Buch lesen: «The Poems of Philip Freneau, Poet of the American Revolution. Volume 1 (of 3)», Seite 10

THE PRAYER OF ORPHEUS

 
Sad monarch of the world below,
Stern guardian of this drowsy shade,
Through these unlovely realms I go
To seek a captive thou hast made.
O'er Stygian waters have I pass'd,
Contemning Jove's severe decree,
And reached thy sable court at last
To find my lost Eurydicè.
 
 
Of all the nymphs so deckt and drest
Like Venus of the starry train,
She was the loveliest and the best,
The pride and glory of the plain.
O free from thy despotic sway
This nymph of heaven-descended charms,
Too soon she came this dusky way —
Restore thy captive to my arms!
 
 
As by a stream's fair verdant side
In myrtle shades she roved along,
A serpent stung my blooming bride,
This brightest of the female throng —
The venom hastening thro' her veins
Forbade the freezing blood to flow.
And thus she left the Thracian plains
For these dejected groves below.
 
 
Even thou may'st pity my sad pain,
Since Love, as ancient stories say,
Forced thee to leave thy native reign,
And in Sicilian meadows stray:
Bright Proserpine thy bosom fired,
For her you sought unwelcome light,
Madness and love in you conspired
To seize her to the shades of night.
 
 
But if, averse to my request,
The banished nymph, for whom I mourn,
Must in Plutonian chambers rest,
And never to my arms return —
Take Orpheus too – his warm desire
Can ne'er be quench'd by your decree:
In life or death he must admire,
He must adore Eurydicè!
 

THE DESERTED FARM-HOUSE³⁶

 
This antique dome the insatiate tooth of time
Now level with the dust has almost laid; —
Yet ere 'tis gone, I seize my humble theme
From these low ruins, that his years have made.
 
 
Behold the unsocial hearth! – where once the fires
Blazed high, and soothed the storm-stay'd traveller's woes;
See! the weak roof, that abler props requires,
Admits the winds, and swift descending snows.
 
 
Here, to forget the labours of the day,
No more the swains at evening hours repair,
But wandering flocks assume the well known way
To shun the rigours of the midnight air.
 
 
In yonder chamber, half to ruin gone,
Once stood the ancient housewife's curtained bed —
Timely the prudent matron has withdrawn,
And each domestic comfort with her fled.
 
 
The trees, the flowers that her own hands had reared,
The plants, the vines, that were so verdant seen, —
The trees, the flowers, the vines have disappear'd,
And every plant has vanish'd from the green.
 
 
So sits in tears on wide Campania's plain
Rome, once the mistress of a world enslaved;
That triumph'd o'er the land, subdued the main,
And Time himself, in her wild transports, braved.
 
 
So sits in tears on Palestina's shore
The Hebrew town, of splendour once divine —
Her kings, her lords, her triumphs are no more;
Slain are her priests, and ruin'd every shrine.
 
 
Once, in the bounds of this deserted room,
Perhaps some swain nocturnal courtship made,
Perhaps some Sherlock mused amidst the gloom;
Since Love and Death forever seek the shade.
 
 
Perhaps some miser, doom'd to discontent,
Here counted o'er the heaps acquired with pain;
He to the dust – his gold, on traffick sent,
Shall ne'er disgrace these mouldering walls again.
 
 
Nor shall the glow-worm fopling, sunshine bred,
Seek, at the evening hour this wonted dome —
Time has reduced the fabrick to a shed,
Scarce fit to be the wandering beggar's home.
 
 
And none but I its dismal case lament —
None, none but I o'er its cold relics mourn,
Sent by the muse – (the time perhaps misspent) —
To write dull stanzas on this dome forlorn.
 

