Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Addison, Joseph

File:Joseph Addison (1672-1719).jpg

JOSEPH ADDISON

Engraving

English Poet and Essayist

Attributions
Addison Engraver Unknown
Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  May  1,  1672  Milstone, Wiltshire
DIED:   June 17, 1719  London, England

____________________


WHEN ALL THY MERCIES, O MY GOD !

WHEN all thy mercies, O my God!
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I 'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.

O how shall words with equal warmth
The gratitude declare
That glows within my ravished heart ?
But thou canst read it there !

Thy providence my life sustained,
And all my wants redrest,
When in the silent womb I lay,
And hung upon the breast.

To all my weak complaints and cries
Thy mercy lent an ear,
Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learnt
To form themselves in prayer.

Unnumbered comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestowed,
Before my infant heart conceived
From whom those comforts flowed.

When in the slippery paths of youth
With heedless steps I ran,
Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe,
And led me up to man.

Through hidden dangers, toils, and deaths,
It gently cleared my way,
And through the pleasing snares of vice,
More to be feared than they.

When worn with sickness oft hast thou
With health renewed my face ;
And, when in sins and sorrows sunk,
Revived my soul with grace.

Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss
Has made my cup run o'er,
And in a kind and faithful friend
Has doubled all my store.

Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ ;
Nor is the least a cheerful heart,
That tastes those gifts with joy.

Through every period of my life
Thy goodness I'll pursue ;
And after death, in distant worlds,
The glorious theme renew.

When nature fails, and day and night
Divide thy works no more,
My ever-grateful heart, O Lord,
Thy mercy shall adore.

Through all eternity to thee
A joyful song I'll raise ;
for O, eternity's too short
To utter all thy praise !
                                 JOSEPH ADDISON.



THE LORD MY PASTURE SHALL PREPARE.
PSALM XXIII.

THE Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care ;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye ;
My noonday walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.

When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountains pant,
To fertile vales and dewy meads,
My weary, wandering steps he leads,
Where peaceful rivers soft and slow
Amid the verdant landscape flow.

Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill ;
For thou, O Lord, art with me still :
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile ;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crowned,
Amid streams shall murmur all around.
                                                            JOSEPH ADDISON.

Bonar, Horatius



HORATIUS BONAR

Portrait

Scottish Clergyman, Lyricist, and Poet

Attributions
Portrait Courtesy The Gutenberg Project

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  Dec. 19, 1808  Edinburgh, Scotland
DIED:    May  31, 1889  Edinburgh, Scotland

____________________


BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING.

BEYOND the smiling and the weeping
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet hope !
Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the blooming and the fading
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the shining and the shading,
Beyond the hoping and the dreading, 
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !

Beyond the rising and the setting,
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the calming and the fretting,
Beyond remembering and forgetting,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !

Beyond the gathering and the strowing
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the ebbing and the flowing,
Beyond the coming and the going,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !

Beyond the parting and the meeting
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond this pulse's fever  beating,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !

Beyond the frost chain and the fever
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the rock waste and the river,
Beyond the ever and the never,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet hope !
Lord, tarry not, but come. 
                                                               HORATIUS BONAR.


Bowles, William Lisle


WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES

Image

English Poet


Attribution
Artist of Image Unknown

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  Sep.  24, 1762  Northamptonshire
DIED:    April    7, 1850  United Kingdom

____________________


COME TO THESE SCENES OF PEACE.

COME to these scenes of peace,
Where, to rivers murmuring,
The sweet birds all the summer sing,
Where cares and toil and sadness cease !
Stranger, does thy heart deplore
Friends whom thou wilt see no more ?
Does thy wounded spirit prove
Pangs of hopeless, severed love ?
Thee the stream that gushes clear,
Thee the birds that carol near,
Shall sooth, as silent thou dost lie
And dream of their wild lullaby ;
Come to bless these scenes of peace,
Where cares and toil and sadness cease.
                                WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Browning, Robert

ROBERT BROWNING

Cornwall, Barry


CORNWALL, BARRY

Portrait

English Poet

Attribution
Portrait by William Brockedon 

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  Nov. 21, 1787  
DIED:    Oct.    5, 1874

____________________


SIT DOWN, SAD SOUL.

Sit down, sad soul, and count 
   The moments flying ;
Come, tell the sweet amount 
   That's lost by sighing !
How many smiles ? a score ?
Then laugh, and count no more ;
         For day is dying !

