Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Home: IV. YouthOn a Distant Prospect of Eton College
Thomas Gray (1716–1771)Y
That crowned the watery glade,
Where grateful Science still adores
Her Henry’s holy shade;
And ye that from the stately brow
Of Windsor’s heights the expanse below
Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
Wanders the hoary Thames along
His silvery winding way:
Ah, fields beloved in vain!—
Where once my careless childhood strayed,
A stranger yet to pain!
I feel the gales that from ye blow
A momentary bliss bestow,
As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
My weary soul they seem to soothe,
And, redolent of joy and youth,
To breathe a second spring.
Full many a sprightly race,
Disporting on thy margent green,
The paths of pleasure trace;
Who foremost now delight to cleave,
With pliant arm, thy glassy wave?
The captive linnet which enthrall?
What idle progeny succeed
To chase the rolling circle’s speed,
Or urge the flying ball?
Their murmuring labors ply
’Gainst graver hours that bring constraint
To sweeten liberty;
Some bold adventurers disdain
The limits of their little reign,
And unknown regions dare descry;
Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.
Less pleasing when possest;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast:
Theirs buxom health, of rosy hue,
Wild wit, invention ever new,
And lively cheer, of vigor born;
The thoughtless day, the easy night,
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
That fly the approach of morn.
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day;
Yet see, how all around them wait
The ministers of human fate,
And black misfortune’s baleful train!
Ah, show them where in ambush stand,
To seize their prey, the murderous band!
Ah, tell them, they are men!
The vultures of the mind,
Disdainful anger, pallid fear,
And shame that skulks behind;
Or pining love shall waste their youth,
Or jealousy, with rankling tooth,
That inly gnaws the secret heart;
And envy wan, and faded care,
Grim-visaged, comfortless despair,
And sorrow’s piercing dart.
Then whirl the wretch from high,
To bitter scorn a sacrifice,
And grinning infancy;
The stings of falsehood those shall try,
And hard unkindness’ altered eye,
That mocks the tears it forced to flow;
And keen remorse, with blood defiled,
And moody madness, laughing wild
Amid severest woe.
A grisly troop are seen,
The painful family of death,
More hideous than their queen;
This racks the joints, this fires the veins,
That every laboring sinew strains,
Those in the deeper vitals rage:
Lo! poverty, to fill the band,
That numbs the soul with icy hand,
And slow-consuming age.
Condemned alike to groan;
The tender for another’s pain,
The unfeeling for his own.
Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more:—where ignorance is bliss,
’T is folly to be wise!