THE CITIZEN'S RESOLVE³⁷

 
"Far be the dull and heavy day
"And toil, and restless care, from me —
"Sorrow attends on loads of gold,
"And kings are wretched, I am told.
"Soon from the noisy town removed
"To such wild scenes as Plato³⁸ lov'd,
"Where, placed the leafless oaks between,
"Less haughty grows the wintergreen,
"There, Night, will I (lock'd in thy arms,
"Sweet goddess of the sable charms)
"Enjoy the dear, delightful dreams
"That fancy prompts by shallow³⁹ streams,
"Where wood nymphs walk their evening round,
"And fairies haunt the moonlight ground.
"Beneath some mountain's towering height
"In cottage low I hail the night,
"Where jovial swains with heart sincere
"Welcome the new returning year; —
"Each tells a tale or chaunts a song
"Of her, for whom he sigh'd so long,
"Of Cynthia⁴⁰ fair, or Delia coy,
"Neglecting still her love-sick boy —
"While, near, the hoary headed sage
"Recalls the feats of youth's gay age,
"All that in past time e'er was seen,
"And many a frolic on the green,
"How champion he with champions met,
"And fiercely they did combat it —
"Or how, full oft, with horn and hound
"They chaced the deer the forest round —
"The panting deer as swiftly flies,
"Yet by the well-aimed musquet dies!
"Thus pass the evening hours away,
"Unnoticed dies the parting day;
"Unmeasured flows that happy juice,
"Which mild October did produce,
"No surly sage, too frugal found,
"No niggard housewife deals it round:
"And deep they quaff the inspiring bowl
"That kindles gladness in the soul. —⁴¹
"But now the moon, exalted high,
"Adds lustre to the earth and sky,
"And in the mighty ocean's glass
"Admires the beauties of her face —
"About her orb you may behold
"The circling stars that freeze with cold —
"But they in brighter seasons please,
"Winter can find no charms in these,
"While less ambitious, we admire,
"And more esteem domestic fire.
"O could I there a mansion find
"Suited exactly to my mind
"Near that industrious, heavenly train
"Of rustics honest, neat, and plain;
"The days, the weeks, the years to pass
"With some good-natured, longing lass,
"With her the cooling spring to sip,
"And seize, at will, her damask lip;
"The groves, the springs, the shades divine,
"And all Arcadia should be mine!
"Steep me, steep me, some poppies deep
"In beechen bowl, to bring on sleep;
"Love hath my soul in fetters bound,
"Through the dull night no sleep I found; —
"O gentle sleep! bestow thy dreams
"Of fields, and woods, and murmuring streams,
"Dark, tufted groves, and grottoes rare,
"And Flora, charming Flora, there.
"Dull Commerce, hence, with all thy train
"Of debts, and dues, and loss, and gain;
"To hills, and groves, and purling streams,
"To nights of ease, and heaven-born dreams,
"While wiser Damon hastes away,
"Should I in this dull city stay,
"Condemn'd to death by slow decays
"And care that clouds my brightest days?
"No – by Silenus' self I swear,
"In rustic shades I'll kill that care."
So spoke Lysander, and in haste
His clerks discharg'd, his goods re-cased,
And to the western forests flew
With fifty airy schemes in view;
His ships were set to public sale —
But what did all this change avail? —
In three short months, sick of the heavenly train,
In three short months – he moved to town again.
 

THE DYING ELM⁴²

 
Sweet, lovely Elm, who here dost grow
Companion of unsocial care,
Lo! thy dejected branches die
Amidst this torrid air —
Smit by the sun or blasting moon,
Like fainting flowers, their verdure gone.
 
 
Thy withering leaves, that drooping hang,
Presage thine end approaching nigh;
And lo! thy amber tears distill,
Attended with that parting sigh —
O charming tree! no more decline,
But be thy shades and love-sick whispers mine.
 
 
Forbear to die – this weeping eye
Shall shed her little drops on you,
Shall o'er thy sad disaster grieve,
And wash thy wounds with pearly dew,
Shall pity you, and pity me,
And heal the languor of my tree!
 
 
Short is thy life, if thou so soon must fade,
Like angry Jonah's gourd at Nineveh,
That, in a night, its bloomy branches spread,
And perish'd with the day. —
Come, then, revive, sweet lovely Elm, lest I,
Thro' vehemence of heat, like Jonah, wish to die.
 

