Select Works of the British Poets

With fell designs; and all the watchful art
Of Cicero demanded, all the force,
All the state-wielding magic of his tongue;
And all the thunder of my Cato's zeal.
With these I linger'd; till the flame anew
Burst out in blaze immense, and wrapt the world.
The shameful contest sprung, to whom mankind
Should yield the neck: to Pompey, who conceal'd
A rage impatient of an equal name;
Or to the nobler Cæsar, on whose brow
O'er daring vice deluding virtue smil'd,
And who no less a vain superior scorn'd.
Both bled, but bled in vain. New traitors rose,
The venal WILL be bought, the base have lords.
To these wild wars I left ambitious slaves;
And from Philippi's field, from where in dust
The last of Romans, matchless Brutus! lay,
Spread to the north untam'd a rapid wing.

And, piercing farthest Scythia, westward swept
Sarmatia,|| travers'd by a thousand streams.
A sullen land of lakes, and fens immense,
Of rocks, resounding torrents, gloomy heaths,
And cruel deserts black with sounding pine;
Where Nature frowns: though sometimes into
smiles***

She softens; and immediate, at the touch
Of southern gales, throws from the sudden glebe
Luxuriant pasture, and a waste of flowers.
But, cold-comprest, when the whole loaded heaven
Descends in snow, lost in one white abrupt,
Lies undistinguish'd earth; and, seiz'd by frost,
Lakes, headlong streams, and floods, and oceans
sleep.

Yet there life glows; the furry millions there,
Deep-dig their dens beneath the sheltering snows:
And there a race of men prolific swarms,

'What though the first smooth Caesar's arts To various pain, to little pleasure us'd;

caress'd,

Merit and virtue, simulating me?
Severely tender! cruelly humane!

The chain to clinch, and make it softer sit
On the new-broken still ferocious state.
From the dark third,* succeeding, I beheld
Th' imperial monsters all. A race on Earth
Vindictive, sent the scourge of human-kind!
Whose blind profusion drain'd a bankrupt world;
Whose lust to forming Nature seems disgrace;
And whose infernal rage bade every drop
Of ancient blood, that yet retain'd my flame,
To that of Pætus,t in the peaceful bath,
Or Rome's affrighted streets, inglorious flow.
But almost just the meanly-patient death,
That waits a tyrant's unprevented stroke.
Titus indeed gave one short evening gleam;
More cordial felt, as in the midst it spread
Of storm, and horror. The delight of men;
He who the day, when his o'erflowing hand
Had made no happy heart, concluded lost;
Trajan and he, with the mild sire and son,t
His son of virtue! eas'd awhile mankind;
And arts reviv'd beneath their gentle beam.
Then was their last effort: what sculpture rais'd
To Trajan's glory, following triumphs stole ;
And mix'd with Gothic forms (the chisel's shame,)
On that triumphal arch, the forms of Greece.
"Meantime o'er rocky Thrace, and the deep
vales

Of gelid Hemus, I pursued my flight;

* Tiberius.

†Thrasea Pætus, put to death by Nero. Tacitus introduces the account he gives of his death thus: "After having inhumanly slaughtered so many illustrious men, ne (Nero) burned at last with a desire of cutting off virtue itself in the person of Thrasea," &c.

On whom, keen-parching beat Riphæan winds;
Hard like their soil, and like their climate fierce,
The nursery of nations!-These I rous'd,
Drove land on land, on people people pour'd;
Till from almost perpetual night they broke,
As if in search of day; and o'er the banks
Of yielding empire, only slave-sustain'd,
Resistless rag'd, in vengeance urg'd by me.
"Long in the barbarous heart the buried seeds
Of freedom lay, for many a wintry age;
And though my spirit work'd by slow degrees,
Nought but its pride and fierceness yet appear'd
Then was the night of time, that parted worlds.
I quitted Earth the while. As when the tribes
Aerial, warn'd of rising winter, ride
Autumnal winds, to warmer climates borne ;
So, arts and each good genius in my train,
I cut the closing gloom, and soar'd to Heaven
"In the bright regions there of purest day,
Far other scenes, and palaces, arise,
Adorn'd profise with other arts divine.
All beauty here below, to them compar'd,
Would, like a rose before the mid-day Sun,
Shrink up its blossom; like a bubble, break
The passing poor magnificence of kings.
For there the King of Nature, in full blaze,
Calls every splendor forth; and there his court,
Amid ethereal powers, and virtues, holds :
Angel, archangel, tutelary gods,

Of cities, nations, empires, and of worlds.
But sacred be the veil, that kindly clouds
A light too keen for mortals: wraps a view
Too softening fair, for those that here in dust
Must cheerful toil out their appointed years
A sense of higher life would only damp
The school-boy's task, and spoil his playful hours.
Nor could the child of reason, feeble man,
With vigor through this infant being drudge;
Did brighter worlds, their unimagin'd bliss

↑ Antoninus Pius, and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, Disclosing, dazzle and dissolve his mind."
afterwards called Antoninus Philosophus.

