The Wanderer: 'While Contemplation Weigh'd the Mystic View, The Lights All Vanish'd, and the Vision flew''

By Richard Savage

Richard Savage by his own accounts certainly had an interesting life. He claimed to be the son conceived by his mother and her lover in the dying months of her marriage. She claimed the child had died in infancy.

Savage's first confirmed work was the poem ‘The Convocation’, or ‘The Battle of Pamphlets’ (1717). From a Spanish comedy he created ‘Love in a Veil’ (1718) and then, in 1723, he played, without success, the title role of his tragedy, ‘Sir Thomas Overbury’ (1724). From these he appears to have acquired a degree of notoriety and to have succeeded in pushing his version of his life to an expanding literary circle.

Savage's ‘Miscellaneous Poems’ were published by subscription in 1726. Savage openly exposed the story of his birth in the Preface, and made repeated oblique references to his mother and his status of abandoned genius in many of the poems.

In November 1727, obviously tortured by his past and whilst out drinking with acquaintances near Charing Cross in London, he was accused and then convicted of murder. A pardon followed but his notoriety continued.

This prompted him to publish in 1728 a confessional poem titled ‘The Bastard’, which made explicit mention of his mother, his trial and the pardon by the queen, and discarded his previous image of "poor poet" in favour of a celebration of his own genius.

In 1729 Savage published ‘The Wanderer’, his best known work, a long narrative poem which Savage himself considered to be his masterpiece.

The turn of Savage's fortunes was the result of a renewed extortion campaign against his mother, who granted him in 1729 a pension of £200 per annum. With this Savage could afford an opulent lifestyle.

However, it was squandered and old feuds resurfaced. He was left with virtually no income and eventually took refuge in Wales. There, abandoned by friends, he was arrested for debt and confined in the debtors' section of the Bristol Newgate Prison. He died there on 1st August 1743.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Jul 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781839671487

Book preview

The Wanderer by Richard Savage

Richard Savage by his own accounts certainly had an interesting life. He claimed to be the son conceived by his mother and her lover in the dying months of her marriage.  She claimed the child had died in infancy.

Savage's first confirmed work was the poem ‘The Convocation’, or ‘The Battle of Pamphlets’ (1717). From a Spanish comedy he created ‘Love in a Veil’ (1718) and then, in 1723, he played, without success, the title role of his tragedy, ‘Sir Thomas Overbury’ (1724). From these he appears to have acquired a degree of notoriety and to have succeeded in pushing his version of his life to an expanding literary circle.  

Savage's ‘Miscellaneous Poems’ were published by subscription in 1726. Savage openly exposed the story of his birth in the Preface, and made repeated oblique references to his mother and his status of abandoned genius in many of the poems.

In November 1727, obviously tortured by his past and whilst out drinking with acquaintances near Charing Cross in London, he was accused and then convicted of murder.  A pardon followed but his notoriety continued.

This prompted him to publish in 1728 a confessional poem titled ‘The Bastard’, which made explicit mention of his mother, his trial and the pardon by the queen, and discarded his previous image of poor poet in favour of a celebration of his own genius.

In 1729 Savage published ‘The Wanderer’, his best known work, a long narrative poem which Savage himself considered to be his masterpiece.

The turn of Savage's fortunes was the result of a renewed extortion campaign against his mother, who granted him in 1729 a pension of £200 per annum. With this Savage could afford an opulent lifestyle.

However, it was squandered and old feuds resurfaced.  He was left with virtually no income and eventually took refuge in Wales.  There, abandoned by friends, he was arrested for debt and confined in the debtors' section of the Bristol Newgate Prison.  He died there on 1st August 1743.

Index of Contents

THE WANDERER

Canto I

Canto II

Canto III

Canto IV

Canto V

Richard Savage – A Short Biography

Richard Savage – A Concise Bibliography

CANTO I

Fain wou'd my Verse, TYRCONNEL, boast thy Name,

BROWNLOW, at once my Subject, and my Fame!

Oh! cou'd that Spirit, which thy Bosom warms,

Whose Strength surprises, and whose Goodness charms!

That various Worth! — cou'd that inspire my Lays,

Envy shou'd smile, and Censure learn to praise:

Yet, tho' unequal to a Soul, like thine,

A generous Soul, approaching to Divine,

When bless'd beneath such Patronage I write,

Great my Attempt, tho' hazardous my Flight.

O'er ample Nature I extend my Views;

Nature to rural Scenes invites my Muse:

She flies all public Care, all venal Strife,

To try the Still, compar'd with Active Life;

To prove, by these the Sons of Men may owe

The Fruits of Bliss to bursting Clouds of Woe,

That ev'n Calamity, by Thought refin'd,

Inspirits, and adorns the thinking Mind.

Come CONTEMPLATION, whose unbounded Gaze,

Swift in a Glance, the Course of Things, surveys;

Who in Thy-self the various View can'st find

Of Sea, Land, Air, and Heav'n, and Human Kind;

What Tides of Passion in the Bosom roll;

What Thoughts debase, and what exalt the Soul;

Whose Pencil paints, obsequious to thy Will,

All thou survey'st, with a creative Skill!

Oh, leave a-while thy lov'd, sequester'd Shade!

A-while in wintry Wilds vouchsafe thy Aid!

Then waft me to some olive, bow'ry Green;

Where, cloath'd in white, thou shew'st a Mind serene;

Where kind Content from Noise, and court retires,

And smiling sits, while Muses tune their Lyres:

Where Zephyrs gently breathe, while Sleep profound

To their soft Fanning nods, with Poppies crown'd,

Sleep on a Treasure of bright Dreams reclines,

By thee bestow'd; whence Fancy colour'd shines,

And flutters round his Brow a hov'ring Flight,

Varying her Plumes in visionary Light.

The solar Fires now faint, and watry burn,

Just where with Ice Aquarius frets his Urn!

If thaw'd, full-issue from its Mouth severe,

Raw Clouds, that sadden all th' inverted Year.

When FROST and FIRE with martial Pow'rs engag'd,

FROST, northward, fled the War, unequal wag'd!

Beneath, the Pole his Legions urg'd their Flight,

And gain'd a Cave profound, and wide as Night.

O'er cheerless Scenes by Desolation own'd,

High on an Alp of Ice he sits enthron'd!

One clay-cold Hand, his crystal Beard, sustains,

And scepter'd One, o'er Wind, and Tempest, reigns;

O'er stony Magazines of Hail, that storm

The blossom'd Fruit, and flow'ry Spring deform.

His languid Eyes, like frozen Lakes, appear,

Dim-gleaming all the Light, that wanders here.

His Robe snow-wrought, and hoar'd with Age; his Breath

A nitrous Damp, that strikes petrific Death.

Far hence lies, ever-freez'd, the Northern Main,

That checks, and renders Navigation vain;

That, shut against the Sun's dissolving Ray,

Scatters the trembling Tides of vanquish'd Day,

And stretching Eastward half the World secures,

Defies Discov'ry, and like Time endures!

Now FROST sent boreal Blasts to scourge the Air,

To bind the Streams, and leave the Landscape bare;

Yet when far-west, his Violence declines;

Tho' here the Brook, or Lake, his Pow'r confines;

To rocky Pools, to Cat'racts are unknown

His Chains! — to Rivers, rapid like the Rhone!

The falling Moon cast cold, a quiv'ring Light,

Just silver'd o'er the Snow, and sunk! — Pale Night

Retir'd. The Dawn in light-grey Mists arose!

Shrill chants the Cock! — the hungry Heifer lows!

Slow blush yon breaking Clouds! — the Sun's uproll'd!

Th' expansive Grey turns