Nor skilled one flame alone to fan: Grow beautiful beneath his touch. Him in his clay-built cot, the Muse On Bannock-field what thoughts arouse And all their scorn of death and chains? And see the Scottish exile, tanned By many a far and foreign clime, Bend o'er his home-born verse, and weep In memory of his native land, With love that scorns the lapse of time, Encamped by Indian rivers wild, The scenes that bless'd him when a child, O deem not, 'midst this worldly strife, And sages calm, the stream of life, It is the Muse that consecrates. And thou, young hero, when thy pall And only tears of kindred fall, Who but the Bard shall dress thy tomb, Such was the soldier-Burns, forgive Farewell, high chief of Scottish song! And brand each vice with satire strong, Farewell! and ne'er may Envy dare To bless the spot that holds thy dust. Major Edward Hodge, of the 7th Hussars, who fell at the head of his squadron, in the attack of the Polish Lancers. Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, A midway station given For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. Can all that optics teach, unfold As when I dreamt of gems and gold When Science from Creation's face And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, When o'er the green undeluged earth Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, How came the world's gray fathers forth To watch thy sacred sign! And when its yellow lustre smiled Methinks thy jubilee to keep, Nor ever shall the Muse's eye Be still the prophet's theme! The Earth to thee her incense yields, How glorious is thy girdle, cast As fresh in yon horizon dark, For, faithful to its sacred page, Nor lets the type grow pale with age THE LAST MAN. ALL worldly shapes shall melt in gloom, Its immortality! I saw a vision in my sleep, That gave my spirit strength to sweep I saw the last of human mould The Sun's eye had a sickly glare, Around that lonely man! Some had expired in fight,-the brands Still rusted in their bony hands; In plague and famine some! Earth's cities had no sound nor tread; And ships were drifting with the dead To shores where all was dumb! |