Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer

Name: Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer
Author: Baldwin, James

Baldwin, James

English poetry

One mighty squadron, with a sidewind sped,
       Through narrow lanes his cumber'd fire does haste,
     By powerful charms of gold and silver led
       The Lombard bankers and the Change to waste.

     Another backward to the Tower would go,
       And slowly eats his way against the wind;
     But the main body of the marching foe
       Against the imperial palace is design'd.

     Now day appears; and with the day the King,
       Whose early care had robb'd him of his rest;
     Far off the cracks of falling houses ring,
       And shrieks of subjects pierce his tender breast.

     Near as he draws, thick harbingers of smoke
       With gloomy pillars cover all the place;
     Whose little intervals of night are broke
       By sparks that drive against his sacred face.

     More than his guards his sorrows made him known,
       And pious tears which down his cheeks did shower;
     The wretched in his grief forgot their own;
       So much the pity of a king has power.

     He wept the flames of what he lov'd so well,
       And what so well had merited his love;
     For never prince in grace did more excel,
       Or royal city more in duty strove.


NOTES.

This selection from Dryden's long and very tedious poem, "Annus
Mirabilis, the year of Wonders, 1666," is given here as a specimen of
that kind of mechanical versification so popular in the latter half of
the seventeenth century. "That part of my poem which describes the
Fire," says Dryden, "I owe first to the piety and fatherly affection of
our monarch to his suffering subjects; and, in the second place, to the
courage, loyalty, and magnanimity of the city; both of which were so
conspicuous that I have wanted words to celebrate them as they deserve.
And I have chosen to write my poem in quatrains or stanzas of four in
alternate rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble, and of
greater dignity, both for the sound and number, than any other verse in
use amongst us." This opinion, however, was certainly not long
maintained by the poet, for he never afterward practised that form of
versification which he has here praised.

1. =this prodigious fire.= A half sheet published immediately after the
Great Fire contains this account of the catastrophe which Dryden
describes in his verses:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to ChaucerBaldwin, James

General

Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer

Baldwin, James

English poetry

One mighty squadron, with a sidewind sped,
       Through narrow lanes his cumber'd fire does haste,
     By powerful charms of gold and silver led
       The Lombard bankers and the Change to waste.

     Another backward to the Tower would go,
       And slowly eats his way against the wind;
     But the main body of the marching foe
       Against the imperial palace is design'd.

     Now day appears; and with the day the King,
       Whose early care had robb'd him of his rest;
     Far off the cracks of falling houses ring,
       And shrieks of subjects pierce his tender breast.

     Near as he draws, thick harbingers of smoke
       With gloomy pillars cover all the place;
     Whose little intervals of night are broke
       By sparks that drive against his sacred face.

     More than his guards his sorrows made him known,
       And pious tears which down his cheeks did shower;
     The wretched in his grief forgot their own;
       So much the pity of a king has power.

     He wept the flames of what he lov'd so well,
       And what so well had merited his love;
     For never prince in grace did more excel,
       Or royal city more in duty strove.


NOTES.

This selection from Dryden's long and very tedious poem, "Annus
Mirabilis, the year of Wonders, 1666," is given here as a specimen of
that kind of mechanical versification so popular in the latter half of
the seventeenth century. "That part of my poem which describes the
Fire," says Dryden, "I owe first to the piety and fatherly affection of
our monarch to his suffering subjects; and, in the second place, to the
courage, loyalty, and magnanimity of the city; both of which were so
conspicuous that I have wanted words to celebrate them as they deserve.
And I have chosen to write my poem in quatrains or stanzas of four in
alternate rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble, and of
greater dignity, both for the sound and number, than any other verse in
use amongst us." This opinion, however, was certainly not long
maintained by the poet, for he never afterward practised that form of
versification which he has here praised.

1. =this prodigious fire.= A half sheet published immediately after the
Great Fire contains this account of the catastrophe which Dryden
describes in his verses:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer

Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer

No reviews yet