Dreading each should set thee free. Oh! although in dungeons pent, All their chains were light to me, Gazing on thy soul unbent. 4. Would the sycophants of him Now so deaf to duty's prayer, Were his borrowed glories dim, In his native darkness share? Were that world this hour his own, All thou calmly dost resign, Could he purchase with that throne Hearts like those which still are thine? ON THE STAR OF "THE LEGION OF HONOUR." [FROM THE FRENCH.] 1 STAR of the brave!-whose beam hath shed Such glory o'er the quick and dead— Thou radiant and adored deceit ! Which millions rushed in arms to greet,— Wild meteor of immortal birth! Why rise in Heaven to set on Earth? 2. Souls of slain heroes formed thy rays; Eternity flashed through thy blaze; And thy light broke on human eyes, Like a Volcano of the skies. 3. Like lava rolled thy stream of blood, And swept down empires with its flood; Earth rocked beneath thee to her base, As thou didst lighten through all space; And the shorn Sun grew dim in air, And set while thou wert dwelling there. 4.2 Before thee rose, and with thee grew, A rainbow of the loveliest hue Of three bright colours, each divine, And fit for that celestial sign; For Freedom's hand had blended them, Like tints in an immortal gem. 5. One tint was of the sunbeam's dyes; One, the blue depth of Seraph's eyes; One, the pure Spirit's veil of white Had robed in radiance of its light: The three so mingled did beseem The texture of a heavenly dream. |