THE GERMANS ON THE HEIGHTS OF HOCHHEIM

          ABRUPTLY paused the strife;--the field throughout
          Resting upon his arms each warrior stood,
          Checked in the very act and deed of blood,
          With breath suspended, like a listening scout.
          O Silence! thou wert mother of a shout
          That through the texture of yon azure dome
          Cleaves its glad way, a cry of harvest home
          Uttered to Heaven in ecstasy devout!
          The barrier Rhine hath flashed, through battle-smoke,
          On men who gaze heart-smitten by the view,                  10
          As if all Germany had felt the shock!
          --Fly, wretched Gauls! ere they the charge renew
          Who have seen--themselves now casting off the yoke--
          The unconquerable Stream his course pursue.
                                                              1816.

SIEGE OF VIENNA RAISED BY JOHN SOBIESKI
FEBRUARY 1816

          OH, for a kindling touch from that pure flame
          Which ministered, erewhile, to a sacrifice
          Of gratitude, beneath Italian skies,
          In words like these: 'Up, Voice of song! proclaim
          'Thy saintly rapture with celestial aim:
          'For lo! the Imperial City stands released
          'From bondage threatened by the embattled East,
          'And Christendom respires; from guilt and shame
          'Redeemed, from miserable fear set free
          'By one day's feat, one mighty victory.                     10
          '--Chant the Deliverer's praise in every tongue!
          'The cross shall spread, the crescent hath waxed dim;
          'He conquering, as in joyful Heaven is sung,
          'HE CONQUERING THROUGH GOD, AND GOD BY HIM.'

OCCASIONED BY THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO
(The last six lines intended for an Inscription.)
FEBRUARY 1816

          INTREPID sons of Albion! not by you
          Is life despised; ah no, the spacious earth
          Ne'er saw a race who held, by right of birth,
          So many objects to which love is due:
          Ye slight not life--to God and Nature true;
          But death, becoming death, is dearer far,
          When duty bids you bleed in open war:
          Hence hath your prowess quelled that impious crew.
          Heroes!--for instant sacrifice prepared;
          Yet filled with ardour and on triumph bent                  10
          'Mid direst shocks of mortal accident--
          To you who fell, and you whom slaughter spared
          To guard the fallen, and consummate the event,
          Your Country rears this sacred Monument!

OCCASIONED BY THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO
FEBRUARY 1816.

          THE Bard--whose soul is meek as dawning day,
          Yet trained to judgments righteously severe,
          Fervid, yet conversant with holy fear,
          As recognising one Almighty sway:
          He--whose experienced eye can pierce the array
          Of past events; to whom, in vision clear,
          The aspiring heads of future things appear,
          Like mountain-tops whose mists have rolled away--
          Assoiled from all encumbrance of our time,
          He only, if such breathe, in strains devout                 10
          Shall comprehend this victory sublime;
          Shall worthily rehearse the hideous rout,
          The triumph hail, which from their peaceful clime
          Angels might welcome with a choral shout!

"EMPERORS AND KINGS, HOW OFT HAVE TEMPLES RUNG"

          EMPERORS and Kings, how oft have temples rung
          With impious thanksgiving, the Almighty's scorn!
          How oft above their altars have been hung
          Trophies that led the good and wise to mourn
          Triumphant wrong, battle of battle born,
          And sorrow that to fruitless sorrow clung!
          Now, from Heaven-sanctioned victory, Peace is sprung;
          In this firm hour Salvation lifts her horn.
          Glory to arms! But, conscious that the nerve
          Of popular reason, long mistrusted, freed                   10
          Your thrones, ye Powers, from duty fear to swerve!
          Be just, be grateful; nor, the oppressor's creed
          Reviving, heavier chastisement deserve
          Than ever forced unpitied hearts to bleed.
                                                              1816.

FEELINGS OF A FRENCH ROYALIST, ON THE DISINTERMENT OF THE REMAINS OF THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN

          DEAR Reliques! from a pit of vilest mould
          Uprisen--to lodge among ancestral kings;
          And to inflict shame's salutary stings
          On the remorseless hearts of men grown old
          In a blind worship; men perversely bold
          Even to this hour,--yet, some shall now forsake
          Their monstrous Idol if the dead e'er spake,
          To warn the living; if truth were ever told
          By aught redeemed out of the hollow grave:
          O murdered Prince! meek, loyal, pious, brave!               10
          The power of retribution once was given:
          But 'tis a rueful thought that willow bands
          So often tie the thunder-wielding hands
          Of Justice sent to earth from highest Heaven!
                                                              1816.

