The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-07-19

Byron famous " Address to the Ocean,
and finds, as he thinks, much "false coin
in it:
The Address" begins with the line
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll
Swear me, Kate, says Hotspur, ga good
mouth filling oath" and this is good
mouth filling line, but nothing more.
Why should the poet tell the ocean to
roll on? Moore, when he says Flow on,
thou shining riverl" has a good reason
for it, The river is to bear message in
the flowers which he casts on its surface
No such motive exists here, and the line,
with those that follow, shows how sound
and manner are accepted as substitutes
for thought.
q" Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain p
Why in vain? The fleets might be
thought to voyage to some purpose.
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore"
Hurricanes, earthquakes, frost, lightning,
mark the earth with ruin; but not man
He marks it with cultivation and con-
struction, the reverse of ruin. If he cuts
down wood, it is to replace it with
farm or city. In war he destroys but,
for the most part, only what he has him
self made. And how can his control be
said to stop with the shore, when it is on
the deep that his skill and boldness in
bending Nature to his purposes are most
conspicuous? 1t is there that he makes
the winds serve him and by their aid
converts it into innumerable highways.
-" TJnon the vyaterv nlain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
shadow of mans ravage, save his own"
That is, the ocean s deed; yet in the very
next stanza he mentions Trafalgar, where
the bay was covered, after the battle, with
wrecks made by "man's ravage."
Next comes very disputable string of
assertions:
His steps are not upon thy paths, thy fields
Are not spoil for him, thou dost arise
And shake him from thee. The vile strength
he wields
For earth's destruction thou dost all despise
SPurnlng him from thy bosom to the skies,
And send'st him shivering in thy playful
spray.
And bowling to his gods, where haply lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth. There let
him lay
Except in the very limited sense that
footprints do not remain in water-a
Cruism too obvious for mention, and yet
the only sense in which any part of this
famous passage can be said to be true
1t Is certainly somewhat audacious to say
that mans steps are not upon the paths
of ocean; and as to its fields not being
spoil for him, the fisherman will hardly
concur In that. What follows is inhu-
man. The poet, in his desire to add to
the indictment which he is always press
ing against his fellow creatures, not only
stigmatizes the endeavors of man to rem
der his abode habitable as the WELDING
of "vile strength, " but goes on to imply
that to sail on the sea is crime Justly
punishable by drowning, when he makes
the Illustration of the mariners hopes and
prayers by shipwreck matter of exulta-
ton, sentiment continued in the next
verse and extended from contemplation
of the drowning Of an individual to the
sinking of whole ornaments Truly, a
promising vein in which to address a
maritime audience To mend the gram
mar of there let him lay, all sorts of
alterations were suggested, all equally
ridiculous" there let him pray, there
leu LIN Sldyj puJJluS d comma ana car
rying it on to the next stanza, ETC., etc.
while some boldly defended it as rather
fine than otherwise; but the next verse
was the main puzzle for the eulogists:
Thy shores are empires, changed in all save
thee
Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are
they
Thy waters washed them power while they
were free
And many tyrant since; their shores obey
The stranger, Slave, or savage their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts Not so thou;
Interchangeable save to thy wild waves play
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow
Such as creations dawn beheld thou rollest
now"
The third and fourth lines, perceived
to be nonsense, have been a sort OF coEun-
drum, which Byron himself, it appears,
in revising the proof, vainly endeavored
to solve The thou" OF the sixth line,
to make any kind of sense, should be
thee -" decay has not dried thee up -
OF the eighth line it may be said that the
Unreasonable surface OF the ocean can
scarcely be styled It's brow; that, if it
could, azure is not a very suitable color
for a brow. Substitute blue for azure,
and it becomes ridiculous. But these are
venial ofenses compared with that Of
talking Of Time writing wrinkles" and