§ Constantine's arch, to build which, that of Trajan was destroyed, sculpture having been then almost entire ly lost.

The Ancient Sarmatia contained a vast tract of country running all along the north of Europe, and Asia

BRITAIN:

BEING THE FOURTH PART of

LIBERTY,

A POEM.

The Contents of Part IV.

Exalted rise, with other honors crown'd;
And, where my Spirit wakes the finer powers,
Athenian laurels still afresh shall bloom.

"Oblivious ages pass'd; while Earth, forsook By her best genii, lay to demons foul, And unchain'd furies, an abandon'd prey. Contention led the van; first small of size, But soon dilating to the skies she towers: Then, wide as air, the livid fury spread, And high her head above the stormy clouds, She blaz'd in omens, swell'd the groaning winds Difference betwixt the ancients and moderns slight- From land to land the maddening trumpet blew, With wild surmises, battlings, sounds of war: ly touched upon. Description of the dark ages. And pour'd her venom through the heart of man. The goddess of Liberty, who during these is Shook to the Pole, the north obey'd her call. supposed to have left Earth, returns, attended with Arts and Science. She first descends on War against human-kind: Rapine, that led Forth rush'd the bloody power of Gothic war, Italy. Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture fix at Rome, to revive their several arts by the great Unlistening, barbarous Force, to whom the sword Millions of raging robbers in his train: models of antiquity there, which many barbarous invasions had not been able to destroy. The Is reason, honor, law: the foe of arts By monsters follow'd, hideous to behold, That claim'd their place. Outrageous mix'd with these

revival of these arts marked out. That sometimes arts may flourish for a while under despotic governments, though never the natural and genuine production of them. Learning begins to dawn. The Muse and Science attend Liberty, who in her progress towards Great Britain raises several

Another species of tyrannic rule,*

Unknown before, whose cancerous shackles seiz'd Ev'n o'er her elder sistert tyranniz'd; Th' envenom'd soul: a wilder fury, she free states and cities. These enumerated. Author's exclamation of joy, upon seeing the British Dire was her train, and loud; the sable band, Or, if perchance agreed, inflam'd her rage. seas and coasts rise in the vision, which painted Thundering, Submit, ye laity! ye profane! whatever the goddess of Liberty said. She re- Earth is the Lord's, and therefore ours; let kings sumes her narration. The Genius of the deep Allow the common claim, and half be theirs ; appears, and, addressing Liberty, associates Great If not, behold! the sacred lightning flies:' Britain into his dominion. Liberty received and Scholastic Discord, with an hundred tongues, congratulated by Britannia, and the native Genii or Virtues of the island. These described. Ani- Where frighted Reason never yet could dwell: For science uttering jangling words obscure, mated by the presence of Liberty, they begin of peremptory feature, Cleric Pride, their operations. Their beneficent influence con- Whose reddening cheek no contradiction bears; trasted with the works and delusions of opposing And Holy Slander, his associate firm, demons. Concludes with an abstract of the English history, marking the several advances of Liberty, down to her complete establishment at the Revolution.

STRUCK with the rising scene, thus I, amaz'd:
"Ah, goddess, what a change! Is earth the same?
Of the same kind the ruthless race she feeds?
And does the same fair Sun and ether spread
Round this vile spot their all-enlivening soul?
Lo! beauty fails; lost in unlovely forms
Of little pomp, magnificence no more
Exalts the mind, and bids the public smile:
While to rapacious interest glory leaves
Mankind, and every grace of life is gone."

To this the power, whose vital radiance calls
From the brute mass of man an order'd world:

On whom the lying spirit still descends :
Mother of tortures! Persecuting Zeal,
High-flashing in her hand the ready torch,
Or poniard bath'd in unbelieving blood;
Hell's fiercest fiend! of saintly brow demure,
Assuming a celestial seraph's name,

While she, beneath the blasphemous pretence
Of pleasing Parent Heaven, the source of love!
Has wrought more horrors, more detested deeds
Than all the rest combin'd. Led on by her,
And wild of head to work her fell designs,
Came idiot Superstition; round with ears
Innumerous strow'd, ten thousand monkish forms
With legends plied them, and with tenets, meant
To charm or scare the simple into slaves,
And poison reason; gross, she swallows all,
The most absurd believing ever most.

