Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Of Ignorance assail'd; ye, when they rais'd

'The supplicating eye and clasp'd your knees,

Ye stretch'd above them your protecting shields,

Led them uninjur'd from the strife of war,

And sent them forth to civilize the world.'

Now loose the cable from the wave-worn rock, Raise the broad sail, and to the winds of Heav'n Unfurl it; push our light bark from the shore, And whilst the billows of the angry main

80

85

Curl o'er its bow, in solemn chorus raise

The melodies of twice a thousand years,

Till from each rocky point and headland dark,

The shades of those who conquer'd on these plains, 90
Seem to bend list'ning. Now th' Ægean sea

Spreads broad before us, on its golden breast
Bearing those beauteous isles of amethyst,
Or jasper, as th' inconstant hues of eve
Float o'er their hills.

Swiftly our light bark stems
The foaming eddies; Sunium's cape, which late
Seem'd but a cloud upon the ocean's wave,
Now clear emerging to the view, displays

Its red-stain'd rocks by pendent flow'rs o'erhung,

95

Its dusky caves, its shrubs of living green,

And its white temple bleach'd by wint'ry storms.
Beneath its crags the light wind dies away,

Whilst fav'ring breezes fill the latteen sail
Of yon kaïki,' which thro' whit'ning foam
Gains on our tardy course. My sturdy Greeks
Bend forward to your oars, and urge our flight
Across the slumb'ring sea; captivity
Or death await us if we linger here.
The lawless Mainote, sitting at the helm,
Points to our bark becalm'd, and urges on
His pirate-fellows to the chase; e'en now
I view the swarthy brow and savage eye
Glaring beneath their caps of crimson hue.
But lo! the gale circling the rocky cape,

100

105

110

Comes dimpling the blue wave; our flagging sail

115

Receives it, and impels us on our way.
The shores of Attica recede; the gulph,
Saronic bears us on its yielding breast,
Near bleak Ægina, from whose woody hill
The ruin'd fane of Jove o'erlooks the deep;

1 Greek boat.

120

Oft hail'd by those of ancient days who plough'd
Th' Ægean tide from Asia to the land

Of Cecrops, when upon the sea they cast

Sweet flow'ry wreaths, and cups of Samian wine,

Their votive offerings to the marine God.

125

Hence louder breezes waft our little boat

Beneath the dusky hills of Argolis,

Round that bluff point, which from its foam-girt breast

Beats back th' indignant surge; till Nauplia's bay,

The haven of our rest, mantled in night,

130

[blocks in formation]

In Tiryns wheel'd his unremitted course
From morn to eve around these battlements,
And steel'd his limbs by toil. Hence Diomed
With clarions gave the signal to unmoor
And stem the surge to Troy. There Danaus,
From Ægypt fugitive, beneath the rock

N

140

Of Argos sat, and bade his daughters raise

145

150

The suppliant bough. Where yonder mound looks gray,
With heaps of sculptur'd marble strew'd around,
The meek Electra on her father's tomb
Pour'd her sad off'rings, streams of honied milk,
And purple wine, and hung her ringlets shorn,
And myrtle wreaths, to sooth his angry shade.
The morning sun of Greece's glory rose
Upon thy tow'rs, Mycenae, gleaming far
In battle's pomp, and when it set in night,
It cast a parting ray against thy walls,
Ruin'd and desolate. The time has been
When potent chieftains from thy ramparts saw,
Far as the eye could reach, their subject hosts
Dark'ning yon champain with the measur'd march
Of steel-girt files. This lion-sculptur'd gate
Threw wide her portals to receive her lord,
Victor from Troy; here as he pass'd along,
The tim'rous virgin, lifting up her veil,
Gaz'd on his manly stature, tow'ring high
In the triumphal car; his war-worn front,
His bruised cuirass, and his gloomy helm,

155

160

[graphic]

Drawn by William Haygarth.

Antient Gate of Mycenael.

London, Published May 2 1814 by G. & W. Nice Pall Mall.

« PreviousContinue »