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And spreads her arms-as if the general | If, when that interference hath relieved him,

air

Alone could satisfy her wide embrace. Melt, principalities. before her melt! Her love ve hailed-her wrath have felt;

He must sink down to languish

In worse than former helplessness-and lie Till the caves roar,—and, imbecility Again engendering anguish,

But she through many a change of form The same weak wish returns, that had

[creature,

hath gone, And stands amidst you now, an armèd Whose panoply is not a thing put on, But the live scales of a portentous nature; That, having wrought its way from birth to birth, [to the earth! Stalks round-abhorred by Heaven, a terror

I marked the breathings of her dragon

crest;

My soul, a sorrowful interpreter,
In many a midnight vision bowed
Before the ominous aspect of her spear;
Whether the mighty beam, in scorn upheld,
Threatened her foes,-or, pompously at

rest,

Seemed to bisect her orbèd shield,

As stretches a blue bar of solid cloud Across the setting sun, and through the fiery west.

So did she daunt the earth, and God defy! And, wheresoe'er she spread her sovereignty, Pollution tainted all that was most pure. Have we not known-and live we not to tell

That Justice seemed to hear her final knell? Faith buried deeper in her own deep breast Herstores, and sighed to find them insecure! And Hope was maddened by the drops [lived rest: From shades, her chosen place of shortShame followed shame-and woe supplan

that fell

ted woe-..

Is this the only change that time can show? How long shall vengeance sleep?

Ye

patient heavens, how long? Infirm ejaculation! from the tongue Of nations wanting virtue to be strong Up to the measure of accorded might, And daring not to feel the majesty of right.

Weak spirits are there--who would ask, Upon the pressure of a painful thing, The lion's sinews, or the eagle's wing; Or let their wishes loose, in forest glade, Among the lurking powers Of herbs and lowly flowers, Or seek, from saints above, miraculous aid; That man may be accomplished for a task Which his own nature hath enjoined—and why?

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before deceived him.

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A ROMAN master stands on Grecian
ground,
[games
And to the concourse of the Isthmian
He, by his herald's voice, aloud proclaims
The liberty of Greece !-the words rebound
Until all voices in one voice are drowned;
Glad acclamation by which air was rent!
And birds, high flying in the element,
Dropped to the earth, astonished at the
A melancholy echo of that noise
Doth sometimes hang on musing fancy's
[dear;
Ah! that a conqueror's word should be so
Ah! that a boon could shed such rapturous
joys!

sound!

ear:

A gift of that which is not to be given By all the blended powers of earth and heaven.

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By more deserving brows.-Yet so ye prop,
Sons of the brave who fought at Marathon!
Your feeble spirits. Greece her head hath
bowed,

As if the wreath of liberty thereon
Would fix itself as smoothly as a cloud,
Which, at Jove's will, descends on Pelion's
top."

CLOUDS, ungering yet, extend in solid bars
Through the gray west; and lo! these
waters, steeled

By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield
A vivid repetition of the stars ;
Jove-Venus--and the ruddy crest of Mars,
Amid his fellows beauteously revealed
At happy distance from earth's groaning
field,

Where ruthless mortals wage incessant wars.

TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ON THE FINAL Is it a mirror?-or the nether sphere
PASSING OF THE BILL FOR THE
ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE,

MARCH, 1807.
CLARKSON! it was an obstinate hill to
climb :
[thee
How toilsome, nay, how dire it was, by
Is known,-by none, perhaps, so feelingly;
But thou, who, starting in thy fervent
prime,

Didst first lead forth this pilgrimage sublime,
Hast heard the constant voice its charge
repeat,
[seat,
Which, out of thy young heart's oracular
First roused thee.-Oh, true yoke-fellow of
Time

With unabating effort, see, the palm
Is won, and by all nations shall be worn!
The bloody writing is for ever torn,
And thou henceforth shalt have a good
man's calm,

A great man's happiness; thy zeal shall find
Repose at length, firm friend of human
kind!

A PROPHECY. FEBRUARY, 1807. HIGH deeds, O Germans, are to come from you!

