Society
(Golder Project subject term)
Represented in
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Stanzas, To a Young Poet in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- But, ah! what secular’ties make inroad,
- The tongue of Time will have it loud express’d, / When round th’ eventful wheel of fortune’s whirl’d, / To point thy lot high seated with the blest, / Or high exalted, be to ruin hurl’d, / Then hiss’d and scoff’d at by a scandalizing world!
- Oh! fly fair Flattery, whose delusive tongue / Beguiles with vain enticing words of wind— / Whose company, the root of every wrong, / If once indulged, you no escape will find, / While in its close embrace thou art confin’d— / Which Siren-like, most charmingly will lull / With praise melodious the unwary mind; / Till pride inflates thee, thus t’ensure thy fall;— / Then keen remorse will vex and harrow up thy soul.
- Ah! tender youth, ye little know what care / May dare in ambush, yet waylay thy steps; / May heaven, still kindly you in favour spare, / And guide thy feet from such engulphing traps, / Which oft arrest the progress of adepts; / Who, oft are met by barriers of scorn, / And adverse fortunes,—disappointed hopes, / ’Mid which their labours painfully were borne, / Then left to meet their fates forgotten and forlorn.
- Go on! and may you prosper in your sphere, / But mark attentive, e’er ye’ve gone afar, / Lest Envy should in unawares appear / Against thy hopes and prospects waging war, / Employing all, thy progress to debar:— / Why should I on such themes of grievance dwell? / Be stirr’d!—let no despondence e’er thee mar, / Aim to improve, as ye aspire t’excell;— / Be virtue’s friend! and Heav’n will bless thy muse.—
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The Pastry Baker in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- They say he ’s a rogue; and, as ev’ry one knows, / He’s a slave-driving dog to his men of labour; / He calls them his friends, yet he thinks them his foes; / And a curious fellow he is for a neighbour.
- A man full of matter is the pastry baker, / So free with his flatter is the pastry baker; / But when of his riches he makes me partaker,— / What a lady I shall be for the pastry baker!
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A Likeness in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- A Likeness.
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An Enigma in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- Though I am to all that’s angelic unknown, / With Christ, the great King, whom the Jews did despise, / A pilgrim, where’er he sojourn’d, I have trod / In poverty’s humblest, contemptuous guise. / Though once I was poor, now in riches I loll, / Yet me no depending admirers caress; / Through all tribulations I’ve carried my cross, / Still greatly rejoicing ’mid ev’ry distress.
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Colonial Courtship of 1841 in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- So, quickly to Mess John we hied, / Without prepare or farther swither; / An’ soon the marriage knot was tied,— / Noo, I’ve got wed wi’nae great bother.
- An offer noo!—Could I refuse?— / Quoth I,—I’m ready sin’ ye’re willin’.
- My kin me scorn’d, and sairly blamed, / And did me wi’ their banters laden; / I vow’d I’d rather lea’ my hame, / Than ’mang sic folk to dee a maiden.
- Courtship ’s truly all a bubble; / It breaks in air, and is nae mair, / Though aft it gi’es us meikle trouble.
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Stanzas, extemporaneously written during the Egress of 1833, and the Ingress of1834 in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- We hail thee with triumphal shouts of joy, / Though expectation trembles in alarms; / While emulously all with either vie, / Who first will do obeisance to thy charms. / The old one, which we once with honours crown’d, / Now passing, looks behind to bid adieu; / While novelty of changes fond doth bound, / And spurns the old in haste t’enjoy the new.
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Preface in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- hope that this little attempt in the matter of song may tend not only to add to the literature of our Colony, thereby extracting some of the sweets which lie hid among the many asperities of colonial life; but also to endear our adopted country the more to the bosom of the bonâ fide settler; as such, in days of yore, has often induced a people to take a firmer hold of their country, by not only inspiring them with a spirit of patriotic magnanimity, but also in making them the more connected as a people in the eyes of others.
- my grateful acknowledgements to those distinguished persons who have deigned to assist me forward with the work; and also to my subscribers in general for their wellwishes and patronage hitherto conferred upon their humble servant,
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Reflections over a Lark’s Nest in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- How agreeable / Is their behaviour! Discord ne’er can dwell / Within this habitation. There they lie / Together hugged in social harmony. / Lo! what a grand example these afford
- Four mouths now open wide, / As asking for an alms, as I draw near / To see the nest, and tender hatch so dear / And precious to their dam. They feel mista’en, / Their mouths they shut, and huddle down again:— / So young—their eyes yet seal’d—they’ve not discern’d / Me from their mother; yet they have not learn’d
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Stanzas, Extemporaneously Written on a Stormy Night, Dalserf, November 4, 1833 in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- Has ev’ry homeless wand’rer shelter found, / ’Neath hospitable roof, or humbler shed? / Or has there any from th’ unfriendly door, / Been spurn’d, who has not where to lay his head?
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Answer to the Lover’s Invitation in New Zealand Minstrelsy
- My hand I’ll thee bestow, though my kindred should say no, / And with thee I shall go, my dearest laddie,
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On Passing Two Ladies in Deep Mourning in The New Zealand Survey
- Go doff such weeds and dress more gay, / Consistent be with this display / Of manners void of care!
