"While Yorks and Talbots their deep snares deteft, "And feize swift Justice thro' the clouds they raife. "See! focial Labour lifts his guarded head, 620 "And men not yield to government in vain. "From the furé land is rooted ruffian Force, "And, thelewd nurse of villains, idle Waste. [bowl, "Lo! raz'd their haunts, down dash'd theirmaddening "A nation's poifon! beauteous Order reigns! 625 "Manly Submiffion, unimpofing Toil, "Trade without guile, Civility that marks, "From the foul herd of brutal flaves, thy fons, "And fearless Peace. Or should affronting War"To flow but dreadful vengeance rouse the juft, 630 "Unfailing fields of Freemen I behold! "That know, with their own proper arm, to guard" "Their own blest Ifle against a leaguing world. "Defpairing Gaul her boiling youth reftrains, " Diffolv'd her dream of univerfal sway. "The winds and feas are Britain's wide domain, "And not a fail, but by permiffion, spreads. "Lo! fwarming fouthward on rejoicing funs, 635 "Gay Colonies extend, the calm retreat "Of undeserv'd Distress, the better home 640 "Of those whom bigots chafe from foreign lands: "Not built on rapine, fervitude, and woe, "And in their turn some petty tyrant's prey; "But, bound by social Freedom, firm they rife; "Such as, of late, an Oglethorpe has form'd, 645 "And, crowding round, the charm'd Savannah sees. "Horrid with want and mifery, no more "Our streets the tender Passenger afflict; "Nor shivering Age, nor Sickness, without friend, "Or home, or bed, to bear his burnig load, 650 "Nor agonizing Infant, that ne'er earn'd " Its guiltless pangs: I fee the stores profuse, "Which British bounty has to these assign'd, "No more the sacrilegious riot swell "Of Cannibal devourers! Right apply'd, "No starving wretch the land of Freedom stains: "If poor, employment finds; if old, demands, "If fick, if maim'd, his miferable due; 655 " And will, if young, repay the fondest care. "Sweet fets the fun of stormy life, and sweet 660 "The morning shines, in Mercy's dews array'd. "Lo! how they rise! these families of Heaven! "That! chief *, (but why-ye Bigots!-why so late?) "Where blooms and warbles glad a rising age: "What smiles of praise ! and, while their song ascends, "The listening seraph lays his lute aside. "Hark! the gay Muses raise a nobler strain, "With active Nature, warm impassion'd truth, "Engaging fable, lucid order, notes 666 " Of various string, and heart-felt image, fill'd. 679 " Behold! I fee the dread delightful school * An hofpital for Foundlings. "Of temper'd passions, and of polish'd life, "Reftor'd, Behold! the well-dissembled scene Calls from embellish'd eyes the lovely tear, "Or lights up mirth in modeft cheeks again. 675 "Lo! vanish'd Monster land; lo! driven away "Those that Apollo's facred walks profane, "Their wild creation scatter'd, where a world "Unknown to Nature, chaos more confus'd, "O'er the brute scene its Ouran-Outangs * pours; " Detested forms! that, on the mind imprest, 681 "Corrupt, confound, and barbarize an age. "Behold! all thine again the Sifter-Arts, "Thy Graces they, knit in harmonious dance: "Nurs'd by the treasure from a nation drain'd 685 "Their works to purchase, they to nobler rouze " Their untam'd genius, their unfette,'d thought; "Of pompous tyrants, and of dreaming Monks, "The gaudy tools and prifoners no more. "Lo! numerous Domes a Burlington confefs.690 For kings and fenates fit, the Palace fee! "The Temple, breathing a religious awe: " Even fram'd with elegance, the plain retreat, The private dwelling. Certain in his aim, "Taste, never idly working, faves expence. "See! fylvan scenes, where Art, alone, pretends "To dress her mistress, and disclose her charms, 69.5 * A creature which, of all brutes, most refembles man. See Dr. Tyfon's treatise on this animal. Such as a Pope in miniature has shown, " A Bathurst o'er the widening forest * spreads, "And fuch as form a Richmond, Chiswick, Stowe. "August, around, what Public Works I fee! 701 "Lo! stately Streets; lo! Squares that court the breeze, "In spite of those to whom pertains the care, " Ingulfing more than founded Roman ways. "Lo! ray'd from cities o'er the brighten'd land, 705 "Connecting sea to sea, the solid Road. "Lo! the proud Arch (no vile exactor's stand) "With easy sweep bestrides the chafing flood. "See! long Canals, and deepened Rivers join " Each part with each, and with the circling main "The whole enliven'd ifle. Lo! Ports expand, 711 " Free as the winds and waves, their shelt'ring arms. "Lo! streaming comfort o'er the troubled deep, "On every pointed coast the Lighthouse tow'rs; "And, by the broad imperious Mole repell'd, 715 "Hark! how the baffled storm indignant roars." As thick to view these Varied Wonders rose, Shook all my foul with transport; unassur'd, The Vision broke, and on my waking eye Rush'd the still Ruins of dejected Rome. * Okely woods, near Cirencester. 720 i AN ALLEGORICAL POEM. IN TWO CANTOS. Advertisement. THIS Poem being writ in the manner of Spenfer, the obfolete words, and a fimplicity of diction in fome of the lines, which borders on the ludicrous, were neceffary to make the imitation more perfect : and the style of that admirable poet, as well as the measure in which he wrote, are, as it were, appropriated, by custom, to all allegorical poems writ in our language; just as, in French, the style of Marot, who lived under Frances I. has been used in tales and familiar epistles, by the politeft writers of the age of Louis XIV. EXPLANATION of the OBSOLETE WORDS USED IN THIS POEM. Archimage the chief, or Atween-between, greatest, of magicians Ay-always. or enchanters. Bale-forrow, trouble, Apaid-paid. Appal-affright. misfortune. Benempt-named. |