Like Phlegethon my verse in waves of fire shall flow! Light of this once all darksome spot Where now their glad course mortals run, First-born of Sirius begot Upon the focus of the sun- name THO' no bold flights to thee belong; What name so high, but what too low For, lovely Muse! thy sweet employ must be? Exalts my soul, refines my breast, HEARD'ST thou yon universal cry, And dost thou linger still on Gallia's shore? Go, Tyranny! beneath some barbarous sky Thy terrors lost and ruin'd power deplore! What tho' through many a groaning age Was felt thy keen suspicious rage, Such scenes no more demand the tear I see, I see! glad Liberty succeed eyes; Secure he views his harvests rise; No fetter vile the mind shall know, And Eloquence shall fearless glow. Yes! Liberty the soul of Life shall reign, Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro' every vein! VI Shall France alone a Despot spurn? Shall she alone, O Freedom, boast thy care? Yet Freedom roused by fierce Dis- Lo, round thy standard Belgia's heroes burn, Tho' Power's blood-stain'd streamers And wider yet thy influence spread, Till every land from pole to pole Shall boast one independent soul! And still, as erst, let favour'd Britain be First ever of the first and freest of the free! ? 1789. TO A YOUNG LADY WITH A POEM ON THE FRENCH [Probably the preceding verses.] MUCH on my early youth I love to dwell, Ere yet I bade that friendly dome farewell, Where first, beneath the echoing cloisters pale, I heard of guilt and wondered at the tale! Yet though the hours flew by on careless wing, Full heavily of Sorrow would I sing. My soul amid the pensive twilight gloom If Smiles more win my hour Mien Than the love-wildered Maniac's brain. hath seen Shaping celestial forms in vacant air, Where peaceful Virtue weaves the Myrtle May this (I cried) my course through Life braid. 30 And O! if Eyes whose holy glances roll, Swift messengers, and eloquent of soul; 1 Lee Boo, the son of Abba Thule, Prince of the Pelew Islands, came over to England with Captain Wilson, died of the small-pox, and is buried in Greenwich church-yard. See Keate's Account of the Pelew Islands. 1788. 2 Southey's Retrospect. portray! [display, New scenes of wisdom may each step And knowledge open as my days When anguish'd care of sullen brow Elate of Heart and confident of Such was the sad and gloomy hour Minstrel came, Already to thy lips was rais'd the bowl, 60 |