XL.

OCCASIONED BY THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. (The last six lines intended for an Inscription.) FEBRUARY, 1816.

INTREPID Sons of Albion! not by you
Is life despised; ah no, the spacious earth
Ne'er saw a race who held, by right of birth,
So many objects to which love is due:
Ye slight not life- to God and Nature true;
But death, becoming death, is dearer far,
When duty bids you bleed in open war:
Hence hath your prowess quelled that impious crew.
Heroes! for instant sacrifice prepared,

Yet filled with ardour, and on triumph bent
'Mid direst shocks of mortal accident,

To you who fell, and you whom slaughter spared, To guard the fallen, and consummate the event, Your Country rears this sacred Monument!

City, and naval stream, suburban grove,
And stately forest where the wild deer rove;
Nor wanted lurking hamlet, dusky towns,
And scattered rural farms of aspect bright;
And, here and there, between the pastoral downs,
The azure sea upswelled upon the sight.
Fair prospect, such as Britain only shows!
But not a living creature could be seen
Through its wide circuit, that, in deep repose,
And, even to sadness, lonely and serene,
Lay hushed-till through a portal in the sky
Brighter than brightest loop-hole in a storm,
Opening before the sun's triumphant eye,
Issued, to sudden view, a glorious Form!
Earthward it glided with a swift descent:
Saint George himself this Visitant may be;
And, ere a thought could ask on what intent
He sought the regions of humanity,
A thrilling voice was heard, that vivified
City and field and flood; -aloud it cried

66

Anon before my sight a palace rose
Built of all precious substances, -so pure
And exquisite, that sleep alone bestows
Ability like splendour to endure:

Entered, with streaming thousands, through the gate
I saw the banquet spread beneat!, a Dome of state,
A lofty Dome, that dared to emulate

The Heaven of sable night

With starry lustre; and had power to throw
Solemn effulgence, clear as solar light,

Upon a princely Company below,

While the Vault rang with choral harmony,

Like some Nymph-haunted Grot beneath the roaring sca
-No sooner ceased that peal, than on the verge
Of exultation hung a dirge,

Breathed from a soft and lonely instrument,

That kindled recollections

Of agonised affections;

And, though some tears the strain attended,

The mournful passion ended

4.

But garlands wither, festal shows depart Like dreams themselves; and sweetest sound, Albeit of effect profound,

It was and it is gone! Victorious England! bid the silent Art Reflect, in glowing hues that shall not fade, These high achievements, even as she arrayed With second life the deed of Marathon,

Upon Athenian walls:

So may she labour for thy civic halls; And be the guardian spaces

Of consecrated places,

As nobly graced by Sculpture's patient toil;
And let imperishable structures grow
Fixed in the depths of this courageous soil;
Expressive signals of a glorious strife,
And competent to shed a spark divine
Into the torpid breast of daily life;
Records on which the morning sun may shine.
As changeful ages flow,

With gratulation thoroughly benign!

5.

And ye, Pierian Sisters, sprung from Jeve And sage Mnemosyne, full long debarred

From your first mansions, exiled all too long
From many a hallowed stream and grove,
Dear native regions where ye wont to rove,
Chanting for patrio: heroes the reward

Of never-dying song!

Now (for, though Truth descending from above
The Olympian summit hath destroyed for aye
Your kindred Deities, ye live and move,
And exercise unblamed a generous sway)
Now, on the margin of some spotless fountain,
Or top serene of unmolested mountain,
Strike audibly the noblest of your lyres,
And for a moment meet my soul's desires!
That I, or some more favoured Bard, may hear
What ye, celestial Maids! have often sung
Of Britain's acts, may catch it with rapt ear,
And give the treasure to our British tongue!
So shall the characters of that proud page
Support their mighty theme from age to age;
And, in the desert places of the earth,
When they to future empires have given birth,
So shall the people gather and believe
The bold report transferred to every clime;
And the whole world, not envious but admiring,
And to the like aspiring,

Own that the progeny of this fair Isle
Had power as lofty actions to achieve
As were performed in Man's heroic prime;
Nor wanted, when their fortitude had held
Its even tenour, and the foe was quelled,
A corresponding virtue to beguile

The hostile purpose of wide-wasting Time;
That not in vain they laboured to secure,
For their great deeds, perpetual memory,
And fame as largely spread as land and sea,
By works of spirit high and passion pure!

XLV.

THANKSGIVING ODE. JANUARY 18, 1816.

ADVERTISEMENT.

