"O who shall then to Fancy's darkening eyes
Recall th' Elysian dreams of joy and light?
Dim through the gloom the formless visions rise,
Snatch'd instantaneous down, the gulf of night.
"Thou, who securely lull'd in youth's warm ray,
Mark'st not the desolations wrought by Time,
Be rous'd or perish. Ardent for its prey
Speeds the fell hour that ravages thy prime.
"And, midst the horrors shrin'd of midnight storm,
The fiend Oblivion eyes thee from afar,
Black with intolerable frowns her form,
Beckoning th' embattled whirlwinds into war.
"Fanes, bulwarks, mountains, worlds, their tempest whelms:
Yet Glory braves unmov'd th' impetuous sweep.
Fly then, ere hurl'd from life's delightful realms,
Thou sink t' Oblivion's dark and boundless deep.
"Fly then, where Glory points the path sublime:
See her crown dazzling with eternal light!
'Tis Juno prompts thy daring steps to climb,
And girds thy bounding heart with matchless might.
"Warm in the raptures of divine desire,
Burst the soft chain that curbs th' aspiring mind;
And fly, where Victory, borne on wings of fire,
Waves her red banner to the rattling wind.
"Ascend the car. Indulge the pride of arms,
Where clarions roll their kindling strains on high,
Where the eye maddens to the dread alarms,
And the long shout tumultuous rends the sky.
"Plung'd in the uproar of the thundering field
I see thy lofty arm the tempest guide;
Fate scatters lightning from thy meteor-shield,
And Ruin spreads around the sanguine tide.
"Go, urge the terrors of thy headlong car
On prostrate Pride, and Grandeur's spoils o'erthrown,
While all amaz'd even heroes shrink afar,
And hosts embattled vanish at thy frown.
"When glory crowns thy godlike toils, and all
The triumph's lengthening pomp exalts thy soul,
When lowly at thy feet the mighty fall,
And tyrants tremble at thy stern control;