COLUMBUS TO FERDINAND⁴³

Columbus was a considerable number of years engaged in soliciting the Court of Spain to fit him out, in order to discover a new continent, which he imagined existed somewhere in the western parts of the ocean. During his negotiations, he is here supposed to address king Ferdinand in the following Stanzas.

 
Illustrious monarch of Iberia's soil,
Too long I wait permission to depart;
Sick of delays, I beg thy list'ning ear —
Shine forth the patron and the prince of art.
 
 
While yet Columbus breathes the vital air,
Grant his request to pass the western main:
Reserve this glory for thy native soil,
And what must please thee more – for thy own reign.
 
 
Of this huge globe, how small a part we know —
Does heaven their worlds to western suns deny? —
How disproportion'd to the mighty deep
The lands that yet in human prospect lie!
 
 
Does Cynthia, when to western skies arriv'd,
Spend her sweet beam upon the barren main,
And ne'er illume with midnight splendor, she,
The natives dancing on the lightsome green? —
 
 
Should the vast circuit of the world contain
Such wastes of ocean, and such scanty land? —
'Tis reason's voice that bids me think not so,
I think more nobly of the Almighty hand.
 
 
Does yon' fair lamp trace half the circle round
To light the waves and monsters of the seas? —
No – be there must beyond the billowy waste
Islands, and men, and animals, and trees.
 
 
An unremitting flame my breast inspires
To seek new lands amidst the barren waves,
Where falling low, the source of day descends,
And the blue sea his evening visage laves.
 
 
Hear, in his tragic lay, Cordova's sage:[A]
"The time shall come, when numerous years are past,
"The ocean shall dissolve the bands of things,
"And an extended region rise at last;
 

[A] Seneca the poet, native of Cordova in Spain. —Freneau's note (1786). Venient annis secula seris, quibus oceanus vincula rerum laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Typhisque novos detegat orbes; nec sit terris Ultima Thule.– Seneca, Med., Act. III, V. 375. (Ibid. Ed. 1795 et seq.)

 
"And Typhis shall disclose the mighty land
"Far, far away, where none have rov'd before;
"Nor shall the world's remotest region be
"Gibraltar's rock, or Thule's [B] savage shore."⁴⁴
 

[B] Supposed by many to be the Orkney or Shetland Isles. —Freneau's note.

 
Fir'd at the theme, I languish to depart,
Supply the barque, and bid Columbus sail,
He fears no storms upon the untravell'd deep;
Reason shall steer, and skill disarm the gale.
 
 
Nor does he dread to lose the intended course,
Though far from land the reeling galley stray,
And skies above, and gulphy seas below
Be the sole objects seen for many a day.
 
 
Think not that Nature has unveil'd in vain
The mystic magnet to the mortal eye:
So late have we the guiding needle plann'd
Only to sail beneath our native sky?
 
 
Ere this was found, the ruling power of all
Found for our use an ocean in the land,
Its breadth so small we could not wander long,
Nor long be absent from the neighbouring strand.
 
 
Short was the course, and guided by the stars,
But stars no more shall point our daring way;
The Bear shall sink, and every guard be drown'd,
And great Arcturus scarce escape the sea,
 
 
When southward we shall steer – O grant my wish.
Supply the barque, and bid Columbus sail,
He dreads no tempests on the untravell'd deep,
Reason shall steer, and shall disarm the gale.
 

THE RISING GLORY OF AMERICA⁴⁵

Being part of a Dialogue pronounced on a public occasion

Argument

The subject proposed. – The discovery of America by Columbus. – A philosophical enquiry into the origin of the savages of America. – The first planters from Europe. – Causes of their migration to America. – The difficulties they encountered from the jealousy of the natives. – Agriculture descanted on. – Commerce and navigation. – Science. – Future prospects of British usurpation, tyranny, and devastation on this side the Atlantic. – The more comfortable one of Independence, Liberty and Peace. – Conclusion.