"Wait till the morning shines, and from the Broad o'er the whole her universal night,

depth

Of Gothic darkness springs another day.
True genius droops; the tender ancient taste
Of beauty, then fresh-blooming in her prime,
But faintly trembles through the callous soul,
And grandeur, or of morals, or of life,
Sinks into safe pursuits, and creeping cares.
Evn cautious Virtue seems to stoop her flight,
And aged life to deem the generous deeds
Of youth romantic. Yet in cooler thought
Well-reason'd, in researches piercing deep
Through Nature's works, in profitable arts,
And all that calm experience can disclose,
(Slow guide, but sure,) behold the world anew

The gloom still doubling, Ignorance diffus'd.

Nought to be seen, but visionary monks
To councils strolling, and embroiling creeds;
Banditti saints, disturbing distant lands;
And unknown nations, wandering for a home.
All lay revers'd: the sacred arts of rule
Turn'd to flagitious leagues against mankind,
And arts of plunder more and more avow'd;
Pure plain devotion to a solemn farce;

* Church power, or ecclesiastical tyranny.
† Civil tyranny.

+ Crusades.

§ The corruption of the church of Rome.

To holy dotage virtue, ev'n to guile,
To murder, and a mockery of oaths;
Brave ancient freedom to the rage of slaves,*
Proud of their state, and fighting for their chains;
Dishonor'd courage to the bravo's trade,t
To civil broil; and glory to romance.
Thus human life, unhing'd, to ruin reel'd,
And giddy Reason totter'd on her throne.

"At last Heaven's best inexplicable scheme,
Disclosing, bade new brightening eras smile.
The high command gone forth, Arts in my train,
And azure-mantled Science, swift we spread
A sounding pinion. Eager pity, mixt
With indignation, urg'd her downward flight.
On Latium first we stoop'd, for doubtful life
That panted, sunk beneath unnumber'd woes.
Ah, poor Italia! what a bitter cup

Of vengeance hast thou drain'd! Goths, Vandals,
Huns,

Lombards, barbarians broke from every land,
How many a ruffian form hast thou beheld!
What horrid jargons heard, where rage alone
Was all thy frighted ear could comprehend!
How frequent by the red inhuman hand,
Yet warm with brother's, husband's, father's blood,
Hast thou thy matrons and thy virgins seen
To violation dragg'd, and mingled death!
What conflagrations, earthquakes, ravage, floods,
Have turn'd thy cities into stony wilds;
And succorless, and bare, the poor remains
Of wretches forth to nature's common cast!
Added to these, the still continued waste
Of inbred foes, that on thy vitals prey,
And, double tyrants, seize the very soul.
Where hadst thou treasures for this rapine all?
These hungry myriads, that thy bowels tore,
Heap'd sack on sack, and buried in their rage
Wonders of art; whence this grey scene a mine
Of more than gold becomes, and orient gems,
Where Egypt, Greece, and Rome, united glow.

"Here Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, bent
From ancient models to restore their arts,
Remain'd. A little trace we how they rose.
Amid the hoary ruins Sculpture first,
Deep-digging, from the cavern dark and damp,
Their grave for ages, bid her marble race
Spring to new light. Joy sparkled in her eyes,
And old remembrance thrill'd in every thought,
As she the pleasing resurrection saw.
In leaning site, respiring from his toils,
The well-known hero, who deliver'd Greece,
His ample chest, all tempested with force,
Unconquerable rear'd. She saw the head,
Breathing the hero, small, of Grecian size,
Scarce more extensive than the sinewy neck;
The spreading shoulders, muscular, and broad;
The whole a mass of swelling sinews, touch'd
Into harmonious shape; she saw, and joy'd.
The yellow hunter, Meleager, rais'd

His beauteous front, and through the finish'd whole
Shows what ideas smil'd of old in Greece.
Of raging aspect, rush'd impetuous forth
The gladiator. Pitiless his look,

