire– Then, will the sceptre be a straw, the crown Sit loosely, like the thistle’s crest of down; To be blown off at will, by Power that spares it In cunning patience, from the head that wears it. 110 Lost people, trained to theoretic feud! Lost above all, ye labouring multitude! Bewildered whether ye, by slanderous tongues Deceived, mistake calamities for wrongs; And over fancied usurpations brood, Oft snapping at revenge in sullen mood; Or, from long stress of real injuries, fly To desperation for a remedy; In bursts of outrage spread your judgments wide, And to your wrath cry out, “Be thou our guide;” 120 Or, bound by oaths, come forth to tread earth’s floor In marshalled thousands, darkening street and moor With the worst shape mock-patience ever wore; Or, to the giddy top of self-esteem By Flatterers carried, mount into a dream Of boundless suffrage, at whose sage behest Justice shall rule, disorder be supprest, And every man sit down as Plenty’s Guest! –Oh for a bridle bitted with remorse To stop your Leaders in their headstrong course! 130 Oh may the Almighty scatter with his grace These mists, and lead you to a safer place, By paths no human wisdom can foretrace! May He pour round you, from worlds far above Man’s feverish passions, his pure light of love, That quietly restores the natural mien To hope, and makes truth willing to be seen! ‘Else’ shall your blood-stained hands in frenzy reap Fields gaily sown when promises were cheap.– Why is the Past belied with wicked art, 140 The Future made to play so false a part, Among a people famed for strength of mind, Foremost in freedom, noblest of mankind? We act as if we joyed in the sad tune Storms make in rising, valued in the moon Nought but her changes. Thus, ungrateful Nation! If thou persist, and scorning moderation, Spread for thyself the snares of tribulation, Whom, then, shall meekness guard? What saving skill Lie in forbearance, strength in standing still? 150 –Soon shall the widow (for the speed of Time Nought equals when the hours are winged with crime) Widow, or wife, implore on tremulous knee, From him who judged her lord, a like decree; The skies will weep o’er old men desolate: Ye little-ones! Earth shudders at your fate, Outcasts and homeless orphans—- But turn, my Soul, and from the sleeping pair Learn thou the beauty of omniscient care! Be strong in faith, bid anxious thoughts lie still; 160 Seek for the good and cherish it–the ill Oppose, or bear with a submissive will. 1833.