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The Two Guides in The New Zealand Survey
- How true it is, that rising youth / Progressing needs a wise adviser; / One who is earnest for the truth, / And is no false or vain enticer. / But two attendants ready are, / And each against the other striving, / As each the youth would lead with care / In their own beaten paths, contriving / How to supplant each other:
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Advertisement to the Crystal Palace in The New Zealand Survey
- though living, I may say, at the ends of the earth, I yet feel a deep and lively interest in whatever takes place in father-land, when the object of the movement or occurrence tends (or is so meant) to the great and beneficial advancement of man in his social capacity.
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Canto Fifth in The New Zealand Survey
- He found upon this island a wild race / “From all the world disjoined!” His visit then, / To them was like the earliest, faintest break / Of greyish dawn, upon the coming day; / And long before the sun, with upward rays, / The eastern sky paints in vermilion hue! / It told them (if such tidings they perceived) / There were elsewhere another race of men / Of more extensive knowledge;—that themselves / Were not the only people of the world;— / That they themselves, compared with what they saw / In all their wonted pride, degraded were!— / For nothing dreamed they of more cultured state, / Or civilization; (if to them such phrase / Intelligible were;) nor could conceive / Such state of mind, so as to feel debased / With that degraded state in which they lived, / When seeing something of a nobler kind; / No more than when they could their great canoes / Compare with that great ship the stranger own’d! / This visit must have given their stagnant thoughts / A quite unwonted stir! another theme / Of converse, of unfathomable depth, / When conjuring fresh conjectures oft,—
- For bygone ages had their times of change, / Preparatory to some future plan / To be accomplished in its season due; / And, as the earth has first to be subdued / Ere man, its lord, can bring it to his use; / So now a mighty change is passing o’er / Those scenes; however slow may be its course, / Its progress, like the stealthy steps of time, / Is certain, with improvements in its train, / To tame this once unbroken wilderness / Of savage grandeur!
- Though these surrounding scenes, where’er the eye / Of observation turns, have undergone / Great revolutions buried in the past: / Another of importance yet awaits; / Nay, is it not in progress even now?— / It is not always revolutions come / With sudden change, as of an earthquake’s shock; / Or, as in politics, when discontent, / Through insurrection, long in secret hatched, / Bursts forth in civil war, o’erturning all
- Cook’s visit was the prelude to a new, / Though seeming distant, era, in their page / Of blotted hist’ry, hitherto a blank, / As cut off from all knowledge of the world, / And social arts of peace!
- Oh! what is worse than sympathy extinct? / And human hearts become the demon’s den?— / Then man, the greatest enemy to man / Becomes, when dire ferocity is roused / Each ’gainst his fellow, through necessity, / Urged by a craving lust like beasts of prey! / Nay worse!—and more degrading—’gainst their kind / None’s ravenous, though they might disagree, / A fellow to devour!—Their scarce supplies / Of all that craving appetite demands / Have driven them oft to sad revolting deeds, / The source of fierce exterminating feuds / For sake of plunder; when the “weak” must fall / To “might” a prey, as when the smaller fry / Of ocean, by the greater, are devoured!
- Ah poor degraded race! Thus exiled far / From ancient relatives and friendship’s joys, / So long, till true remembrance have been lost / Of such they may have had; from sires forlorn / They’ve sprung a num’rous progeny; and now, / How much through foul distrust and variance strange, / They have asunder parted, and become / To either aliens, reft to separate tribes, / With every tie of brotherhood annulled! / Of common comforts, such that cheer the poor / Of other lands, how much they’ve been devoid!
- But this is true,— / They’ve wander’d far from that great parting scene / On Shinar’s plain! Some providential hap / Must have some families brought toward these shores / As forced by tempests from their fishing grounds, / Unable to return; so they’ve become / Mere outcasts from society, as ’twere / To prove to a philosophising world / What man is when apart—left to himself / With nought but corrupt passions for a guide, / With reason overpower’d! Then far below / Civilisation’s standard will he sink / Till scarcely ’bove the level of a brute!— / Thus have they had such dire experience, / As from such stocks they multiplied, and grew, / By numerous generations, into tribes, / Forgetful of all morals, which mayhap / Their sires have held, although however small, / ’Mid ancient social circles in old homes!
- so shall your virtues shine, / Enkindling in their hearts new ardours, once / Unknown, to their affections, serving all / To melt the savage nature, purging off / Th’ impurities of degredation’s dross; / Refining them to social life and peace!
- Then aimed he at the cherishing of peace, / And good will to his neighbours, now felt due! / Thus in the desert sweet refreshing springs / Began to flow,—the desolate to sing! / The change, to him, was blest felicity, / Compared to aught of former life endured! / While on his race, he saw the early rays / Of a new Sun arising,—even that / Of Righteousness—and peace, dispelling quite / That darkness, which enveloped all the past; / While introducing a new day of grace! / What happy feelings must he have enjoy’d / At length, when tottering on the verge of time, / To learn the worth of social, civil, life; / While civilized society the hand
- But otherwise, by a kind Providence, / Has been ordained their welfare to secure; (4) / For as the land, in peace, could not have rest / By those to whom at first it was bestowed, / Another race of gen’rous temp’rament, / And skill sagacious, coming from afar / Must gain possession, not by violence, / But by true purchase: both remun’rative / In price, and in advantages to flow / From civ’lization’s intercourse, the best! / And whose experience, in field culture’s art, / Will shew them how they to account might turn / Those principles of comfort, long inert, / Found richly to exist in such a clime; / And who would shew, “How good to cultivate / The social arts of peace;”—
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On Pride.—An Epigram in The New Zealand Survey
- How vain is pride! It adds no joy to life, / However much ambitious ’tis to rule; / While ’tis the principle of every strife; / And often proves its patron—“quite a Fool!”