WHOLLY unworthy of touching upon the momentous subject here treated would that Poet be, before whose eyes the present distresses under which this kingdom labours could interpose a veil sufficiently thick to hide, or even to obscure, the splendour of this great moral triumph. If the author has given way to exultation, unchecked by these distresses, it might be sufficient to protect him from a charge of insensibility, should he state his own belief that the sufferings will be transitory. On the wisdom of a very large majority of the British nation rested that generosity which poured out the treasures of this country for the deliverance of

Europe and in the same national wisdom, presiding in time of peace over an energy not inferior to that which has been displayed in war, they confide, who encourage a firm hope, that the cup of our wealth will be gradually replenished. There will, doubtless, be no few ready to indulge in regrets and repinings; and to feed a morbid satisfaction, by aggravating these burthens in imagination, in order that calamity so confidently prophesied, as it has not taken the shape which their sagacity allotted to it, may appear as grievous as possible under another. But the body of the nation will not quarrel with the gain, because it might have been purchased at a less price: and, acknowledging in these sufferings, which they feel to have been in a great degree unavoidable, a consecration of their noble efforts, they will vigorously apply themselves to remedy the evil.

Nor is it at the expense of rational patriotism, or in disregard of sound philosophy, that the author hath given vent to feelings tending to encourage a martial spirit in the bosoms of his countrymen, at a time when there is a general outcry against the prevalence of these dispositions. The British army, both by its skill and valour in the field, and by the discipline which has rendered it much less formidable than the armies of other powers to the inhabitants of the several countries where its operations were carried on, has performed services that will not allow the language of gratitude and admiration to be suppressed or restrained (whatever be the temper of the public mind) through a scrupulous dread lest the tribute due to the past should prove an injurious incentive for the future. Every man deserving the name of Briton adds his voice to the chorus which extols the exploits of his countrymen, with a consciousness, at times overpowering the effort, that they transcend all praise. But this particular sentiment, thus irresistibly excited, is not sufficient. The nation would err grievously, if she suffered the abuse which other states have made of military power, to prevent her from perceiving that no people ever was, or can be, independent, free, or secure, much less great, in any sane application of the word, without martial propensities and an assiduous cultivation of military virtues. Nor let it be overlooked, that the benefits derivable from these sources are placed within the reach of Great Britain, under conditions peculiarly favourable. The same insular position which, by rendering territorial incorporation impossible, utterly precludes the desire of conquest under the most seductive shape it can assume, enables her to rely, for her defence against foreign foes, chiefly upon a species of armed force from which her own liberties have nothing to fear. Such are the privileges of her situation; and, by permitting, they invite her to give way to the courageous instincts of human nature, and to strengthen and to refine them by culture. But some have more than insinuated that a design exists to subvert the civil character of the English people by unconstitutional ap

He with enraptured voice will tell

Of One whose spirit no reverse could quell;
Of One that 'mid the failing never failed:
Who paints how Britain struggled and prevailed
Shall represent her labouring with an eye

Of circumspect humanity;

Shall show her clothed with strength and skill,
All martial duties to fulfil;

Firm as a rock in stationary fight;

In motion rapid as the lightning's gleam;
Fierce as a flood-gate bursting in the night
To rouse the wicked from their giddy dream
Woe, woe to all that face her in the field!
Appalled she may not be, and cannot yield.

4.

And thus is missed the sole true glory
That can belong to human story!
At which they only shall arrive

Who through the abyss of weakness dive.
The very humblest are too proud of heart;
And one brief day is rightly set apart
To Him who lifteth up and layeth low;

For that Almighty God to whom we owc,

Land of our fathers! precious unto me
Since the first joys of thinking infancy;

When of thy gallant chivalry I read,
And hugged the volume on my sleepless bed!

5.

How dreadful the dominion of the impure!
Why should the song be tardy to proclaim
That less than power unbounded could not tame
That soul of Evil — which, from Hell let loose,
Had filled the astonished world with such abuse
As boundless patience only could endure?
-Wide-wasted regions-cities wrapped in flame -
Who sees, and feels, may lift a streaming eye
To Heaven, who never saw, may heave a sigh;
But the foundation of our nature shakes,
And with an infinite pain the spirit aches,
When desolated countries, towns on fire,
Are but the avowed attire

Of warfare waged with desperate mind
Against the life of virtue in mankind;
Assaulting without ruth

The citadels of truth;

While the whole forest of civility

Is doomed to perish, to the last fair tree!

If I forget thy prowess, never more

Be thy ungrateful Son allowed to hear
Thy green leaves rustle, or thy torrents roar!
But how can He be faithless to the past,
Whose soul, intolerant of base decline,
Saw in thy virtue a celestial sign,

That bade him hope, and to his hope cleave fast!
The Nations strove with puissance; at length
Wide Europe heaved, impatient to be cast,
With all her living strength,
With all her armed Powers,
Upon the offensive shores.

The trumpet blew a universal blast!
But Thou art foremost in the field:- there stand:
Receive the triumph destined to thy Hand!
All States have glorified themselves; - their claims
Are weighed by Providence, in balance even;
And now, in preference to the mightiest names,
To Thee the exterminating sword is given.
Dread mark of approbation, justly gained!
Exalted office, worthily sustained!

9.

Imagination, ne'er before content,

But aye ascending, restless in her pride,

"A discipline the rule whereof is passion."-LORD BROOK