Acasto

 
Now shall the adventurous muse attempt a theme
More new, more noble and more flush of fame
Than all that went before —
Now through the veil of ancient days renew
The period famed when first Columbus touched5
These shores so long unknown – through various toils,
Famine, and death, the hero forced his way,
Through oceans pregnant with perpetual storms,
And climates hostile to adventurous man.
But why, to prompt your tears, should we resume,10
The tale of Cortez, furious chief, ordained
With Indian blood to dye the sands, and choak,
Famed Mexico, thy streams with dead? or why
Once more revive the tale so oft rehearsed
Of Atabilipa, by thirst of gold,15
(Too conquering motive in the human breast,)
Deprived of life, which not Peru's rich ore
Nor Mexico's vast mines could then redeem?
Better these northern realms demand our song,
Designed by nature for the rural reign,20
For agriculture's toil. – No blood we shed
For metals buried in a rocky waste. —
Cursed be that ore, which brutal makes our race
And prompts mankind to shed their kindred blood.
 

Eugenio

 
But whence arose25
That vagrant race who love the shady vale,
And choose the forest for their dark abode? —
For long has this perplext the sages' skill
To investigate. – Tradition lends no aid
To unveil this secret to the human eye,30
When first these various nations, north and south,
Possest these shores, or from what countries came;
Whether they sprang from some primæval head
In their own lands, like Adam in the east, —
Yet this the sacred oracles deny,35
And reason, too, reclaims against the thought:
For when the general deluge drowned the world
Where could their tribes have found security,
Where find their fate, but in the ghastly deep? —
Unless, as others dream, some chosen few40
High on the Andes 'scaped the general death,
High on the Andes, wrapt in endless snow,
Where winter in his wildest fury reigns,
And subtile æther scarce our life maintains.
But here philosophers oppose the scheme:45
This earth, say they, nor hills nor mountains knew
Ere yet the universal flood prevailed;
But when the mighty waters rose aloft,
Roused by the winds, they shook their solid base,
And, in convulsions, tore the deluged world,50
'Till by the winds assuaged, again they fell,
And all their ragged bed exposed to view.
Perhaps far wandering toward the northern pole
The streights of Zembla, and the frozen zone,
And where the eastern Greenland almost joins55
America's north point, the hardy tribes
Of banished Jews, Siberians, Tartars wild
Came over icy mountains, or on floats,
First reached these coasts, hid from the world beside. —
And yet another argument more strange,60
Reserved for men of deeper thought, and late,
Presents itself to view: – In Peleg's days,
(So says the Hebrew seer's unerring pen)
This mighty mass of earth, this solid globe,
Was cleft in twain, – "divided" east and west,65
While then perhaps the deep Atlantic roll'd, —
Through the vast chasm, and laved the solid world;
And traces indisputable remain
Of this primæval land now sunk and lost. —
The islands rising in our eastern main70
Are but small fragments of this continent,
Whose two extremities were Newfoundland
And St. Helena. – One far in the north,
Where shivering seamen view with strange surprize
The guiding pole-star glittering o'er their heads;75
The other near the southern tropic rears
Its head above the waves – Bermuda's isles,
Cape Verd, Canary, Britain, and the Azores,
With fam'd Hibernia, are but broken parts
Of some prodigious waste, which once sustain'd80
Nations and tribes, of vanished memory,
Forests and towns, and beasts of every class,
Where navies now explore their briny way.
 

