Gleanings from the Harvest-Fields of Literature: A Melange of Excerpta

The Cento.

A cento primarily signifies a cloak made of patches. In poetry it denotes a work wholly composed of verses, or passages promiscuously taken from other authors and disposed in a new form or order, so as to compose a new work and a new meaning. According to the rules laid down by Ausonius, the author of the celebrated Nuptial Cento, the pieces may be taken from the same poet, or from several; and the verses may be either taken entire, or divided into two, one half to be connected with another half taken elsewhere; but two verses are never to be taken together.

The Empress Eudoxia wrote the life of Jesus Christ in centos taken from Homer. Proba Falconia, and, long after him, Alexander Ross, both composed a life of the Saviour, in the same manner, from Virgil. The title of Ross’ work, which was republished in 1769, was Virgilius Evangelizans, sive historia Domini et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi Virgilianis verbis et versibus descripta.

Subjoined are some modern specimens of this literary confectionery, called in modern parlance

MOSAIC POETRY.

I only knew she came and went	Lowell.
Like troutlets in a pool;	Hood.
She was a phantom of delight,	Wordsworth.
And I was like a fool.	Eastman.

“One kiss, dear maid,” I said and sighed,	Coleridge.
“Out of those lips unshorn.”	Longfellow.
She shook her ringlets round her head,	Stoddard.
And laughed in merry scorn.	Tennyson.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky!	Tennyson.
You hear them, oh my heart?	Alice Cary.
’Tis twelve at night by the castle clock,	Coleridge.
Beloved, we must part!	Alice Cary.

“Come back! come back!” she cried in grief,	Campbell.
“My eyes are dim with tears—	Bayard Taylor.
How shall I live through all the days,	Mrs. Osgood.
All through a hundred years?”	T. S. Perry.

’Twas in the prime of summer time,	Hood.
She blessed me with her hand;	Hoyt.
We strayed together, deeply blest,	Mrs. Edwards.
Into the Dreaming Land.	Cornwall.

The laughing bridal roses blow,	Patmore.
To dress her dark brown hair;	Bayard Taylor.
No maiden may with her compare,	Brailsford.
Most beautiful, most rare!	Read.

I clasped it on her sweet cold hand,	Browning.
The precious golden link;	Smith.
I calmed her fears, and she was calm,	Coleridge.
“Drink, pretty creature, drink!”	Wordsworth.

And so I won my Genevieve,	Coleridge.
And walked in Paradise;	Hervey.
The fairest thing that ever grew	Wordsworth.
Atween me and the skies.	Osgood.

Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
Shoot folly as it flies?
Ah, more than tears of blood can tell,
Are in that word farewell, farewell;
’Tis folly to be wise.

And what is Friendship but a name
That burns on Etna’s breast of flame?
Thus runs the world away.
Sweet is the ship that’s under sail
To where yon taper points the vale
With hospitable ray.

Drink to me only with thine eyes
Through cloudless climes and starry skies,
My native land, good-night.
Adieu, adieu, my native shore;
’Tis Greece, but living Greece no more.
Whatever is is right.

Oh, ever thus from childhood’s hour,
Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
In russet mantle clad.
The rocks and hollow mountains rung
While yet in early Greece she sung,
I’m pleased, and yet I’m sad.

In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
O, thou, the nymph with placid eye,
By Philip’s warlike son;
And on the light fantastic toe
Thus hand-in-hand through life we’ll go;
Good-night to Marmion.

LIFE.

1.—Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour?

2.—Life’s a short summer, man a flower.

3.—By turns we catch the vital breath and die—

4.—The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh.

5.—To be is better far than not to be,

6.—Though all man’s life may seem a tragedy.

7.—But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb;

8.—The bottom is but shallow whence they come.

9.—Your fate is but the common fate of all,

10.—Unmingled joys, here, to no man befall.

11.—Nature to each allots his proper sphere,

12.—Fortune makes folly her peculiar care.

13.—Custom does not often reason overrule

14.—And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool.

15.—Live well, how long or short permit, to heaven;

16.—They who forgive most, shall be most forgiven.

17.—Sin may be clasped so close we cannot see its face—

18.—Vile intercourse where virtue has not place.

19.—Then keep each passion down, however dear,

20.—Thou pendulum, betwixt a smile and tear;

21.—Her sensual snares let faithless pleasure lay,

22.—With craft and skill, to ruin and betray.

23.—Soar not too high to fall, but stop to rise;

24.—We masters grow of all that we despise.

25.—Oh then renounce that impious self-esteem;

26.—Riches have wings and grandeur is a dream.

27.—Think not ambition wise, because ’tis brave,

28.—The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

29.—What is ambition? ’Tis a glorious cheat,

30.—Only destructive to the brave and great.

31.—What’s all the gaudy glitter of a crown?

32.—The way to bliss lies not on beds of down.

33.—How long we live, not years but actions tell;

34.—That man lives twice who lives the first life well.

35.—Make then, while yet ye may, your God your friend,

36.—Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend.

37.—The trust that’s given guard, and to yourself be just;

38.—For, live we how we can, yet die we must.

