By Fiction's shield secure, for many a year
O'er cooler reason held the genius rule;
But lo! Cervantes waves his pointed spear,
Nor Fiction's shield can stay the spear of ridicule.
The blameless warrior comes; he first to wield
His fateful weapon in the martial field;
By him created on the view,
Arcadia's vallies bloom anew,
And many a flock o'erspreads the plain,
And love, with innocence, assumes his reign:
Protected by a warrior's name,
The kindred warriors live to fame:
Sad is the scene, where oft from Pity's eye
Descends the sorrowing tear,
As high the unheeding chieftain lifts the spear,
And gives the deadly blow, and sees Parthenia die!
Where, where such virtues can we see,
Or where such valour, Sidney, but in thee?
O, cold of heart, shall pride assail thy shade,
Whom all Romance could fancy nature made?
Sound, Fame, thy loudest blast,
For Spenser pours the tender strain,
And [11]shapes to glowing forms the motley train;
The elfin tribes around
Await his potent sound,
And o'er his head Romance her brightest splendors cast.
Deep thro' the air let sorrow's banner wave!
For penury o'er Spenser's friendless head
Her chilling mantle spread;
For Genius cannot save!
Virtue bedews the blameless poet's dust;
But fame, exulting, clasps her favorite's laurel'd bust.
Fain would the grateful Muse, to thee, Rousseau,
Pour forth the energic thanks of gratitude;
Fain would the raptur'd lyre ecstatic glow,
To whom Romance and Nature form'd all good:
Guide of my life, too weak these lays,
To pour the unutterable praise;
Thine aid divine for ever lend,
Still as my guardian sprite attend;
Unmov'd by Fashion's flaunting throng,
Let my calm stream of life smooth its meek course along;
Let no weak vanity dispense
Her vapors o'er my better sense;
But let my bosom glow with fire,
Let me strike the soothing lyre,
Altho' by all unheard the melodies expire.
BION.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Fictions of Romance, popular in Scandinavia at an early period.
[2] Heliodorus chose rather to be deprived of his see than burn his Ethiopics. The bishop's name would have slept with his fathers, the romancer is remembered.
[3] First exploit of the celebrated Regner Lodbrog.