Lie down, sad soul, and sleep,
   And no more measure
The flight of time, nor weep
   The loss of leisure ;
But here, by this lone stream,
Lie down with us, and dream
           Of starry treasure !

We dream ; do thou the same ;
   We love, forever ;
We laugh, yet few we shame,
   The gentle never.
Stay, then till sorrow dies ;
Then, hope and happy skies
       Are thine forever !
                                BARRY CORNWALL.


Crabbe, George

GEORGE CRABBE

Dana, Sr., Richard Henry



RICHARD HENRY DANA, SR.

Image

American Writer, Critic, Poet, and Lawyer


Attribution
Image Courtesy Rufus Wilmont Griswold. The Poets and Poetry of America, 16th Edition, Parry and McMillan, 1855.  

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  Nov. 15, 1787  Cambridge, Massachusetts
DIED:    Feb.  2,  1879  Cambridge, Massachusetts

____________________


COME, Brother turn with me from pining
          thought
And all the inward ills that sin has wrought ;
Come, send abroad a love for all who live,
And feel the deep content in turn they give.
Kind wishes and good deeds, they make not
          poor ;
They'll home again, full laden, to thy door ;
The streams of love flow back where they begin,
For springs of outward joys lie deep within.
    Even let them flow, and make the places glad
Where dwell thy fellow-men. Shouldst thou be sad,
And earth seem bare, and hours, once happy, press
Upon thy thoughts, and make thy loneliness
More lonely for the past, thou then shalt hear,
The music of those waters running near ;
And thy faint spirit drink the cooling stream,
And thine eye gladden with the playing beam
That now upon the water dances, now
Leaps up and dances in the hanging bough.
    Is it not lovely ?   Tell me, where doth dwell
The power that wrought so beautiful a spell ?
In thine own bosom, Brother ?    Then as thine
Guard with a reverent fear this power divine.
    And if, indeed, 't is not the outward state,
But temper of the soul by which we rate
Sadness or joy, even let thy bosom move
With noble thoughts and wake thee into love,
And let each feeling in thy breast be given
An honest aim, which, sanctified by Heaven,
And springing into act, new life imparts,
Till beats thy frame as with a thousand hearts.
    Sin clouds the mind's clear vision,
Around the self-starved soul has spread a dearth.
The earth is full of life ; the living Hand
Touched it with life ; and all its forms expand
With principles of being made to suit
Man's varied powers and raise him from the brute.
And shall the earth of higher ends be full,
Earth which thou tread'st, and thy poor mind
          be dull ?
Thou talk of life, with half thy soul asleep ?
Thou "living dead man," let thy spirit leap
Forth to the day, and let the fresh air blow
Through thy soul's shut-up mansion.   Wouldst
          thou know
Something of what is life, shake off this death ;
Have thy soul feel the universal breath
With which all nature's quick, and learn to be
Sharer in all that thou dost touch or see ;
Break from thy body's grasp, thy spirit's trance ;
Give thy soul air, thy faculties expanse ;
Love, joy, even sorrow, yield thyself to all !
They make thy freedom, groveller, not thy thrall.
Knock off the shackles which thy spirit bind
To dust and sense, and set at large the mind !
Then move in sympathy with God's great whole,
And be like man at first, a LIVING SOUL.
                                                   RICHARD HENRY DANA.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Dickens, Charles


CHARLES DICKENS

Sketch

English Writer

Attributions
Sketch Copy of Charles Dickens, 1842
Source
Own Work

Date and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  Feb. 7, 1812
DIED:   June  9, 1870


____________________



THE IVY GREEN.

O, A DAINTY plant is the ivy green,
   That creepeth o'er ruins old !
Of right choice food are his meals, I ween,
   In his cell so lone and cold.
The walls must be crumbled, the stones, decayed,
   To pleasure his dainty whim ;
And the mouldering dust that years have made
   Is a merry meal for him.
         Creeping where no life is seen, 
         A rare old plant is the ivy green.

Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings,
   And a stanch old heart has he !
How closely he twineth, how tight he clings
   To his friend, the huge oak-tree !
And slyly he traileth along the ground,
   And his leaves he gently waves,
And he joyously twines and hugs around
   The rich mould of dead men's graves.
         Creeping where no life is seen,
         A rare old plant is the ivy green.  

Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed,
   And nations scattered been ;
But the stout old ivy shall never fade
   From its hale and hearty green.
The brave old plant in its lonely days
   Shall fatten upon the past ;
For the stateliest building man can raise
   Is the ivy's food at last.
         Creeping where no life is seen,
         A rare old plant is the ivy green.