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Stanzas — To the Memory of Wm. Swainson, Esq., F.R.S. &c., — Departed hence, December 7, 1855 in The New Zealand Survey
- But grov’lling cares, the worldlings’ grand pursuit, / Could no attractions yield him, or decoy / Attention from such studies, standing high / ’Bove other pleasures his, while also mute / To politicians’ squabbles,
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Canto V in The New Zealand Survey
- The peaceful and happy state of the Natives round Port Nicholson, when the above lines were written, may be known from the fact, that many of them had got located in places, and that in open camp, where in former times they dared not venture. Before the arrival of the first settlers in the Colony, the pas or villages of the natives, were strongly fortified, so as to resist the sudden intrusion of an enemy; but since then, their fortifications are greatly at a discount,—as now they are not required. At the time when the first settlers came, the Port Nicholson natives were in a state of warfare with some of their neighbours, though they seemed to have the upper hand, yet they were in a state of dread. But by-and-bye one of the chiefs, who one day being in his garden, was surprised and killed by one of the enemy, who was there lying in wait, and his head was taken away, I believe, as utu or payment for what damage the enemy had sustained. Since then no alarm of war has troubled them, save when they were a little startled at what was called the Maori row of 1845. Now, all their pa defences have fallen into disuse. With the natives, their spears and clubs have become plough-shares, spades, and hoes; and the only defences they now require are such as may keep their cattle and pigs from their crops.
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A Dinner Hour Reverie in The New Zealand Survey
- Alas, how many are enthralled / By fashion’s chain that binds to earth / In grov’ling mood; contemning peace / Which nature in them might give birth. / Then daily toils would pleasure prove / More than a burden to be borne!— / Why hug such chains of slavery so / That should rejected be with scorn?
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In Memorium in The New Zealand Survey
- Among the many promenading there / In groups, a cordial sympathy is felt; / For where joy reigns, companionship is sought / Such feeling to reciprocate, and join / In converse sweet, while drawing friendship’s tie / More close, each other’s confidence to share!
- How well it is when nobleness of soul, / Combine with other nobleness of birth; / For then a worth is shewn, which other eyes / Can never look on but with pure delight; / Such worth engendering that love which ne’er / Can be displaced, nor held ’neath pride’s control
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Signs of the Times in 1853 in The New Zealand Survey
- Just think yourself in such distress / From hunger, and from nakedness, / Brought on thee through no fault of thine, / Which fain ye tried t’ escape;—combine / With that, a helpless offspring train / Crying to thee for bread. What pain / Of soul must such thee yield, to know / You have it not, while double woe / Would tear thy feelings, when ye tried / To gain it, and have been denied!— / Next, think of such-an-one, who loud / Would make thy sorrows known abroad, / As help he craved for thee;—but when / Such calls were heard and answer’d,—then / He to himself retain’d, with pride, / Such benefits, and left thee void!
- But you, perhaps, like me, are awkward / In what concerns yourself; and backward, / Through some false modesty, or bother!— / Well, then—could we employ another, / Whom we judge honest, full intent
- Thus soaping well the list’ning crowd; / He in their ears can bawl aloud, / “Oh! how I love the working man!”*— / Aye! love him?—Surely!—that’s the plan / To gain his flatter’d favours:—though / ’Tis on the hustings, a mere show, / Their special ends to gain!—and then
- They, laughing at us in their sleeve,— / Full glad that they have got such fools / To deal with, as mere handy tools! / But tother day, the poor clod-hopper, / Was one not deemed as fit and proper, / To be accosted with respect;— / But must trudge on through cold neglect, / His living earning with hard toil, / As stranger to the masters’ smile; / Whose cold reserve, and looks so gruff, / Would say he had not done enough;
- when long / Debates upon each side succeed, / As to destroy each others creed; / Or from your mind have yours erased, / Until you’re made to look amazed
- “Oh! for an honest man, whose aim / Is simply for the public good, / Apart from selfish views!”—Embued / They’re so with innate self-esteem— / Though all most honorable seem / And complaisant,—(ah! that’s their care), / ’Tis question, Sir, if such they are / When put to test? Now in this age, / Ye well may act the ancient sage, / Who lit his candle in broad day, / And staff in hand went on his way; / With full intent the world to scan, / To try and find an honest man! / ’Tis thus, dear Brother, I’d advise / To save from glamour your weak eyes,
- Some petifoggers long will draw / Their faces, while the ambiguous law / Expounding; while their versions bland / As genuine,—having full command / Of smoothest terms—they’d down one’s throat / Well butter’d cram!—And, sure, why not? / They see their interests are affected;— / Besides,—(what must not be neglected)— / Promotion, with increase of fees, / Lies that way, well to be respected,
- Thus, much concern’d, my thoughts I task,
- How clashing int’rests are at war, / As each his neighbour would debar / From all those precious liberties, / Fancied or real, said t’ arise / From this our new born Constitution, / With quite as firm a resolution
- Thus scrambling for the honours it / Has got attached to spare, to wit, / Great int’rests, places with good pay; / Or a good stepstone to the way / Of some promotion had in view, / Which they would eagerly pursue!— / For honour?—Nay, but for the fees, / Though out must go the Nominees! / How some aspirants for renown, / So full of promise, big have grown / With puff’d importance—int’rests high! / Now, who but they must dictate!—
- And now, / Since tables have turn’d o’er, I vow / This grand Association pack / Is of attraction’s powers at lack, / Like some corporeal dissolution; / Or earth’s eruptions in confusion / And much dishiver’d!—
- While such an act one can’t deny / Was quite a moral felony! / Still further, I perceive ’twas worse, / Whose bearings shew a greater curse; / If duly weigh’d, you’ll there discry / An outrage on humanity!!!
