STAR of the brave!-whose beam hath shed Which millions rushed in arms to greet, Wild meteor of immortal birth! Why rise in Heaven to set on Earth? 2. Souls of slain heroes formed thy rays; 3. Like lava rolled thy stream of blood, Before thee rose, 4. and with thee grew, A rainbow of the loveliest hue Of three bright colours, each divine, For Freedom's hand had blended them, 5. One tint was of the sunbeam's dyes ; 6. Star of the brave! thy ray is pale, 7. And Freedom hallows with her tread LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED FROM A SKULL. START not-nor deem my spirit fled : In me behold the only skull I lived, I loved, I quaff'd, like thee; Better to hold the sparkling grape, Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood; And circle in the goblet's shape The drink of gods, than reptile's food. Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, And when, alas! our brains are gone, Quaff while thou canst another race, Why not? since through life's little day Our heads such sad effects produce; Redeemed from worms and wasting clay, This chance is theirs, to be of use. Newstead Abbey, 1808.... WRITTEN BENEATH A PICTURE. 1. DEAR object of defeated care! Though now of love and thee bereft, To reconcile me with despair . Thine image and my tears are left. 2. 'Tis said with sorrow Time can cope, THE CURSE OF MINERVA, A POEM. Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas Immolat, et pœnam scelerato ex sanguine sumit. SLOW sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Not, as in Northern climes, obscurely bright, O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws, The god of gladness sheds his parting smile; On such an eve, his palest beam he cast, (1) Socrates drank the hemlock a short time before sunset (the hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to wait till the sun went down. |