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Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse?

Night, and all her sickly dews,

Her Spectres wan, and Birds of boding cry, 50

He gives to range the dreary sky:

Till down the eastern cliffs afar

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Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,' Isles, that crown th' Ægean deep, Fields, that cool Ilissus laves,

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Or where Mæander's amber waves
In lingering Lab'rinths creep,
How do your tuneful Echoes languish,
Mute, but to the voice of Anguish?
Where each old poetic Mountain
Inspiration breath'd around:
Ev'ry shade and hallow'd Fountain
Murmur'd deep a solemn sound:
Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour
Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.*
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant-Power,
And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.
When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,
They sought, O Albion! 5 next thy sea-encircled

coast.

III

THE STROPHE

Far from the sun and summer-gale,

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In thy green lap was Nature's Darling" laid,

What time, where lucid Avon stray'd,
To Him the mighty Mother did unveil
Her awful face: The dauntless Child
Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.

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Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear

shafts of war.

1 Mars, who was especially worshipped in Thrace

2 Jove's eagle 3 a town in Cyprus containing a temple of Venus the sun's

Richly paint the vernal year:

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1 the path of the sun 2 This and the following are places celebrated in Greek poetry. the Muses Italy 5 England 6 i.e. England's Shakespeare

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