- ’Tis well assured / That those who least deserved, with care, / Have pounced upon the lion’s share!
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Canto Second in The New Zealand Survey
- Thus geniuses, however much or small / Their toils may have appreciated been, / They’ve had their share alloted them to do:— / As certain implements have each their use / In hands of skillful artizans,—so they / Are means which Providence employs to bring / About some distant blessing for mankind: / And when such is obtained, what is it? but / A prelude of some others yet to come!
- So here displayed / Are num’rous products of the human mind, / All proving immortality in man! / In such an active principle evolves / A struggling strife to rise to something great! / Thus stern endeavours to achieve a name / Cause many works to be produced, ordained / By providence to benefit the race / Of man, in his progression from a low / To higher state of being, upon earth. / Such works, results of lab’ring thoughts, while hands
- WELL DONE! Ye benefactors of mankind; / Whatever be the countries of your birth, / You well deserve the thanks of ev’ry age! / For well ye have fulfilled your trust,—improved / That talent once alloted to your care / By Him who chose you as a means to shew / Mankind His mercy, when He looked upon / Their toils multifarious; and suggested how / Such might be eased; a proof of love divine,
- Whatever scheme on which the mind’s engaged / In active labour to unfold its web / Of intricacies, while the attempt is made, / With failure often meeting, yet that scheme
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An Ode on Manawatu in The New Zealand Survey
- Britannia may boast of the Thames or the Clyde, / What were they once, but like this wild looking stream, / Till science, progressing, had made them her pride / For commerce, and worthy a nation’s esteem; / The time is approaching when enterprise may, / With many improvements thine aspects renew, / When cities around may spring up, and display / Bright glories enchanting to Manawatu!
- Long, long have those plains been enveloped in glooms— / That gloom of lone solitudes dreary and wild; / Though nature’s prolific in much that presumes / On richness, yet here every pleasure seem’d foiled, / For want of that culture, inhabitants bring / With them so enlightening, whence blessings accrue; / May soon thy time come of good change, when will spring / New beauties around thee, lone Manawatu!
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A Retrospective Reverie. — On receiving the “Hamilton Advertiser” a provincial newspaper, sent from “Home,” 1859 in The New Zealand Survey
- Well, bless improvement’s work, I say, / Though there I’d look a lonely stranger; / And may prosperity attend / The people!—The most High defend / Them, from all ills that might endanger / Their social happiness!
- And here, their rising bards, I see, / Can find indeed a kind dictator!— / ’Tis quite a bond of brotherhood, / Where each t’advance the public good, / Appears as virtue’s stimulator!
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On Self Misery.—An Epigram in The New Zealand Survey
- While, how to escape from himself, is a querry; / Oft making him rush into woe!— / Or dreaming ’tis “life” to be thoughtlessly merry, / The pleasures of peace to forego; / How fatal such dreaming!—a snare, the invention / Of foes the most cruel, though sly; / False joys they would offer with blandest pretension, / Whose aim is the soul to destroy!
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Canto Second in The New Zealand Survey
- As mediators aid in making peace / Between two rivals in dominion’s strife! / Such like to hoards of rude barbarians, who / No other occupation have t’ engage / Attention from the thoughts of fancied wrongs, / Used as pretexts for some usurping feud, / With no foundation, nor a reason why / To give it colour;—nor some enterprize / Of nobler aspect, cultivating peace!—
- And there the muscle and the cockle moored / Their dwellings all secure, and sought their prey: / While many others, there of varied kind, / In like communion lived! and amongst them crawled / Things of unsightly shape, and curious form, / Each skillful in his art of catching food; / Though each, on neighb’ring tribes, blackmail demands, / Yet still to all there seem’d a full supply, / As one were made the other to sustain!
- However much of pleasure we conceive / In those appearances, which meet the eye, / Like one’s sweet smile, that would a fellow greet / Yet clothing some strange workings of the mind / All outwardly unseen, a secret kept, / While planning alterations in affairs / Which no one else must know, until that time / Arrives such to develope; or perhaps / Hide some strange doings hitherto concealed / From public view, and not to be divulged,— / Save what some little foible might disclose
- While many shoals / Of various kinds of fish, all more inclined / To be gregarious, like some beastial tribes / Of terra-firma, o’er the length and breadth / Of space now occupied with these whole isles, / Pleased with their ample scope, would journey on / As sent the prey of others in their need, / Whose whole employment seem but to devour! / Which are by others preyed upon in turn— / An intermingling constant ruthless war, / One ’gainst the other—strong against the weak, / The weak content to feast upon the dead / Of those that had devoured their ancient sires!
