Tag Archives: ballad stanzas

Ann Murry, “An Ode”

ANN MURRY

 “An Ode”

 

Beneath a Willow’s mournful shade,
Fair Ariadne lay;
A chearless, solitary maid,
Tho’ once content and gay.

In tender accents thus I spoke,                                           5
To ease her lab’ring breast:
Dost thou complain of promise broke?
Art thou by want oppress’d?

Can I thy wounded heart relieve,
By pity’s healing balm?                                                 10
Or if some faithless youth deceive,
Thy perturbations calm?

“Ah no” (she said) “hard is my fate,
From lovely Theseus torn;
Thy consolation comes too late,                                        15
His absence thus I mourn.

The beams I shun of chearing day,
To Luna hence complain;
Like Philomel in mournful lay,
Pour forth my plaintive strain.                                    20

Remembrance sad, of former joys,
Is ever in my sight;
The cruel Phantom which destroys
My peace both day and night.

Thus am I plung’d in fell despair,                                       25
As Love my anguish mocks;
With sighs I rend the fragrant air,
Implore unpitying rocks.”

In me her lamentations wrought
Emotions of desire,                                                      30
To kindle in her ruffled thoughts,
Sparks of celestial fire.

Cease, lovely mourner! then I cry’d,
To yield to cank’ring woe;
Let slighted love, and fear subside,                                   35
And sorrow cease to flow.

Ingratitude in Men we find,
By various forms express’d;
Unlike the constant ray refin’d,
Which warms the female breast.                                40

Impetuous, and inclin’d to change,
They bear a lawless sway;
From flow’r to flow’r delight to range,
And flatter to betray.

Forbear to struggle with thy fate,                                        45
Opposing Heav’ns decrees;
Which grants things suited to thy state,
Pertaining to thy ease.

Yet oft denies the Lover’s pray’r,
And vain mistaken boon;                                               50
Regards their sighs as empty air,
If heard, repented soon.

Love, the invader of thy peace,
Subdued by Reason’s pow’r,
Shall feel his daring influence cease,                                  55
Nor cloud thy future hour.

Serenity shall grace thy brows,
With Friendship’s sacred band;
To her then offer up thy vows,
And yield thy willing hand.                                             60

Be thou the messenger of peace,
Dispensing holy joy;
Rely on hopes which ne’er can cease,
Nor mortal Man destroy.

Depend on him, whose pow’r alone,                                   65
Can give substantial rest;
Aspire to reach his heav’nly throne,
A meek and welcome guest.

NOTES:

2,14  Ariadne…Theseus Star-crossed lovers of Greek mythology; Ariadne hangs herself after being abandoned by Theseus (Britannica).

12 perturbations “The disturbance of the regular…state of a thing” (OED).

18 Luna The moon.

19 Philomel The nightingale.

20 plaintive strain Mournful song (OED).

23 Phantom “Something not real but appearing to the imagination” (Johnson).

25 fell “Intensely painful or destructive” (OED).

32 Sparks of celestial fire Interest in a love of God.

34 cank’ring From “canker,” meaning to “spread harmfully and insidiously” (OED).

41 Impetuous “Acting with or marked by great sudden or rash energy;…passionate, ardent” (OED).

50 boon “A favour, in response to asking” (OED).

SOURCE: Poems on Various Subjects (London, 1779), pp. 35-39. [Google Books]

 Edited by Molly Davies

 

 

Elizabeth Moody, “Written in the Autumn”

ELIZABETH MOODY

“Written in the Autumn”

We all do fade as a leaf.—Isaiah

 

Ye Groves, ye lawns, ye summer’s bowers!
That woo’d my steps so late;
Where now your boasted fruits and flowers?
Alas! they bow to fate.

Ah Spring! but now thy beauties grew!                                     5
Thy daisy-sprinkled ground;
Thy violets bloom’d, thy zephyrs blew,
Thy songsters warbled round.

On every bush, on every thorn,
Progressive life was seen;                                                  10
Thy infant leaves but newly born,
Disclos’d their tender green.

The sun-beams quiver’d thro’ the glade,
Prolific verdure sprung:
The op’ning foliage promis’d shade,                                         15
And Philomela sung.

Youth of the year, fond Nature’s pride,
How transient is thy date!
How soon thy buds expanding wide,
Declare maturer state.                                                         20

Then Summer with her full blown sweets,
Confirms our promis’d joys;
And when our promis’d joys completes,
The bliss of hope destroys.

For now the mounting sun no more,                                        25
Protracts the length’ning day;
His height attain’d, his journey o’er,
He backward speeds his way.

Fierce blow the Equinoctial gales,
The raging billows foam,                                                      30
The wand’ring vessel fearful sails,
Despairing of her home.

