Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

can survive these faults. The poem here given is among the simplest of his writings.

Browning's personality was a singularly attractive one. A man of much personal vigor, he was in one sense a "self made" man; that is, he did not have the usual English university training, but was educated by his father, and by private teachers followed by a course at the University of London. Through the influence of the poet Shelley, he early became devoted to the art of poetry. He made a runaway marriage with Elizabeth Barrett, then the best known poetess in England, and for a long time more famous than her husband. They lived much of the time in Italy, where both wrote some of their best poetry.

Browning was popular and sociable and quite the man of the world.

HERVÉ RIEL

The following poem belongs to the general class of ballad poetry, narrative poetry written in a loose flowing meter suitable to singing or singsong (recitative). Browning excelled in poetry of this sort, though he wrote it but little.

On the sea and at the Hogue,1 sixteen hundred ninety-two,

Did the English fight the French,

woe to France!

1 The Hogue, a strait on the northern coast of France, noted chiefly for the battle referred to in the poem, between the French on the one side and the English and Dutch on the other.

5

10

And, the thirty-first of May, helter skelter through the blue,

Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue,

Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance, With the English fleet in view.

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase,

First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship
Damfreville.1

Close on him fled, great and small,

Twenty-two good ships in all;

And they signaled to the place

"Help the winners of a race!

Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick.
or, quicker still,

Here's the English can and will."

15 Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leaped on board.

"Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass?" laughed they;

"Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored,

2

Shall the Formidable here, with her twelve and eighty guns,

1 Damfreville, the admiral of the French fleet.
2 The Formidable, the French flagship.

[blocks in formation]

Think to make the river mouth by the single

narrow way,

Trust to enter where 'tis ticklish for a craft of

twenty tons,

And with flow at full beside?

Now 'tis slackest ebb of tide. Reach the mooring? Rather say, While rock stands or water runs, Not a ship will leave the bay!"

Then was called a council straight;
Brief and bitter the debate:

"Here's the English at our heels; would you have them take in tow

All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern

and bow,

For a prize to Plymouth Sound?1
Better run the ships aground!"

(Ended Damfreville his speech.)

Not a minute more to wait!
"Let the captains all and each

Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on

the beach!

France must undergo her fate.

Give the word!" But no such word

Was ever spoke or heard;

For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid

all these,

1 Plymouth Sound on the coast of England.

30

35

40-A Captain? A Lieutenant? A Mate-first, sec

ond, third?

No such man of mark, and meet
With his betters to compete!

But a simple Breton1 sailor pressed2 by Tourville
for the fleet,

A poor coasting pilot he, Hervé Riel the Croisickese.3

45 And "What mockery or malice have we here?" cries Hervé Riel:

"Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards, fools, or rogues?

Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the soundings, tell

On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell

'Twixt the offing here and Grève where the river disembogues?4

50 Are you bought by English gold? Is it love the lying's for?

Morn and eve, night and day,

Have I piloted your bay,

Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor.

Burn the fleet, and ruin France?

worse than fifty Hogues!

That were

1 Breton, from the French Department of Brittany.
2 Pressed, compelled to serve, "drafted."

3 Croisickese, from Le Croisie, a town of Brittany.
4 Disembogues, empties.

Sirs, they know I speak the truth! Sirs, believe

me, there's a way!

Only let me lead the line,

Have the biggest ship to steer,

Get this Formidable clear,

Make the others follow mine,

And I lead them most and least by a passage I know

well,

1

Right to Solidor 1 past Grève,

And there lay them safe and sound; And if one ship misbehave,

-Keel so much as grate the ground,

[ocr errors]

Why, I've nothing but my life, here's my head!" cries Hervé Riel.

Not a minute more to wait.

"Steer us in, then, small and great!

Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron!"

cried its chief.

Captains, give the sailor place!

He is Admiral, in brief.

Still the north wind, by God's grace.

See the noble fellow's face

As the big ship with a bound,

Clears the entry like a hound,

Keeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide sea's profound! 2

1 Solidor and Grève, places on the Hogue,

2 Profound, depth.

55

60

65

70

75

« AnteriorContinuar »