In the vales of placid gladness
Let no rueful maniac range;
Chase afar the fiend of Madness,
Wrest the dagger from Revenge!
Say, hast thou, with kind protection,
Rear'd thy smiling race in vain;
Fostering Nature's fond affection,
Tender cares, and pleasing pain?
Hast thou on the troubled ocean Braved the tempest loud and strong, Where the waves, in wild commotion, Roar Cyanean rocks among?
Didst thou roam the paths of danger
Hymenean joys to prove?
Spare, O sanguinary stranger,
Pledges of thy sacred love!
Shall not Heaven, with indignation.
Watch thee o'er the barbarous deed?
Shalt thou cleanse, with expiation,
Monstrous, murd 'rous parricide?
ODE TO WINTER.
WHEN first the fiery-mantled Sun
His heavenly race began to run;
Round the earth and ocean blue,
His children four the Seasons flew.
First, in green apparel dancing,
The young Spring smiled with angel grace;
Rosy Summer next advancing,
Rush'd into her sire's embrace:
Her bright-hair'd sire, who bade her keep
For ever nearest to his smiles,
On Calpe's olive-shaded steep,
On India's citron-cover'd isles:
More remote and buxom-brown
The Queen of vintage bow'd before his throne;
A rich pomegranate gemm'd her crown,
A ripe sheaf bound her zone.
But howling Winter fled afar,
To hills that prop the polar star.
And loves on deer-borne car to ride,
With barren darkness by his side
Round the shore where loud Lofoden
Whirls to death the roaring whale,
Round the hall where Runic Odin
Howls his war-song to the gale;
Save when adown the ravaged globe
He travels on his native storm,
Deflow'ring Nature's grassy robe,
And trampling on her faded form:-
Till light's returning lord assume
The shaft that drives him to his polar field,
Of power to pierce his raven plume,
And crystal-cover'd shield.
O sire of storms! whose savage ear
The Lapland drum delights to hear,
When Frenzy, with her blood-shot eye
Implores thy dreadful deity,
Archangel! power of desolation!
Fast descending as thou art,
Say, hath mortal invocation
Spells to touch thy stony heart?
Then sullen Winter, hear my prayer,
And gently rule the ruin'd year;
Nor chill the wander's bosom bare,
Nor freeze the wretch's falling tear;-
To shuddering want's,unmantled bed
Thy horror-breathing agues cease to lead,
And gently on the orphan head
Of innocence descend.
But chiefly spare, O king of clouds!
The sailor on his airy shrouds;
When wrecks and beacons strew the steep,
And spectres walk along the deep.
Milder yet thy snowy breezes
Pour on yonder tented shores,
Where the Rhine's broad billow freezes
Or the dark-brown Danube roars.
Oh, winds of Winter! list ye there
To many a deep and dying groan; Or start, ye demons of the midnight air, At shrieks and thunders louder than your own. Alas! ev'n your unhallow'd breath
May spare the victim fallen low; But man will ask no truce to death,No bounds to human woe.*
*This ode was written in Germany, at the close of 1800, before the conclusion of hostilities
Spoken by Mr.* * * *, at Drury-Lane Theatre, on the first opening of the house after the death of the Princess Charlotte, 1817.
BRITONS! although our task is but to show
The scenes and passions of fictitious woe,
Think not we come this night without a part
In that deep sorrow of the public heart,
Which like a shade hath darken'd every place,
And moisten'd with a tear the manliest face!
The bell is scarcely hush'd in Windsor's piles,
That toll'd a requiem from the solemn aisles,
For her, the royal flower, low laid in dust,
That was your fairest hope, your fondest trust.
Unconscious of the doom, we dreamt, alas!
That ev'n these walls ere many months should
pass,
Which but return sad accents for her now,
Perhaps had witness'd her benignant brow,
Cheer'd by the voice you would have raised on
high,
In bursts of British love and loyalty.
But, Britain! now thy chief, thy people mourn,
And Claren ont's home of love is left forlorn:-
There, where the happiest of the happy dwelt,
The 'scutcheon glooms, and royalty hath felt
A wound that every bosom feels its own,—
The blessing of a father's heart o'erthrown-
The most beloved and most devoted bride
Torn from an agonized husband's side,
Who "long as Memory holds her seat," shall view
That speechless, more than spoken, last adieu,
When the fix'd eye long look'd connubial faith,
And beam'd affection in the trance of death.
Sad was the pomp that yester-night beheld,
As with the mourner's heart the anthem swell'd,
While torch succeeding torch illumed each high
And banner'd arch of England's chivalry.
The rich plumed canopy, the gorgeous pall,
The sacred march and sable-vested wall,-
These were not rites of inexpressive show,
But hallow'd as the types of real woe!
Daughter of England! for a nation's sighs,
A nation's heart went with thine obsequies!-
And oft shall time revert a look of grief
On thine existence, beautiful and brief.
Fair spirit! send thy blessing from above
On realms where thou art canonized by love!
Give to a father's, husband's bleeding mind,
The peace that angels lend to human kind;
To us, who in thy loved remembrance feel
A sorrowing, but a soul-ennobling zeal-
A loyalty that touches all the best
And loftiest principles of England's breast!
Still may thy name speak concord from the
tomb-
Still in the Muse's breath thy memory bloom! They shall describe thy life-thy form portray; But all the love that mourns thee swept away, "Tis not in language or expressive arts
To paint-yet feel it, Britons, in your hearts'
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