Congealing blasts succeed to these,
Proclaiming Winter’s power;
The leaves desert their parent trees,                                        35
And separate in a shower.

Alas! this leaf that wither’d lies,—
This leaf deform’d and dead!
These eyes beheld its beauties rise,—
Beheld those beauties spread.                                          40

Admiring saw its rip’ning charms,
Unfolding in the vales;
Protected by parental arms,
And woo’d by vernal gales.

Ah me, how chang’d! its colour flown!                                     45
Its moisture dried by frost,
Its fibres shrunk—its vigour gone!
And all its graces lost.

Frail as this leaf our life appears,
A passing gale our breath;                                                 50
Like fate involves our fleeting years,
Age, languor, sickness, death.

NOTES:

Epigraph Isaiah 64:6 (KJV).

1 bowers “A vague poetic word for an idealized abode” (OED).

7 zephyrs “A gentle, mild wind or breeze” (OED).

14 verdure “The fresh green colour characteristic of flourishing vegetation” (OED).

16 Philomela “A poetic or literary name for: the nightingale (in allusion to the myth of the maiden Philomela’s transformation into that bird)” (OED).

 29 Equinoctial gales A reference to the winds “prevailing about the time of the autumnal equinox” (OED).

 44 vernal gales Mild spring winds (OED).

52 languor “Mental suffering or distress; pining, longing, sorrow, grief” (OED).

SOURCE: Poetic Trifles (London, 1798), pp. 35-37. [Google Books]

Edited by Clare Katko

[William Mason], “The Plow-Boy’s Dream”

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[WILLIAM MASON]

“The Plow-Boy’s Dream”

 

I am a Plow-boy stout and strong,
As ever drove a team;
And three years since asleep in bed
I had a dreadful dream:
And, as that dream has done me good,                                  5
I’ve got it put in rhyme;
That other boys may read and sing
My dream, when they have time.

Methought I drove my master’s team,
With Dobbin, Ball, and Star;                                               10
Before a stiff and handy plough,
As all my master’s are:
But found the ground was bak’d so hard,
And more like brick than clay,
I could not cut my furrow clean,                                               15
Nor would my beasts obey.

The more I whipt, and lash’d, and swore
The less my cattle stirr’d;
Dobbin laid down, and Ball, and Star
They kick’d and snorted hard:                                            20
When lo! above me a bright youth
Did seem to hang in air,
With purple wings and golden wand,
As Angels painted are.

“Give over, cruel wretch,” he cry’d,                                             25
“Nor thus thy beasts abuse;
Think, if the ground was not too hard,
Would they their work refuse?
Besides I heard thee curse and swear
As if dumb beasts could know                                            30
What all thy oaths and curses meant,
Or better for them go.

But tho’ they know not, there is One,
Who knows thy sins full well,
And what shall be thy after doom,                                            35
Another shall thee tell.”
No more he said, but light as air
He vanish’d from my sight;
And with him went the sun’s bright beams,
And all was dark midnight.                                                  40

The thunder roar’d from under ground,
The earth it seem’d to gape;
Blue flames broke forth, and in those flames
A dire gigantic shape.
“Soon shall I call thee mine,” it cry’d,                                          45
With voice so dread and deep,
That quiv’ring like an aspin leaf
I waken’d from my sleep.

And tho’ I found it but a dream,
It left upon my mind                                                             50
That dread of sin, that fear of GOD,
Which all should wish to find;
For since that hour I’ve never dar’d
To use my cattle ill,
And ever fear’d to curse and swear,                                          55
And hope to do so still.

Now ponder well ye Plow-boys all
The dream that I have told;
And if it works such change in you,
‘Tis worth its weight in gold;                                               60
For should you think it false or true,
It matters not one pin,
If you but deeds of mercy shew,
And keep your souls from sin.

NOTES:

Title This poem, signed “M.”, was one of two by William Mason (1724-1797) that Hannah More (1745-1833) accepted for publication in her Cheap Repository Tract scheme.  Mason’s authorship is confirmed in a letter More wrote to her sister in which she explains why she rejected four of the six poems Mason submitted before noting that “two, one of which was called the ‘Ploughboy’s Dream,’ will do very well” (William Roberts, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More, third edition [1835], vol. 2, p. 430).  G. H. Spinney dates publication of this tract in August, 1795 (“Cheap Repository Tracts:  Hazard and Marshall Edition,” The Library, 4th series, 20:3 [1939], p. 320).

6 rhyme Corrected from “ryhme,” a printer’s error.

10 Dobbin, Ball, and Star Common names for draft or farm horses.

18 cattle “A collective term for live animals held as property,” often applied to horses in this period (OED).

