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SELECT POEMS. 
The whole skill of the poet has evi- 
dently been exerted to give discriminat- 
ing strokes to the successive ravagers, 
from the first Mahometan conqueror of 
India, to the subverters of the Mogul 
empire, who thus pass in review ; and as 
faras sameness on similar subjects can 
be avoided, he has avoided it: the diffi- 
eulty of his task, it should be remem- 
bered, is greatly increased by the slight 
acquaintance ot the general reader with 
the subjects of his song, which renders it 
necessary to narrate events in plain terms, 
and mention characters by name, which 
might. otherwise have been glanced at 
by an allusion, or recalled to memory 
“byahint. Of his success, we can only 
give the evidence of two specimens. 
« Frantic with bigot rage, with blood defil'd, 
A gorgeous crescent gleaming on his crest, 
What furious demon, from Arabia’s wild, 
Harls desolation through the ravag’d East? 
“| A sabredrench’d with infant gore he waves, 
His eyes in opium’s wildest frenzy roll ; 
And, while of sacred rites the maniac raves, 
Lust and revenge pollute his guilty soul. 
Or Persia wide his myriad host he pours, 
Burning for spoil, for human blood athirst ; 
Resistless, India, on thy fertile shores, 
Possing their flaming brands, his legions 
burst. 
“On Bactria’s hills are quench’d the sacred 
i fires, 
The Mithriac priests are on their altars slain; 
The proud Sassanian dynasty expires, 
_ And Asia bends to OrnmAy’s baleful reign. 
. a 
“Through all her bounds the outcries of 
hy despair, 
__ The shrieks of violated beauty, rise ; 
_ While, blasted by his crescent’s dreadful glares 
“The bloom of science and of genius dies.” 
ok, 
as 
«¢ Hark! on Carmania’s hills the trumpets 
» sound, 
_ _ And the fierce Afehan tribes to arms invite; 
The thund’ring war-steed spurus the trembling 
A ground, 
__ And neighsimpatient for the promis’d fight. 
** To conquest by resistless Naprr led, 
__ From Candahar they rush impetuous down: 
gh on the tyrant’s burnish’d crest display'd 
Gleam the rich spoils of Persia’s plinder’d 
crow. 
#H 
a 
} 12 
. ee 
__, Steel, 2 
‘millions, Hindostan, in vain advance ; 
ore thy rajahs burn with patriot zeal, 
J more, eneryate, wield the pond’rous 
lance. 
*@Gainst vet’ran warriors, nery’d. with triple, 
655 
*« Invincible the iron phalanx moves, 
Dreadful as wasting storms or raging fire : 
Delhi, again, a victor’s vengeance proves, 
Again her butcher'’d sons in heaps expire, 
«« Tho’ all Goleonda flames before their eyes, 
Not all Golconda can appease their rage: 
Unmov'd they hear the screaming infants’ cries, 
Unaw’d, the curses of expiring age.” 
The striking beauty of the two last 
lines we need scarcely point out. A re. 
currence to the lamented subject of the 
elegy, and a procession of the inferior 
genii of India concludes the piece.— 
“ Westminster Abbey,” is a less happy 
effort of our author. The remarks om 
the vanity of every thing human, which 
make a large part of it, though clothed 
in poetical language, are trite in the ex- 
treme, and too much dwelt upon; for 
after all, “ These little things are great 
to little man.” In characterizing the 
distinguished persons, whose monumenis 
he contemplates, he is not very accurate 
or intelligible. We are quite at a loss to 
know which of our Edwards is intend- 
ed to be celebrated in the following 
passage : | ; 
«© O'er sainted Edward's shrine, Devotion, 
mourn 3 
Once deck’d with treasures brought from 
ev rv clime, 
And crowns from brows of vanquish’d mo- 
narehs torn.” 
The last line seems to apply to Ed- 
ward III.; but by what action of his 
blood-stained conquering reign he has 
acquired a title to the meek honours of 
saintship, we confess ourselves totally 
ignorant. 
The very offensive, though common 
fault, of placing persons of small renown. » 
on a level with characters of the highes: , 
fame, is prominent in this stanza: 
«e Where hath not glory wafted.Vernon’s. 
name? 
Where Wager, Warren, are your deeds. 
unsung? 
Where Charchill, Townshend, eldest sons of 
fame, 
And Weolte, the theme of ev'ry Briton’s- 
tongue ?” : 
If the reader pauses a. moment at the: 
name of one of the pretended “ eldest; 
sons of fame,’’ to ask, ** Who was he ”?” 
the whole effect of such a passage is. 
lost ; a 
The * Hymn to Mithra” serves to 
display the author’s oriental learning,’ 
and powers of lofty versification ; it pos» 
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