[Page [266]]
THE CHARTER;
ADDRESSED TO MY NEPHEW ATHANASE C. L. COQUEREL, ON HIS WEDDING DAY, 1819.
1 CHILD of my heart! while others hail
2 This festive morn, when joys prevail,
3 With careless wishes they may last,
4 Spite of all annals of the past;
5 As if for thee alone, secure,
6 Their fleeting nature would endure,
7 With roses strewing all thy way,
8 And life were but a bridal day; —
[Page 267]9 For me, by pensive thoughts opprest,
10 The future fills my anxious breast;
11 And flowers that fade, and joys that flee,
12 Are not the things I ask, for thee! —
13 My heart for thee has learn'd to prove
14 The throbbings of a mother's love,
15 Since on thy cradle fell the tear
16 That mourn'd a sister's early bier;
17 And sure that angel's sainted prayer
18 Has shed sweet influence o'er my care;
19 To sorrow doomed in all the rest,
20 And only in her children blest! —
21 While now you sign, with hope elate,
22 The civic register of fate;
23 Or at the holy altar bow,
24 To ratify the plighted vow,
25 Which made aright, or breath'd amiss,
26 Includes all future woe, or bliss;
27 While kneeling youth, and weeping beauty,
28 Hear the grave ritual of their duty,
[Page 268]29 And the stern rubrick well approve
30 That charges to be true to love;
31 This compact, that for ever binds
32 In holy links two kindred minds,
33 Their happiness the mutual barter,
34 This solemn league we'll call a CHARTER!
35 Th' allusion never can be wrong,
36 White omens to the name belong;
37 Palladium that has all withstood,
38 And harbinger of boundless good.
39 And ever may its hallow'd law
40 Your willing hearts together draw!
41 Ah! may no ultra thirst of power
42 Embitter life's domestic hour;
43 No principles of feudal sway
44 Teach without loving, to obey;
45 The heart such joyless homage slights,
46 And wedlock claims its Bill of Rights —
47 May you, to Virtue nobly just,
48 Disdain the whisper of mistrust;
[Page 269]49 Your truth her dark police may brave,
50 Made for the tyrant, and the slave. —
51 May Discord pass with sullen tread,
52 Far from the threshold of your shed,
53 With accents that on harshness border,
54 And words that love would call to order;
55 Or veto he would pine to hear,
56 Protesting only by a tear. —
57 Nor when true fondness, with submisison
58 Her right asserting of petition,
59 Shall meekly hint at some abuse,
60 Or some reform of gen'ral use,
61 Unheeding all that she may say,
62 Pass to the order of the day. —
63 Nor, bidding every blessing fade,
64 Let Jealousy your peace invade;
65 Whose shadow clings to all that's dear,
66 And adds the length'ning shapes of fear;
67 Whose mind with sickly colours ting'd,
68 Discerns in all, the code infring'd,
[Page 270]69 Reads violations in the eye,
70 And marks the treason of a sigh;
71 Or loads a tear with false aspersion,
72 Mistaking sorrow for aversion;
73 Or construes into acts of guile
74 The tender pleadings of a smile;
75 Condemns unheard, with ultra fury,
76 Nor suffers love to call a jury,
77 Where innocence her head uprears,
78 Safe, in a trial by her peers. —
79 Thus, having ne'er from duty swerved,
80 The faith of treaties well observ'd;
81 When Time your destin'd lot shall fling
82 Of sorrow from his loaded wing,
83 For you, of other good bereft,
84 Unchanging love will still be left;
85 Not like the world he then will roam,
86 But rest, the morning star of home.
87 Not yours, their bitter fate, who know
88 That agony of lonely woe,
[Page 271]89 An altered heart was bound to share,
90 Nor find defence, nor charter there!
91 For you, to every duty true,
92 The Charter held in rev'rence due,
93 Each tender clause shall habit seal,
94 With no suggestion of repeal;
95 Firm to the law of true election,
96 And treating change with stern rejection,
97 Though time the graceful form has worn
98 To which fidelity was sworn:
99 For not alone with blooming youth
100 Is made that league of lasting truth;
101 The compact sign'd with beauty now,
102 Includes wan age, with wrinkled brow,
103 With tresses grey, with visage pale,
104 And eyes whose liquid lustre fail;
105 For then the hand, that shrivell'd thing,
106 Shall still display the nuptial ring,
107 Pledge of your faith, and cherish'd token
108 Of vows, through lengthen'd years unbroken;
[Page 272]109 When all that's left of passion's flame
110 Is friendship, with a dearer name!
111 Thus be the charter'd Code imprest,
112 With all its statutes, on your breast;
113 No duty it enjoins forsook,
114 Till Time at length shall close the book;
115 And hope shall frame, for worlds to come,
116 A treaty that survives the tomb.
Text
- TEI/XML (XML - 286K / ZIP - 25K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
- Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 4.2K / ZIP - 2.4K)
Facsimile (Source Edition)
(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)
Images
- Image #1 (JPEG - 4.7M)
- Image #2 (JPEG - 4.9M)
- Image #3 (JPEG - 4.2M)
- Image #4 (JPEG - 4.9M)
- Image #5 (JPEG - 4.8M)
- Image #6 (JPEG - 4.8M)
- Image #7 (JPEG - 3.8M)
All Images (PDF - 7.4M)
About this text
Title (in Source Edition): THE CHARTER; ADDRESSED TO MY NEPHEW ATHANASE C. L. COQUEREL, ON HIS WEDDING DAY, 1819.