- Aye ev’n at such a time, those southern wastes / Unknown, uncalled for lay; when northern gales / And briny waters have been seized upon, / As some necessity or other cause / Had urged, and them to active service brought, / Like fellow bondsmen; each his task to do, / In forwarding some merchant’s laden’d bark, / Advancing much his interests, and the weal / Of such communities of sea-girt isles; / (The sea, the highway chief of seaboard states; / When seamanship was rude, and crafts but small, / Long voyages were made in sight of land!)— / Or they have been in requisition called / For warriors’ gallies, as they sped to explore / New fields for conquest, in their lust for power!
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Canto Fourth in The New Zealand Survey
- So here creative power has been at work / Developing that law which is impressed / On nature and its agencies ordained,— / Though human wisdom scarcely such perceives; / The want was visible and must obtain / Its measure full!—The naked must be clothed! / Let not the purblind soul attribute more / To simple agency than what is due. / If such a law’s established, (it is seen / In the effects of light and heat upon / Organic things, inactive,) and that law / By some one agent, upon whom devolves / A certain duty, is performed aright; / Still He, who formed that “law” and such imposed / Upon the proper “actor,” must be wise, / And worthy the first homage of our hearts, / When we the wonders of His power survey, / As seen in Nature’s vast productiveness!
- The naked surface feels / Itself productive, though of simplest tribe / Of vegetation, yet it augers well / For what in future time it may bring forth / When that time has arrived.
- As when a beaten army would retire / Before a braver or superior force; / As if such to the last would fain retain / Position, yielding only inch by inch;
- when a law / Of nature is transgressed, it has a power / To render punishment, in which the weal / Of the delinquent is impaired, or lost / By the transgression made! Or when that law / Is duly well observed, it brings its gift
- As one returns from a protracted tour / ’Mid foreign climes, and hails his boyhood’s home, / Recounting many changes, all for good, / That has occurred since when he left, in truth, / Impressing much his heart with hallowed joy;
- now thickly clad / With mosses, rushes, ferns, and woody shrubs, / Adapted by their natures, there to grow, / With phormium tenax in abundance rank, / As such by flowing streams, or in a marsh / Take great delight; thus all marsh loving plants, / Wherever found, their roots still intertwine, / To form the basis of productive soil / For other vegetation in its turn!
- A place attractive for sequestered life, / As from the world apart, but yet within / The reach of social fellowship, when such / Is felt desirable! Here, fancy might / Depict a scene of happiness and ease
- There is, which well may termed be “a vile slough,” / Where nought of vegetation can exist;— / A semblance good of dire despondency / When no sweet thoughts occur the mind to cheer!
- As science, now, strange secrets would reveal / In other ancient countries, which bespeak / Creative wisdom, and omniscient care, / With forethought unmistaken in its aim; / In other instances than only one, / Are manifest as shewn in changes wrought / Upon creations structure, in the lapse / Of untold ages, not to be o’erlooked, / Recorded all in Nature’s archives, which / Depositories prove of what has been; / For plants now found extinct are buried deep / In earth’s dark bosom, petrified, and changed / To other solid substances, the work / Of wond’rous revolutions long ere man / Was known to have existence; while their place, / And high above the stratum, they enjoyed, / Another race of vegetation fills!—
- So had we—when those periods had revolved, / Each in the other merging, as it came, / Long after the first passed—been straying found / Upon some sunny hillside, or the plain, / Our eye might hap’ to light upon some plant / Of promising appearance, differing much / In leaf, and stalk, from what around prevailed, / As lately germinated, or come forth, / To seek the rights existence ever claims / Upon the influence of sun and air
- In this space / Some valley must exist, yet unexplored, / In all its prestine solitude, as lone, / Expecting gladness in some future day; / When “Enterprise” makes search for greater scope / To exercise itself in industry!
- As well set music sung which charms the ear, / And thrilling harmony sends through the soul,
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Canto First in The New Zealand Survey
- A mean to gather strangers from afar, / A happy mean indeed! to aid the bonds / Of mutual friendship;—Brethren long apart, / Who to each other strangers had become, / Are thus together brought with happy art / Again to interchange kind looks, and words
- And among whom their Queen can walk at large— / Save but for equipage and princely show / Becoming dignity—without that dread / Which calls for great precautions of defence, / As despots use ’mid their degraded serfs:— / Nay, more, receive a welcome that resounds
- they come to read a page / Of British hist’ry, that they thence might draw / Instructive lessons on the arts of peace, / Of freedom, and of enterprise, conjoin’d; / With a high tone of morals, which pervade / Society as attendant, seen from high / To low degree, compared with all they know / Among their own,—as on an ample sheet / In characters both legible and plain / Laid forth before them.
