And hear you shouting forth your brave intent. XXIV. WHAT if our numbers barely could defy XXV. LINES ON THE EXPECTED INVASION. 1803. COME ye, who, if (which Heaven avert!) the Land Were with herself at strife, would take your stand, Like gallant Falkland, by the Monarch's side, And, like Montrose, make Loyalty your pride; Come ye, who, not less zealous, might display Banners at enmity with regal sway, And, like the Pyms and Miltons of that day, Think that a State would live in sounder health If Kingship bowed its head to Commonwealth;Ye too, whom no discreditable fear O waken all, Would keep, perhaps with many a fruitless tear, XXVI. ANTICIPATION. OCTOBER, 1803. SHOUT, for a mighty Victory is won! On British ground the invaders are laid low; The breath of Heaven has drifted them like snow, And left them lying in the silent sun, Never to rise again! the work is done. Come forth, ye old men, now in peaceful show, And greet your sons! drums beat and trumpets blow! Make merry, wives! ye little children, stun XXVII. NOVEMBER, 1806. ANOTHER year!—another deadly blow! And we are left, or shall be left, alone; 'Tis well! from this day forward we shall know That in ourselves our safety must be sought; VOL. III. That by our own right hands it must be wrought; XXVIII. ODE. I. WHO rises on the banks of Seine, And twinkling in the light, That breeze she will invite; And stands on tiptoe, conscious she is fair, But she through many a change of form hath gone, And stands amidst you now an armed creature, Whose panoply is not a thing put on, But the live scales of a portentous nature; That, having forced its way from birth to birth, Stalks round, abhorred by Heaven, a terror to the Earth! II. I marked the breathings of her dragon crest; My Soul, a sorrowful interpreter, In many a midnight vision bowed Before the ominous aspect of her spear; As stretches a blue bar of solid cloud III. So did she daunt the Earth, and God defy! And, wheresoe'er she spread her sovereignty, Pollution tainted all that was most pure. - Have we not known,—and live we not to tell, That Justice seemed to hear her final knell ? Faith buried deeper in her own deep breast Her stores, and sighed to find them insecure! And Hope was maddened by the drops that fell From shades, her chosen place of short-lived rest. Shame followed shame, and woe supplanted woe,Is this the only change that time can show? |