CHARLES DICKENS




Sunday, April 14, 2013

Mary, Queen of Hungary

File:Marie de hans maler2.jpg

MARY, QUEEN OF HUNGARY
Wife of King Louis II

Portrait

Queen Consort of Hungary and Bohemia, 1515 - 1526


Attributions
Portrait by Hans Maler Schwaz, circa 1520
Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  Sept. 15, 1505  Brussels, Belgium
DIED:    Oct.   18, 1558  Cigales, Spain

____________________


PRAYER BY MARY, QUEEN OF HUNGARY.
                    [Translation]

O GOD ! though sorrow be my fate, 
And the world's hate
      For my heart's faith pursue me,
My peace they cannot take away ;
From day to day
      Thou dost anew imbue me ;
Thou art not far ; a little while
Thou hid'st thy face with brighter smile
      Thy father-love to show me.

Lord, not my will, but thine, be done ;
If I sink down
      When men to terrors leave me,
Thy father-love still warms my breast,
All's for the best ;
      Shall man have power to grieve me
When bliss eternal is my goal,
And thou the keeper of my soul,
Who never will deceive me ?

Thou art my shield, as saith the Word.
Christ Jesus, Lord,
      Thou standest pitying by me,
And lookest on each grief of mine
As if 't were thine :
      What then though foes may try me,
Though thorns be in my path concealed ?
World, do thy worst ! God is my shield !
      And will be ever nigh me.

MARY, QUEEN OF HUNGARY


Friday, April 12, 2013

Moore, Thomas

File:Thomas Moore, after Thomas Lawrence.jpg

THOMAS MOORE

Painting

Irish Poet



Attributions
Enamel on Copper Painting by Thomas Lawrence, 19th century
Source

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  May 28,  1779  Dublin, Ireland
DIED:    Feb. 25, 1852  Sloperton Cottage, Bromham, Wiltshire, England


____________________



THE BIRD LET LOOSE.

THE bird let loose in eastern skies,
    When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
    Where idle warblers roam ;
But high she shoots through air and light,
    Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
    Nor shadow dims her way.

So grant me, God, from every care
    And stain of passion free,
Aloft, through Virtue's purer air,
    To hold my course to thee !
No sin to cloud, no lure to stay
    My soul, as home she springs ;
Thy sunshine on her joyful way,
    Thy freedom in her wings !
                                           THOMAS MOORE.



THOU ART, O GOD

"The day is thine, the night also is thine : thou hast prepared the light and the sun.  Thou hast set all the borders of the earth : thou hast made summer and winter." -PSALM LXXIV. 16, 17.

THOU art, O God, the life and light
    Of all this wondrous world we see ;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
    Are but reflections caught from thee.
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine !

When day, with farewell beam, delays
    Among the opening clouds of even,
And we can almost think we gaze
    Through golden vistas into heaven,
Those hues that make the sun's decline
So soft, so radiant, Lord ! are thine.

When night, with wings of starry gloom,
    O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
    Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes,
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord ! are thine.

When youthful spring around us breathes,
    Thy Spirit warms her fragrant sight ;
And every flower the summer wreathes
    Is born beneath that kindling eye.
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine !
                                              THOMAS MOORE

Rossetti, Christina G.


CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI

Portrait

English Poet


Attributions
Chalk Portrait by Dante Gabrielo Rossetti, 1866 (Brother of Christina)
Source

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:   December   5, 1830  London, England
DIED:     December 29, 1894  London, England

____________________


UP HILL.

DOES the road wind up hill all the way ?
      Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day ?
      From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place ?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin ?
May not the darkness hide it from my face ?
      You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night ?
      Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight ?
      They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak ?
      Of labor you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek ?
      Yea, beds for all who come

CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.

Wordsworth, William



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Portrait

Britain's  Poet Laureate from 1842 -1850


Attributions
Oil on canvas portrait by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1842
Bequeathed by John Fisher Wordsworth, 1920
Source 
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/largerimage.php?search=ap&npgno=1857
National Portrait Gallery

Dates and Places of Birth and Death

BORN:  April   7, 1770  Wordsworth House, Cockermouth
DIED:    April 23, 1850  Cumberland, United Kingdom

____________________


DAFFODILS.

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay :
Ten thousand saw I, at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee ;
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company ;
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude ;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.