- How Tyranny is here put to the blush / To see a happy people who possess / A nobleness of soul,—ev’n ’mongst the poor;— / Which quite outshines that of their pompous peers / In outward splendour clad;—while among whom / All freedom circulates, as through one’s veins / Flows the life giving fluid in good health / Imparting joyous vigour through the frame;— / Such freedom that appreciated can be / Best by its daily use—becoming part / And parcel of existance—and exempt / From aught that tends to turn it to abuse:—
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Stanzas — On hearing of the Sudden Demise of Mr. G. Copeland, on May 22, 1866, Aged 65 Years in The New Zealand Survey
- As one of worth in ev’ry duty / He undertook, all round can tell; / His life has been a life of beauty, / Exemplar, to be studied well.
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Geordie’s Return in The New Zealand Survey
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The Young Bride in The New Zealand Survey
- Young Mary sat busy her needle-work plying, / While stitching a shirt-breast of linen so fine; / With love’s sweetest smile on her rosy cheeks playing, / Bespeaking heart joys little short of divine.
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Canto Third in The New Zealand Survey
- A fearful hasty rocking to and fro, / Awhile most violently driven, occurs / With an unwonted energy; and next / Transverse as fiercely; then with sudden twist / And circular motion;—as if one, whose grasp / Had hold on thee, and loosening thy base / Most deeply fixed beneath, as with a turf / He with much force would loosen from its bed / Ere such he pulls;—while heavings strange are felt, / As when ’tis said of yore, old Atlas hove / His mighty load, with strenuous effort oft, / Ere he its weight upon his shoulders poised! / Rocks burst assunder! with commotions dire; / While various orders ’gainst each other crashed, / And shattered into fragments, got commixed / In wild confusion, jostled to a strange / And mutilated heterogeneous mass / Of various sorts; all meanwhile much upturned / And sideways shoved by that explosive force / Employed to urge the hollows downside up / Them sending towering far above the waves! / Amid such breaking up of solids, and / The transformations passing o’er the scene, / Old ocean, smitten, raged with furious storm, / Aye, fiercer than when roused by boisterous gales; / Then waves no longer followed, as in chase, / Each other, tossing sportively their spray / As they before the breeze would scud along; / But, billows met with billows, all deranged
- As when a father, with his happiest smile, / Beholds the newborn infant whom he owns; / So has it thus, New Zealand, been with thee!
- Much like the politician, when to express / His pleasure at the advancement of his cause, / O’er some opposing party, he’d illumne / The night with ev’ry fancy work of fire!
- Hard was the labours of the prestine rocks / At such a juncture; as when painful toils, / Or other inward maladies severe / Affect the human frame, when steaming sweat / From ev’ry pore exudes—and may of blood, / When agonizing under dreadful woes; / So in like manner, ’mid the direful throes, / And rendings of the bowels of the globe, / In pressing upward, ’bove the surface high, / O’er ocean’s waves, what long had been depressed! / Such labour, and such heat intense combined, / Internal, must have made the precious ores / Exude, as sweated drops, whence such have lain / Incorporate with granite grains, and quartz, / From first, when the creation was begun; / Till melted, by electric heat, forced out, / And running into chinks, and other rents,— / As in a furnace, molten ores are run, / Into the moulds for their reception made, / Till cooling formed into a solid state;—
- Thus were its turmoils now assuaged to peace; / As when a child, with inward aches, in grief, / Is soothed to peacefulness, adopting smiles, / Forgetful of the pains it had endured!— / And as contending parties, friends become / When angry feuds evaporate to air! / So the great ocean’s surface calm becomes; / As finding now ’tis useless to contend / In further strife; but better to embrace / New friendships, it relapses to its state / Of former quietude, and regular tides;
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Lines — On hearing of the Demise of Dr. F. Logan, R.N., May 24, 1862, Aged 84 in The New Zealand Survey
- From youth I’ve loved society of the aged / Whose lives unite the history of my day / With the far past; whose tales have oft engaged
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Canto Fifth in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- As illustration best the creed expounds, / So, be it given from the page of life. / Then mark the lot of him in wedded state,
- Self-will’d and stubborn; for contentions, fond / The way of peace, a lesson never learn’d; / Or was forgot, in zeal, herself to prove / A worthy convert to the church of Rome, / In striving there to drive her husband too; / Whose better knowledge would such thoughts resist. / This was, throughout, the bone of endless strife; / On this, all other oppositions hinged, / As she the devil’s agent would enact, / To drive the victim-husband on to woe!
- Thus, easily attracted by one’s charms, / Of winning nature; and, of good report / In christian fellowship with Sunday-sohools, / Which much he loved: thus, with a shew of truth / So artfully maintain’d, he soon was won!