Author: Helen Maria Williams
Themes:
Genres:
occasional poem
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Williams, Helen Maria, 1759-1827. Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, pp. [266]-272. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Helen Maria Williams
- AN ADDRESS TO POETRY. ()
- AN AMERICAN TALE. ()
- THE BASTILLE, A VISION. ()
- THE COMPLAINT OF THE GODDESS OF THE GLACIERS TO DOCTOR DARWIN. ()
- DULCE DOMUM, AN OLD LATIN ODE. ()
- DUNCAN, AN ODE. ()
- EDWIN AND ELTRADA, A LEGENDARY TALE. (); EDWIN AND ELTRUDA. ()
- ELEGY ON A YOUNG THRUSH, WHICH ESCAPED FROM THE WRITER'S HAND, AND FALLING DOWN THE AREA OF A HOUSE, COULD NOT BE FOUND. ()
- EUPHELIA, AN ELEGY. ()
- HYMN, IMITATED FROM THE FRENCH. ()
- HYMN, WRITTEN AMONG THE ALPS. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- IMITATION OF LINES ADDRESSED BY M. D—, A YOUNG MAN OF TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF AGE, THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS EXECUTION, TO A YOUNG LADY TO WHOM HE WAS ENGAGED. — 1794. ()
- IMITATION OF LINES WRITTEN BY ROUCHER, BELOW HIS PICTURE, WHICH A FELLOW-PRISONER HAD DRAWN, AND WHICH HE SENT TO HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN THE DAY BEFORE HIS EXECUTION. — 1794. ()
- LINES ADDRESSED TO A. C., AN INFANT, ON HIS FIRST NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1821. ()
- LINES ON THE TOMB OF A FAVOURITE DOG. ()
- LINES TO HELEN, A NEW-BORN INFANT, 1821. ()
- LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE BARONESS D' H——, TO HER TWO DAUGHTERS. ()
- LINES WRITTEN ON THE PILLAR ERECTING TO THE MEMORY OF MR. BARLOW, Minister of the United States at Paris, WHO DIED AT NAROWITCH IN POLAND, ON HIS RETURN FROM WILNA, DEC. 26, 1812. ()
- THE LINNET AND THE CAT. ()
- THE MORAI. ()
- ODE TO PEACE. ()
- ON THE BILL WHICH WAS PASSED IN ENGLAND FOR REGULATING THE SLAVE-TRADE; A SHORT TIME BEFORE ITS ABOLITION. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PART OF AN IRREGULAR FRAGMENT. ()
- PERUVIAN TALES. ()
- QUEEN MARY'S COMPLAINT. ()
- SCOTCH BALLAD. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONNET ON READING BURNS' “MOUNTAIN DAISY.” ()
- SONNET TO DISAPPOINTMENT. ()
- SONNET TO EXPRESSION. ()
- SONNET TO HOPE. ()
- SONNET TO LOVE. ()
- SONNET TO MRS. BATES. ()
- SONNET TO MRS. SIDDONS. ()
- SONNET TO PEACE OF MIND. ()
- SONNET TO SIMPLICITY. ()
- SONNET TO THE CALBASSIA-TREE. ()
- SONNET TO THE CURLEW. ()
- SONNET TO THE MOON. ()
- SONNET TO THE STRAWBERRY. ()
- SONNET TO THE TORRID ZONE. ()
- SONNET TO THE WHITE-BIRD OF THE TROPIC. ()
- SONNET TO TWILIGHT. ()
- TO A FRIEND, WHO SENT ME FLOWERS, WHEN CONFINED BY ILLNESS. ()
- TO DR. MOORE, IN ANSWER TO A POETICAL EPISTLE WRITTEN TO ME BY HIM IN WALES, SEPTEMBER 1791. ()
- TO JAMES FORBES, ESQ. Author of “The Oriental Memoirs,” WHO ASKED FOR SOME LINES OF MY HAND-WRITING ON LEAVING FRANCE, AFTER HIS CAPTIVITY AT VERDUN. ()
- TO JAMES FORBES, ESQ. ON HIS BRINGING ME FLOWERS FROM VAUCLUSE, AND WHICH HE HAD PRESERVED BY MEANS OF AN INGENIOUS PROCESS IN THEIR ORIGINAL BEAUTY. ()
- TO MRS. K—, ON HER SENDING ME ENGLISH CHRISTMAS PLUMB-CAKE, AT PARIS. ()
- TO SENSIBILITY. ()
- TO THE BARON DE HUMBOLDT, ON HIS BRINGING ME SOME FLOWERS IN MARCH. ()
- THE TRAVELLERS IN HASTE; ADDRESSED TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ESQ. IN 1814, WHEN MANY ENGLISH ARRIVED AT PARIS, BUT REMAINED A VERY SHORT TIME. ()
- VERSES ADDRESSED TO MY TWO NEPHEWS, ON SAINT HELEN'S DAY, 1809. ()