1822.} 
Be father of mankind! ; 5 
Thus Julian liv’d, the world’s best pride; 
Thus Titus reign’d, whose virtue sigh’d 
To see.one listless day accuse his active 
mind, 
Let murder stain the hero’s sword, 
And spoils of nations swell his hoard, 
His laurels are but crimes: 
Just Heaven! shall Europe, wrapt in 
grief, 
Enhance the merit of a chief, 
‘Tlie seourge of present, and the bane of 
future times. 
Let fierce ambition vex the breast, 
And rapine’s spirit haunt the rest 
Of madmen, conq’rors styl’d ; 
_ A nobler fame belongs to thee, 
Tis thine to polish and to free 
The rude * Vliet Nature's 
child, 
Perish those tyrants of the earth! 
Who blast each virtue at its birth, 
Who close with crimes each day! 
Like lawless comets in their course, 
-Urg’d by the impulse of blind force, 
Stern desolation marks thro’ life their 
_baneful way. 
Behold those restless sons of war! 
High-rais’d on Victory’s laurel’d car ! 
* Whole nations at their feet. 
Let Vanity withhold her praise, 
And gaping Wonder cease to gaze, 
These prostrate crowds Attila and Tibe- 
rius greet, 
But thou, whose kind-creating hand 
With freedom crowns a suff’ring land, 
Once known to ev’ry Muse! 
Whose good, whose great inspiring mind, 
The love and lover of thy kind, 
Forgetful of itself, the public weal pursues; 
Ambition not the ill-earn’d fame, 
In ev’ry age that murd’rers claim 
« The wages of their crimes, 
See Justice hov’ring o’er their graves, 
From death their names indignant saves, 
They live, — but live like miscreants 
damn’d to latest times. 
Fast laid by Nature’s deatliless hand, 
For thee Corcyra’s mountains stand 
A monument of fame! 
For thee her ancient rights, her Jaws, 
_ Her free-form’d senates yield applause, 
And citizens, not slaves, their liberty pro- 
claim. 
Emerging from the womb of night, 
What sudden wonders strike the sight! 
What hands provoke the lyre! 
Pheacia’s gardens bloom anew, 
And other Homers rise to view ; 
At Freedom's voice, the arts and sciences 
take fire! 
With magic life the canvass glows, 
In pliant folds the marble flows, 
Original Poetry. 
429 
And art disputes withart; 
Here Venus hides her wondrous charms, 
There tortur’d Nature writhes her arms, 
The pitying marble paints the suff’ring 
father’s heart! 
A mightier task remains. Behold 
Forth from their tombs the sages old 
Of free-born Greece arise! 
Unblemish’d faith, and patriot scorn, 
And mercy, Freedom’s eldest born, 
Beam on their honest fronts, and sparkle 
in their eyes! 
And whence, they cry, this long-sought 
light! 
What hand dispels the mists of night, 
That wrapt the Grecian fame! 
From man these blessings cannot flow, 
The gods alone such favours know, 
The boundless bliss proclaims the northeru 
sage’s name! 
For him resery’d by changeless fate, 
To raise the glories of a state, 
Where ev’ry virtue sway’d ; 
Where poets sung, and sages taught, 
Where patriots died, and heroes fought, 
Where kings and citizens the laws alike 
_ obey’d. 
To him Platea’s trophied dead, 
And those at Marathon who bled, . 
Their hands and voices lift, 
From Russia’s sage they loud demand 
The freedom of their native land, 
And hail with gratitude the giver and the 
gift. 10 
’Tis done.—Lo! Genius grasps the lyre, 
And praises swell the gen’ral GRE, 
Thro’ ev’ry soil and clime! 
To sing the first, the best of men, 
Tis History’s Muse that guides the pen 
Torn from the wings of Time, 
—=>>— 
A VERNAL CONTEMPLATION. 
Written in }¥indsor Forest. 
Hail peaceful solitude! hail vernal sweets! ’ 
Where dwells Content, where Innocence retreats; 
Hail to thy well-known shades and flowery meads, 
Where Contemplation her fond pupil leads ; 
Fit haunts to soothe the solitary breast, 
‘To, calin the mind, ana Jull the soul to rest. 
All hail! once more this hallowed ground I tread, 
Where oft in yonthful, happierdays 1 stray’d, 
All ignorant of care, of healeh possess’, 
By fortune and paternal fondness bless’d. 
Gay rose the morn to gild with smiles the day, 
Each feather’d songster tun’d the jocund lay; 
All Nuture’s varied sweets at once combin’d 
‘To charm each sense and harmonize the mind. 
But now, alas! a solemn sadness reigns, 
It steals upon my soul in melting straius; 
Eumene’s awful virtues strike my view, 
And every rising joy my griefs subdue : 
His loss with filial tears 1 soon deplore, 
Nor gay nor rural pleasures charm me more. 
Sweet Peace,—companion of my fairer hours,— 
Forsakes my steps, and leaves the vernal bowers, 
Where oft in syivan sports the days J spent, 
Till Cynthia, gentle queen, her brightness lent; 
On downy pinions swift the moments pass’d, 
Till keen Affliction pierc’d me with her blast, 
Ye blissful days, ali! whither are ye fled! 
How chang’d each scene! each flower now drops 
its head; yi 
Kind 