Leander

 
Your sophistry, Eugenio, makes me smile;
The roving mind of man delights to dwell85
On hidden things, merely because they're hid:
He thinks his knowledge far beyond all limit,
And boldly fathoms Nature's darkest haunts; —
But for uncertainties, your broken isles,
Your northern Tartars, and your wandering Jews,90
(The flimsy cobwebs of a sophist's brain)
Hear what the voice of history proclaims: —
The Carthagenians, ere the Roman yoke
Broke their proud spirits, and enslaved them too,
For navigation were renowned as much95
As haughty Tyre with all her hundred fleets.
Full many a league their venturous seamen sailed
Through streight Gibraltar, down the western shore
Of Africa, to the Canary isles:
By them called Fortunate; so Flaccus sings.100
Because eternal spring there clothes the fields
And fruits delicious bloom throughout the year. —
From voyaging here, this inference I draw,
Perhaps some barque with all her numerous crew
Falling to leeward of her destined port,105
Caught by the eastern Trade, was hurried on
Before the unceasing blast to Indian isles,
Brazil, La Plata, or the coasts more south —
There stranded, and unable to return,
Forever from their native skies estranged.110
Doubtless they made these virgin climes their own,
And in the course of long revolving years
A numerous progeny from these arose,
And spread throughout the coasts – those whom we call
Brazilians, Mexicans, Peruvians rich,115
The tribes of Chili, Patagon, and those
Who till the shores of Amazon's long stream. —
When first the power of Europe here attained,
Vast empires, kingdoms, cities, palaces
And polished nations stock'd the fertile land.120
Who has not heard of Cusco, Lima, and
The town of Mexico – huge cities form'd
From Indian architecture; ere the arms
Of haughty Spain disturb'd the peaceful soil? —
But here, amid this northern dark domain,125
No towns were seen to rise. – No arts were here;
The tribes unskill'd to raise the lofty mast,
Or force the daring prow thro' adverse waves,
Gazed on the pregnant soil, and craved alone
Life from the unaided genius of the ground, – 130
This indicates they were a different race;
From whom descended, 'tis not ours to say —
That power, no doubt, who furnish'd trees, and plants,
And animals to this vast continent,
Spoke into being man among the rest, – 135
But what a change is here! – what arts arise!
What towns and capitals! how commerce waves
Her gaudy flags, where silence reign'd before!
 

Acasto

 
Speak, learned Eugenio, for I've heard you tell
The dismal story, and the cause that brought140
The first adventurers to these western shores!
The glorious cause that urged our fathers first
To visit climes unknown, and wilder woods
Than e'er Tartarian or Norwegian saw,
And with fair culture to adorn a soil145
That never felt the industrious swain before.
 

Eugenio

 
All this long story to rehearse, would tire;
Besides, the sun towards the west retreats,
Nor can the noblest theme retard his speed,
Nor loftiest verse – not that which sang the fall150
Of Troy divine, and fierce Achilles' ire. —
Yet hear a part: – By persecution wronged
And sacerdotal rage, our fathers came
From Europe's hostile shores to these abodes,
Here to enjoy a liberty in faith,155
Secure from tyranny and base controul.
For this they left their country and their friends,
And plough'd the Atlantic wave in quest of peace;
And found new shores, and sylvan settlements,
And men, alike unknowing and unknown.160
Hence, by the care of each adventurous chief
New governments (their wealth unenvied yet)
Were form'd on liberty and virtue's plan.
These searching out uncultivated tracts
Conceived new plans of towns, and capitals,165
And spacious provinces. – Why should I name
Thee, Penn, the Solon of our western lands;
Sagacious legislator, whom the world
Admires, long dead: an infant colony,
Nursed by thy care, now rises o'er the rest170
Like that tall pyramid in Egypt's waste
O'er all the neighbouring piles, they also great.
Why should I name those heroes so well known,
Who peopled all the rest from Canada
To Georgia's farthest coasts, West Florida,175
Or Apalachian mountains? – Yet what streams
Of blood were shed! what Indian hosts were slain,
Before the days of peace were quite restored!
 

Leander

 
Yes, while they overturn'd the rugged soil
And swept the forests from the shaded plain180
'Midst dangers, foes, and death, fierce Indian tribes
With vengeful malice arm'd, and black design,
Oft murdered, or dispersed, these colonies —
Encouraged, too, by Gallia's hostile sons,
A warlike race, who late their arms display'd,185
At Quebec, Montreal, and farthest coasts
Of Labrador, or Cape Breton, where now
The British standard awes the subject host.
Here, those brave chiefs, who, lavish of their blood,
Fought in Britannia's cause, in battle fell! – 190
What heart but mourns the untimely fate of Wolfe,
Who, dying, conquered! – or what breast but beats
To share a fate like his, and die like him!
 

