XXI. [Composed probably 1803.-Published 1807.] ENGLAND! the time is come when thou shouldst wean Thy heart from its emasculating food; The truth should now be better understood; XXIII. TO THE MEN OF KENT. OCTOBER, 1803. [Composed Oct. 1803.-Published 1807.] VANGUARD of Liberty, ye men of Kent, Ye children of a Soil that doth advance Her haughty brow against the coast of France, Old things have been unsettled; we have Now is the time to prove your hardiment! To France be words of invitation sent! 5 They from their fields can see the countenance Of your fierce war, may ken the glittering lance, Oh grief that Earth's best hopes rest all We all are with you now from shore to with Thee! XXII. OCTOBER, 1803. [Composed October, 1803.-Published 1807.] WHEN, looking on the present face of things, I see one man, of men the meanest too! Raised up to sway the world, to do, undo, With mighty Nations for his underlings, The great events with which old story rings 5 Seem vain and hollow; I find nothing great: Nothing is left which I can venerate; I measure back the steps which I have trod; And tremble, seeing whence proceeds the strength shore ; Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death! XXIV. [Composed ?.-Published 1837.] WHAT if our numbers barely could defy The arithmetic of babes, must foreign hordes, Slaves, vile as ever were befooled by words, Striking through English breasts the anarchy Of Terror, bear us to the ground, and tie Our hands behind our backs with felon cords? 6 Yields every thing to discipline of swords? Is man as good as man, none low, none high? Nor discipline nor valour can withstand The shock, nor quell the inevitable rout, When in some great extremity breaks Of such poor Instruments, with thoughts Risen, like one man, to combat in the sublime I tremble at the sorrow of the time. sight Of a just God for liberty and right. XXV. And left them lying in the silent sun, Never to rise again!—the work is done. 5 LINES ON THE EXPECTED INVASION. Come forth, ye old men, now in peaceful 1803. But they are ever playing, And stands on tiptoe, conscious she is fair, And calls a look of love into her face, 10 And Hope was maddened by the drops that fell From shades, her chosen place of shortlived rest. Shame followed shame, and woe supplanted woe And spreads her arms, as if the general air Is this the only change that time can Alone could satisfy her wide embrace. -Melt, Principalities, before her melt! Her love ye hailed-her wrath have felt! But She through many a change of form hath gone, 15 And stands amidst you now an armed creature, Whose panoply is not a thing put on, show? 40 Weak Spirits are there-who would ask, Upon the pressure of a painful thing, Stalks round-abhorred by Heaven, a The lion's sinews, or the eagle's wing; My Soul, a sorrowful interpreter, In many a midnight vision bowed Before the ominous aspect of her spear; Which his own nature hath enjoined ;and why? Whether the mighty beam, in scorn up- If, when that interference hath relieved ground, Your feeble spirits! Greece her head hath bowed, As if the wreath of liberty thereon Would fix itself as smoothly as a cloud, And to the people at the Isthmian Which, at Jove's will, descends on Pe Games claims Assembled, He, by a herald's voice, pro lion's top." III. THE LIBERTY OF GREECE:-the words TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ON THE FINAL PASS rebound 4 Until all voices in one voice are drowned; Glad acclamation by which air was rent ! And birds, high flying in the element, Dropped to the earth, astonished at the sound! Yet were the thoughtful grieved; and still that voice ING OF THE BILL FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. MARCH, 1807. [Composed March, 1807.-Published 1807.] CLARKSON! it was an obstinate hill to climb: How toilsome-nay, how dire-it was, by thee Is known; by none, perhaps, so feelingly: Haunts, with sad echoes, musing Fancy's But thou, who, starting in thy fervent Ah! that a Conqueror's words should be Didst first lead forth that enterprise subso dear: lime, 5 Ah! that a boon could shed such rap- Hast heard the constant Voice its charge turous joys! A gift of that which is not to be given By all the blended powers of Earth and Heaven. 1 i.e. the proclamation of the Liberty of Greece by T. Quintius Flamininus, the conqueror of Philip of Macedon (B.c. 196).-ED. And thou henceforth wilt have a good A vivid repetition of the stars; COMPOSED BY THE SIDE OF GRASMERE LAKE. [Composed 1807.-Published 1819.] CLOUDS, lingering yet, extend in solid bars Through the grey west; and lo! these waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield 1 i.e. The heads of twelve sovereign houses of the Empire who, by treaty signed at Paris (July 12, 1806) declared themselves finally severed from Germany, and united into the Confederation of the Rhine under the Protectorate of Napoleon. The Bavarian (line 12) was Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, with whom Napoleon (Dec. 11, 1806) concluded a treaty admitting him into the Confederation of the Rhine.-ED. |