60 its Corrected from “it’s,” a printer’s error.

62 not one pin Very little.

Source:  “The Plow-Boy’s Dream,” single sheet, (London and Bath, [1795]).  [ESTC]

Edited by Bill Christmas

Francis Maria Cowper, “The Retrospect”

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 FRANCES MARIA COWPER

“The Retrospect”

 

Come, Holy Spirit, love divine,
Thy cleansing power impart;
Each erring thought and wish refine,
That wanders near my heart.
There let thy quickening breezes blow,                                           5
Thine influences be,
Such as revive thy hidden-ones,
And lift their souls to Thee.

Thro’ dark’ning rains and theat’ning storms
My little bark doth ride:                                                              10
O save me from the fatal wreck
Of Sin’s devouring tide.
By past corrections humbled still,
Let no vain passion start,
Within the consecrated veil                                                                15
Of a believer’s heart.

Oft hast thou cast me to the ground,
O’erwhelm’d with grief and pain;
Yet hath thy pitying hand restor’d,
And led me forth again;                                                               20
Forth from the shade of sullen woe,
From darkness and dismay;
And o’er my anguish pour’d the sweet
Consolatory ray.

O Lord! how mingled was thy love                                                    25
In all my deep distress!
Thou gav’st the knowledge of thy word,
That gift of sovereign grace!
And shall my peevish heart regret
The momentary pain,                                                                   30
That follows on departed joys
In life’s contracted span?

Time’s little inch, that steals away
With every fleeting breath,
And points to an eternity                                                                     35
Beyond the reach of Death.
Enough, my soul, enough of Time,
And Time’s uncertain things;
Farewell that busy hive, the world,
And all its thousand stings.                                                          40

As feathers on the passing stream,
Our earthly pleasures move;
And transient as the evening beam,
That gilds the verdant grove.
To other climes, to other skies,                                                          45
My lifted soul aspires:
Thither my wandering thoughts ascend,
And all my best desires.

Awhile I strive, awhile I mourn,
‘Midst thorns and briers here;                                                      50
But God vouchsafes with love divine
My drooping heart to cheer.
Though meaner than the meanest saint,
My heavenly Guide I see;
I hear a voice behind me say,                                                                55
“That Jesus died for me.”

NOTES:

15 consecrated veil “To the human body as a sacred vessel for the soul; Christ’s body considered as concealing or clothing his divinity” (OED).

21 sullen woe “Gloomy and heavy occurrence(s) of distress, misfortune or grief” (OED).

27 gav’st “Of a higher power, esp. of the Deity; to bestow” (OED).

29 peevish “Petulant; irritable; hard to please” (Johnson).

44 verdant grove A green group of trees.

45 climes “Region, realm” (OED).

50 briers “A prickly thorny bush or shrub in general, formerly including the bramble, but now usually confined to wild rose bushes” (OED).

51 vouchsafes “Sense relating to conferring or bestowing, especially graciously (by God)” (OED).

Source: Original Poems, on Various Occasions (London, 1792), pp. 25-27.  [Google Books]

Edited by Juliana Guerrero

Frances Maria Cowper, “My Retired Hours”

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FRANCES MARIA COWPER

 “My Retired Hours”

 

Ye gentle days that once were mine,
In every charm of life array’d,
No more awaken my regret,
No more my settled peace invade.

Fresh hope of permanent delight                                                  5
My meditating thoughts pursue;
Nor can the charms of time or sense
Obscure the bright, the heavenly view.

My convert heart delights to muse
On fallen man’s deliv’rance found,                                          10
The sacrifice, the cleansing blood,
That for his bleeding guilt aton’d:

Of man’s estate in Paradise,
Of endless mercy’s wide display,
Of cov’nant love, and Gospel grace,                                                 15
That point to Heaven th’ unerring way:

Such themes as these, in early years,
My secret hours have oft inspir’d,
My infant hands with wonder rais’d,
My infant heart with rapture fir’d.                                              20

Witness ye saints invisible,
Ye guests unseen, whose guardian care
Preserves the soul from threat’ning ill,
And wafts to Heaven the pious tear:

Witness—for ye have oft beheld—                                                      25
How (for superior joys design’d)
My humble steps retirement sought,
Leaving the busy world behind:

How, in the sweet sequester’d shade,
Where ——’s fair meand’ring flood                                             30
Pours its rich streams around the plains,
And gurgles near the favourite wood,

At morn, at noon, at dewy eve,
Oft by the moon’s soft-glancing ray,
In search of Wisdom’s rare delights                                                     35
My feet unwearied lov’d to stray.

