On some MODERN IMPROVEMENTS
Oh you who these crags in so happy a taste
With border and trim palisado have graced !
Push on your improvements; and fail not to block
With a neat front of brickwork yon opposite rock.
On Reading MAJOR CARTWRIGHT's APPEAL, &t.
Ah! why should Song, enchanting Song,
Her votaries lose in Error's maze,
Why Flattery, pois'ning future days,
Give Pride those laurels, that to Truth belong?
Avaunt thou Bard of ancient time,
I hate the base insidious lyre,
That bids the gazing crowds retire,
While tyrants sit as Gods sublime.
I hail the man of generous frame,
Who beams with love of humankind,
Who leaves the vulgar great behind,
And scorns the splendid treacheries of a name.
Patriots! the touch-stone page explore,
The wily statesman's craft it shews,
And blood-stain'd heroes to expose
Unfolds lov'd Freedom's sacred lore.
Where Discord hurl'd her torch on high,
Recount the warrior-Romans dead
The blood of gallant Britons shed,
Her vassal'd sons hear humbled Gallia sigh ! How stream'd the Rhine with German gore! Let Cæsar mount the Victor's car;
And Rome, amid the spoils of war,
Her Conqueror, and the World's adore!
Ah! vain the pomp, the imperial sway,.
When Justice takes her watchful stand,
Actions she weighs with patient hand,
Nor dares she rashly give her palms away;
She spurns the mad heroic race,
And oft, while Pœans rend the skies,
While altars, breathing incense, rise,
The Conqueror marks for long disgrace.
Lift high to Catharine's name the strain,
Oh! Russia, deck thy Monarch's brow ;-
But, first, survey that Form of woe
Stalk ghastly over Warsaw's fated plain,
And hear the groan from Ismael's tower,
The pond'rous groans of thousands rise;
And womens screams and infants cries,
Attended Conquest's baneful hour.
Then hail thy Catharine wise and great,
Then proudly wave thy banners round,
And spread the trump's parade of sound,
The pomp of robes, and all the monarch state.
But see her day of glory flown-
Europe has curs'd her baneful name,
And Nature veils herself in shame,
To think what ruffians wear a crown.
Yet Fame shall her Elysium raise,
While Genius culls his wreathe of flowers,
And seated in unfading bowers,
Alfred, ennobled, shine through endless days.
And circle high the mount sublime,
Fancy has hail'd the vision'd sight,
Round living streams of sapphire bright,
The Bards, who raise the lofty rhyme.
Blest, Alfred, be thy honoured name :
"A people's voice of praise is sweet-
"And sweet the songs, his ears that greet,
"The Prince, whose bosom glows with Freedom's flame.
"Still blossom, 'mid the lapse of years,
"The laurels wreath'd on virtue's brow,
"In richer pride their honours blow,
"And age their memory but endears.
"See Britain rising from her seat,
"Proud of her rights, and equal laws,
"Ardent in Freedom's sacred cause "Proclaims thee, Alfred, wise and good and great. ""Twas thine each citizen to fire,
"They pant the thirsty lance to wield,
"They rush impetuous to the field,
"And Freedom sees her foes expire.
They ceas'd-and cease the lyric strain—
For Alfred lives, to bless no more,
Though still, its day of splendor o'er,
Downward the sun but sinks to rise again.
Thus Alfred shines, a glorious name,
And darting golden glories high,
Still marches stately through the sky,
While Nations bless the sacred flame..
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