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[Page [284]]
PARAPHRASE.
"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."— Isaiah xlix. 15.
1 HEAV'N speaks! O, nature, listen, and rejoice!
2 O, spread from pole to pole this gracious voice:
3 "Say, every breast of human frame, that proves
4 The boundless force with which a parent loves;
5 Say, can a mother from her yearning heart
6 Bid the soft image of her child depart?
7 She! whom fond instinct arms with strength to bear
8 All forms of ill to shield that dearest care?
[Page 285]9 She! who with anguish stung, with madness wild,
10 Will rush on death to save her threaten'd child;
11 All selfish feelings banish'd from her breast,
12 Her life one aim to make another's blest?
13 When her lov'd infant to her bosom clings,
14 When round her neck his eager arms he flings,
15 Breathes to her list'ning soul his melting sigh,
16 And lifts, suffus'd with tears, his asking eye;
17 Will she, for all ambition can attain,
18 The charms of pleasure, or the lures of gain,
19 Betray strong nature's feelings, will she prove
20 Cold to the claims of duty and of love?
21 But should the mother from her yearning heart
22 Bid the soft image of her child depart;
23 Betray fond nature's energies, and prove
24 Cold to the claims of duty and of love!
25 Yet never will the GOD, whose word gave birth
26 To yon illumin'd orbs and this fair earth;
27 Who, through the boundless depths of trackless space,
28 Bade new-wak'd beauty spread each perfect grace;
[Page 286]29 Yet, when he form'd the vast stupendous whole,
30 Shed his best bounties on the human soul;
31 Which reason's light illumes, which friendship warms,
32 Which pity softens, and which virtue charms;
33 Which feels the pure affections gen'rous glow,
34 Shares others' joy, and bleeds for others' woe —
35 O, never will the gen'ral FATHER prove
36 Of man forgetful, man the child of love. " —
37 When all those planets in their ample spheres
38 Have wing'd their course, and roll'd their destin'd years;
39 When the vast sun shall veil his glowing light
40 Deep in the gloom of everlasting night;
41 When wild destructive flames shall wrap the skies,
42 When chaos triumphs, and when nature dies,
43 Man shall alone the wreck of worlds survive,
44 Midst falling spheres immortal man shall live!
45 That voice which bade the last dread thunders roll,
46 Shall whisper to the good, and cheer their soul;
47 His favour'd creature GOD himself shall guide
48 Where living waters pour their blissful tide;
[Page 287]49 Where the enlarg'd, exulting, wond'ring mind
50 Shall soar, from weakness and from guilt refin'd;
51 Where perfect knowledge, bright with cloudless rays,
52 Shall gild eternity's unmeasur'd days;
53 Where friendship, unembitter'd by distrust,
54 Shall in immortal bands unite the just;
55 Devotion rais'd to rapture breathe her strain,
56 And love in his eternal triumph reign.
About this text
Author: Helen Maria Williams
Themes:
Genres:
heroic couplet; paraphrase
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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. [284]-287. (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 CHARTER; ADDRESSED TO MY NEPHEW ATHANASE C. L. COQUEREL, ON HIS WEDDING DAY, 1819. ()
- 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. ()
- 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. ()