Scilicet et pictis quamvis in vallibus hortos
Alma Parens, myrteumque nemus, cœlumque negarit
Purpureum-fœcunda tamen per pascua cernet
Luxuriem segetum flavasque Batavia messes.
Subsidet limosa palus,' æstusque per artein
Sentiet exhaustos; licet hinc, vasto objice ripa
Indignata coerceri, fremat usque sonantis
Ira maris-graveolenti illinc uligine campos
Oppleat humor iners, stagnique inamabilis unda.
Nequicquam media dirimens confinia terræ
Oceani effrænas plaga dividit invia gentes!
Nequicquam intentans furias, ciet æquora Nereus
Horrendum bacchata, voraginibusque profundis
Audentes vetat ire viros :-sopita recusant
Frustra flamina opem, Zephyrusque ac turbidus Auster
Vana per Æolias deducunt otia rupes!
Aspice! quisque iter flectas, ubi fervidus undas
In mare devolvit Thamesis pater, aut ubi blando
Clyda Caledonias interstrepit æquore valles;
Lympharum in tremula facie cum lassa recumbit
Aura, silentque leves per glauca cubilia venti;
Aspice! "protelo plagarum continuato" 2
Scindit aquam ratis, insultatque obstantibus undis
Remigio veloque careus; volat aëre turbo
Spumeus, et longo canescunt tramite Auctus.
Heu! quoties stragis media in discrimina nautas
Raptura ignaros-quoties gravida ipsa ruina-
Radis iter liquidum! Sæpe ignea carcere nubes
Sæviit, et perterricrepo displosa fragore
Torsit agens secum laceræ fragmenta carinæ,
Truncatasque virum formas: aut per freta ponti
Vehementi (horrendum!) navis navim impulit ictu
Nocte intempesta:-exaudires dira ululantes
Plangere aquam nisu assiduo: laxantur ibidem
Enerves artus, resonatque in gurgite vasto,
Faucibus erumpens extrema inter fugientis
Vitaï luctamina discidiumque animæ, vox!
-Stragem adeo infandam et crudelia funera pauci
Insatiabiliter deflemus, et usque foventes
Luctum ægro sub corde, plagis inhiamus aquarum,
Suspicimusque oculis: illæ placido ore videntur
Insultare malis lacrymasque illudere inanes!
Prodigium interea magnus stupet orbis, et artis
Egregium miratur opus. Columbia molem,
1 The Haarlem Meer. Vide Encycl. Brit. tom. xix. 2 Lucret. lib. ii. 531.
Incinctam picea nebula, flammasque vomentem,
Vidit Atlantiaci superantem claustra profundi.
Intremuit visu, vitreasque refugit in aulas
Nereïdum chorus ad Laurenti rauca fluenta,
Et ripas, Oronooka, tuas: trepidusque Panamæ
Incola montanorum adiit sacraria Divum,
Solem oraturus patrium, Geniosque locorum !
Quin vagus arte nova lustrat Gangetis arenas
Navita, Persarumque domos, vastoque Mysoræ
Regna situ; purove sub æthere captat odores,
Arva ubi Taprobanes semper florentis Eoos
Fortunata virent interlucentia fluctus.
Hei mihi! quod turpes tali petat arte triumphos
Gens malesana hominum, necdum exsaturata furores
Arma acuat bello et Marti nova tela ministret !
Nimirum valida compage inclusa vaporum
Vis furit, et claustris stridens luctatur ahenis;
Dein agitata foras, disrupto turbine, ferri
Ejectat tempestatem, et nimbis vomit ignes
Sulphureis directa acie dant agmina cladem
Turmatim, et magnæ vastautur stragibus urbes!
Mollior olim ætas scelus aversatur, et artes
Exhorret sero patrias: stupet incola passim
Disjectas murorum arces, ævique peracti
Lugubre contemplans monumentum, moenia pallet
Strata solo, refugitque feros meminisse parentes.
At non auguriis adeo infelicibus oras
Fausta per Angliacas versantur munia pacis,
Nativæque vigent insuetis viribus artes.
Ergo non durum impendent sub nocte laborem
(Livida dum fractos macies depascitur artus)
Carceribus clausi artifices; non tenuia carpunt
Pensa, neque assiduo pertentant pectine telas;
Fusile nec flammis, orbati luce dieï,
Evolvunt stannum, nec ferri forcipe massas
Informant: istos se machina flectit in usus
Pulsibus acta novis, arcanaque persentiscens
Organicæ momenta manus, celeri incitat ictu
Mille rotarum axes, revolutosque ordine gyros.
-Excidio ex ipso ac morborum strage recenti
Arridet roseo ore Salus, vegetoque vigore
Enitet exoriens: Arabum sic fertur in oris
Ales odorato e cinere ambustisque parentis
Ossibus enasci formosior; ille per auras
Ardet abire leves, viridique animosa juventa
Fingit membra fugæ, et pictas quatit æthere pennas.
Non tibi terraï pandit sinus, Anglia, gazas
Lumine gemmarum fulvoque interlitus auro-
Non tibi dædaleis subridet scena rosarum
Floribus, ambrosiæve immurmurat halitus auræ
Citrea per nemora et redolentes cinnama sylvas-
Sed solium erigitur mediis sublime procellis
Auro Asiæ et lati spoliis Orientis onustum;
Sed patriæ armigeris tutatur littora dextris
Martia gens; sed magni animi, rerumque capaces,
Procudunt artes melius, dulcique repertas
Expoliunt studio :-exultim mens vivida fines
Transgreditur sibi præscriptos, normasque latentes
Ardet acuta acie atque oculo propiore tueri;
Seu juvet, impellente Deo, dare commoda vitæ,
Auxilioque levare viros; seu mystica rerum
Principia et cæco scrutantem foedere causas
Raptet amœnus amor, mixtoque pavore voluptas.