Translation Of Part Of The First Book Of The Aeneid
To The Editors Of The Philological Museum

            BUT Cytherea, studious to invent
          Arts yet untried, upon new counsels bent,
          Resolves that Cupid, changed in form and face
          To young Ascanius, should assume his place;
          Present the maddening gifts, and kindle heat
          Of passion at the bosom's inmost seat.
          She dreads the treacherous house, the double tongue;
          She burns, she frets--by Juno's rancour stung;
          The calm of night is powerless to remove
          These cares, and thus she speaks to winged Love:            10

            "O son, my strength, my power! who dost despise
          (What, save thyself, none dares through earth and skies)
          The giant-quelling bolts of Jove, I flee,
          O son, a suppliant to thy deity!
          What perils meet Aeneas in his course,
          How Juno's hate with unrelenting force
          Pursues thy brother--this to thee is known;
          And oft-times hast thou made my griefs thine own.
          Him now the generous Dido by soft chains
          Of bland entreaty at her court detains;                     20
          Junonian hospitalities prepare
          Such apt occasion that I dread a snare.
          Hence, ere some hostile God can intervene,
          Would I, by previous wiles, inflame the queen
          With passion for Aeneas, such strong love
          That at my beck, mine only, she shall move.
          Hear, and assist;--the father's mandate calls
          His young Ascanius to the Tyrian walls;
          He comes, my dear delight,--and costliest things
          Preserved from fire and flood for presents brings.          30
          Him will I take, and in close covert keep,
          'Mid groves Idalian, lulled to gentle sleep,
          Or on Cythera's far-sequestered steep,
          That he may neither know what hope is mine,
          Nor by his presence traverse the design.
          Do thou, but for a single night's brief space,
          Dissemble; be that boy in form and face!
          And when enraptured Dido shall receive
          Thee to her arms, and kisses interweave
          With many a fond embrace, while joy runs high,              40
          And goblets crown the proud festivity,
          Instil thy subtle poison, and inspire,
          At every touch, an unsuspected fire."

            Love, at the word, before his mother's sight
          Puts off his wings, and walks, with proud delight,
          Like young Iulus; but the gentlest dews
          Of slumber Venus sheds, to circumfuse
          The true Ascanius steeped in placid rest;
          Then wafts him, cherished on her careful breast,
          Through upper air to an Idalian glade,                      50
          Where he on soft 'amaracus' is laid,
          With breathing flowers embraced, and fragrant shade.
          But Cupid, following cheerily his guide
          Achates, with the gifts to Carthage hied;
          And, as the hall he entered, there, between
          The sharers of her golden couch, was seen
          Reclined in festal pomp the Tyrian queen.
          The Trojans, too (Aeneas at their head),
          On conches lie, with purple overspread:
          Meantime in canisters is heaped the bread,                  60
          Pellucid water for the hands is borne,
          And napkins of smooth texture, finely shorn.
          Within are fifty handmaids, who prepare,
          As they in order stand, the dainty fare;
          And fume the household deities with store
          Of odorous incense; while a hundred more
          Matched with an equal number of like age,
          But each of manly sex, a docile page,
          Marshal the banquet, giving with due grace
          To cup or viand its appointed place.                        70
          The Tyrians rushing in, an eager band,
          Their painted couches seek, obedient to command.
          They look with wonder on the gifts--they gaze
          Upon Iulus, dazzled with the rays
          That from his ardent countenance are flung,
          And charmed to hear his simulating tongue;
          Nor pass unpraised the robe and veil divine,
          Round which the yellow flowers and wandering foliage twine.

            But chiefly Dido, to the coming ill
          Devoted, strives in vain her vast desires to fill;          80
          She views the gifts; upon the child then turns
          Insatiable looks, and gazing burns.
          To ease a father's cheated love he hung
          Upon Aeneas, and around him clung;
          Then seeks the queen; with her his arts he tries;
          She fastens on the boy enamoured eyes,
          Clasps in her arms, nor weens (O lot unblest!)
          How great a God, incumbent o'er her breast,
          Would fill it with his spirit. He, to please
          His Acidalian mother, by degrees                            90
          Blots out Sichaeus, studious to remove
          The dead, by influx of a living love,
          By stealthy entrance of a perilous guest.
          Troubling a heart that had been long at rest.

