And elmy fields, seems like society- Thy church-tower, and, methinks, the four huge elms Is softened, and made worthy to indulge Love, and the thoughts that yearn for human kind. Nether Stowey, April 28th, 1798. } FIRE, FAMINE, AND SLAUGHTER. A WAR ECLOGUE. WITH AN APOLOGETIC PREFACE. * The Scene a desolated Tract in La Vendée. FAMINE is discovered lying on the ground; to her enter FIRE and SLAUGHTER. Fam. SISTERS! sisters! who sent you here? Spirits hear what spirits tell; "Twill make a holiday in Hell. Myself, I named him once below, Clapped their hands and danced for glee. They no longer heeded me; But laughed to hear Hell's burning rafters No! no! no! * Printed on page 217. Spirits hear what spirits tell : Fam. Whisper it, sister! so and so ! In a dark hint, soft and slow. Slau. Letters four do form his name And who sent you Both. ? The same! the same! Slau. He came by stealth and unlocked my den, And I have drunk the blood since then Of thrice three hundred thousand men. Both. Who bade you do it? Slau. The same! the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! To him alone the praise is due. Fam. Thanks, sister, thanks! the men have bled, Their wives and their children faint for bread. I stood in a swampy field of battle ; With bones and skulls I made a rattle, To frighten the wolf and carrion-crow And the homeless dog-but they would not go, Both. Whisper it, sister! in our ear. I had starved the one and was starving the other! Both. Who bade you do't? The same the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo! To him alone the praise is due. Fire. Sisters! I from Ireland came! Hedge and corn-fields all on flame, On as I strode with my huge strides, It was so rare a piece of fun To see the sweltered cattle run With uncouth gallop through the night, By the light of his own blazing cot The house-stream met the flame and hissed, On some of those old bed-rid nurses, Fire. The same! the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! To him alone the praise is due. All. He let us loose, and cried Halloo ! How shall we yield him honor due ? I'll gnaw, I'll gnaw the multitude, Till the cup of rage o'erbrim They shall seize him and his brood Slau. They shall tear him limb from limb! Fire. O thankless beldames and untrue! And is this all that you can do For him, who did so much for you? Cling to him everlastingly. 1796. II. LOVE POEMS. Quas humilis tenero stylus olim effudit in ævo, Frons alia est, moresque alii, nova mentis, imago, Pectore nunc gelido calidos miseremur amantes. LOVE. ALL thoughts, all passions, all delights, All are but ministers of Love, Oft in my waking dreams do I The moonshine, stealing o'er the scene She lean'd against the armed man, Amid the lingering light. PETRARCH. Few sorrows hath she of her own, The songs that make her grieve. I played a soft and doleful air, She listened with a flitting blush, I told her of the Knight that wore I told her how he pined and ah! She listened with a flitting blush, But when I told the cruel scorn That crazed that bold and lovely Knight, That sometimes from the savage den, There came and looked him in the face |