Acasto

 
But why alone commemorate the dead,
And pass those glorious heroes by, who yet195
Breathe the same air, and see the light with us? —
The dead, Leander, are but empty names,
And they who fall to-day the same to us
As they who fell ten centuries ago! —
Lost are they all that shined on earth before;200
Rome's boldest champions in the dust are laid,
Ajax and great Achilles are no more,
And Philip's warlike son, an empty shade! —
A Washington among our sons of fame
Will rise conspicuous as the morning star205
Among the inferior lights: —
To distant wilds Virginia sent him forth —
With her brave sons he gallantly opposed
The bold invaders of his country's rights,
Where wild Ohio pours the mazy flood,210
And mighty meadows skirt his subject streams. —
But now delighting in his elm tree's shade,
Where deep Potowmac laves the enchanting shore,
He prunes the tender vine, or bids the soil
Luxuriant harvests to the sun display. – 215
Behold a different scene – not thus employed
Were Cortez, and Pizarro, pride of Spain,
Whom blood and murder only satisfied,
And all to glut their avarice and ambition! —
 

Eugenio

 
Such is the curse, Acasto, where the soul220
Humane is wanting – but we boast no feats
Of cruelty like Europe's murdering breed: —
Our milder epithet is merciful,
And each American, true hearted, learns
To conquer, and to spare; for coward souls225
Alone seek vengeance on a vanquished foe.
Gold, fatal gold, was the alluring bait
To Spain's rapacious tribes – hence rose the wars
From Chili to the Caribbean sea,
And Montezuma's Mexican domains:230
More blest are we, with whose unenvied soil
Nature decreed no mingling gold to shine,
No flaming diamond, precious emerald,
No blushing sapphire, ruby, chrysolite,
Or jasper red – more noble riches flow235
From agriculture, and the industrious swain,
Who tills the fertile vale, or mountain's brow.
Content to lead a safe, a humble life,
Among his native hills, romantic shades
Such as the muse of Greece of old did feign,240
Allured the Olympian gods from chrystal skies,
Envying such lovely scenes to mortal man.
 

Leander

 
Long has the rural life been justly fam'd,
And bards of old their pleasing pictures drew
Of flowery meads, and groves, and gliding streams:245
Hence, old Arcadia – wood-nymphs, satyrs, fauns;
And hence Elysium, fancied heaven below! —
Fair agriculture, not unworthy kings,
Once exercised the royal hand, or those
Whose virtues raised them to the rank of gods.250
See old Laertes in his shepherd weeds
Far from his pompous throne and court august,
Digging the grateful soil, where round him rise,
Sons of the earth, the tall aspiring oaks,
Or orchards, boasting of more fertile boughs,255
Laden with apples red, sweet scented peach,
Pear, cherry, apricot, or spungy plumb;
While through the glebe the industrious oxen draw
The earth-inverting plough. – Those Romans too,
Fabricius and Camillus, loved a life260
Of neat simplicity and rustic bliss,
And from the noisy Forum hastening far,
From busy camps, and sycophants, and crowns,
'Midst woods and fields spent the remains of life,
Where full enjoyment still awaits the wise.265
How grateful, to behold the harvests rise,
And mighty crops adorn the extended plains! —
Fair plenty smiles throughout, while lowing herds
Stalk o'er the shrubby hill or grassy mead,
Or at some shallow river slake their thirst. – 270
The inclosure, now, succeeds the shepherd's care,
Yet milk-white flocks adorn the well stock'd farm,
And court the attention of the industrious swain. —
Their fleece rewards him well, and when the winds
Blow with a keener blast, and from the north275
Pour mingled tempests through a sunless sky
(Ice, sleet, and rattling hail) secure he sits
Warm in his cottage, fearless of the storm,
Enjoying now the toils of milder moons,
Yet hoping for the spring. – Such are the joys,280
And such the toils of those whom heaven hath bless'd
With souls enamoured of a country life.
 

