And ever as I go, allurements vain
Cherish a feeble fire, and feed my idle
Fancy: O cou'd I once
Charm to their melody my shrilling reeds!
To henrys and to edwards old,
Dread names! I'd meditate the faithful song;
Or tell what time britannia,
Whilom the fairest daughter of old Ocean,
VI.
In loathly disarray, dull eyes,
And faded cheek, wept o'er her abject sons:
Till william, great deliverer,
Led on the comely train, gay Liberty,
Religion, matron staid,
With all her kindred goddesses;
Justice with steady brow,
Trim Plenty, laureat Peace, and green-hair'd Commerce,
In flowing vest of thousand hues.
Fain would I shadow out old Bourbon's pile
Tott'ring with doubtful weight, and threat'ning cumbrous fall;
VII.
Or trace our navy, where in tow'ring pride
O'er the wide-swelling waste it rolls avengeful.
As when collected clouds
Forth from the gloomy south in deep array,
Athwart the dark'ning landscape throng,
Fraught with loud storms, and thunder's dreadful peal,
At which the murd'rer stands aghast,
And wasting Riot ill dissembles terror.
VIII.
How headlong Rhone and Ebro erst distain'd
With moorish carnage, quakes thro' all her branches!
Soon shall I greet the morn,
When, Europe sav'd, britain and george's name
Shall sound o'er Flandria's level field,
Familiar in domestic meriment;
Or by the jolly mariner
Be carol'd loud adown the echoing Danube.
IX.
The just memorial of fair deeds
Still flourishes, and like th' untainted soul
Blossoms in freshest age, above
The weary flesh, and envy's rankling wound.
Such after years mature
In full account shall be thy meed.
O! may your rising hope
Well principled in ev'ry virtue bloom!
Till a fresh-springing flock implore
With infant hands a grandsire's pow'rful pray'r,
Or round your honour'd couch their prattling sports persue.