Upper Austria

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TO HIS BROTHER, EDWARD KENYON, COMPANION AND GUIDE OF THE JOURNEY HERE COMMEMORATED; THESE VERSES ARE, WITHOUT NOTICE OR PERMISSION, AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, BY THE AUTHOR.


  We loved that Upper Austrian land;
  And who, that knows, would love it less?
  Which, as it seems, alike the hand
  Of God and man conspire to bless.
  His stream-dispensing hills, that tower,
  Man's happy, lowly, household bower,
  On sunny slope, in quiet dell,
  These well may win a fond farewell.
  How may we e'er forget the power
  Of those huge hills, at sunset hour?


  Peak and black ridge upheaved on high
  Athwart the gorgeous evening sky,
  While brightest waves beneath were rolled
  In amethyst or living gold.
  Or how the beams that loved to wake
  With morning touch Gemunden's lake;
  Or that pale moon which paused to light
  Dark Traunstein's solitary height?

  Nor more, Fair Land! may we forget
  Thy Happy with thy Lovely met.
  Those rural dwellings snug and warm,
  And strong to meet the winter storm.
  With casement green, and vine around;
  Each in its plot of garden ground.
  The most—beneath. But some that creep
  Where the sun beckons up the steep;
  Near neighbours to the beechen grove,
  Which mingles with the pines above.

  And every little mountain-plain,
  Of herb profuse or waving grain;
  Where all that eye beholds is rife
  With signs of well-contented life.

  O Liberty! thou sacred name!
  Whate'er reproach may thee befall,
  From judgment just or spiteful blame,
  To thee I cling—on thee I call.
  And, yet, thou art not All in All;
  And, e'en where thou art worshipp'd less,
  In spite of check, in spite of thrall,
  Content may spring, and happiness.

  And tho', man's rightful claim to cheer,
  Thy fuller beams be wanting here;
  Yet happy they, if right I spell,
  The folk within this land who dwell.

  Here no hard look, no dogged eye,
  Meets, to repel, the passer by;
  But observation loves to scan
  Mild greetings sped from man to man;
  Bland courtesies; kind words that fall
  From each to each, and all to all.
  And here is woman's bending grace,
  That bends reply; and answering face,
  With servile smile not falsely deckt,
  But honest smile from self-respect.
  While peasant boy, with curly pate,
  And arm surcharged with book and slate,
  Gives frank reciprocating look,
  The fruit—I ween—of slate and book.
  Nor lack there signs to speak a sense
  Imbibed of holier influence.

  For if there be or nook or spot
  More lovely than the rest;
  Beside the brook, beneath the grot,
  Some chapel neat is drest;
  Whenceforth the Virgin-Mother seen,
  In azure robe depict' or green,
  From that her ever-blessed face
  Sheds softer beauty o'er the place.
  Or He, who died on holy-rood,
  Is there, with thoughts of deeper mood
  To sanctify the solitude.

  'Tis true—for me their accents rung
  In fact, as name, a stranger-tongue.
  A cloud, if words alone could speak,
  Thro' which no ray of thought might break.
  But soul of ready sympathy
  Finds semaphore in silent eye. 
  And smiles that play from silent lips
  Clear what were else the heart's eclipse.

  And One was with me, who could spell
  Whate'er each tongue might say,
  And oft, I ween, their sense would tell
  In better phrase than they.
  And all that German land was known
  To him, familiar as his own.
  Their states, their dynasties he knew,
  Their folk, how many or how few;
  Each tale of conquest, battle, siege,
  Right, custom, tenure, privilege,
  With all that appertaineth; down
  From Cæsar or from King to Clown;
  And all that priest or jurist saith
  Of modes of law or modes of faith. 

  And he had comment, full and clear,
  The fruit of many a travelled year;
  But more, by meditation brought
  From inner depths of silent thought;
  Or fresh from fountain, never dry,
  Of undisturbed humanity.

  When first among these hills we came,
  The Autumn lingered bright;
  But winter now begins to claim
  His old ancestral right.
  He speaks intelligible speech
  In the red yellow of the beech;
  And mingles with the breeze a touch
  Of polar air; in sooth not much;
  But such as serves to hint the day,
  When he shall rule, not far away. 

  Fall'n leaves are straggling down the brook,
  With something of prophetic look;
  Whose little eddies circle round
  With more, methinks, than summer sound.
  While the strong rivers, now more strong,
  With dimmer current sweep along.
  And frequent gust and chilling rain,
  That meet the traveller on the plain,
  Are telling tale of wintry war
  Amid the topmost peaks—afar.

  Scarce longer, Hills of whitening brow!
  Man's summer day endures;
  And snowy flakes are falling, now,
  On other heads than yours;
  And colder, dimmer currents roll
  From Time or Chance to chill the soul.
  Our fervent youth's adventurous blood
  Defies or place or clime,

  And dares the mountain or the flood,
  Thro' winter's stormiest time.
  When sober eld, grown weak or wise,
  Seeks gentler scenes and milder skies.

  So we will seek a milder sky,
  By where slow roads up creep
  Atween the summits, cresting high,
  Of some huge Alpine steep;
  By easier way thenceforth to glide
  Adown the smooth Italian side.

  With choice before us, shall we go
  Where Stelvio winds his road,
  Above the realms of thawless snow,
  To where green things refuse to grow,
  Primeval frosts' abode? 

  Then—beating cloud, and bitter wind,
  And torrent fierce left all behind—
  lDrop down to Como's southern bowers,
  And drink the breath of orange flowers?
  Or else, in idle boat reclined,
  Hang loitering round that little bay,
  Where erst inquiring Pliny lay
  Thro' long observant hours;
  Or haply nursed some inner dream,
  Beside his intermitting stream?

  Or rather shall we follow, now,
  The waters as they roll
  From rugged Brenner's lowlier brow
  Adown the steep Tyrol;
  To where Catullus loved to wake
  His sweetest harp on Garda's lake? 

  Rich is the land, (all own its power,)
  The land for which we part,
  Italia!—rich in every dower
  Of nature and of art.
  And rich in precious memories—more—
  From fragrant urns of classic lore.
  But whether 'mid Etrurian bowers,
  Where gallery spreads and palace towers;
  Or where, beneath cerulean day,
  Bright Naples clasps her double bay;
  Or where steep-fallen Anio roves,
  All peaceful now, thro' Tibur's groves;
  On thee, contentment's happy home,
  Land of bright stream and hill!
  Fair Austrian land! where'er we roam,
  Our hearts shall ponder still.

© John Kenyon