192. EBB to Edward Moulton-Barrett (father)
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 193–194.
[Hope End]
To my dearest Papa.
On his birthday. May 28th 1824. [1]
Amidst the days of pleasant mirth,
That throw their halo round our earth—
Amidst the tender thoughts, that rise,
And call bright tears to happy eyes—
Amidst the silken words that move
And syllable the names we love—
There glides no day of peaceful bliss
More soothing to the heart than this–
No thoughts of fondness ere appear
More kind than those I write of here–
No name can ere on tablet shine,
My Father! more beloved than thine!
_________
Tis sweet, adown the shady past,
A ling’ring look of love to cast;
Back the enchanted world to call,
That beamed upon us first of all—
And walk, with Mem’ry, fondly o’er
The paths where Hope has been before!
Sweet! to recieve the floating sound
That breathes, in tenderness, around—
Repeating to the list’ning ear,
The names that made our Childhood dear!
For Joy, like Echo, gently kind,
Hath left her dulcet voice behind—
To tell, amidst the magic air,
How oft she smiled, and lingered there!
_________
Oh! let the deep Aonian shell [2]
Breathe sweetest numbers, clear, and well!
While the light Hours, in fair array,
Lead on the buxom holiday–
For, neath thy gentleness of praise,
My Father! rose my early lays!
And, when the lyre was scarce awake,
I loved its strings for thy lov’d sake.
Woo’d the kind Muses—but the while
Thought only how to win thy smile—
My proudest fame—my dearest pride—
More dear than all the world beside!
_________
And now, perchance, I seek the tone
For magic, that is more its own—
But still my Father’s looks remain
The best Mecænas [3] of my strain!——
My brightest joy, upon his brow,
To read the smile that meets me now—
And hear him, in his kindness, say
The words, perhaps he’ll speak today!——
“Many, many happy returns of my dearest Papa’s birthday” is the first wish of his most attached.
Ba–
Publication: An Essay on Mind, 1826, pp. 109–111, greatly altered from original.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. His 39th.
2. Aonia was the home of the Muses, otherwise known as the Aonides.
3. Intended as “Mæcenas,” after Gaius Cilnius Mæcenas (d. 8 B.C.), a Roman patron of letters.
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