Within the limits of thy rocky shores. O native Britain! O my Mother Isle ! How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy Have drunk in all my intellectual life, All sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts, May my fears, My filial fears, be vain! and may the vaunts Pass like the gust, that roared and died way But now the gentle dew-fall sends abroad And elmy fields, seems like society- Thy church-tower, and, methinks, the four huge elms Is softened, and made worthy to indulge Love, and the thoughts that yearn for human kind. Nether Stowey, April 28th, 1798. FIRE, FAMINE, AND SLAUGHTER. A WAR ECLOGUE. WITH AN APOLOGETIC PREFACE.* The Scene a desolated Tract in La Vendée. FAMINE is discovered lying on the ground; to her enter FIRE and SLAUGHTER. Fam. SISTERS! sisters! who sent you here? Spirits hear what spirits tell; 'Twill make a holiday in Hell. Myself, I named him once below, And all the souls that damned be, Leaped up at once in anarchy, Clapped their hands and danced for glee. They no longer heeded me; But laughed to hear Hell's burning rafters No! no! no! * Printed on page 217. Spirits hear what spirits tell : 'Twill make a holiday in Hell! Fam. Whisper it, sister! so and so! In a dark hint, soft and slow. Slau. Letters four do form his name And who sent you? Both. The same the same! Slau. He came by stealth and unlocked my den, And I have drunk the blood since then Of thrice three hundred thousand men. Slau. The same! the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! To him alone the praise is due. Fam. Thanks, sister, thanks! the men have bled, Their wives and their children faint for bread. I stood in a swampy field of battle; With bones and skulls I made a rattle, To frighten the wolf and carrion-crow And the homeless dog-but they would not go, Both. Whisper it, sister! in our ear. I had starved the one and was starving the other! Fam. The same! the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! To him alone the praise is due. Fire. Sisters! I from Ireland came! It was so rare a piece of fun To see the sweltered cattle run With uncouth gallop through the night, By the light of his own blazing cot The house-stream met the flame and hissed, On some of those old bed-rid nurses, That deal in discontent and curses. Fire. The same the same! Letters four do form his name. He let me loose, and cried Halloo ! To him alone the praise is due. All. He let us loose, and cried Halloo! How shall we yield him honor due? Fam. Wisdom comes with lack of food. I'll gnaw, I'll gnaw the multitude, Till the cup of rage o'erbrim : They shall seize him and his brood Slau. They shall tear him limb from limb! Fire. O thankless beldames and untrue! And is this all that you can do For him, who did so much for you? Cling to him everlastingly. 1796. II. LOVE POEMS. Quas humilis tenero stylus olim effudit in ævo, Frons alia est, moresque alii, nova mentis, imago, Pectore nunc gelido calidos miseremur amantes, LOVE. ALL thoughts, all passions, all delights, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame. Oft in my waking dreams do I The moonshine, stealing o'er the scene She lean'd against the armed man, Amid the lingering light. PETRARCH |