Are kept apart and nursed in the devotion Of freedom, which their fathers fought for, and Bequeath'da heritage of heart and hand, As if his senseless sceptre were a wand 140 Rights cheaply earn'd with blood. Still, still, forever Better, though each man's life-blood were a river, That it should flow, and overflow, 149 than creep Through thousand lazy channels in our veins, Damn'd like the dull canal with locks and chains, And moving, as a sick man in his sleep, Fly, and one current to the ocean add, KNOW YE THE LAND? 160 Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,2 Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime? Know ye the land of the cedar and vine, Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppress'd with perfume, Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gúl3 in her bloom; 1 Those who have sold their birth-right, Liberty. 2 dove 3 the rose Where the tints of the earth, and the hues of the sky, In colour though varied, in beauty may vie, And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye; Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, And all, save the spirit of man, is divine? 'Tis the clime of the East; 'tis the land of the Sun Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done? Oh! wild as the accents of lovers' farewell Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales which they tell. SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, 19 5 IO 18 95 Of pearl, and thrones radiant with chrysolite. To love and wonder; he would linger long 105 His wandering step, Obedient to high thoughts, has visited The awful ruins of the days of old: Athens, and Tyre, and Balbec,' and the waste Where stood Jerusalem, the fallen towers 110 Of Babylon, the eternal pyramids, Memphis and Thebes, and whatsoe'er of strange Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower,1 It visits with inconstant glance Like aught that for its grace may be 5 ΙΟ 20 Why aught should fail and fade that once is No voice from some sublimer world hath ever To sage or poet these responses given 26 Therefore the names of Dæmon, Ghost, and Heaven, Remain the records of their vain endeavour, Frail spells - whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, From all we hear and all we see, 1 Observe that "shower" is a verb. 30 |