T. LEGH CLAUGHTON,
OXFORD ENGLISH PRIZE POEM,
FOR 1828.
Θυμόν γε λέων ἐμὸν, ὡς ὄνομ ̓ εἶχεν. ΑNTH. Gnac.
HIGH praise be theirs, when reft was Salem's power,
Who throng'd to combat round her ruin'd tower;
From her gall'd neck to wrest the heathen chain;
To loose the captive daughter's bonds again;
And the glad symbol of the cross expand
In crimson beauty o'er the Saviour's land.
Ages have lapsed: her holy champions gone,
The tyrant Soldan fills Judæa's throne.
Mid the lone ruin, one deserted fane1
Stands the sole record of the Christian's reign,
Where e'en the spoiler sheathed his ruthless blade,
And Profanation's trembling arm was stay'd.
Yet have her silent valleys heard afar
The minstrel's harp, the stirring shouts of war.
* See Chateaubriand, Itinéraire à Jérusalem, tome ii. p. 270. "Une seule église fut épargnée, et ce fut l'église du Saint Sépulere."
Hark! sweetly floating o'er the martial throng,
Wild as himself, Vidal's inspiring song ;1
And see! uprousing from his island lair,
Poitou's stern lord, Britannia's king is there.
Link'd with a band of brothers, sworn to brave
The battle's peril, and the ocean's grave,-
Yet went he smiling from his father's hall,
As speeding forth to some glad festival;
While joyously his death-doom'd squadrons move
To the light lays of visionary love,
Soft as the Dorian flute :-for courage high
Owns not the need of loftier melody :-
And to those minstrel warriors stoop'd the proud,
When Cyprus trembled, and Sicilia bow'd.
Onward they move; while high in eastern state,
Worthy his arm, unconquer'd thousands wait.
Couch'd 'neath the date-empurpled palm-tree's shade,
The sable banners to the sun display'd,
For the wild precincts of their desert land,
Their scanty fountains, and their fiery sand,
See! val'rous chiefs their wind-swift coursers wheel,
And whet on Kishon's banks the patriot steel :-
A changeless race, whose giant might of old
In shadowy types the mystic visions told;
O'er whose dark import, on Messina's shore,
'Tis said his eagle spirit loved to pore.2
Yet lo! they fall :-where frown'd th' insulting foe,
Each passing peasant spurns the Mamluke bow;
And trampled lowly in the dust appear
Th' Egyptian's scourges, and the Bedoween's spear.
And who their victor? came he to the fight
With arm, that curb'd the champing charger's might?
With helm, reflecting back the sunbeam's ray?
Or falchion, cleaving its resistless way?
No, on the pallet's humble mattress laid,
From his wan cheek health's blushing roses fade ;3
"Pierre Vidal, de Toulouse, troubadour qui suivit le roi Richard à la troisième croisade, ne s'est pas rendu moins célèbre par ses extravagances, que par son talent poétique." Littérature du Midi de l'Europe par M. de Sismondi, tome i. p. 177.
* See " Rogeri de Hoveden Annales," (folio edition, 1596,) p. 388. for an interesting account of a conversation between Richard and Joachim, abbot of Calabria, respecting the interpretation of certain parts of the Apocalypse.
* The fact of Richard's being brought on the field in a pallet, during the siege of Acre, in consequence of illness, and levelling the engines of war from his couch, is given in Mill's Hist. of the Crusades, vol. ii. p. 45.
Wasted his strength; the gleaming morion's pride
Cast in keen anguish from his brow aside;-
Yet Acre fear'd, as twang'd the fateful string,
E'en on his couch, the Lion-hearted King.
What marvel then, if o'er th' ensanguined plain
Pour'd sad Azotus all her strength in vain,
Or if, reclining on her ruin'd throne,
Mourn'd the fall'n Queen, dismantled Ajalon,
When, nerveless now no more, his healthful hand
Wielded the terrors of the magic brand,
By Arthur borne, beneath whose charmed spell
Each shadowy knight, and phantom warrior fell,
Nor less shall Mecca's paynim heroes turn
Still from thy edge, "resistless Kaliburn."
Weep, city of the saints-religion's sway
Kindles round thee the tumult of the fray;
Round thee, by Moslem deem'd the hallow'd seat,
Where the freed tenants of the tomb shall meet;
Round thee, where views the Christian's purer faith
With tearful joy his Saviour's scene of death,
While rings at twilight on his startled ear
The herald's cry, "Save, save the sepulchre.”
No beaming glance of triumph hails thee now :-
With eye despondent, and with clouded brow,
Tho' victor, leaning on his useless sword,
Bends the proud form of Albion's baffled lord.
Degen'rate France! his thoughts were fix'd on thee,
Thy knights home speeding o'er the midland sea,-
Thy vows abandon'd, and thy faith forsworn,-
Thy prince, that left the lion heart forlorn.
He turn'd, where, slumb'ring in their calm repose,
The captive city's towers of beauty rose,
Where her unrescued halls the faithless trod,
And her closed portals held the foes of God,—
And sadly waking from his cherish'd dream,
Shunn'd to behold, since powerless to redeem.3
1 "Resistless Kaliburn he wields."-WARTON'S CRUSADE. See Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 125.
"The army always halted at night-fall; heralds thrice cried aloud, 'Save the holy Sepulchre.'"-Mill's Hist. of the Crusades, vol. ii. p. 53.
"The hero (Richard) ascending an hill, and veiling his face, exclaimed with an indignant voice, Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy to view, the sepulchre of Christ."-Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. xi. p. 148.
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