To Olinthus Gregory, L.L.D.,F.R.A.S., &c.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)



ТHE following lines allude to Dr. Gregory’s late domestic calamity. Mr. Boswell Gregory, his eldest son, was drowned by the boat's upsetting as he was returning home by water to his father's house at Woolwich.”

IS there a spot where Pity’s foot,
    Although unsandalled, fears to tread,
A silence where her voice is mute,
    Where tears, and only tears, are shed?
It is the desolated home
    Where Hope was yet a recent guest,
Where Hope again may never come,
    Or come, and only speak of rest.

They gave my hand the pictured scroll,
    And bade me only fancy there
A parent’s agony of soul,
    A parent’s long and last despair;
The sunshine on the sudden wave,
    Which closed above the youthful head,
Mocking the green and quiet grave,
    Which waits the time-appointed dead.

I thought upon the lone fire-side,
    Begirt with all familiar thought,
The future, where a father’s pride
    So much from present promise wrought:
The sweet anxiety of fears,
    Anxious from love’s excess alone,
The fond reliance upon years
    More precious to us than our own:

All past--then weeping words there came
    From out a still and darkened room,
They could not bear to name a name
    Written so newly on the tomb.
They said he was so good and kind,
    The voices sank, the eyes grew dim;
So much of love he left behind,
    So much of life had died with him.

Ah, pity for the long beloved,
    Ah, pity for the early dead;
The young, the promising, removed
    Ere life a light or leaf had shed.
Nay, rather pity those whose doom
    It is to wait and weep behind,
The father, who within the tomb
    Sees all life held most dear enshrined.
Font size:
Collection  PDF     
 

Submitted by Madeleine Quinn on December 03, 2016

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:26 min read
106

Quick analysis:

Scheme X XAXAXBXB CDCDEAEA FGFGHIHI JKJKLMLM XAXAKLKL
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,621
Words 287
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet. Born 14th August 1802 at 25 Hans Place, Chelsea, she lived through the most productive period of her life nearby, at No.22. A precocious child with a natural gift for poetry, she was driven by the financial needs of her family to become a professional writer and thus a target for malicious gossip (although her three children by William Jerdan were successfully hidden from the public). In 1838, she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, whence she travelled, only to die a few months later (15th October) of a fatal heart condition. Behind her post-Romantic style of sentimentality lie preoccupations with art, decay and loss that give her poetry its characteristic intensity and in this vein she attempted to reinterpret some of the great male texts from a woman’s perspective. Her originality rapidly led to her being one of the most read authors of her day and her influence, commencing with Tennyson in England and Poe in America, was long-lasting. However, Victorian attitudes led to her poetry being misrepresented and she became excluded from the canon of English literature, where she belongs. more…

All Letitia Elizabeth Landon poems | Letitia Elizabeth Landon Books

3 fans

Discuss the poem To Olinthus Gregory, L.L.D.,F.R.A.S., &c. with the community...

0 Comments

    Translation

    Find a translation for this poem in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "To Olinthus Gregory, L.L.D.,F.R.A.S., &c." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/45342/to-olinthus-gregory,-l.l.d.,f.r.a.s.,-&c.>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    March 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    3
    days
    16
    hours
    28
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    Who wrote the poem "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening"?
    A Robert Frost
    B Elizabeth Barrett Browning
    C William Shakespeare
    D John Keats