"Daughter of Jove! in Britain's injured name, | Europe's worst dauber and poor Britain's best, A true-born Briton may the deed disclaim! With palsied hand shall turn each model o'er, Frown not on England-England owns him
Athene, no! the plunderer was a Scot! Ask'st thou the difference? From fair Phyle's
Survey Bœotia-Caledonia 's ours; And well I know within that bastard-land Hath wisdom's goddess never held command: A barren soil, where nature's germs, confined, To stern sterility can stint the mind; Whose thistle well betrays the niggard earth,
Emblem of all to whom the land gives birth. Each genial influence nurtured to resist, A land of meanness, sophistry, and mist: Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain Dilutes with drivel every drizzling brain, Till burst at length each watery head o'er- flows,
And own himself an infant of fourscore: Be all the bruisers call'd from all St. Giles, That art and nature may compare their styles;
While brawny brutes in stupid wonder stare, And marvel at his lordship's stone-shop there. Round the throng'd gate shall sauntering coxcombs creep, To lounge and lucubrate, to prate and peep: While many a languid maid, with longing sigh, On giant-statues casts the curious eye ; The room with transient glance appears to skim,
Yet marks the mighty back and length of limb ; Mourns o'er the difference of now and then; Exclaims, "these Greeks indeed were pro- per men;" Draws slight comparisons of these with those,
Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snows: Ten thousand schemes of petulance and pride And envies Laïs all her Attic beaux: Despatch her scheming children far and wide; Some east, some west, some-every where but north, In quest of lawless gain they issue forth; And thus, accursed be the day and year, She sent a Pict to play the felon here. Yet, Caledonia claims some native worth, As dull Bœotia gave a Pindar birth- So may her few, the letter'd and the brave, Bound to no clime, and victors o'er the grave, Shake off the sordid dust of such a land, And shine like children of a happier strand: As once of yore, in some obnoxious place, Ten names (if found) had saved a wretched race!"
When shall a modern maid have swaing like these? Alas! Sir Harry is no Hercules! And last of all, amidst the gaping crew, Some calm spectator, as he takes his view, In silent indignation, mix'd with grief, Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief. Loathed throughout life-scarce pardon'd in the dust, May hate pursue his sacrilegious lust! Link'd with the fool who fired th' Ephesian dome,
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.ph/books/content?id=V5QOAAAAQAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA606&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=%22But+ever+and+anon+of+griefs+subdued+There+comes+a+token+like+a+scorpion%27s+sting+Scarce%22&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U02Y7CNuxAjbtbH80zcaVEmwQBzpw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=67,968,464,559)
Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb; Erostratus and Elgin e'er shall shine In many a branding page and burning line! Alike condemn'd for aye to stand accursed - Perchance the second viler than the first: So let him stand through ages yet unborn, Fix'd statue on the pedestal of scorn! Though not for him alone revenge shall wait, But fits thy country for her coming fate: Hers were the deeds that taught her law- less son
To do what oft Britannia's self had done. Look to the Baltic blazing from afar- Your old ally yet mourns perfidious war: Not to such deeds did Pallas lend her aid, Or break the compact which herself had
Far from such councils, from the faithless
She fled -- but left behind her Gorgon-shield; A fatal gift, that turn'd your friends to stone, And, left lost Albion hated and alone. Look to the east, where Ganges' swarthy race Shall shake your usurpation to its base; Lo! there rebellion rears her ghastly head, And glares the Nemesis of native dead, Till Indus rolls a deep purpureal flood, And claims his long arrear of northern blood.
So may ye perish! Pallas, when she gave Your free-born rights, forbade ye to enslave. Look on your Spain, she clasps the hand she hates, But coldly clasps, and thrusts you from her gates. Bear witness bright Barrossa, thou canst tell Whose were the sons that bravely fought and fell.