            Now when the viands were withdrawn, and ceased
          The first division of the splendid feast,
          While round a vacant board the chiefs recline,
          Huge goblets are brought forth; they crown the wine;
          Voices of gladness roll the walls around;
          Those gladsome voices from the courts rebound;             100
          From gilded rafters many a blazing light
          Depends, and torches overcome the night.
          The minutes fly--till, at the queen's command,
          A bowl of state is offered to her hand:
          Then she, as Belus wont, and all the line
          From Belus, filled it to the brim with wine;
          Silence ensued. "O Jupiter, whose care
          Is hospitable dealing, grant my prayer!
          Productive day be this of lasting joy
          To Tyrians, and these exiles driven from Troy;             110
          A day to future generations dear!
          Let Bacchus, donor of soul-quick'ning cheer,
          Be present; kindly Juno, be thou near!
          And, Tyrians, may your choicest favours wait
          Upon this hour, the bond to celebrate!"
          She spake and shed an offering on the board;
          Then sipped the bowl whence she the wine had poured
          And gave to Bitias, urging the prompt lord;
          He raised the bowl, and took a long deep draught;
          Then every chief in turn the beverage quaffed.             120

            Graced with redundant hair, Iopas sings
          The lore of Atlas, to resounding strings,
          The labours of the Sun, the lunar wanderings;
          When human kind, and brute; what natural powers
          Engender lightning, whence are falling showers.
          He haunts Arcturus,--that fraternal twain
          The glittering Bears,--the Pleiads fraught with rain;
          --Why suns in winter, shunning heaven's steep heights
          Post seaward,--what impedes the tardy nights.
          The learned song from Tyrian hearers draws                 130
          Loud shouts,--the Trojans echo the applause.
          --But, lengthening out the night with converse new,
          Large draughts of love unhappy Dido drew;
          Of Priam asked, of Hector--o'er and o'er--
          What arms the son of bright Aurora wore;--
          What steeds the car of Diomed could boast;
          Among the leaders of the Grecian host.
          How looked Achilles, their dread paramount--
          "But nay--the fatal wiles, O guest, recount,
          Retrace the Grecian cunning from its source,               140
          Your own grief and your friends?--your wandering course;
          For now, till this seventh summer have ye ranged
          The sea, or trod the earth, to peace estranged."
                                                              1816.

A Fact, And An Imagination
Or,
Canute And Alfred, On The Seashore

          THE Danish Conqueror, on his royal chair,
          Mustering a face of haughty sovereignty,
          To aid a covert purpose, cried--"O ye
          Approaching Waters of the deep, that share
          With this green isle my fortunes, come not where
          Your Master's throne is set."--Deaf was the Sea;
          Her waves rolled on, respecting his decree
          Less than they heed a breath of wanton air.
          --Then Canute, rising from the invaded throne,
          Said to his servile Courtiers,--"Poor the reach,            10
          The undisguised extent, of mortal sway!
          He only is a King, and he alone
          Deserves the name (this truth the billows preach)
          Whose everlasting laws, sea, earth, and heaven, obey."
            This just reproof the prosperous Dane
          Drew, from the influx of the main,
          For some whose rugged northern mouths would strain
          At oriental flattery;
          And Canute (fact more worthy to be known)
          From that time forth did for his brows disown               20
          The ostentatious symbol of a crown;
          Esteeming earthly royalty
          Contemptible as vain.
            Now hear what one of elder days,
          Rich theme of England's fondest praise,
          Her darling Alfred, 'might' have spoken;
          To cheer the remnant of his host
          When he was driven from coast to coast,
          Distressed and harassed, but with mind unbroken:
            "My faithful followers, lo! the tide is spent             30
          That rose, and steadily advanced to fill
          The shores and channels, working Nature's will
          Among the mazy streams that backward went,
          And in the sluggish pools where ships are pent:
          And now, his task performed, the flood stands still,
          At the green base of many an inland hill,
          In placid beauty and sublime content!
          Such the repose that sage and hero find;
          Such measured rest the sedulous and good
          Of humbler name; whose souls do, like the flood             40
          Of Ocean, press right on; or gently wind,
          Neither to be diverted nor withstood,
          Until they reach the bounds by Heaven assigned."
                                                              1816.

