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SEA-PIECE:

CONTAINING

1. The British Sailor's exultation. 2. His prayer before

engagement.

THE DEDICATION.

TO MR. VOLTAIRE.

1.

MY Muse, a bird of passage, flies

From frozen climes to milder skies;

From chilling blasts she seeks thy cheering beam,
A beam of favour here deny'd;

Conscious of faults, her blushing pride

Hopes an asylum in so great a name,

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The warrior's ardent deeds to raise,
And monarchs aggrandize,---the glory thine;
Thine is the Drama, how renown'd!
Thine Epic's loftier trump to sound ;------
But let Arion's sea-strung harp be mine.

* Annals of the Emperor Charles XII. Lewis XIV.

Young.]

Cij

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HI.

But where's his dolphin? know'st thou where ?--
May that be found in thee Voltaire!

Save thou from harm my plunge into the wave:
How will thy name illustrious raise

My sinking song? Mere mortal lays,

So patroniz'd, are rescu'd from the grave.

1.

"Tell me," say'st thou, "who courts my smile?
"What stranger stray'd from yonder isle ?"--
No stranger, Sir! tho' born in foreign climes;
On Dorset Downs, when Milton's page,
With Sin and Death, provok'd thy rage,

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Thy rage provok'd, who sooth'd with gentle rhymes.

V.

Who kindly couch'd thy censute's eye,

And gave thee clearly to descry

Sound judgment giving law to fancy strong:
Who half-inclin'd thee to confess,

Nor could thy modesty do less,

That Milton's blindness lay not in his song.

VI.

But such debates long since are flown:
For ever felt the suns that shone

On airy pastimes, ere our brows were gray:
How shortly shall we both forget,

To thee, my patron, I my debt,

And thou to thine for Prussia's golden key.

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Vit.

The present, in oblivion cast,

Full soon shall sleep, as sleeps the past;
Full soon the wide distinction die between
The frowns and favours of the great:
High-flash'd Success, and pale Defeat,
The Gallic gayety, and British spleen.

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Ye wing'd, ye rapid, Moments! stay:
Oh, Friend! as deaf, as rapid they;

Life's little drama done, the curtain falls l-an
Dost thou not hear it? I can hear,

Tho' nothing strikes the list'ning ear;

Time groans his last; Eternal loudly calls!

IX.

Nor calls in vain; the call inspires

Far other counsels and desires

Than once prevail'd: we stand on higher ground:

What scenes we see !---Exalted aim!

With ardours new our spirits flame;

Ambition blesss'd! with more than laurels crown'd.

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A SEA-PIECE.

ODE THE FIRST.

The British Sailor's exultation.

1.

IN lofty sounds let those delight

Who brave the foe but fear the fight,

And, bold in word, of arms decline the stroke, 'Tis mean to boast, but great to lend

To foes the counsel of a friend,

And warn them of the vengeance they provoke.

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From whence arise these loud alarms?

Why gleams the South with brandish'd arms?
War, bath'd in blood, from curs'd ambition springs;
Ambition mean! ignoble pride!

Perhaps their ardours may subside,

When weigh'd the wonders Britain's sailor sings.

Jif.

Hear, and revere.---At Britain's nod,

From each enchanted grove and wood,

Hastes the huge oak, or shadeless forest leaves;
The mountain pines assume new forms,
Spread canvass wings, and fly thro' storms,

And ride o'er rocks, and dance on foaming waves.

IV.

She nods again; the lab'ring earth
Discloses à tremendous birth;

In smoking rivers runs her molten ore
Thence monsters of enormous size,
And hideous aspect, threat'ning rise;

Flame from the deck from trembling bastions roar.

V.

These ministers of Fate fulfil,

On empires wide, an island's will,

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When thrones unjust wake vengeance. Know, ye

In sudden night, and pond'rous balls
And floods of flame, the tempest falls,

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When brav'd Britannia's awful senate low'rs.

VI.

In her grand council* she surveys,
In patriot picture, what may raise,
Of insolent attempts, a warm disdain;
From Hope's triumphant summit thrown,
Like darted lightning, swiftly down
The wealth of Ind, and confidence of Spain.

Vil.

Britannia sheaths her courage keen,

And spares her nitrous magazine;

Her cannon, slumber, till the proud aspire,
And leave all law below them; then they blaze!
Thy thunder from resounding seas,

Touch'd by their injur'd master's soul of fi

House of Lords.

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