While Lusitania, kind and dear ally, Can spare a few to fight and sometimes fly. Oh glorious field! by famine fiercely won; The Gaul retires for once, and all is done! But when did Pallas teach that one retreat Retrieved three long olympiads of defeat? Look last at home-ye love not to look there, On the grim smile of comfortless despair; Your city saddens, loud though revel howls, Here famine faints, and yonder rapine prowls:
See all alike of more or less bereft- No misers tremble when there's nothing left. "Blest paper credit" who shall dare to sing? It clogs like lead corruption's weary wing: Yet Pallas pluck'd each Premier by the ear, Who gods and men alike disdain'd to hear; But one, repentant o'er a bankrupt state, On Pallas calls, but calls, alas! too late; Then raves for ***; to that Mentor bends, Though he and Pallas never yet were friends:
Him senates hear whom never yet they heard, Contemptuous once, and now no less absurd: So once of yore each reasonable frog Swore faith and fealty to his sovereign log; Thus hail'd your rulers their patrician clod, As Egypt chose an onion for a god.
"Now fare ye well, enjoy your little hour; Go, grasp the shadow of your vanish'd power; Gloss o'er the failure of each fondest scheme, Your strength a name, your bloated wealth a dream. Gone is that gold, the marvel of mankind, And pirates barter all that's left behind, No more the hirelings, purchased near
Crowd to the ranks of mercenary war; The idle merchant on the useless quay Droops o'er the bales no bark may bear
away, Or, back returning, sees rejected stores Rot piecemeal on his own encumber'd shores; The starved mechanic breaks his rusting loom,
And desperate mans him 'gainst the common doom.
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.ph/books/content?id=V5QOAAAAQAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA607&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=%22But+ever+and+anon+of+griefs+subdued+There+comes+a+token+like+a+scorpion%27s+sting+Scarce%22&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U30SZrZS-LmEJS4JSwdyQK40fM6Vw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=472,146,470,481)
O'er whose gay trappings stern Bellona smiles;
The brazen trump, the spirit-stirring drum, That bid the foe defiance ere they come; The hero, bounding at his country's call, The glorious death that decorates his fall, Swell the young heart with visionary charms,
And bid it antedate the joys of arms. But know, a lesson you may yet be taught- With death alone are laurels cheaply bought: Not in the conflict havoc seeks delight, His day of mercy is the day of fight; But when the field is fought, the battle won, Though drench'd with gore, his woes are but begun. His deeper deeds ye yet know but by name,-- The slaughter'd peasant and the ravish'd dame,
The rifled mansion and the foe-reap'd field, Ill suit with souls at home untaught to yield.
Say with what eye, along the distant down, Would flying burghers mark the blazing
town? How view the column of ascending flames Shake his red shadow o'er the startled Thames? Nay, frown not, Albion! for the torch was thine
That lit such pyres from Tagus to the Rhine: Now should they burst on thy devoted coast, Go, ask thy bosom, who deserves them most?
The law of heaven and earth is life for life; And she who raised in vain regrets the
CARMEN SECULARE ET ANNUS, HAUD MIRABILIS.
"Impar Congressus Achilli."
THE "good old times"-all times, when He "wept for worlds to conquer!" he
old, are good- Are gone; the present might be, if they would; Great things have been, and are, and great- er still Want little of mere mortals but their will: A wider space, a greener field is given To those who play their "tricks before high
Heaven." I know not if the angels weep, but men Have wept enough-for what?-to weep again.
All is cxploded-be it good or bad. Reader! remember when thou wert a lad, Then Pitt was all; or, if not all, so much, His very rival almost deem'd him such. We, we have seen the intellectual race Of giants stand, like Titans, face to face- Athos and Ida, with a dashing sea Of eloquence between, which flow'd all free, As the deep billows of the Ægean roar Betwixt the Hellenic and the Phrygian shore. But where are they-the rivals? - a few feet Of sullen earth divide each winding-sheet. How peaceful and how powerful is the grave Which hushes all! a calm, unstormy wave Which oversweeps the world. The theme is old
Of "dust to dust;" but half its tale untold. Time tempers not its terrors - still the worm Winds its cold folds, the tomb preserves
Conceived the globe he panted not to spare! With even the busy Northern Isle unknown, Which holds his urn, and never knew his throne.
