375

The trumpet sleep, while cheerful horns are blown,
And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone.
Behold! th' ascending Villas on my side,
Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide;
Behold! Augusta's glitt'ring spires increase,
And Temples rise, the beauteous works of Peace.
I see, I see, where two fair cities bend

380

Their ample bow, a new Whitehall ascend!
There mighty Nations shall inquire their doom,
The World's great Oracle in times to come;
There Kings shall sue, and suppliant States be seen
Once more to bend before a BRITISH QUEEN.
Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their

woods,

And half thy forests rush into thy floods,

Bear Britain's thunder, and her Cross display,
To the bright regions of the rising day;
Tempt icy seas, where scarce the waters roll,

385

Where clearer flames glow round the frozen Pole;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 385, &c. were originally thus,

Now shall our fleets the bloody Cross display

To the rich regions of the rising day,

Or those green isles, where headlong Titan steeps

His hissing axle in th' Atlantic deeps:

Tempt icy seas, &c.

NOTES.

Ver. 378. And Temples rise,] The fifty new churches. P. Ver. 380. A new Whitehall] "Several plates (says Mr. Walpole) of the intended palace of Whitehall have been given, but, I believe, from no finished design of Inigo Jones. The four great sheets are evidently made up from general hints, nor could such a source of invention and taste, as the mind of Inigo, ever produce so much sameness. The strange kind of cherubims on the towers at the end are preposterous ornaments, and whether of Inigo or not, bear no relation to the

Or under southern skies exalt their sails,

391

395

400

Led by new stars, and borne by spicy gales!
For me the balm shall bleed, and amber flow,
The coral redden, and the ruby glow,
The pearly shell its lucid globe infold,
And Phoebus warm the rip'ning ore to gold.
The time shall come, when free as seas or wind
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind,
Whole nations enter with each swelling tide,
And seas but join the regions they divide;
Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold,
And the new world launch forth to seek the old.
Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide,
And feather'd people crowd my wealthy side,
And naked youths and painted chiefs admire
Our speech, our colour, and our strange attire!
Oh stretch thy reign, fair Peace! from shore to shore,
'Till Conquest cease; and Slav'ry be no more;
"Till the freed Indians in their native groves
Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves,

rest.

NOTES.

405

The great towers in the front are too near, and evidently borrowed from what he had seen in Gothic, not in Roman buildings. The circular court is a picturesque thought, but without meaning or utility.

Ver. 391.] Here is almost a prophecy of those discoveries of new islands and continents which this country of late years has had the honour to make.

Ver. 398. Unbounded Thames, &c.] A wish that London may be made a FREE PORT. P.

Ver. 409.]

To hear the savage youth repeat

In loose numbers wildly sweet,

Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves,

says Mr. Gray, most beautifully in his ode; dusky loves is more accurate than sable; they are not negroes.

411

415

Peru once more a race of Kings behold,
And other Mexicos be roof'd with gold.
Exil'd by thee from earth to deepest hell,
In brazen bonds, shall barb'rous Discord dwell:
Gigantic pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care,
And mad Ambition, shall attend her there:
There purple Vengeance bath'd in gore retires,
Her weapons blunted, and extinct her fires :
There hated Envy her own snakes shall feel,
And Persecution mourn her broken wheel : 420
There Faction roar, Rebellion bite her chain,
And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain."

Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays
Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days:
The thoughts of Gods let GRANVILLE's verse recite,
And bring the scenes of op'ning fate to light. 426
My humble Muse, in unambitious strains,
Paints the green forests and the flow'ry plains,
Where Peace descending bids her olive spring,
And scatters blessings from her dove-like wing.
Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days,
Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise;
Enough for me, that to the list'ning swains
First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains.

NOTES.

431

Ver. 422. in vain.] This conclusion both of Horace and of Pope is feeble and flat. The whole should have ended with this speech of Thames at this line, 422.

Ver. 423.]

IMITATIONS.

"Quo Musa tendis? desine pervicax

Referre sermones Deorum, et

Magna modis tenuare parvis."

Hor.

Several elegant imitations have been given of this species of local poetry; the principal seem to be, Grongar Hill; the Ruins of Rome; Claremont, by Garth; Kymber, by Mr. Potter; Kensington Gardens; Catharine Hill; Faringdon Hill; Newdwood Forest; Lewesdon Hill; the Deserted Village, and Traveller, of Goldsmith; and the Ode on the distant Prospect of Eton College.

Pope, it seems, was of opinion, that descriptive poetry is a composition as absurd as a feast made up of sauces: and I know many other persons that think meanly of it. I will not presume to say it is equal, either in dignity or utility, to those compositions that lay open the internal constitution of man, and that imitate characters, manners, and sentiments. I may however remind such contemners of it, that, in a sister art, landscape-painting claims the very next rank to history-painting, being ever preferred to single portraits, to pieces of still-life, to droll figures, to fruit, and flower-pieces; that Titian thought it no diminution of his genius, to spend much of his time in works of the former species; and that, if their principles lead them to condemn Thomson, they must also condemn the Georgics of Virgil, and the greatest part of the noblest descriptive poem extant; I mean that of Lucretius.