From our own folly and rank wickedness, Which gave them birth and nursed them. Others, Dote with a mad idolatry; and all Who will not fall before their images, [meanwhile, And yield them worship, they are enemies Even of their country! Such have I been deemed But, O dear Britain! O my Mother Isle ! Needs must thou prove a name most dear and holy To me, a son, a brother, and a friend, A husband, and a father! who revere All bonds of natural love, and find them all [holy How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and May my fears, My filial fears, be vain! and may the vaunts In the distant tree: which heard, and only heard In this low dell, bowed not the delicate grass. But now the gentle dew-fall sends abroad The fruit-like perfume of the golden furze ; The light has left the summit of the hill, Though still a sunny gleam lies beautiful, Aslant the ivied beacon. Now farewell, Farewell, awhile, O soft and silent spot! On the green sheep-track, up the heathy hill, Homeward I wind my way; and lo! recalled From bodings that have well nigh wearied me I find myself upon the brow, and pause Startled! And after lonely sojourning In such a quiet and surrounded nook, This burst of prospect, here the shadowy main, Dim tinted, there the mighty majesty Of that huge amphitheatre of rich And elmy fields, seems like societyConversing with the mind, and giving it A livelier impulse and a dance of thought! And now, beloved Stowey! I behold Thy church-tower, and, methinks, the four huge Clustering, which mark the mansion of my friend; And close behind them, hidden from my view, Is my own lowly cottage, where my babe [elms And my babe's mother dwell in peace! With light Is softened, and made worthy to indulge Love, and the thoughts that yearn for human kind. Nether Stowey, April 28th, 1798. FIRE, FAMINE, AND SLAUGHTER. A WAR ECLOGUE. WITH AN APOLOGETIC PREFACE.1 The Scene a desolated Tract in La Vendée. FAMINE is discovered lying on the ground; to her enter FIRE and SLAUGHTER. Fam. SISTERS! sisters! who sent you here? Spirits hear what spirits tell : Myself, I named him once below, Leaped up at once in anarchy, Clapped their hands and danced for glee. They no longer heeded me; But laughed to hear Hell's burning rafters Spirits hear what spirits tell: Fam. Whisper it, sister! so and so! In a dark hint, soft and slow. Slau. Letters four do form his nameAnd who sent you? Both. The same! the same! Slau. He came by stealth, and unlocked my den, 1 Printed at the end of the volume. And I have drunk the blood since then The same! the same ! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! To him alone the praise is due. Fam. Thanks, sister, thanks! the men have bled, Both. Whisper it, sister! in our ear. I had starved the one and was starving the other! do't? The same! the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! Fire. Sisters! I from Ireland came! To see the sweltered cattle run With uncouth gallop through the night, The house-stream met the flame and hissed, The same! the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! All. He let us loose, and cried Halloo! Till the cup of rage o'erbrim: They shall seize him and his brood Slau. They shall tear him limb from limb! Fire. O thankless beldames and untrue! And is this all that you can do For him, who did so much for you? Ninety months he, by my troth! you both; And in an hour would you repay An eight years' work?-Away! away! Cling to him everlastingly. |