But where is he, the modern, mightier far, Who, born no king, made monarchs draw his car; The new Sesostris, whose unharness'd kings, Free'd from the bit, believe themselves with wings, And spurn the dust o'er which they crawl'd of late, Chain'd to the chariot of the chieftain's state?
Yes! where is he, the Champion and the Child
Of all that's great or little, wise or wild? Whose game was empires and whose stakes were thrones? Whose table, earth_whose dice were human bones?
Behold the grand result in yon lone isle, And, as thy nature urges, weep or smile. Sigh to behold the eagle's lofty rage Reduced to nibble at his narrow cage; Smile to survey the Queller of the Nations Now daily squabbling o'er disputed rations; Weep to perceive him mourning, as he dines, O'er curtail'd dishes and o'er stinted wines; O'er petty quarrels upon petty things- Is this the man who scourged or feasted kings? Behold the scales in which his fortune hangs, A surgeon's statement and an earl's ha- rangues!
its formVaried above, but still alike below; The urn may shine, the ashes will not glow. Though Cleopatra's mummy cross the sea, O'er which from empire she lured Anthony; Though Alexander's urn a show be grown On shores he wept to conquer, though A bust delay'd, a book refused, can shake
unknownHow vain, how worse than vain at length appear The madman's wish, the Macedonian's tear! He wept for worlds to conquer-half the
carth Knows not his name, or but his death and birth And desolation; while his native Greece Hath all of desolation, save its peace.
The sleep of him who kept the world awake. Is this indeed the Tamer of the Great, Now slave of all could teaze or irritate- The paltry jailor and the prying spy, The staring stranger with his note-book nigh?
Plunged in a dungeon, he had still been great; How low, how little was this middle state, Between a prison and a palace, where
How few could feel for what he had to bear! He wants not this; but France shall feel Vain his complaint,-my Lord presents his
When Victory's Gallic column shall but rise, Like Pompey's pillar, in a desert's skies, The rocky isle that holds or held his dust Shall crown the Atlantic like the hero's bust, And mighty Nature o'er his obsequies Do more than niggard Envy still denies. But what are these to him? Can glory's lust Touch the free'd spirit or the fetter'd dust? Small care hath he of what his tomb consists, Nought if he sleeps-nor more if he exists: Alike the better-seeing Shade will smile On the rude cavern of the rocky isle,
As if his ashes found their latest home In Rome's Pantheon, or Gaul's mimic dome.
Of this last consolation, though so scant; Her honour, fame, and faith, demand his bones,
To rear above a pyramid of thrones; Or, carried onward, in the battle's van To form, like Guesclin's dust, her talisman. But be it as it is, the time may come His name shall beat the alarm like Ziska's
Oh, Heaven! of which he was in power a feature; Oh, Earth! of which he was a noble creature; Thou Isle! to be remember'd long and well, That sawst the unfledged eaglet chip his shell! Ye Alps, which view'd him in his dawning flights Hover, the victor of an hundred fights! Thou Rome, who sawst thy Cæsar's deeds outdone! Alas! why pass'd he too the Rubicon ? The Rubicon of man's awaken'd rights, To herd with vulgar kings and parasites ? Egypt! from whose all dateless tombs arose Forgotten Pharaohs from their long repose, And shook within their pyramids to hear A new Cambyses thundering in their ear; While the dark shades of forty ages stood Like startled giants by Nile's famous flood; Or from the pyramid's tall pinnacle Beheld the desert peopled, as from hell, With clashing hosts, who strew'd the barren sand
To re-manure the uncultivated land! Spain! which, a moment mindless of the Cid, Beheld his banner flouting thy Madrid! Austria! which saw thy twice-ta'en capital Twice spared, to be the traitress of his fall! Ye race of Frederic! - Frederics but in name And falsehood- heirs to all except his fame; Who, crush'd at Jena, crouch'd at Berlin, fell First, and but rose to follow; ye who dwell Where Kosciusko dwelt, remembering yet The unpaid amount of Catherine's bloody
Poland! o'er which the avenging angel pass'd,
But left thee as he found thee, still a waste; Forgetting all thy still enduring claim, Thy lotted people and extinguish'd name; Thy sigh for freedom, thy long-flowing tear, That sound that crashes in the tyrant's ear; Kosciusko! on-on-on-the thirst of war Gasps for the gore of serfs and of their Czar; The half-barbaric Moscow's minarets Gleam in the sun, but 'tis a sun that sets! Moscow! thou limit of his long career, For which rude Charles had wept his fro
And palace fuel to one common fire. To this the soldier lent his kindling match, To this the peasant gave his cottage-thatch, To this the merchant flung his hoarded store, The prince his hall-and, Moscow was no more!