Acasto

 
Such are the visions of the rustic reign —
But this alone, the fountain of support,
Would scarce employ the varying mind of man;285
Each seeks employ, and each a different way:
Strip Commerce of her sail, and men once more
Would be converted into savages; —
No nation e'er grew social and refined
'Till Commerce first had wing'd the adventurous prow,290
Or sent the slow-paced caravan, afar,
To waft their produce to some other clime,
And bring the wished exchange – thus came, of old,
Golconda's golden ore, and thus the wealth
Of Ophir, to the wisest of mankind.295
 

Eugenio

 
Great is the praise of Commerce, and the men
Deserve our praise, who spread the undaunted sail,
And traverse every sea – their dangers great,
Death still to combat in the unfeeling gale,
And every billow but a gaping grave: – 300
There, skies and waters, wearying on the eye,
For weeks and months no other prospect yield
But barren wastes, unfathomed depths, where not
The blissful haunt of human form is seen
To cheer the unsocial horrors of the way. – 305
Yet all these bold designs to Science owe
Their rise and glory. – Hail, fair Science! thou,
Transplanted from the eastern skies, dost bloom
In these blest regions. – Greece and Rome no more
Detain the Muses on Citheron's brow,310
Or old Olympus, crowned with waving woods,
Or Hæmus' top, where once was heard the harp,
Sweet Orpheus' harp, that gained his cause below,
And pierced the souls of Orcus and his bride;
That hush'd to silence by its voice divine315
Thy melancholy waters, and the gales
O Hebrus! that o'er thy sad surface blow. —
No more the maids round Alpheus' waters stray,
Where he with Arethusa's stream doth mix,
Or where swift Tiber disembogues his waves320
Into the Italian sea, so long unsung;
Hither they wing their way, the last, the best
Of countries, where the arts shall rise and grow,
And arms shall have their day; – even now we boast
A Franklin, prince of all philosophy,325
A genius piercing as the electric fire,
Bright as the lightning's flash, explained so well,
By him, the rival of Britannia's sage. —
This is the land of every joyous sound,
Of liberty and life, sweet liberty!330
Without whose aid the noblest genius fails,
And Science irretrievably must die.
 

Leander

 
But come, Eugenio, since we know the past —
What hinders to pervade with searching eye
The mystic scenes of dark futurity?335
Say, shall we ask what empires yet must rise,
What kingdoms, powers and states, where now are seen
Mere dreary wastes and awful solitude,
Where Melancholy sits, with eye forlorn,
And time anticipates, when we shall spread340
Dominion from the north, and south, and west,
Far from the Atlantic to Pacific shores,
And people half the convex of the main! —
A glorious theme! – but how shall mortals dare
To pierce the dark events of future years345
And scenes unravel, only known to fate?
 

Acasto

 
This might we do, if warmed by that bright coal
Snatch'd from the altar of cherubic fire
Which touched Isaiah's lips – or if the spirit
Of Jeremy and Amos, prophets old,350
Might swell the heaving breast – I see, I see
Freedom's established reign; cities, and men,
Numerous as sands upon the ocean shore,
And empires rising where the sun descends! —
The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town355
Of note; and where the Mississippi stream,
By forests shaded, now runs weeping on,
Nations shall grow, and states not less in fame
Than Greece and Rome of old! – we too shall boast
Our Scipios, Solons, Catos, sages, chiefs360
That in the lap of time yet dormant lie,
Waiting the joyous hour of life and light. —
O snatch me hence, ye muses, to those days
When, through the veil of dark antiquity,
A race shall hear of us as things remote,365
That blossomed in the morn of days. – Indeed,
How could I weep that we exist so soon,
Just in the dawning of these mighty times,
Whose scenes are painting for eternity!
Dissentions that shall swell the trump of fame,370
And ruin hovering o'er all monarchy!
 