1. Young. 2. Dr. Johnson. 3. Pope. 4. Prior. 5. Sewell. 6. Spenser. 7. Daniel. 8. Sir Walter Raleigh. 9. Longfellow. 10. Southwell. 11. Congreve. 12. Churchill. 13. Rochester. 14. Armstrong. 15. Milton. 16. Baily. 17. Trench. 18. Somerville. 19. Thompson. 20. Byron. 21. Smollet. 22. Crabbe. 23. Massinger. 24. Crowley. 25. Beattie. 26. Cowper. 27. Sir Walter Davenant. 28. Grey. 29. Willis. 30. Addison. 31. Dryden. 32. Francis Quarles. 33. Watkins. 34. Herrick. 35. William Mason. 36. Hill. 37. Dana. 38. Shakespeare.

CENTO FROM POPE.

’Tis education forms the common mind;	Moral Essays.
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.	Essay on Man.
Ask of the learned the way? The learned are blind;	Essay on Man.
The proper study of mankind is man.	Essay on Man.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;	Essay on Criticism.
Some have at first for wits, then poets passed—	Essay on Criticism.
See from each clime the learned their incense bring,	Essay on Criticism.
For rising merit will buoy up at last.	Essay on Criticism.

Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise.—	Essay on Man.
Virtue alone is happiness below;	Essay on Man.
Honor and shame from no condition rise,	Essay on Man.
And all our knowledge is ourselves to know.	Essay on Man.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree?	Moral Essay.
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.	Essay on Man.
Since men interpret texts, why should not we	January and May.
Read them by day and meditate by night?	Essay on Criticism.

BIBLICAL CENTO.

Cling to the Mighty One,	Ps. lxxxix. 19.
Cling in thy grief;	Heb. xii. 11.
Cling to the Holy One,	Ps. xxxix. 18.
He gives relief;	Ps. lxxxvi. 7.
Cling to the Gracious One,	Ps. cxvi. 5.
Cling in thy pain;	Ps. lv. 4.
Cling to the Faithful One,	1 Thess. v. 24.
He will sustain.	Ps. xxviii. 8.

Cling to the Living One,	Heb. vii. 25.
Cling in thy woe;	Ps. lxxxvi. 7.
Cling to the Loving One,	1 John iv. 16.
Through all below;	Rom. viii. 38, 39.
Cling to the Pardoning One,	Isa. lv. 7.
He speaketh peace;	John xiv. 27.
Cling to the Healing One,	Exod. xv. 26.
Anguish shall cease.	Ps. cxlvii. 3.

Cling to the Bleeding One,	1 John i. 7.
Cling to His side;	John xx. 27.
Cling to the Risen One,	Rom. vi. 9.
In Him abide;	John xv. 4.
Cling to the Coming One,	Rev. xxii. 20.
Hope shall arise;	Titus ii. 13.
Cling to the Reigning One,	Ps. xcvii. 1.
Joy lights thine eyes.	Ps. xvi. 11.

THE RETURN OF ISRAEL.

I will surely gather the remnant of Israel.—Micah ii. 12.

And the Temple again shall be built,
And filled as it was of yore;
And the burden be lift from the heart of the world,
And the nations all adore;
Prayers to the throne of Heaven,
Morning and eve shall rise,
And unto and not of the Lamb
Shall be the sacrifice.—Festus.

In many strange and Gentile lands	Micah v. 8.
Where Jacob’s scattered sons are driven,	Jer. xxiii. 8.
With longing eyes and lifted hands,	Lam. i. 17.
They wait Messiah’s sign from heaven.	Matth. xxiv. 30

The cup of fury they have quaffed,	Isa. li. 17.
Till fainted like a weary flock;	Isa. li. 20.
But Heaven will soon withdraw the draught,	Isa. li. 22.
And give them waters from the rock.	Exod. xvii. 6.

What though their bodies, as the ground,	Isa. li. 23.
Th’ Assyrian long has trodden o’er!	Isa. lii. 4.
Zion, a captive daughter bound,	Isa. lii. 2.
Shall rise to know her wrong no more.	Isa. liv. 3, 4.

The veil is passing from her eyes,	2 Cor. iii. 16.
The King of Nations she shall see;	Zech. xiv. 9.
Judea! from the dust arise!	Isa. lii. 2.
Thy ransomed sons return to thee!	Jer. xxxi. 17.

How gorgeous shall thy land appear,	Isa. liv. 12.
When, like the jewels of a bride,	Isa. xlix. 18.
Thy broken bands, all gathered there,	Zech. xi. 14.
Shall clothe thy hills on every side!	Isa. xlix. 18.

When on thy mount, as prophets taught,	Isa. xxiv. 23.
Shall shine the throne of David’s Son;	Ezek. xxxvii. 22.
The Gospel’s latest triumphs brought	Micah iv. 2.
Where first its glorious course begun.	Luke xxiv. 47.

Gentiles and Kings, who thee oppressed,	Isa. lx. 14.
Shall to thy gates with praise repair;	Isa. lx. 11.
A fold of flocks shall Sharon rest,	Isa. lxv. 10.
And clustered fruits its vineyard bear.	Joel ii. 22.

Then shall an Eden morn illume	Isa. li. 3.
Earth’s fruitful vales, without a thorn:	Isa. lv. 13.
The wilderness rejoice and bloom,	Isa. xxxv. 1.
And nations in a day be born.	Zech. ii. 11.

The Lord his holy arm makes bare;	Isa. lii. 10.
Zion! thy cheerful songs employ!	Zeph. iii. 14.
Thy robes of bridal beauty wear,	Isa. lii. 1.
And shout, ye ransomed race, for joy!	Isa. lii. 9.

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