To Dora

          "'A little onward lend thy guiding hand
          To these dark steps, a little further on!'"
          --What trick of memory to 'my' voice hath brought
          This mournful iteration? For though Time,
          The Conqueror, crowns the Conquered, on this brow
          Planting his favourite silver diadem,
          Nor he, nor minister of his--intent
          To run before him--hath enrolled me yet,
          Though not unmenaced, among those who lean
          Upon a living staff, with borrowed sight.                   10
          --O my own Dora, my beloved child!
          Should that day come--but hark! the birds salute
          The cheerful dawn, brightening for me the east;
          For me, thy natural leader, once again
          Impatient to conduct thee, not as erst
          A tottering infant, with compliant stoop
          From flower to flower supported; but to curb
          Thy nymph-like step swift-bounding o'er the lawn,
          Along the loose rocks, or the slippery verge
          Of foaming torrents.--From thy orisons                      20
          Come forth; and, while the morning air is yet
          Transparent as the soul of innocent youth,
          Let me, thy happy guide, now point thy way,
          And now precede thee, winding to and fro,
          Till we by perseverance gain the top
          Of some smooth ridge, whose brink precipitous
          Kindles intense desire for powers withheld
          From this corporeal frame; whereon who stands,
          Is seized with strong incitement to push forth
          His arms, as swimmers use, and plunge--dread thought,       30
          For pastime plunge--into the "abrupt abyss,"--
          Where ravens spread their plumy vans, at ease!
            And yet more gladly thee would I conduct
          Through woods and spacious forests,--to behold
          There, how the Original of human art,
          Heaven-prompted Nature, measures and erects
          Her temples, fearless for the stately work,
          Though waves, to every breeze, its high-arched roof,
          And storms the pillars rock. But we such schools
          Of reverential awe will chiefly seek                        40
          In the still summer noon, while beams of light,
          Reposing here, and in the aisles beyond
          Traceably gliding through the dusk, recall
          To mind the living presences of nuns;
          A gentle, pensive, white-robed sisterhood,
          Whose saintly radiance mitigates the gloom
          Of those terrestrial fabrics, where they serve,
          To Christ, the Sun of righteousness, espoused.
            Now also shall the page of classic lore,
          To these glad eyes from bondage freed, again                50
          Lie open; and the book of Holy Writ,
          Again unfolded, passage clear shall yield
          To heights more glorious still, and into shades
          More awful, where, advancing hand in hand,
          We may be taught, O Darling of my care!
          To calm the affections, elevate the soul,
          And consecrate our lives to truth and love.
                                                              1816.

To --------
On Her First Ascent To The Summit Of Helvelyn

          INMATE of a mountain-dwelling,
          Thou hast clomb aloft, and gazed
          From the watch-towers of Helvellyn;
          Awed, delighted, and amazed!

          Potent was the spell that bound thee
          Not unwilling to obey;
          For blue Ether's arms, flung round thee,
          Stilled the pantings of dismay.

          Lo! the dwindled woods and meadows;
          What a vast abyss is there!                                 10
          Lo! the clouds, the solemn shadows,
          And the glistenings--heavenly fair!

          And a record of commotion
          Which a thousand ridges yield;
          Ridge, and gulf, and distant ocean
          Gleaming like a silver shield!

          Maiden! now take flight;--inherit
          Alps or Andes--they are thine!
          With the morning's roseate Spirit,
          Sweep their length of snowy line;                           20

          Or survey their bright dominions
          In the gorgeous colours drest
          Flung from off the purple pinions,
          Evening spreads throughout the west!

          Thine are all the coral fountains
          Warbling in each sparry vault
          Of the untrodden lunar mountains;
          Listen to their songs!--or halt,

          To Niphates' top invited,
          Whither spiteful Satan steered;                             30
          Or descend where the ark alighted,
          When the green earth re-appeared;

          For the power of hills is on thee,
          As was witnessed through thine eye
          Then, when old Helvellyn won thee
          To confess their majesty!
                                                              1816.