Eugenio

 
Nor shall these angry tumults here subside
Nor murder cease, through all these provinces,
Till foreign crowns have vanished from our view
And dazzle here no more – no more presume375
To awe the spirit of fair Liberty; —
Vengeance must cut the thread, – and Britain, sure
Will curse her fatal obstinacy for it!
Bent on the ruin of this injured country,
She will not listen to our humble prayers.380
Though offered with submission:
Like vagabonds and objects of destruction,
Like those whom all mankind are sworn to hate,
She casts us off from her protection,
And will invite the nations round about,385
Russians and Germans, slaves and savages,
To come and have a share in our perdition. —
O cruel race, O unrelenting Britain,
Who bloody beasts will hire to cut our throats,
Who war will wage with prattling innocence,390
And basely murder unoffending women! —
Will stab their prisoners when they cry for quarter,
Will burn our towns, and from his lodging turn
The poor inhabitant to sleep in tempests! —
These will be wrongs, indeed, and all sufficient395
To kindle up our souls to deeds of horror,
And give to every arm the nerves of Samson —
These are the men that fill the world with ruin,
And every region mourns their greedy sway, —
Not only for ambition – 400
But what are this world's goods, that they for them
Should exercise perpetual butchery?
What are these mighty riches we possess,
That they should send so far to plunder them? —
Already have we felt their potent arm – 405
And ever since that inauspicious day,
When first Sir Francis Bernard
His ruffians planted at the council door,
And made the assembly room a home for vagrants,
And soldiers, rank and file – e'er since that day410
This wretched land, that drinks its children's gore,
Has been a scene of tumult and confusion! —
Are there not evils in the world enough?
Are we so happy that they envy us?
Have we not toiled to satisfy their harpies,415
Kings' deputies, that are insatiable;
Whose practice is to incense the royal mind
And make us despicable in his view? —
Have we not all the evils to contend with
That, in this life, mankind are subject to,420
Pain, sickness, poverty, and natural death —
But into every wound that nature gave
They will a dagger plunge, and make them mortal!
 

Leander

 
Enough, enough! – such dismal scenes you paint,
I almost shudder at the recollection. – 425
What! are they dogs that they would mangle us? —
Are these the men that come with base design
To rob the hive, and kill the industrious bee! —
To brighter skies I turn my ravished view,
And fairer prospects from the future draw: – 430
Here independent power shall hold her sway,
And public virtue warm the patriot breast:
No traces shall remain of tyranny,
And laws, a pattern to the world beside,
Be here enacted first. – 435
 

Acasto

 
And when a train of rolling years are past,
(So sung the exiled seer in Patmos isle)
A new Jerusalem, sent down from heaven.
Shall grace our happy earth, – perhaps this land,
Whose ample bosom shall receive, though late,440
Myriads of saints, with their immortal king,
To live and reign on earth a thousand years,
Thence called Millennium. Paradise anew
Shall flourish, by no second Adam lost,
No dangerous tree with deadly fruit shall grow,445
No tempting serpent to allure the soul
From native innocence. – A Canaan here,
Another Canaan shall excel the old,
And from a fairer Pisgah's top be seen.
No thistle here, nor thorn, nor briar shall spring,450
Earth's curse before: the lion and the lamb
In mutual friendship linked, shall browse the shrub.
And timorous deer with softened tygers stray
O'er mead, or lofty hill, or grassy plain;
Another Jordan's stream shall glide along,455
And Siloah's brook in circling eddies flow:
Groves shall adorn their verdant banks, on which
The happy people, free from toils and death.
Shall find secure repose. No fierce disease,
No fevers, slow consumption, ghastly plague,460
(Fate's ancient ministers) again proclaim
Perpetual war with man: fair fruits shall bloom,
Fair to the eye, and sweeter to the taste;
Nature's loud storms be hushed, and seas no more
Rage hostile to mankind – and, worse than all,465
The fiercer passions of the human breast
Shall kindle up to deeds of death no more,
But all subside in universal peace. —
Such days the world,
And such America at last shall have470
When ages, yet to come, have run their round,
And future years of bliss alone remain.