As oft have issued, host impelling host, While European freedom still withstands The' encroaching tide that drowns her lessening lands; And sees far off, with an indignant groan, Her native plains, and empires once her own? To string our nerves, and steel our hearts to war? And, where the face of nature laughs around What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul, Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs, By reason's light on resolution's wings, Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes O'er Libya's deserts and through Zembla's snows? She bids each slumbering energy awake, Another touch, another temper take, Suspends the' inferior laws that rule our clay: The stubborn elements confess her sway; Not but the human fabric from the birth As various tracts enforce a various toil, For where unwearied sinews must be found With side-long plough to quell the flinty ground, To brave the savage rushing from the wood, They guard with spirit, what by strength they gain'd? The rough abode of want and liberty, (As lawless force from confidence will grow) Insult the plenty of the vales below? What wonder, in the sultry climes, that spread Stanzas to Mr. Bentley. Mr. Bentley had made a set of designs for Mr. Gray's Poems, particularly a headpiece to the Long Story. The original drawings are in the library at Strawberry Hill. IN silent gaze the tuneful choir among, Half pleased, half blushing, let the Muse admire, While Bentley leads her sister art along, And bids the pencil answer to the lyre. See, in their course, each transitory thought The tardy rhymes that used to linger on, To censure cold, and negligent of fame, In swifter measures animated run, And catch a lustre from his genuine flame. Ah! could they catch his strength, his easy grace, But not to one in this benighted age Is that diviner inspiration given, That burns in Shakspeare's or in Milton's page, As when, conspiring in the diamond's blaze, The meaner gems, that singly charm the sight, Together dart their intermingled rays, And dazzle with a luxury of light. |