- Where want of confidence prevails, and acts / The very poison of all social life?— / If civil war’s a curse to any land,
- One night as by the fire he sat, rejoiced / At conversation’s sweetness, she employ’d,— / Not such, of pest’ring questions, which some use
- that they / Should introduce God’s worship in their home. / At this, he first was silent; ’twas a theme / He had not yet consider’d; though in truth / He could not such condemn; but rather felt
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Canto Sixth in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- he was plain, and modest, and sincere; / He had not that attractive artfulness / So winning, as in others; the glib tongue / To him belong’d not; and the foppish airs / Of pride were not with him, so could not gain / The heart of the beloved, so as to be / By her acknowledged chief in her esteem: / While even then, for truth and constancy, / And conduct good, she could not him despise! / Another was her beau; one smart to see, / And full of sprightliness; aye, one who had / A smooth tongue fit to please the itching ear / That doats on flatt’ry; and knew how to clothe
- A blank, in the affections of the heart, / Is painful to endure, especially / In souls, whose natures sensibly can feel / A strong capacity for bringing forth / The fruits of social love; such as to cheer / Where sorrows would invade; or much advance / The comforts of this life! Yet ’tis the lot / Of many, who seem worthy better cheer; / If aught of cheer can in a blank be found. / Who would not sympathize with loving hearts, / Whose lottery of life would seem a blank? / Who yet, through some fortuitous event / Are unattach’d, unsought-for, and who seem / Quite isolated from love’s social bliss. / That such there are, the world around can tell, / Of either sex, both amiable and wise; / Who seem as if no partners were for them, / As being overlook’d; so must be lone, / As when was Adam found, when he had none
- Love-crossings when improve’d upon aright / Have been the source, whence benefits have sprung, / Yes, such have been the first step of that scale, / Which leads to fame’s high honousr, with renown! / So Damon such a truth could well confirm, / In th’ energies such waken’d in his soul: / Which gave the impulse, to spring from the dust, / And drudgery of mean life, in which he lived, / He being cross’d in love, and to forget / The insult, which he reckon’d he sustain’d, / He gave himself the task ’mid other toils / Of learning ancient languages, and thus / Began a course of life, which led at length / To fame, and high distinction in the world!
- Deep, deep regret took hold upon her heart, / And proved the very cancer of her life; / She saw her first in excellence and worth, / And so deseried the worthlessness of him / She own’d,—the “crooked lot” which she took up: / For, dissolute in habits now he proved. / And he at length for forgery was exiled / To penal servitude; there, much disgraced, / He closed his life in wretchedness and woe! / Thus, she a friendless sufferer had become; / While suffering for the deed which was not hers, / All through connection with a worthless one!
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Canto First in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- All other creatures had there partners meet; / The songs of birds, and other bestial sounds, / Met from their fellows sympathetic strains: / Thus joy would answer joy, to shew their loves / Were not in waste, or vain, or void of aim!
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The Picture of a Poet in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- But who can blind the poet’s marking eye? / To him, ’tis of an order, as t’ imply / His Maker’s special grace; in which descry / He must, a certain duty / To be perform’d. / So, ever is his soul in quest of beauty; / No matter, if on Nature’s face, / Or human works he such can trace, / Such make him feel as charm’d! / So that his bosom’s made to beat with joy / Nor can he other than his powers employ / To teach, the blinded, how they might descry / God’s goodness to the world, / And render praise: / That all around may gladly have unfurl’d / The banner of sweet brotherhood; / Averting ills, enhancing good, / Man’s nature prone to raise!
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Canto Second in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- True love will never tamper with the heart / That yields implicit faith, relying ou / The truth of his professions as sincere: / But will maintain integrity, and shew / Uprightness in his conduct to the end!— / The false is full of self—of worthless self, / And cunning pride; in flattery, an adept; / While purpose base is ever in his aim; / Is reckless of the peace of the betrayed, / When ends are gain’d, and victim plunged in woe! / How sad, when the respondent’s heart, wherein / True love is foster’d, meets with base deceit! / She trusts too fondly to professions bland,
- How good it is, when mutually agreed / Are either’s best affections, to unite
- To them, attraction proves the cause of woe! / As when th’ electric fluid, from the clouds / Surcharged, is drawn by some attractive mean; / On which it strikes, that object meets its doom! / So, sad it is, when True-love in its truth, / (Whose nature’s most attractive,) meets with such / Of counterfeit, with whom it gets beset, / As would a fly, in meshes of the snare / A spider weaves t’entrap! A fair one’s charms / In policy put forth, t’engratiate / Herself, in mere advacement’s aim; yet void / Of heart-affection’s TRUTH, oft prove the source / Of a whole life-time’s woe! The victim won, / Secured in wedlock’s vows, how sad to see
- Some lovers, in their natures, bear the power / Of fond attraction; like the magnate, which / Would draw things most congenial to itself, / When they become united, not to part, / Save when they’re sunder’d by superior power:— / So, loving hearts attractive ever prove / To others of a kindred nature, form’d / To love, until united they become, / Still loving onward till the hour of death; / And even then, Death scarcely can them part!— / —’Twas thus with young Clarinda, when she lost / The husband of her youth.
- When we re deprived of blessings, -only held / In small esteem, like other common things, / Not likely to get rid of; then is felt / Their double value, aye a thousand-fold, / More than when such possess’d were, as secure; / Which works within us woe at such a loss! / So was it with a tippler:
- Or when remonstrance, in its mildest form, / She feels obliged to offer, with a heart / That trembles sensible of all the truth / She would express, and that too for his weal / And mutual joy; when such is roughly met / With scorn, (that sad reverse of social love;)
- A drunkard’s home!—What is it? Where his vice / Prevails o’er every sense of moral worth: / What is it?—but, a den of misery; / Whose wretchedness tends to demoralize
- Though first fond hopes be blighted, and dispell’d; / While grieving o’er his reckless follies, she / Must witness, and their consequence endure;
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Canto Third in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- So had it been with Alliquis, and his / Devoted Anna in minority: / But through some secretly concocted plan, / Which none but ardent lovers can devise; / As if some spirit telegram had given
- What though the lover may be sorely vex’d / By circumstances cross, which mar th’ advance / Of union’s joys; if corresponding truth. / And sympathy be hers, he feels as blest / While musing on the darling of his heart, / With whom his soul is wed; although apart, / ’Tis a foretaste of what he holds in view!
