The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-06-18 00:00:00

Etttraturt.

POETRY.

MEMORY.
BY ROBERT W. THost, Author of the " Epochs."

(For the Liverpool Standard.)
The hours and the years and the ages depart,
Like summers from earth, or the guest from our door,
And the dreams of the soul and the hopes of the heart
Are borne from their birthplace to find it no more.

They melt from our life as the dome from the stream,
An instant upreared in the glory of light;
But linger in memory as shapes in a dream,
As earth in the beauty of stars and of night.

'Tis well, for life's uplands are solemn and sad,
And the strength of our manhood is married to sorrow;
And the soul that is wearied would never be glad,
For the shades of to-day are tha walks of to-morrow. •

But we tread them in calmness, if joy be denied,
And in courage we wait for the season of rest,
When the oil and the balm are by memory supplied, •
And she lulls us to sleep and we dream on her breast.

LORD DENMAN.

(From the Law Times.)

At a meeting of the Home Circuit Mess, held at Kingston-
on-Thames, on the 2nd of April, 1850, at which the accompany-
ing verses were recited by the Poet Laureate, it was unani.,
mously resolved that the verses should be printed, and a copy
sent to each member of the circuit, and a copy both of the
verses and of this resolution should be forwarded to Lord
Denman. .
" His life was noble ; and the elements •
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world,—This was a man." •

We who have known thee long, and watched thee near,
Forgive your Laureate if he flings away
His motley mask, and dares he brave to-day,
While to the memory of a great career
He yields a homage, feeble—but sincere.
A noble race is ended ; from the noise
Of Life's arena to the tranquil joys
Of wise seclusion, glorious with a crown
Of civic worth and dignified renown
• DENMAN retires, and leaves a lofty name
To the sure keeping of historic fame.
Long shall the name of DENMAN live enshrined
In the fond reverence of the English mind ;
Rich as he was in every manly grace
That stamps the sons of England's hero race;
True Saxon worth, cast in the stately mould
Of Roman grandeur; stein and lion-souled,
Yet touched by kindlier impulses that move
The hearts, that else had but admired, to love.
England remembers how in manhood's flower,
The bold assailant of all lawless power,
His voice was lifted loudest in the van
Of those who fought against the trade in man.
England has not forgotten how the rush
Of his fierce eloquence rolled forth to crush
The courtly crew who, to appease the spleen
Of a King's spite, would immolate a queen;
Nor how, with front erect, he trod the path
Of Justice, heedless of a Senate's wrath ;
And, firm for rights our fathers handed down,
Withstood the House, as he had braved the Crown. ,
Throned on the seat of judgment, be combined
The purest purpose with the widest mind;
His aim was always Justice; his delight
To render Law commensurate with Right,
And from the breadth of that august domain,
Weed the rank growth of quibbling and chichane.
No zealous votary of the cumbrous lore
That " darkened counsel" in the days of yore;
Not blindly worshipping as things divine
The dust and cobwebs of the legal shrine;
But bent to make,—so taught in Wisdom's school,—
Our laws progressive, like the realm they rule.
His proud demeanour and majestic grace
Suited the height of his illustrious place :
Blended extremes in him we could admire,
MURRAY'S fine ease, and CHATHAM'S generous fire;
Calmly sedate and equably polite
He felt no preference, and he shewed no slight;
Not prone to talk, but diligent to hear;
Prompt, and yet patient; firm, but not austere:
Not quick to wrath, but when fit cause arose
To stir his lion-nature from repose,—
Some deed of baseness, cruelty, or shame,—
Swift shot the electric impulse through his frame.
The grave brow lowered ; the eye, so calm and cold,
Flashed sudden fire; and fotth in thunder rolled
The voice whose accents clothed with solemn awe
The indignant doom of violated law.
DENMAN farewell I forgive the attempt to twine
A wreath so worthless for a brow like thine;
But while all others hasten to salute,
Thy name with honour, how can webesinute ?
We who have known thee long, and watched thee near,
Dispensing Justice in our narrower sphere ;
Who feel thy loss not more to be deplored
On the grave bench than at the genial board,—
That festive scene where thou didst love to sit,
Promoting manly mirth and honest wit,
Where not a guest, howe'er " unknown to fame,"
But heard thy deep voice pledge him by his name,
While proudly through our hearts the feeling ran—
" Others revere the Judge, we love the Man."
Once more farewell ! may every blessing wait
On thy retirement, to a distant date
May all the pleasures of a taste refined,
And all the affluence of a well-stored mind,
And all the affections of a loving breast,
Solace thy age, and sanctify thy rest.