MANY a vanished year and age,
And tempest's breath, and battle's rage; Have swept o'er Corinth; yet she stands A fortress formed to Freedom's hands. The whirlwind's wrath, the earthquake's shock, Have left untouched her hoary rock, The keystone of a land, which still, Though fall'n, looks proudly on that hill, The land-mark to the double tide That purpling rolls on either side, As if their waters chafed to meet, Yet pause and crouch beneath her feet. But could the blood before her shed Since first Timoleon's brother bled, Or baffled Persia's despot fled, Arise from out the earth which drank The stream of slaughter as it sank, That sanguine Ocean would o'erflow Her isthmus idly spread below: Or could the bones of all the slain, Who perished there, be piled again, That rival pyramid would rise
More mountain-like, through those clear skies,
Than yon tower-capt Acropolis,
Which seems the very clouds to kiss.
On dun Citharon's ridge appears
The gleam of twice ten thousand spears;
And downward to the Isthmian plain, From shore to shore of either main, The tent is pitched, the crescent shines Along the Moslem's leaguering lines; And the dusk Spahi's bands advance Beneath each bearded pacha's glance; And far and wide as eye can reach The turbaned cohorts throng the beach; And there the Arab's camel kneels, And there his steed the Tartar wheels; The Turcoman hath left his herd, The sabre round his loins to gird; And there the volleying thunders pour, Till waves grow smoother to the roar. The trench is dug, the cannon's breath Wings the far hissing globe of death; Fast whirl the fragments from the wall, Which crumbles with the ponderous ball; And from that wall the foe replies, O'er dusty plain and smoky skies, With fires that answer fast and well The summons of the Infidel.
But near and nearest to the wall
Of those who wish and work its fall, With deeper skill in war's black art Than Othman's sons, and high of heart As any chief that ever stood Triumphant in the fields of blood; From post to post, and deed to deed, Fast spurring on his reeking steed, Where sallying ranks the trench assail, And make the foremost Moslem quail; Or where the battery, guarded well, Remains as yet impregnable, Alighting cheerly to inspire
The soldier slackening in his fire; The first and freshest of the host
Which Stamboul's sultan there can boast,
To guide the follower o'er the field, To point the tube, the lance to wield, Or whirl around the bickering blade; Was Alp, the Adrian renegade!
His gentle sires he drew his birth; But late an exile from her shore, Against his countrymen he bore
The arms they taught to bear; and now The turban girt his shaven brow.
Through many a change had Corinth passed With Greece to Venice's rule at last; And here, before her walls, with those To Greece and Venice equal foes, He stood a foe, with all the zeal Which young and fiery converts feel, Within whose heated bosom throngs The memory of a thousand wrongs. To him had Venice ceased to be Her ancient civic boast -« the Free; » And in the palace of St. Mark Unnamed accusers in the dark
Within the « Lion's mouth had placed A charge against him uneffaced :
He fled in time, and saved his life, To waste his future years in strife, That taught his land how great her loss In him who triumphed o'er the Cross, 'Gainst which he reared the Crescent high, And battled to avenge or die.
Coumourgi he whose closing scene Adorned the triumph of Eugene, When on Carlowitz' bloody plain, The last and mightiest of the slain, He sank, regretting not to die, But curst the Christian's victory coumourgi- can his glory cease
That latest conqueror of Greece, Till Christian hands to Greece restore The freedom Venice gave of yore? A hundred years have rolled away Since he refixed the Moslem's sway; And now he led the Mussulman, And gave the guidance of the van To Alp, who well repaid the trust By cities levelled with the dust;
And proved, by many a deed of death, How firm his heart in novel faith.
The walls grew weak; and fast and hot Against them poured the ceaseless shot, With unabating fury sent
From battery to battlement;
And thunder-like the pealing din Rose from each heated culverin;
And here and there some crackling dome Was fired before the exploding bomb: And as the fabric sank beneath
The shattering shell's volcanic breath, In red and wreathing columns flashed The flame, as loud the ruin crashed, Or into countless meteors driven, Its earth-stars melted into heaven; Whose clouds that day grew doubly dun, Impervious to the hidden sun,
With volumed smoke that slowly grew To one wide sky of sulphurous hue.
But not for vengeance, long delayed, Alone, did Alp, the renegade, The Moslem warriors sternly teach His skill to pierce the promised breach : Within these walls a maid was pent His hope would win, without consent Of that inexorable sire,
Whose heart refused him in its ire,
Her virgin hand aspired to claim. In happier mood, and earlier time, While unimpeached for traitorous crime, Gayest in gondola or hall,
He glittered through the Carnival; And tuned the softest serenade That e'er on Adria's waters played At midnight to Italian maid.
And many deemed her heart was won; For sought by numbers, given to none, Had young Francesca's hand remained Still by the church's bonds unchained; And when the Adriatic bore
Lanciotto to the Paynim shore,
Her wonted smiles were seen to fail, And pensive waxed the maid and pale; More constant at confessional,
More rare at masque and festival; Or seen at such with downcast eyes, Which conquered hearts they ceased to prize : With listless look she seems to gaze; With humbler care her form arrays; Her voice less lively in the song; Her step, though light, less fleet among, The pairs, on whom the Morning's glance Breaks, yet unsated with the dance.
Sent by the state to guard the land, (Which, wrested from the Moslem's hand, While Sobieski tamed his pride.
By Buda's wall and Danube's side, The chiefs of Venice wrung away From Patra to Eubœa's bay,) Minotti held in Corinth's towers The Doge's delegated powers, While yet the pitying eye of Peace Smiled o'er her long forgotten Greece: And ere that faithless truce was broke
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