Which to
abrupter
greatness thrust.
Marvell - Poems
The
poems were never published, or at any rate, col-
lected, by the author himself.
The intellect of Marvell was a remarkably
compact and sincere one, and his habitual charac-
ter was that of prudence and upnghtness. But
whenever he surrendered himself to his tempera-
ment, his mind sought relief in wit, so sportful
and airy, yet at the same time so recondite, that
it is hard to find anywhere an instance in which
the Court, the Tavern, and the Scholar*s Study
are blended with such Ck)rinthian justness of
measure. Nowhere is there so happy an exam-
ple of the truth that wit and fancy are diflferent
operations of the same principle. The wit is
so spontaneous and so interfused with feeling,
that we can scarce distinguish it from fancy ;
and the fancy brings together analogies so remote
that they give us the pleasurable shock of wit.
Now and then, in his poems, he touches a deeper
vein, but shuns instinctively the labour of laying
it open, and escapes gleefully into the more con-
genial sunshine. His mind presents the rare
combination of wit with the moral sense, by which
the one is rescued from scepticism and the other
from prosing. His poems form the synthesis of
Donne and Butler.
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POEMS
SEVERAL OCCASIONS.
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POEMS.
UPON THE HILL AND GROVE AT BILL-
BOROW.
TO THE LORD FAIRFAX.
See how the arched earth does here
Rise in a perfect hemisphere !
The stifiest compass could not strike
A line more circular and like,
Nor softest pencil draw a brow
So equal as this hill does bow ;
It seems as for a model laid,
And that the world by it was made.
Here learn, ye mountains more unjust.
Which to abrupter greatness thrust.
Which do, with your hook-shoulder'd height^
The earth deform, and heaven fright,
For whose excrescence, ill designed.
Nature must a new centre find.
Learn here those humble steps to tread.
Which to securer glory lead.
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TnE POEMS.
See what a soft access, and wide,
Lies open to its grassy side,
Nor with the rugged path deters
The feet of breathless travellers ;
See then how courteous it ascends,
And all the way it rises, bends,
Nor for itself the height does gain.
But only strives to raise the plain.
Yet thus it all the field commands,
And in unenvyVl greatness stands,
Discerning farther than the cliff
Of heaven-daring Teneriff.
How glad i\ui w^eary seamen haste.
When they salute it from the mast I
By night, the northern star their way
Directs, and this no less by day.
Upon its crest, this mountain grave,
A plume of aged trees does wave.
No hostile hand does e*er invade.
With impious steel, the sacred shade ;
For something always did appear
Of the Great Master's terror there,
And men could hear his armour still,
Rattling through all the grove and hill.
Fear of the Master, and respect
Of the great nymph, did it protect.
Vera, the nymph, that him inspired.
poems were never published, or at any rate, col-
lected, by the author himself.
The intellect of Marvell was a remarkably
compact and sincere one, and his habitual charac-
ter was that of prudence and upnghtness. But
whenever he surrendered himself to his tempera-
ment, his mind sought relief in wit, so sportful
and airy, yet at the same time so recondite, that
it is hard to find anywhere an instance in which
the Court, the Tavern, and the Scholar*s Study
are blended with such Ck)rinthian justness of
measure. Nowhere is there so happy an exam-
ple of the truth that wit and fancy are diflferent
operations of the same principle. The wit is
so spontaneous and so interfused with feeling,
that we can scarce distinguish it from fancy ;
and the fancy brings together analogies so remote
that they give us the pleasurable shock of wit.
Now and then, in his poems, he touches a deeper
vein, but shuns instinctively the labour of laying
it open, and escapes gleefully into the more con-
genial sunshine. His mind presents the rare
combination of wit with the moral sense, by which
the one is rescued from scepticism and the other
from prosing. His poems form the synthesis of
Donne and Butler.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
POEMS
SEVERAL OCCASIONS.
Digitized by
Digitized by
POEMS.
UPON THE HILL AND GROVE AT BILL-
BOROW.
TO THE LORD FAIRFAX.
See how the arched earth does here
Rise in a perfect hemisphere !
The stifiest compass could not strike
A line more circular and like,
Nor softest pencil draw a brow
So equal as this hill does bow ;
It seems as for a model laid,
And that the world by it was made.
Here learn, ye mountains more unjust.
Which to abrupter greatness thrust.
Which do, with your hook-shoulder'd height^
The earth deform, and heaven fright,
For whose excrescence, ill designed.
Nature must a new centre find.
Learn here those humble steps to tread.
Which to securer glory lead.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
TnE POEMS.
See what a soft access, and wide,
Lies open to its grassy side,
Nor with the rugged path deters
The feet of breathless travellers ;
See then how courteous it ascends,
And all the way it rises, bends,
Nor for itself the height does gain.
But only strives to raise the plain.
Yet thus it all the field commands,
And in unenvyVl greatness stands,
Discerning farther than the cliff
Of heaven-daring Teneriff.
How glad i\ui w^eary seamen haste.
When they salute it from the mast I
By night, the northern star their way
Directs, and this no less by day.
Upon its crest, this mountain grave,
A plume of aged trees does wave.
No hostile hand does e*er invade.
With impious steel, the sacred shade ;
For something always did appear
Of the Great Master's terror there,
And men could hear his armour still,
Rattling through all the grove and hill.
Fear of the Master, and respect
Of the great nymph, did it protect.
Vera, the nymph, that him inspired.
