Where, tangled round the jealous steep,
Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep,
And holy Genii guard the rock,

Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock,
While on its rich ambitious head,

An Eden, like his own, lies spread.

I view that oak, the fancied glades among,
By which as Milton lay, his evening ear,

From many a cloud that dropp'd ethereal dew,
Nigh spher'd in heaven, its native strains could hear;
On which that ancient trump he reach'd was hung:
Thither oft, his glory greeting,

From Waller's myrtle shades retreating,
With many a vow from Hope's aspiring tongue,
My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue;
In vain-Such bliss to one alone,

Of all the sons of soul, was known;
And Heaven, and Fancy, kindred powers,
Have now o'erturn'd th' inspiring bowers!

Or curtain'd close such scenes from every future view.

WRITTEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1746.*

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes bless'd!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,

* This, and the succeeding ode, seem to have been written ou the same occasion, viz. the rebellion in Scotland: the former, in memory of those heroes who fell in defence of their country; the latter, to excite sentiments of compassion in favour of those who became a sacrifice to public justice.

She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there.

O THOU,

TO MERCY.

STROPHE.

who sit❜st a smiling bride

By Valour's arm'd and awful side,

Gentlest of sky-born forms, and best ador'd;
Who oft with songs, divine to hear,
Win'st from his fatal grasp the spear,
And hid'st in wreaths of flow'rs his bloodless sword!
Thou who, amidst the deathful field,
By godlike chiefs alone beheld,

Oft with thy bosom bare art found,

Pleading for him the youth who sinks to ground: See, Mercy, see, with pure and loaded hands, Before thy shrine my country's genius stands, And decks thy altar still, though pierc'd with many a wound!

ANTISTROPHE,

When he whom ev'n our joys provoke,
The fiend of Nature join'd his yoke,

And rush'd in wrath to make our isle his prey;
Thy form, from out thy sweet abode,

O'ertook him on his blasted road,

And stop'd his wheels, and look'd his rage away.

1 see recoil his sable steeds,

That bore him swift to savage deeds,
Thy tender melting eyes they own;
O maid, for all thy love to Britain shown,
Where Justice bars her iron tower,

To thee we build a roseate bower,

Thou, thou shalt rule our queen, and share our monarch's throne!

TO-LIBERTY.

STROPHE.

WHO shall awake the Spartan fife,
And call in solemn sounds to life
The youths, whose locks divinely spreading,
Like vernal hyacinths in sullen hue,

At once the breath of Fear and Virtue shedding,
Applauding Freedom lov'd of old to view?
What new Alcæus,* fancy-bless'd,

Shall sing the sword, in myrtles dress'd,

At Wisdom's shrine awhile its flame concealing, (What place so fit to seal a deed renown'd?)

Till she her brightest lightnings round revealing, It leap'd in glory forth, and dealt her prompted wound!

O goddess, in that feeling hour,

When most its sounds would court thy ears,

Let not my shell's misguided power

E'er draw thy sad, thy mindful tears.

No, Freedom, no; I will not tell
How Rome, before thy weeping face,
With heaviest sound, a giant-statue, fell,

* Alluding to a beautiful fragment of Alcæus.

Push'd by a wild and artless race

From off its wide ambitious base,

When Time his northern sons of spoil awoke,
And all the blended work of strength and grace,
With many a rude repeated stroke,

And many a barbarous yell, to thousand fragments broke.

EPODE.

Yet, ev'n where'er the least appear'd,
The' admiring world thy hand rever'd;
Still midst the scatter'd states around,

Some remnants of her strength were found;
They saw, by what escap'd the storm,
How wondrous rose her perfect form;
How in the great, the labour'd whole,
Each mighty master pour'd his soul!
For sunny Florence, seat of art,
Beneath her vines preserv'd a part,
Till they, whom Science lov'd to name,
(O who could fear it?) quench'd her flame.
And lo, an humbler relic laid

In jealous Pisa's olive shade!

See small Marinot joins the theme,
Though least not last in thy esteem:

Strike, louder strike the' ennobling strings
To those, whose merchant sons were kings;
To him, who deck'd with pearly pride,
In Adria weds his green-hair'd bride;
Hail! port of glory, wealth, and pleasure,
Ne'er let me change this Lydian measure :
Nor e'er her former pride relate,
To sad Liguria's bleeding state.

*The family of the Medici.

The Venetians.

Genoa.

+ The little republic of San Marino. The Doge of Venice.

Ah no! more pleas'd thy haunts I seek,
On wild Helvetia's* mountains bleak:
(Where, when the favour'd of thy choice,
The daring archer heard thy voice;
Forth from his eyry rous'd in dread,
The ravening eagle northward fled.)
Or dwell in willow'd meads more near,
With thoset to whom thy stork is dear:
Those whom the rod of Alva bruis'd,
Whose crown a British queen‡ refus'd!
The magic works, thou feel'st the strains,
One holier name alone remains;

The perfect spell shall then avail.
Hail nymph, ador'd by Britain, hail!

ANTISTROPHE.

Beyond the measure vast of thought,
The works, the wizard Time has wrought!
The Gaul, 'tis held of antique story,

Saw Britain link'd to his now adverse strand,§
No sea between, nor cliff sublime and hoary,
He pass'd with unwet feet through all our land.

*Switzerland.

+ The Dutch, amongst whom there are very severe penalties for those who are convicted of killing this bird. They are kept tame in almost all their towns, and particularly at the Hague, of the arms of which they make a part. The common people of Hol. land are said to entertain a superstitious sentiment, that if the whole species of them should become extinct, they should lose their liberties.

Queen Elizabeth.

This tradition is mentioned by several of our old historians. Some naturalists too have endeavoured to support the probability of the fact by arguments drawn from the correspondent disposition of the opposite coasts.