And each keen sinew brac'd, the storm of war,
Ruffling, o'er all his nervous body frowns.
The dying Otho* from the gloom she drew.
Supported on his shorten'd arm he leans,
Prone agonizing; with incumbent fate,
Heavy declines his head; yet dark beneath
The suffering feature sullen vengeance lowers,
Shame, indignation, unaccomplish'd rage,
And still the cheated eye expects his fall.
All conquest-flush'd, from prostrate Python, came
The Quiver'd God.t In graceful act he stands,
His arm extended with the slacken'd bow.
Light flows his easy robe, and fair displays
A manly-soften'd form. The bloom of gods
Seems youthful o'er the beardless cheek to wave.
His features yet heroic ardor warms;
And sweet subsiding to a native smile,
Mixt with the joy elating conquest gives,
A scatter'd frown exalts his matchless air.
On Flora mov'd; her full-proportion'd limbs
Rise through the mantle fluttering in the breeze.
The queen of Love‡ arose, as from the deep
She sprung in all the melting pomp of charms.
Bashful she bends, her well-taught look aside
Turns in enchanting guise, where dubious mix
Vain conscious beauty, a dissembled sense
Of modest shame, and slippery looks of love.
The gazer grows enamour'd, and the stone,
As if exulting in its conquest, smiles.

So turn'd each limb, so swell'd with softening art,
That the deluded eye the marble doubts.
At last her utmost masterpiece she found,
That Maro fir'd; the miserable sire,
Wrapt with his sons in fate's severest grasp.
The serpents, twisting round, their stringent folds
Inextricable tie. Such passion here,
Such agonies, such bitterness of pain,
Seem so to tremble through the tortur'd stone,
That the touch'd heart engrosses all the view.
Almost unmark'd the best proportions pass,
That ever Greece beheld; and, seen alone,
On the rapt eye th' imperious passions seize :
The father's double pangs, both for himself
And sons convuls'd: to Heaven his rueful look,
Imploring aid, and half-accusing, cast;
His fell despair with indignation mixt,
As the strong-curling monsters from his side
His full-extended fury cannot tear.
More tender touch'd, with varied art, his sons
All the soft rage of younger passions show.
In a boy's helpless fate one sinks oppress'd!
While, yet unpierc'd, the frighted other tries
His foot to steal out of the horrid twine.

"She bore no more, but straight from Gothic rust
Her chisel clear'd,¶ and dust and fragments drove
Impetuous round. Successive as it went,
From son to son, with more enlivening touch,
From the brute rock it call'd the breathing form;

*The dying gladiator. †The Apollo of Belvidere.

The Venus of Medici.

§ The group of Laocoon and his two sons, destroyed by two serpents.

See Eneid, ii. ver 199-227.

TT It is reported of Michael Angelo Buonaroti, the most celebrated master of modern sculpture, that he wrought with a kind of inspiration, or enthusiastical fury, which produced the effect here mentioned.

The canvas, seiz'd the pallet, with quick hand
The colors brew'd; and on the void expanse
Her gay creation pour'd, her mimic world.
Poor was the manner of her eldest race,
Barren, and dry; just struggling from the taste,
That had for ages scar'd in cloisters, dim
The superstitious herd: yet glorious then
Were deem'd their works; where undevelop'd lay
"The future wonders that enrich'd mankind,
And a new light and grace o'er Europe cast.
Arts gradual gather streams. Enlarging this,
To each his portion of her various gifts
The goddess dealt, to none indulging all;
No, not to Raphael. At kind distance still
Perfection stands, like happiness, to tempt
Th'eternal chase. In elegant design
Improving Nature; in ideas fair,

Or great, extracted from the fine antique;
In attitude, expression, airs divine,

Her sons of Rome and Florence bore the prize.
To those of Venice she the magic art

Of colors melting into colors gave.

Theirs too it was by one embracing mass
Of light and shade that settles round the whole,
Or varies tremulous from part to part,
O'er all a binding harmony to throw,
To raise the picture, and repose the sight,
The Lombard schoolt succeeding, mingled both.
"Meantime dread fanes, and palaces, around,
Rear'd the magnific front. Music again
Her universal language of the heart
Renew'd; and, rising from the plaintive vale,
To the full concert spread, and solemn quire.

"Ev'n bigots smil'd; to their protection took Arts not their own, and from them borrow'd pomp: For in a tyrant's garden these awhile

May bloom, though freedom be their parent soil.

"And now confest, with gently-glowing gleam, The morning shone, and westward stream'd its light. The Muse awoke. Not sooner on the wing Is the gay bird of dawn. Artless her voice, Untaught and wild, yet warbling through the woods Romantic lays. But as her northern course She, with her tutor Science, in my train, Ardent pursu'd, her strains more noble grew: While reason drew the plan, the heart inform'd The moral page, and fancy lent it grace.

