And, when the gun’s tremendous flash is o’er,
To night and silence sink for evermore!
3. Are these the pompous tidings ye proclaim,
Lights of the world, and demigods[345] of Fame?
Is this your triumph, this your proud applause,
Children of Truth, and champions of her cause?
For this hath Science searched, on weary wing,
By shore and sea, each mute and living thing?
Launched with Iberia’s[346] pilot from the steep,
To world’s unknown, and isles beyond the deep?