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POETRY. 



ODE fur the New Year, 1804. 



B^ Hexuy James Pye, Etq. Poel-Lau/eal. 



IIEN, at the Despot's drca<l command, 

 Bridg'd Helk'spont his myriads bore 

 From scr»ll« Asia's peopled strand 



To Gra^cia's and to Freedom's shore — 

 While hostile fleets tenilic sweep 

 With threatening oar th' Ionian deep. 

 Clear Dirce's bending reeds among 

 The Theban Swan no longer sung :* 

 No more by Isthmus.' wave-worn glade, 

 Or Nemea's rocks, or Delphi's bhade, 

 Or Pisa's Olive-rooted grove, 

 The temple of Olympian Jove, 

 The Muses twiii'd the sacred bough. 

 To crown th' Athletic victor's brow, 

 Till on the rough jEgeau main, 

 Till on Platea's trophied plain, 

 Was crush'd the Persian Tyrant's boast, 

 O'erwhulm'd his iiect, o'crthrown his host, 

 Then the bold Thebau sei/'d again the lyre, 

 And struck the chords with renovated fire: 

 " On human life's delusive state, 

 *' Tho' woes unseen, uncertain, wait, 

 " Heal'd in the gen'rous breast is every pain, 

 " With undiminiih'd forte, if Freedom's rights remain''f 



Not so the British Muse — Tho' rude 



Her *oice to Gra;cia's tuneful choir, 

 By dread, by danger unsubdu'd, 



Dauntless she wakes the lyric wire: 



< See Piad. Isth. Ode viii. 1 1''''^« ^ 