Sublimest of volcanoes! Etna's flame
Pales before thine, and quenchless Hecla's
tame; Vesuvius shows his blaze, an usual sight For gaping tourists, from his hackney'd height:
Thou standst alone unrivall'd till the fire To come, in which all empires shall expire. Thou other element! as strong and stern To teach a lesson conquerors will not learn, Whose icy wing flapp'd o'er the faltering foe, Till fell a hero with each flake of snow; How did thy numbing beak and silent fang Pierce, till hosts perish'd with a single
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.ph/books/content?id=V5QOAAAAQAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA610&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=%22But+ever+and+anon+of+griefs+subdued+There+comes+a+token+like+a+scorpion%27s+sting+Scarce%22&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U1JWNf4SZ0jKwYNCi2H1l1vkQ0ZGA&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=67,573,470,300)
The conqueror's yet unbroken heart! Again The horn of Roland sounds, and not in vain. Lutzen, where fell the Swede of victory, Beholds him conquer, but, alas! not die: Dresden surveys three despots fly once more Before their sovereign, sovereign, as before; But there exhausted Fortune quits the field, And Leipsic's treason bids the unvanquish'd
yield; The Saxon Jackal leaves the Lion's side To turn the Bear's, and Wolf's, and Fox's guide; And backward to the den of his despair The forest-monarch shrinks, but finds no lair! Oh ye! and each, and all! Oh, France! who found Thy long fair fields plough'd up as hostile ground, Disputed foot by foot, till treason, still His only victor, from Montmartre's hill Look'd down o'er trampled Paris; and thou,
Which proves how fools may have their
fortune too, Won, half by blunder, half by treachery; Oh, dull Saint-Helen! with thy y jailor nigh- Hear! hear! Prometheus from his rock appeal
To earth, air, ocean, all that felt or feel His power and glory, all who yet shall hear A name eternal as the rolling year; He teaches them the lesson taught so long, So oft, so vainly-learn to do no wrong! A single step into the right had made This man the Washington of worlds be-
A single step into the wrong has given Hisname a doubt to all the winds of Heaven; The reed of Fortune and of thrones the rod, Of Fame the Moloch or the demi-god; His country's Cæsar, Europe's Hannibal, Without their decent dignity of fall. Yet Vanity herself had better taught A surer path even to the fame he sought, By pointing out on history's fruitless page Ten thousand conquerors for a single sage. While Franklin's quiet memory climbs to
heaven. Calming the lightning which he thence hath riven, Or drawing from the no less kindled earth Freedom and peace to that which boasts his birth: While Washington's a watch-word, such
But 'twill not be, the spark's awaken'd, lo! The swarthy Spaniard feels his former glow; The same high spirit which beat back the Moor
Through eight long ages of alternate gore Revives-and where? in that avenging clime Where Spain was once synonymous with
isle, Which seest Etruria from thy ramparts smile, Thou momentary shelter of his pride, Till woo'd by danger, his yet weeping bride; Oh, France! retaken by a single march, To kindle souls within degraded flesh, Whose path was through one long triumphal arch! Oh, bloody and most bootless Waterloo,
Where Cortes' and Pizarro's banner flew; The infant-world redeems her name of "New."
'Tis the old aspiration breathed afresh, Such as repulsed the Persian from the shore Where Greece was-No! she still is Greece
« PreviousContinue » |