"Rome and her circling deserts cast behind,

I pass'd not idle to my great sojourn.

On Arno'st fertile plain, where the rich vine Luxuriant o'er Etrurian mountains roves, Safe in the lap repos'd of private bliss, I small republics rais'd. Thrice-happy they!

* Esteemed the two finest pieces of modern sculpture. †The school of the Caracci.

The river Arno runs through Florence.

§ The republics of Florence, Pisa, Lucca, and Sienna. They formerly had very cruel wars together, but at the time when this poem was written, were all peaceably subject to the Great Duke of Tuscany, except it be Lucca, which still maintained the form of a republic.

Had social freedom bound their peace and arts, Instead of ruling power, ne'er meant for them, Employ'd their little cares, and sav'd their fate. Beyond the rugged Apennines, that roll

Far through Italian bounds their wavy tops,
My path, too, I with public blessings strow'd;
Free states and cities, where the Lombard plain,
In spite of culture negligent and gross,
From her deep bosom pours unbidden joys,
And green o'er all the land a garden spreads.
"The barren rocks themselves beneath my foot
Relenting bloom'd on the Ligurian shore.
Thick-swarming people* there, like emmets, seiz'd,
Amid surrounding cliffs, the scatter'd spots,
Which Nature left in her destroying rage,t
Made their own fields, nor sigh'd for other lands.
There, in white prospect, from the rocky hill,
Gradual descending to the shelter'd shore,
By me proud Genoa's marble turrets rose.
And while my genuine spirit warm'd her sons,
Beneath her Dorias, not unworthy, she
Vied for the trident of the narrow seas,
Ere Britain yet had open'd all the main.

"Nor be the then triumphant statet forgot, Where, push'd from plunder'd earth, a remnant still,

Inspir'd by me, through the dark ages kept
Of my old Roman flame some sparks alive :
The seeming god-built city! which my hand
Deep in the bosom fix'd of wondering seas.
Astonish'd mortals sail'd, with pleasing awe,
Around the sea-girt walls, by Neptune fenc'd,
And down the briny street; where on each hand,
Amazing seen amid unstable waves,

The splendid palace shines; and rising tides,
The green steps marking, murmur at the door.
To this fair queen of Adria's stormy gulf,
The mart of nations! long, obedient seas
Roll'd all the treasure of the radiant East;
But now no more. Than one great tyrant worse
(Whose shar'd oppression lightens, as diffus'd)
Each subject tearing, many tyrants rose.
The least the proudest. Join'd in dark cabal,
They jealous, watchful, silent, and severe,
Cast o'er the whole indissoluble chains:
The softer shackles of luxurious ease
They likewise added, to secure their sway.
Thus Venice fainter shines; and commerce thus,
Of toil impatient, flags the drooping sail.
Bursting, besides, his ancient bounds, he took
A larger circle; found another seat,T
Opening a thousand ports, and, charm'd with toil,
Whom nothing can dismay, far other sons.

The Genoese territory is reckoned very populous, but the towns and villages for the most part lie hid among the Apennine rocks and mountains.

† According to Dr. Burnet's system of the deluge. Venice was the most flourishing city in Europe, with regard to trade, before the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope and America was discovered.

§ Those who fled to some marshes in the Adriatic gulf, from the desolation spread over Italy by an irruption of the Huns, first founded there this famous city, about the beginning of the fifth century.

The mountains then, clad with eternal snow,
Confess'd my power. Deep as the rampant rocks,
By Nature thrown insuperable round,
I planted there a league of friendly states,*
And bade plain freedom their ambition be.
There in the vale, where rural Plenty fills,
From lakes and meads, and furrow'd fields, her horn,
Chief, where the Lemant pure emits the Rhone,
Rare to be seen! unguilty cities rise,
Cities of brothers form'd: while equal life,
Accorded gracious with revolving power,
Maintains them free; and, in their happy streets,
Nor cruel deed nor misery is known.
For valor, faith, and innocence of life,
Renown'd, a rough laborious people, there,
Not only give the dreadful Alps to smile,
And press their culture on retiring snows;
But, to firm order train'd and patient war,
They likewise know, beyond the nerve remiss
Of mercenary force, how to defend

The tasteful little their hard toil has earn'd,
And the proud arm of Bourbon to defy.