- where True Love from Prudence is apart: / What failures oft occur!—It is as when / No one is near, of danger to fore-warn, / Till helplessly we plunge in sorrow’s pool! / See, how it was with Mary.
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Cupid Sharpening His Arrows in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- Besides, what a lot of young Ladies, who’d prove / Good partners to many young Gents, could they love! / So, see many Marys, and Janes, and Susannahs, / Preparing for husbands upon their pianos: / Besides, other spirits, as eager to please, / Would practise the mysteries of butter and cheese: / All in their spheres willing good partners to be, / When call’d on, for pleasure, or life’s industry!—
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Canto Fourth in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- Matilda was a farmer’s only child, / Grown into womanhood. She had a mind / Superior to her age, and class ’mong whom / She dwelt; and was in every respect / Both comely, modest, prudent, free from pride, / So kindly frank, and of industrious ways!—
- The neighbouring swains who some pretensions had / To her equalty in outward things, / Would all her worth acknowledge, fain would bow / Allegiance to her will: but her keen eye, / In them, decern’d what would not suit her aims: / Their habits could not be to hers conform’d; / And therefore could no favour with her gain! / But there was one, on whom she cast her eye, / A servant ploughman, active in his ways, / Sober, industrious, and of comely mein, / As manly, with an air of self-respect;
- Ah! there was yet fault; a secret fault, / He had, which studiously he kept from view, / And which, she hitherto had not pereeived! / Indeed, had any one such fault devulged, / She would have met the tale with utter scorn, / And held its bearer as a spiteful wretch!— / But other demonstrations met her now! / Elated, somewhat, at the near approach / Of nuptial joy, forgetful of himself, / In an imprudent, or a thoughtless hour, / The first time e’er inebriate he came / Into her presence; thus he met her now!
- —Thus did she find employment, both at home, / And round the neighbourhood; such aptly fit / To smooth th’ asperities of her own lot;
- His habits were not overstrict, save when
- In her own estimation, this was quite / A virtuous act: and his for gallantry, / Was not to be surpass’d; however much / For prudence, or discretion, both were void.— / How self-esteem would prompt the mind to think / Its self-will’d actions are of virtue’s class, / And worthy admiration; howe’er much / They’re reprehensive,—quite to be condemn’d! / The fond romancing lovers thought themselves / Most virtuous ones; their deed, a true-love’s act: / While others look’d upen it with disgust!
- The matter much she ponder’do’er and o’er, / And in connection, on the ploughman thought; / For, when comparing things as they appear’d, / To what her fancy—no vain fancy this— / Would picture forth beneath the care of him / She cherish in her heart,—the ploughman George! / —She could not but feel trammel’d by the force / Of such untoward ettiquette, and sigh, / “Oh! could we come to conversation,—then / My heart would feel releived; or know the worst
- Her parents fond felt even charm’d themselves / With her appearance; and fond hopes indulged. / That she might meet some lover of some note, / Above their sphere of life, though even that / Was of no humble grade; as fit were they / To give her education meet t’adorn / That sphere of life, they hoped she might attain— / Even the best a boarding school could give! / Yet, all the education she received / Could not put prudence in her pride-full heart;
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To my Auld Trews in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- Their newness, welcomes wad ensure / Whaure,er I gaed; an’ wad secure / Sweet freenship’s smile; ay, then as sure / Wer’ social joys / Whaurnoo! cauld scorn I micht endure, / In sic like guise! / How like thir trews is freenship’s growth; / Whan spang new, seemin’ cheerin’ truth;
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A Lay on Wanganui in The Philosophy of Love. [A Plea in Defence of Virtue and Truth!] A Poem in Six Cantos, with Other Poems
- How Nature like some lowly maid, / Who long has borne a lonely state / With all her virtues cast in shade, / Yet bowing meekly to her fate, / Since she no better knew,—Now see, / Her head is raised, the cheering smile / Illumes her count’nance; as with glee, / New hopes inspire her, as to foil / All heart depressions! See, no more / She’s passive, void of pleasure; it / Seems now her lot, with hopes in store / Of great rejoicings,— bliss most fit!
Searching
For several reasons, including lack of resource and inherent ambiguity, not all names in the NZETC are marked-up. This means that finding all references to a topic often involves searching. Search for Society as: "Society". Additional references are often found by searching for just the main name of the topic (the surname in the case of people).
Other Collections
The following collections may have holdings relevant to "Society":
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, which has entries for many prominent New Zealanders.
- Archives New Zealand, which has collections of maps, plans and posters; immigration passenger lists; and probate records.
- National Library of New Zealand, which has extensive collections of published material.
- Auckland War Memorial Museum, which has extensive holdings on the Auckland region and New Zealand military history.
- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which has strong holdings in Tāonga Māori, biological holotypes and New Zealand art.
- nzhistory.net.nz, from the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.