And are those transitory hours,
So sweet to my remembrance, gone?
Sunk in the deep abyss of time,
Beyond the reach of fancy flown?                                                 40

Ye swift-wing’d messengers, farewell,
And all the pleasures that ye gave;
Sweet earnest of unfading joys
That wait my soul beyond the grave.

Loos’d from the vexing world below,                                                    45
O! when shall I to these attain?
When to that blissful region go,
That yields no sorrow, tear, or pain?

There shall my disencumber’d soul
Distinctly view the grand design                                                     50
Of each mysterious providence,
The gracious plan of love divine.

How dim foe’er the eye of sense,
How faint foe’er each mental power,
There we shall trace Omniscience,                                                         55
And all his sov’reign will explore;

Companioning with angels bright,
Perhaps with kindred spirits join’d,
Adore the self-existent God,
That brought salvation to mankind.                                               60

Delightful Theme of endless bliss!
How little know the world of Thee!
Only the pilgrim hasting on,
And panting for eternity.

He joyful views, with steady eye,                                                             65
Where faithful labourers abide;
Beholds the glittering gates on high,
On golden hinges opening wide.

There all his thoughts and wishes tend,
Anxious he marks the heavenly road,                                            70
Compassionates the senseless world,
And languishes—to be with God;

To see the “very Paschal Lamb,”
In everlasting bliss enthron’d,
And mingle with those blessed saints,                                                   75
That live with endless glory crown’d.

O! how with “ever-tuned harps”
They sing “the Lamb’s mysterious song;”
Myriads of cherubs catch the sound,
Echoing from each celestial tongue.                                               80

Celestial tongues alone can reach
The height of that celestial strain,
Their tongues alone who see his face,
And with the Lamb for ever reign.

Unwearied through eternity,                                                                    85
Their pleasing toil they still pursue,
And spread around th’ ethereal space
The glorious theme, for ever new.

NOTES:

 10 fallen man’s Adam, Eve, and their descendants, humanity after the transition from innocent obedience to God in the garden of Eden to guilt, disobedience, and sin; humanity that is viewed as naturally sinful and in need of salvation; deliv’rance Giving over into the possession or power of another, in particular reference to God, or an act of God whereby he rescues his people from danger or damnation (Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT), pp. 434-436; 330-331).

11 sacrifice Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and forgiveness of humanity’s sinfulness (EDT, pp. 113-114).

12 bleeding guilt Mortal sin, damnation; aton’d “To bargain for exemption” (Johnson), here a reference to Christians’ reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ (EDT, pp. 113-114).

13 estate “Circumstances in general; conditions of life; possibly also in reference to possessions in land, rank, or quality” (Johnson).

15 cov’nant “A contract between two parties” (Johnson), usually an agreement between God and his people, in which God makes promises to his people and, in return, requires certain types of conduct from them (EDT, pp. 299-301).

15 Gospel The records of Jesus Christ’s life and teachings in the first four books of the new testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

19 infant “Immature, in a state of initial imperfection” (Johnson); also possibly referencing the spiritual rebirth of baptism (EDT, pp. 129-131).

20 rapture “Ecstasy, mental transportation to a sublime realm, a vigorous passion,” particularly of the faith in God (Johnson).

25 oft Often.

26 design’d “To devote intentionally” (Johnson).

27 retirement “Private way of life, state of being withdrawn” (Johnson).

41 swift-wing’d messengers Angels.

53 foe-er Forever.

53 eye of sense “Perception by intellect” (Johnson).

63 pilgrim “A traveler, wanderer, particularly one who travels on a religious account” (Johnson).

67 glittering gates The entrance to heaven.

71 Compassionates “Pity” (Johnson).

73 Paschal Lamb A lamb with particular ritual significance, which the Israelites were commanded to eat as a part of the Passover celebration; the Paschal Lamb symbolized Christ, “the Lamb of God,” who redeemed the world by the shedding of his blood (EDT, pp. 893-895).

77 ever-tuned harps Possibly an allusion to John Milton’s Paradise Lost and his descriptions of angels, particularly when the angels celebrate God’s decision to allow his son, Jesus Christ, to sacrifice himself for mankind (Book III, line 366).

78 the Lamb’s mysterious song Referencing a song of triumph over Babylon, which represented sin and idolatry; the biblical triumph over Babylon symbolizes a triumph over sin.

79 cherubs Angels who support the rule of God, especially connected with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden (EDT, pp. 60-61).

 SOURCE: Original Poems, on Various Occasions (London, 1792), pp. 15-19. [Google Books]

 Edited by Momo Wang

 

 

Frances Maria Cowper, religious verse, meditation, virtue, the sublime, ballad stanzas