By Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864)

        WE are what suns and winds and waters make us;

         The mountains are our sponsors, and the rills [1]

         Fashion and win their nursling with their smiles.

         But where the land is dim from tyranny [2],

5       There tiny pleasures occupy the place                            

        Of glories and of duties; as the feet

        Of fabled faeries when the sun goes down                              fairies

        Trip o’er the grass where wrestlers strove by day.

        Then Justice, call’d the Eternal One above,

10     Is more inconstant than the buoyant form                     

        That burst into existence from the froth

        Of ever-varying ocean: what is best

        Then becomes worst; what loveliest, most deform’d.

        The heart is hardest in the softest climes [3],

15    The passions flourish, the affections die.                       

        O thou vast tablet of these awful truths,

        That fillest all the space between the seas,

       Spreading from Venice’s [4] deserted courts

        To the Tarentine and Hydruntine mole,

20    What lifts thee up? what shakes thee? ’t is the breath      

       Of God. Awake, ye nations! spring to life!

       Let the last work of his right hand [5] appear

       Fresh with his image, Man.
 

Introduction

The poet, Walter Savage Landor, once said, “I claim no place in the world of letters; I am alone; and will be alone as long as I live, and after.” During his time, his poems were never noticed and even now are overlooked compared to to the other famous poets of the early nineteenth century. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, and the Bronte sisters are a few of the well-known names of the time who overshadowed him. Even so, Landor’s focus in his poetry was never on the attention of the crowd, but rather on the attention of one eager listener. He said himself, “God grant I may never be popular in any way, if I must pay the price of self-esteem for it.” His attitude towards his work set him apart from the other poet’s voices of the age.
 

"There is delight in singing, though none hear

Beside the singer: and there is delight

In praising, though the praiser sit alone

And see the praised far off him, far above."

Landor

A few recognized his different voice, one being Algeron Swinburne, who wrote a poem in honor of Landor’s unheard works.

Landor's Life

Landor was known best for his epigraphs and his classicism. His poetry made its debut during the Romantic Era, but his writing more closely resembled the aspects of the classicists. While he wrote beautiful poems expressing love and beauty, many of his poems were used to verbally attack political figureheads in Britain; this expresses his fiery temperament as a poet. His style of writing often conveys a divided self, contrasting two aspects that seemingly turn into one.

He was born in Warwick under the care of affluent parents. In 1783, he was sent to a Rugby Boarding School where he learned how to write and translate Latin. This skill would later be used in his poetry as he would publish many of his pieces in Latin, especially the ones filled with political criticism. His rebellious nature was apparent even at his first school and into his university years at Oxford where he was suspended for shooting a gun at a fellow student’s window because said student kept him up into the late hours of the night. Later in his life, he would become interested in the republican movement emerging in France, which stemmed much of his misogyny against England’s political power.

“An Invocation” is a poem focused on the affects of a domineering government against both its citizens and those outside its borders. This work uncovers how a people group is touched by the  damaged rule of immoral leaders. One of the political figures Landor despised was William Pitt, who declared the extension of the war with France.

Footnotes

[1] A small stream or brook; often used figuratively in poetry

[2] This “tyranny” most likely is referring to England’s declaration of war against France in 1803 which continued throughout the next decade.

[3] “Climes” refers to a region or a realm; Milton uses this in the figurative form in Paradise Lost XI. “To walk with God High in Salvation and the Chimes of bliss.”

[4] In his 30s, Landor chose to enlist with the Spanish to fight Napoleon during the Peninsular War. After this, he journeyed all through Europe—first in France then in Italy.

[5] God’s right hand is described as a place of honor; only Jesus, the Son of God, is able to sit there (Hebrews 1:3).