POETRY. 



PORTSDOWN HILL*, A POEM, 

 To the Editor of the Bee. 



Hence Britannia sees 



Her solid grandeur rise : 



Hence -ruks the 'circling deep and a-.ues the 'world. 



Thomson's summer. 



Of all the hills which claim poetic worth, 



From snow-dad Sandwich -f- to the frozen north, 



From Japan's isles which haiJ the rising morn. 



To Chilian cliffs that ev'ning rays adorn, 



None more deserves the tributarj- song, 



Than thou, Portsdown ! iftii.it could praise prolong. 

 The bards of old gave fav'rite hills their fame, 



Wi:h gods and heroes join'd each sounding name. 



With fancied beings peopled ev'rj- grove. 



War raged here, and there were scenes of love : 



For as the poets wav'd their magic wands. 



Black regions gloom'd, or smll'd celestial lands, 



Fame follow'd still to Pluto's d;rk abodes, 



Or soar'd on high, where ^ovt his fiat nods ; 



These, still obsequious, mark'd each fav'rite hill. 



And to a river swell'd each purling rill. 



But thou, my Portsdown! tho' to fame unknown^ 



Superior glories hast around thee thrown j 



Tlio' on thy summit no proud clifi" aspires. 



No scenes tremendous, — no volcanic iirei. 



No rocks impending bar the wifh'd-for paJi, 



No yawning caverns stretch their jaws of death, 



But thence around th' enraptur'd eye surveys 



Rich scenes of glory, far surpaf^lng these. 

 The varied landscape wide-extended lies ; 



Liv.ns, woods, and spires, in distant prospect rise j 



Old Ocean's wives, that roar around thy coast. 



Or howl thrv' clilf's in foaming billows tost; 



Thro' cl'ffa, — the bulwarks of Britannia's pow'rl 



That awful centre -of her thurd'rirg store ! f 



Planted by nature's ever careful hand j 



The fixed barritr of fiir Freedom's land. 



Thy much lov'd Isle J, its rocky sides displays. 



Frowning defiance on tke &ubj:-ct seas. 



VOL. vii. II -{• 



• A hill which overlooks Portsmouth town, dock, and harbour. Spit- 

 head, the iili of Wight, and a v^t track of the adjacent country. 

 -} Sandwich isles, discovered by captai.n Cjok in his second voyage^ 

 X Isle of Wight, which /ariTii Spithesd, and de.^'e.ids the island of P»rt- 

 ie« fr3iu the acear.. 



