What new Alcaeus, fancy-blest, Shall sing the sword, in myrtles drest, At Wisdom's shrine awhile its flame concealing," (What place so fit to seal a deed renown'd?) Till she her brightest lightnings round revealing, It leap'd in glory forth, and dealt her prompted wound! O goddess, in that feeling hour, When most its sounds would court thy ears, Let not my shell's misguided pow'rt E'er draw thy sad, thy mindful tears. No, Freedom, no, I will not tell How Rome, before thy weeping face, With heaviest sound, a giant-statue, fell, From off its wide ambitious base, When Time his northern sons of spoil awoke, And many a barb'rous yell, to thousand fragments * Alluding to that beautiful fragment of Alcæus. Εν Μυρίες κλαδι το ξίφος φορήσω, Ώσπερ Αρμόδιος και Αρισογείτων, Νήσοις δ' εν Μακάρων Σε φασιν ειναι Ev μυρτα κλαδι το ξίφος φορήσω, Ώσπερ Αρμόδιος και Αρισογείων, Ανδρα Τυραννον ιππαρχον καινείην. Αει Σφων κλέος εσσείαι κατ' αιαν, Φιλίαθ' Αρμόδι, και Αρισογείων. † Μη μη ταύτα λέγωμες, οι Δάκρυον ήγαγε Δηοι. Callimach. Ύμιος εις Δήμητρα, EPODE. Yet, ev'n where'er the least appear'd, fara ti Th' admiring world thy hand rever'd; Still 'midst the scatter'd states around, Some remnants of her strength were found'; 900 In jealous Pisa's olive shade! ... Strike, louder strike th' ennobling strings. To sad Liguria's || bleeding state. Ah no! more pleas'd thy haunts I seek, *The family of the Medici, t The title republic of San Marino. The Venetians. The Doge of Venice. ¶ Switzerland. Or dwell in willow'd meads more near, The perfect spell shall then avail, ANTISTROPHE, Beyond the measure vast of thought, The wild waves found another way, *The Dutch, amongst whom there are very severe penalties for those who are convicted of killing this bird. They are kept tame in almost all their towns, and particularly at the Hague, of the arms of which they make a part. The common people of Holland are said to entertain a superstitious sentiment, that if the whole species of them should become extinct, they should lose their liberties. + Queen Elizabeth. This tradition is mentioned by several of our old historians. Some naturalists too have endeavoured to support the probability of the fact by arguments drawn from the correspondent disposition of the two opposite coasts. I do not remember that any poetical use has been hitherto made of it. Where Orcas howls, his wolfish mountains rounding; Till all the banded west at once 'gan rise, A wide wild storm e'en nature's self confounding, With'ring her giant sons with strange uncouth surprise. This pillar'd earth so firm and wide, By winds and inward labours torn, And down the should'ring billows born. The little isles on ev'ry side, Mona,* once hid from those who search the main, To thee this blest divorce she ow'd, For thou hast made her vales thy lov'd, thy last abode ! SECOND EPODE. Then too, 'tis said, an hoary pile, 'Midst the green navel of our isle, There is a tradition in the Isle of Man, that a mermaid becoming enamoured of a young man of extraordinary beauty, took an opportunity of meeting him one day as he walked on the shore, and opened her passion to him, but was received with a coldness, occasioned by his horror and surprise at her appearance. This, however, was so misconstrued by the sea lady, that in revenge for his treatment of her, she punished the whole island, by covering it with a mist; so that all who attempted to carry on any commerce with it, either never arrived at it, but wandered up and down the sea, or were on a sudden wrecked upon its cliffs. C Thy shrine in some religious wood, Or Roman's self o'erturn'd the fane, |