164 | Original Pods aes 
Yos jessamine tho’ se remote, 
Its blossoms sweet as fair, 
While pendant o’er the urn they floaty 
Perfume the ambient air. 
Each fragrant shrub to poets dear, 
Or pleasing to*the sight, 
Round Shenstone’s urn assembled here 
Their balmy sweets unite. 
Yet sweeter far his verse was deem’d,. 
More beautiful his grove: 
While he himself, by all esteem’d, 
Claim’d sindivesat love. 
Tho’ ere life’s noon his glass was run, ' 
Yet gain’d he endless tame: 
Yet on the eve of ninety-one 
How humble is my name! 
My life’s prolong’d full many a year 
Beyond life’s usual space ; 
Yet, ah! in that long life, I fear, 
Heaven few good deeds can trace. 
But, as I’ve cherish’d in my breast 
A loveof all mankind, 
I may, “tis hop’d, among the blest 
An humble mansion find. ; 
Eee 
THE BLIND BARD OF MELES. 
INSCRIBED TO THE REV.WsHs DRUMMOND, 
ON HIS POEM OF THE BATTLE OF TRA- 
FALGAR. 
Oo! for a warning voice like thine, 
Among Bohemia’s bills to sounds 
Or down the deep majestic Rhine ! 
To wake-the nation’s slumb’ring round, 
Or from old Jura’s cloudy cone 
On wings of thunder borne along, 
‘To shake the tyrant on his throne, 
And paralyze the bloody throng! 
Alas! o’er Europe’s mournful plains 
His syren tribes have sped before, 
Her torpid genius lies in chains, 
A victim to the wizar«’s fore. 
And Fate's relentless doom they taught * 
To render all resistance vain 5 
And Pleasure’s rosy bands they brought, 
To sootiie the woes of mental pain. 
And hark! around Britannia’s coast 
The soft enchantments load the gale ; 
To lead the soldier ‘rom his post, 
By tatal charms to Circe’s vale. 
* Allading to the combined effects of Fae 
talism (propagated by a certain set of F writers) 4 
and what are called sentimental compositions, 
Tike author of these lines has not seen all that 
has been written on the subject of Love in 
Jate times, such as the Lyre of Love, the 
Pleasures of Love,&c. We aré also promised 
the Philosophy of Love. Nor swill. he ven- 
ture to criticise on them, ufless-by.two words, 
6« Cayeat emptor !”—that voluptuous ‘kind of 
poetry adapted to what was celebrated in an- 
cient times by the name of the Lydian Mea- 
gure, and ‘noted for its deleterious ae upon 
she siental powers. - 
(Sept. ¥; 
Thus o'er the cycled Isle of old 
From Eastern climes the damon flew § 
And wav’'d aloft his wings of gold, ¥ 
And shed pollution’s dulcet dew. 
The Son of Hades and of Night 
-From Eastern climes dismis’d the foe 5 
To put all manly Thonght to flight, 
And lay the pride of Virtue low. 
He thought to quench the mental beam, 
And many a conquer’d soul despoli’ds 
At length, by Meles” haunted stream, 
A vale bard* his purpose foil’d, 
O yet, by Meles’ haunted shore 
Methinks that sightless bard I se€ 5 
When Pleasure to Circean lore 
Attun’d her Lydian minstrelsie. 
Now, startled by her clanging lyre, 
Her votaries leit the melting dance ; 
And Freedom’s unextinguish’d fire 
From every eye was seen to glance. 
*¢ As Priam’s artful son (he ery’d) 
Allur’d the Spartan Queen away, 
So Eastern guile, by daemons ply’d, 
Will make your manly worth a prey. 
€¢ And when, beneath the viewless foe, 
Your hardihood is lull’d asleep, 
A tyrant’s hand will strike the blow, 
And print the dire example deep. 
*¢ You will -orget the Jesson soon; 
But other tribes the lay will hear 
Athens will hail the glorious boon, 
And grasp the Maratheonian spear. 
‘¢ Thermopylz’s+ immortal name, 
Watted along the tide of Time, 
Shall wake again the godlike fame * 
In many a distant age and clime. 
*¢ On Erin’st¢ shove the battle’s soar 
Is heard beyond the roll'ng wave 3 
The Minstrel band intrepid stand, 
&nd point to glory, ar-the graves 
© Thermopyla immortal name 
The, Northern echoes skall renews. 
When with her mountain sons of Fame, 
Freedom assails the hostile crew. . 
‘* Hark! on the Caledonian|| targe 
The sound 0: combat rings afar ; 
The Grampian spears begin the charge,’ 
And stem the thund’ring tide of war, 
¢¢ But other climes and other times 
Shali see the glorious day retarn ; 
The fiery god shall ride the flood 
On bickering wheels in triumph borne.”§ 
Thus poesy ¢an touch the chord ; 
That wakes the soul’s responsive glow3_ 
And courage hears the magic word 
That nerves the hand to strike the blaw. 
* Homer, born by.the river Meles. 
+ Homer’s works, collected by Lycurgus, 
may have been supposed by poetical licence 
to have contributed to the vic story of the Spare - 
tans at Thermopylae. \ ; 
{ Battle of Clentarp, in Ireland, where 
the bards attended in tle field to celebrate the 
deeds of valour of their countrymen. a 
I} Battle of Basnoclg Burn, §and Trafalgar. 
_ Perhaps ~ 