Opening to view the abyss in which it feeds
Its own calm fires?-But list! a voice is
near;
[the reeds,
Great Pan himself low-whispering through
Be thankful, thou; for if unholy deeds
Ravage the world, tranquillity is here!"

trace

Go back to antique ages, if thine eyes
The genuine mien and character would
Of the rash spirit that still holds her place,
Prompting the world's audacious vanities!
See, at her call, the Tower of Babel rise
The Pyramid extend its monstrous base
For some aspirant of our short-lived rac
Anxious an airy name to immortalize.
There, too, ere wiles and politic dispute
Gave specious colouring to aim and act,
See the first mighty hunter leave the brute
To chase mankind, with men in armies
packed

For his field-pastime, high and absolute,
While, to dislodge his game, cities are
sacked!

[found, COMPOSED WHILE THE AUTHOR WAS
ENGAGED IN WRITING A TRACT
OCCASIONED BY THE CONVENTION
OF CINTRA, 1808.

Thus in your books the record shall be
"A watchword was pronounced, a potent
sound,
[dew
ARMINIUS!-all the people quaked like
Stirred by the breeze-they rose a nation,

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And through the human heart explore my | Like echo, when the hunter-train at dawn way, [may, Have roused her from her sleep: and And look and listen-gathering, whence I forest-lawn, [resound Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can Cliffs, woods, and caves her viewless steps restrain. And babble of her pastime !-On, dread power!

COMPOSED AT THE SAME TIME AND ON With such invisible motion speed thy flight,

THE SAME OCCASION.

I DROPPED my pen :-and listened to the
wind

That sang of trees up-torn and vessels tost;
A midnight harmony, and wholly lost
To the general sense of men by chains con-
fined

Of business, care, or pleasure,-or resigned
To timely sleep. Thought I, the impas-
sioned strain,

Which, without aid of numbers, I sustain,
Like acceptation from the world will find.
Yet some with apprehensive ear shall drink
A dirge devoutly breathed o'er sorrows past,
And to the attendant promise will give

heed

The prophecy,-like that of this wild blast,
Which, while it makes the heart with sad-
[ceed.
Tells also of bright calms that shall suc-

ness shrink,

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Through hanging clouds, from craggy

height to height, [herdsman's bower, Through the green vales and through the That all the Alps may gladden in thy might,

Here, there, and in all places at one hour.

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ALAS! what boots the long, laborious quest
Of moral prudence, sought through good
and ill;

Or pains abstruse-to elevate the will,
And lead us on to that transcendent rest
Where every passion shall the sway attest
Of reason, seated on her sovereign hill;
What is it, but a vain and curious skill,
If sapient Germany must lie deprest,
Beneath the brutal sword? Her haughty
schools
(say,
Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules,
Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have
wrought

More for mankind at this unhappy day
Than all the pride of intellect and thought?

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SAY, what is honour?-"Tis the finest sense
Of justice which the human mind can
frame,
Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim,
And guard the way of life from all offence
Suffered or done. When lawless violence
A kingdom doth assault, and in the scale
Of perilous war her weightiest armies fail,
Honour is hopeful elevation-whence
Glory, and triumph. Yet with politic skill
Endangered states may yield to terms un-
just,

Stoop their proud heads, but not unto the dust,

A foe's most favourite purpose to fulfil :
Happy occasions oft by self-mistrust
Are forfeited; but infamy doth kill.

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BRAVE Schill! by death delivered, take thy | Internal darkness and unquiet breath; flight. [rest And, if old judgments keep their sacred From Prussia's timid region. Go, and course, [cipitate With heroes mid the islands of the blest, Him from that height shall Heaven preOr in the fields of empyrean light. By violent and ignominious death. A meteor wert thou in a darksome night; Yet shall thy name conspicuous and sublime,

Stand in the spacious firmament of time,
Fixed as a star: such glory is thy right.
Alas! it may not be for earthly fame
Is fortune's frail dependent; yet there lives
A judge, who, as man claims by merit,
gives;

To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim,
Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed :
In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.

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Is there a power that can sustain and
cheer

The captive chieftain, by a tyrant's doom,
Forced to descend alive into his tomb,

A dungeon dark! where he must waste the
[dear;
And lie cut off from all his heart holds

year,

What time his injured country is a stage
Whereon deliberate valour and the rage
Of righteous vengeance side by side appear,
Filling from morn to night the heroic

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