[charm,

Ev'n, cheer'd by me, their shaggy mountains
More than or Gallic or Italian plains;
And sickening fancy oft, when absent long,
Pines to behold their Alpine views again :‡
The hollow-winding stream: the vale, fair spread,
Amid an amphitheatre of hills;

Whence, vapor-wing'd, the sudden tempest springs:
From steep to steep ascending, the gay train
Of fogs, thick-roll'd into romantic shapes:
The flitting cloud, against the summit dash'd;
And, by the Sun illumin'd, pouring bright
A gemmy shower: hung o'er amazing rocks,
The mountain-ash, and solemn-sounding pine:
The snow-fed torrent, in white mazes tost,
Down to the clear ethereal lake below:
And, high o'ertopping all the broken scene,
The mountain fading into sky; where shines
On winter winter shivering, and whose top
Licks from their cloudy magazine the snows.
From these descending, as I wav'd my course
O'er vast Germania, the ferocious nurse
Of hardy men and hearts affronting Death,
I gave some favor'd cities there to lift

A nobler brow, and through their swarming streets,
More busy, wealthy, cheerful, and alive,
In each contented face to look my soul.

"Thence the loud Baltic passing, black with storm,
To wintry Scandinavia's utmost bound;
There, I the manly race, the parent hive
Of the mix'd kingdoms, form'd into a state
More regularly free. By keener air
Their genius purg'd, and temper'd hard by frost,
Tempest and toil their nerves, the sons of those
Whose only terror was a bloodless death,¶
They wise, and dauntless, still sustain my cause.
Yet there I fix'd not. Turning to the south,
The whispering zephyrs sigh'd at my delay."

Here, with the shifted vision, burst my joy. "O the dear prospect! O majestic view! See Britain's empire! lo! the watery vast Wide-waves, diffusing the cerulean plain. And now, methinks, like clouds at distance seen, Emerging white from deeps of ether, dawn My kindred cliffs; whence, wafted in the gale, Ineffable, a secret sweetness breathes. Goddess, forgive!-My heart, surpris'd, o'erflows With filial fondness for the land you bless." As parents to a child complacent deign Approvance, the celestial brightness smil'd; Then thus: "As o'er the wave-resounding deep, To my near reign, the happy isle, I steer'd With easy wing; behold! from surge to surge, Stalk'd the tremendous genius of the deep. Around him clouds, in mingled tempest, hung; Thick-flashing meteors crown'd his starry head; And ready thunder redden'd in his hand,

Or from it stream'd comprest the gloomy cloud.
Where'er he look'd, the trembling waves recoil'd.
He needs but strike the conscious flood, and shook
From shore to shore, in agitation dire,

It works his dreadful will. To me his voice
(Like that hoarse blast that round the cavern howls
Mixt with the murmurs of the falling main)
Address'd, began:- By Fate commission'd, go,
My sister-goddess now, to yon blest isle,
Henceforth the partner of my rough domain,
All my dread walks to Britons open lie.
Those that refulgent, or with rosy morn,
Or yellow evening, flame: those that, profuse
Drunk by equator-suns, severely shine;
Or those that, to the Poles approaching, rise
In billows rolling into alps of ice.
Ev'n yet untouch'd by daring keel, be theirs
The vast Pacific; that on other worlds,
Their future conquest, rolls resounding tides.
Long I maintain'd inviolate my reign;
Nor Alexanders me, nor Cæsars brav'd.
Still, in the crook of shore, the coward sail
Till now low-crept; and peddling commerce plied
Between near-joining lands. For Britons, chief,
'It was reserv'd, with star-directed prow,
To dare the middle deep, and drive assur'd
To distant nations through the pathless main,
Chief, for their fearless hearts the glory waits,
Long months from land, while the black stormy

night

Around them rages, on the groaning mast
With unshook knee to know their giddy way;
To sing, unquell'd, amid the lashing wave;
To laugh at danger. Theirs the triumph be,
By deep invention's keen pervading eye,.
The heart of courage, and the hand of toil,.
Each conquer'd ocean staining with their blood,
Instead of treasure robb'd by ruffian war,
Round social Earth to circle fair exchange,
And bind the nations in a golden chain.
To these I honor'd stoop. Rushing to light,
A race of men behold! whose daring deeds
Will in renown exalt my nameless plains
O'er those of fabling Earth, as hers to mine
In terror yield. Nay, could my savage heart
Such glories check, their unsubmitting soul
Would all my fury brave, my tempest climb,
And might in spite of me my kingdom force.'
Here, waiting no reply, the shadowy power
Eas'd the dark sky, and to the deeps return'd:

« 上一頁繼續 »

圖書

Select Works of the British Poets: With Biographical and Critical Prefaces