333 SONNET WRITTEN UPON THE TOP OF BEN NEVIS READ me a lesson, Muse, and speak it loud Vapourous doth hide them,-just so much I wist Mankind do know of hell; I look o'erhead, And there is sullen mist,-even so much Mankind can tell of heaven; mist is spread Before the earth, beneath me,- even such, Even so vague is man's sight of himself! Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet,- 10 Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf, I tread on them,-that all my eye doth meet Is mist and crag, not only on this height, But in the world of thought and mental might! BEN NEVIS A DIALOGUE [PERSONS: MRS. CAMERON AND BEN NEVIS] MRS. C. UPON my life Sir Nevis I am pique'd 10 The Ben Nevis dialogue is from a letter to Tom. Keats describes the ascent, and adds-After all there was one Mrs. Cameron of 50 years of age and the fattest woman in all Invernessshire who got up this Mountain some few years ago-true she had her servants-but then she had herself . . . 'Tis said a little conversation took place between the mountain and the Lady. After taking a glass of W[h]iskey as she was tolerably seated at ease she thus began. ... Ungrateful Baldpate, have I not disdain'd My China closet too-with wretched Nerves Here the Lady took some more w[h]iskey and was putting even more to her lips when she dashed [it] to the Ground for the Mountain began to grumblewhich continued for a few minutes before he thus began, BEN NEVIS. What whining bit of tongue and Mouth thus dares And to be so awaked I'll not endure. Oh pain-for since the Eagle's earliest scream MRS. C. Sweet Nevis, do not quake, for though I love 22 Disturb] distur'd Letter. 30 26 It is not quite clear whether the word in the letter is dam'd or darn'd. 29 As regards Red-Crag, Keats explains A domestic of Ben's. BEN NEVIS. 50 I must-I shall-I meet not such tit bits- 40 O Muses weep the rest- 60 70 53 Keats explains that Block-head is Another domestic of Ben's. 74 He adds here in plain prose: But what surprises me above all is how this Lady got down again. I felt it horribly. "Twas the most vile descent-shook me all to pieces. TRANSLATION FROM A SONNET OF RONSARD NATURE withheld Cassandra in the skies, For more adornment, a full thousand years; She took their cream of Beauty's fairest dyes, And shap'd and tinted her above all Peers: Meanwhile Love kept her dearly with his wings, And underneath their shadow fill'd her eyes With such a richness that the cloudy Kings Of high Olympus utter'd slavish sighs. When from the Heavens I saw her first descend, My heart took fire, and only burning pains, 10 They were my pleasures-they my Life's sad end; Love pour'd her beauty into my warm veins... * * * A PROPHECY: TO GEORGE KEATS IN AMERICA "TIs the witching hour of night, For a song and for a charm, See they glisten in alarm, And the moon is waxing warm To hear what I shall say. Moon! keep wide thy golden ears Hearken, stars! and hearken, spheres! Hearken, thou eternal sky! I sing an infant's lullaby, A pretty lullaby. Listen, listen, listen, listen, Glisten, glisten, glisten, glisten, And hear my lullaby! Though the rushes that will make Sonnet 3 dyes] dies MS. 10 A PROPHECY TO GEORGE KEATS IN AMERICA 337 Though the linen that will be Its swathe, is on the cotton tree- And hear my lullaby! Child, I see thee! Child, I've found thee But a Poet evermore ! See, see, the lyre, the lyre, Upon the little cradle's top It stares, it stares, it stares, It dares what no one dares! It lifts its little hand into the flame Unharm'd, and on the strings Paddles a little tune, and sings, With dumb endeavour sweetly- Little child O' th' western wild, Bard art thou completely! Sweetly with dumb endeavour, A Poet now or never, Little child O' th' western wild, 20 30 40 50 |