Monody on the Death of Chatterton (1829)

O what a wonder seems the fear of death, Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep, Babes, Children, Youths, and Men, Night following night for threescore years and ten! But doubly strange, where life is but a breath To sigh and pant with, up Want’s rugged steep.

Away, Grim Phantom! Scorpion King, away! Reserve thy terrors and thy stings display For coward Wealth and Guilt in robes of State! Lo! by the grave I stand of one, for whom A prodigal Nature and a niggard Doom (That all bestowing, this withholding all) Made each chance knell from distant spire or dome Sound like a seeking Mother’s anxious call, Return, poor Child! Home, weary Truant, home!

Thee, Chatterton! these unblest stones protect From want, and the bleak freezings of neglect. Too long before the vexing Storm-blast driven Here hast thou found repose! beneath this sod! Thou! O vain word! thou dwell’st not with the clod! Amid the shining Host of the Forgiven Thou at the throne of mercy and thy God The triumph of redeeming Love dost hymn (Believe it, O my Soul!) to harps of Seraphim.

Yet oft, perforce ('tis suffering Nature’s call), I weep that heaven-born Genius so should fall; And oft, in Fancy’s saddest hour, my soul Averted shudders at the poison’d bowl. Now groans my sickening heart, as still I view Thy corse of livid hue; Now Indignation checks the feeble sigh, Or flashes through the tear that glistens in mine eye!

Is this the land of song-ennobled line? Is this the land, where Genius ne’er in vain Pour’d forth his lofty strain? Ah me! yet Spenser, gentlest bard divine, Beneath chill Disappointment’s shade, His weary limbs in lonely anguish lay’d. And o’er her darling dead Pity hopeless hung her head, While "mid the pelting of that merciless storm," Sunk to the cold earth Otway’s famish’d form!

Sublime of thought, and confident of fame, From vales where Avon winds the Minstrel came. Light-hearted youth! aye, as he hastes along, He meditates the future song, How dauntless ælla fray’d the Dacyan foe; And while the numbers flowing strong In eddies whirl, in surges throng, Exulting in the spirits’ genial throe In tides of power his life-blood seems to flow.

And now his cheeks with deeper ardors flame, His eyes have glorious meanings, that declare More than the light of outward day shines there, A holier triumph and a sterner aim! Wings grow within him; and he soars above Or Bard’s or Minstrel’s lay of war or love. Friend to the friendless, to the sufferer health, He hears the widow’s prayer, the good man’s praise; To scenes of bliss transmutes his fancied wealth, And young and old shall now see happy days. On many a waste he bids trim gardens rise, Gives the blue sky to many a prisoner’s eyes; And now in wrath he grasps the patriot steel, And her own iron rod he makes Oppression feel. Sweet Flower of Hope! free Nature’s genial child! That didst so fair disclose thy early bloom, Filling the wide air with a rich perfume! For thee in vain all heavenly aspects smil’d; From the hard world brief respite could they win — The frost nipp’d sharp without, the canker prey’d within! Ah! where are fled the charms of vernal Grace, And Joy’s wild gleams that lighten’d o’er thy face? Youth of tumultuous soul, and haggard eye! Thy wasted form, thy hurried steps I view, On thy wan forehead starts the lethal dew, And oh! the anguish of that shuddering sigh!

Such were the struggles of the gloomy hour, When Care, of wither’d brow, Prepar’d the poison’s death-cold power: Already to thy lips was rais’d the bowl, When near thee stood Affection meek (Her bosom bare, and wildly pale her cheek) Thy sullen gaze she bade thee roll On scenes that well might melt thy soul; Thy native cot she flash’d upon thy view, Thy native cot, where still, at close of day, Peace smiling sate, and listen’d to thy lay; Thy Sister’s shrieks she bade thee hear, And mark thy Mother’s thrilling tear; See, see her breast’s convulsive throe, Her silent agony of woe! Ah! dash the poison’d chalice from thy hand!

And thou hadst dashed it, at her soft command, But that Despair and Indignation rose, And told again the story of thy woes; Told the keen insult of the unfeeling heart, The dread dependence on the low-born mind; Told every pang, with which thy soul must smart, Neglect, and grinning Scorn, and Want combined! Recoiling quick, thou badest the friend of pain Roll the black tide of Death through every freezing vein!

Ye woods! that wave o’er Avon’s rocky steep, To Fancy’s ear sweet is your murmuring deep! For here she loves the cypress wreath to weave; Watching with wistful eye, the saddening tints of eve. Here, far from men, amid this pathless grove, In solemn thought the Minstrel wont to rove, Like star-beam on the slow sequester’d tide Lone-glittering, through the high tree branching wide.

And here, in Inspiration’s eager hour, When most the big soul feels the mastering power, These wilds, these caverns roaming o’er, Round which the screaming sea-gulls soar, With wild unequal steps he pass’d along, Oft pouring on the winds a broken song: Anon, upon some rough rock’s fearful brow Would pause abrupt — and gaze upon the waves below.

Poor Chatterton! he sorrows for thy fate Who would have prais’d and lov’d thee, ere too late. Poor Chatterton! farewell! of darkest hues This chaplet cast I on thy unshaped tomb; But dare no longer on the sad theme muse, Lest kindred woes persuade a kindred doom: For oh! big gall-drops, shook from Folly’s wing, Have blacken’d the fair promise of my spring; And the stern Fate transpierc’d with viewless dart The last pale Hope that shiver’d at my heart!

Hence, gloomy thoughts! no more my soul shall dwell On joys that were! no more endure to weigh The shame and anguish of the evil day, Wisely forgetful! O’er the ocean swell Sublime of Hope I seek the cottag’d dell Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray; And, dancing to the moon-light roundelay, The wizard Passions weave an holy spell!

O Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive! Sure thou would’st spread the canvass to the gale, And love with us the tinkling team to drive O’er peaceful Freedom’s undivided dale; And we, at sober eve, would round thee throng, Would hang, enraptur’d, on thy stately song, And greet with smiles the young-eyed Poesy All deftly mask’d as hoar Antiquity.

Alas, vain Phantasies! the fleeting brood Of Woe self-solac’d in her dreamy mood! Yet will I love to follow the sweet dream, Where Susquehannah pours his untamed stream; And on some hill, whose forest-frowning side Waves o’er the murmurs of his calmer tide, Will raise a solemn Cenotaph to thee, Sweet Harper of time-shrouded Minstrelsy! And there, sooth’d sadly by the dirgeful wind, Muse on the sore ills I had left behind.