Him, with her pureft flames the Mufe endow'd, In all her charms; he faw, he felt, and dy'd.vivte Oh, partner of my infant griefs and joys! Big with the scenes now paft, my heart o'erflows; Oft with the rifing fun, when life was new, The fainted well, where yon bleak hill declines, For thou art gone. My guide, my friend! oh, where, My tenderest wish, my heart to thee was bare, How dreary is the gulph! how dark, how võid, Hope faulters, and the foul recoils aghaft! : Wide round the spacious heavens I caft my eyes: Still shine the lifeless glories of the skies! And could thy bright, thy living foul expire!! Far Far be the thought! The pleasures most sublime; So plant the vine on Norway's wint❜ry land, The languid ftranger feebly buds, and dies: Yet there's a clime where Virtue shall expand With godlike ftrength beneath her native skies! The lonely shepherd on the mountain's fide, With chearful hope expects the morning rayi Thus I, on life's ftorm-beaten ocean toss'd, Where fate and death divide the friends no more! Oh, that fome kind, fome pitying kindred shade, And from my eyes the mortal film remove ! Vain is the wish yet furely not in vain To fan this spark of Heaven, this ray divine, So So to the dark-brow'd wood, or facred mount, Reftor'd creation bright before them rose, The burning defarts fmil❜d as Eden's plains, One friendly fhade the wolf and lambkin chofe, The flowery mountain fung, Meffiah reigns!" Tho' fainter raptures my cold breast inspire, What time the moonshine dimly gleams between: There, where the cross in hoary ruin nods, And weeping yews o'erfhade the letter'd ftones, Let kindled Fancy view the glorious morn, When from the bursting graves the juft shall rife, All Nature fmiling, and by angels borne, Meffiah's crofs far blazing o'er the skies! ODE TO INDEPENDENCE. BY DR. SMOLLETT. STROPHE. HY fpirit, Independence, let me share! TH Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye, Thy steps I follow with my bofom bare, Immortal Liberty, whose look fublime Hath bleach'd the tyrant's cheek, in ev'ry varying clime; With frantick Superstition for his guide, The fons of Woden to the field defy'd ; In Heaven's name urg'd th' infernal blow, The vanquish'd were baptiz'd with blood *. ANTI STROP HE. The Saxon prince in horror fled From altars ftain'd with human gore ; And Liberty his routed legions led In fafety to the bleak Norwegian shore : There in a cave afleep the lay, vi gl hon Lull'd by the hoarfe refounding main; When a bold favage pafs'd that way, Impell'd by destiny, his name Difdain. Of ample front the portly chief appear'd; The hunted bear fupply'd a fhaggy.veft, The drifted fnow hung on his yellow beard, And his broad fhoulders brav'd the furious blaft. He stopp'd; he gaz'd; his bofom glow'd, And deeply felt th' impreffion of her charms: He feiz'd th' advantage Fate allow'd, And straight comprefs'd her in his vigorous arms. STROPHE. The curlieu fcream'd; the tritons blew Their fhells to celebrate the ravish'd rite; Old Time exulted as he flew; And Independence faw the light. * Baptiz'd with blood, &c.] Charlemaigne obliged four theofand Saxon prifoners to embrace the Chriftian religion, and immediately after they were baptized, ordered their throats to be cut. Their Prince Vitikind fled for fhelter to Gotrick King of Denmark. The The light he saw in Albion's happy plains; Where, under cover of a flowering thorn, The fmiling infant to their charge confign'd; He flourish'd bold and finewy as his fire; ANTISTROP.HE. Accomplish'd thus, he wing'd his way, And zealous rouz'd from pole to pole, The rolls of right eternal to display, And warm with patriot thoughts th' aspiring foul. On défart ifles 'twas he that rais'd * Those fpires that gild th' Adriatick wave, Where tyranny beheld amaz'd Fair Freedom's, temple, where he mark'd her grave. He fteel'd the blunt Bardavian's arms To burft th' Iberian's double chain +; And cities rear'd, and planted farms,. Won from the skirts of Neptune's wide domain, He, with the generous rufticks, fate On Uris' rocks in close divan ‡, And wing'd that arrow fure as fate Which ascertain'd the facred rights of man. * On defart ifles, &c.] Although Venice was built a confiderable time before the æra here affigned for the birth of Independence, the Republick had not yet attained to any great degree of power and fplendour. To burft th' Iberian's double chain, &c.] The Low Countries were not only oppreffed by grievous taxations, but likewife threatened with the establishment of the inquifition, when the Seven Provinces revolted, and shook off the yoke of Spain. On Uris' rocks, &c.] Alluding to the known ftory of William Tell and his affociates, the fathers and founders of the Confederacy of the Swifs Cantons. |