Nor let the cruel fetters bind
A gentle to a favage mind,
For Love abhors the fight:
Loose the fierce tiger from the deer, For native rage and native fear
Rife and forbid delight.
LET ufelefs fouls to woods retreat;
Polhill fhould leave a country-feat
Lewis, by fawning slaves ador'd, Bids you receive a baseborn lord *; Awake your cares, awake your fword.
Factions amongst the Britons † rife, And warring tongues and wild Surmife, And burning Zeal without her eyes.
A vote decides the blind debate; Refolv'd "'Tis of diviner weight
"To fave the steeple than the state."
The bold machine ‡ is form'd and join'd To ftretch the confcience, and to bind The native freedom of the mind.
Your grandfires' fhades with jealous eye
Frown down to fee their offspring lie
Careless, and let their country die.
If Trevia || fear to let you stand
Against the Gaul with spear in hand, At least petition 4 for the land.
*The Pretender proclaimed king in France. The parliament.
The bill against occafional conformity, 1702. Mrs. Polhill, of the family of the Lord Trevor.
4 Mr. Polhill was one of those five zealous gentlemen who prefented the famous Kentish petition to the parliament in the reign of King William to haften their fupplies, in order to fupport the King in his war with France.
The celebrated victory of the Poles over Ofman the Turkish Emperour in the Dacian battle.
Tranflated from Cañmire, b. iv. ode 4. with large additions.
GADOR the old, the wealthy, and the frong, Cheerful in years, (nor of the heroick Muse Unknowing nor unknown) held fair poffeffions Where flows the fruitful Danube: fev'nty springs Smil'd on his feed, and sev'nty harvest moons Fill'd his wide gran'ries with autumnal joy; Still he refum'd the toil, and Fame reports, While he broke up new ground, and tir'd his plough In graffy furrows, the torn earth difclos'd Helmets and fwords (bright furniture of war Sleeping in ruft) and heaps of mighty bones. The fun defcending to the western deep Bid him lie down and reft; he loos'd the yoke, Yet held his weary'd oxen from their food With charming numbers and uncommon fong. 15 Go, fellow-lab'rers, you may rove secure
Or feed befide me; tafte the greens and boughs That you
have long forgot; crop the fweet herb, And graze in fafety, while the victor Pole
Leans on his fpear and breathes, yet ftill his eye 20 Jealous and fierce. How large, old foldier, say, How fair a harveft of the flaughter'd Turks Strew'd the Moldavian fields? what mighty piles Of vaft deftruction and of Thracian dead
Fill and amaze my eyes? Broad bucklers lie (A vain defence) fpread o'er the pathlefs hills, And coats of scaly steel and hard habergeon, Deep bruis'd and empty of Mahometan limbs. This the fierce Saracen wore, (for when a boy I was their captive, and remind their drefs.) Here the Polonians dreadful march'd along, In auguft port and regular array
Led on to conqueft: here the Turkish chief Prefumptuous trod, and in rude order rang'd His long battalions, while his pop'lous towns Pour'd out fresh troops perpetual drefs'd in arms, Horrent in mail, and gay in fpangled pride. O the dire image of the bloody fight Thefe eyes have feen! when the capacious plain Was throng'd with Dacian fpears, when polifh'd helms And convex gold blaz'd thick against the fun, Reftoring all his beams! but frowning War, All gloomy, like a gather'd tempeft food Wav'ring and doubtful where to bend its fall.
The form of miffive fteel delay'd a while By wife command, fledg'd arrows on the nerve And flimitar and fabre bore the fheath Reluctant, till the hollow brazen clouds
Had bellow'd from each quarter of the field
Loud thunder, and difgorg'd their fulph'rous fire: 50 Then banners wav'd, and arms were mix'd with arms; Then jav'lins anfwer'd jav'lins as they fled,
For both fled hiffing death: with adverse edge The crooked faulchions met, and hideous noife From flafhing fhields thro' the long ranks of war 55 Clang'd horrible: a thousand iron storms Roar diverfe, and in harsh confufion drown The trumpet's filver found. O rude effort Of harmony! not all the frozen flores
Of the cold north when pour'd in rattling hail Lafh with fuch madnefs the Norwegian plains Or fo torment the ear: fcarce founds fo far The direful fragor when fome fouthern blaft Tears from the Alps a ridge of knotty oaks Deep fang'd, and ancient tenants of the rock; The maffy fragment, many a rood in length, With hideous crafh rolls down the rugged cliff Refillefs, plunging in the fubject lake Como' or Lugaine; th' afflicted waters roar, And various thunder all the valley fills. Such was the noife of war; the troubled air Complains aloud, and propagates the din To neighb'ring regions; rocks and lofty hills Beat the impetuous echoes round the sky.
Uproar, revenge, and rage, and hate, appear In all their murd'rous forms, and flame, and blood, And sweat, and duft, array the broad campaign In horrour: hafty feet and sparkling eyes, And all the favage paffions of the foul, Engage in the warm bus'nefs of the day. Volume VI.
« ElőzőTovább » |