What though the fiend's torpedo-touch arrest (12) The intrepid Swiss, that guards a foreign shore, Condemned to climb his mountain-cliffs no more, If chance he hears the song so sweetly wild Which on those cliffs his infant hours beguiled, Meits at the long-lost scenes that round him rise, And sinks, a martyr to repentant sighs. Ask not if courts or camps dissolve the charm; The imperial fasces of a world resigned, [bled, (14) (15) Say, when ambitious Charles renounced a throne, (16) Oft has the aged tenant of the vale Gleamed o'er the furze to light him on his way; That his charmed hand the careless rein resigned, Yes, though the porter spurn him from his door, Yet who shall bid the watchful servant fly? The blasts of heaven, the drenching dews of earth, These, when to guard misfortune's sacred grave, Led by what chart, transports the timid dove, c 2 Say, through the clouds what compass points her flight! When with the silent energy of grief, With looks that asked, yet dared not hope relief. Alas! 'twas thine perchance the first to die, [the sky. O'er thy my downs she bends her busy course, END OF THE FIRST PART, THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY. PART II. Degli anni e de l'obblio nemica TASSO. |