Dr. Nimrod, whose orthodox toes Are seldom withdrawn from the stirrup; A layman can scarce form a notion Of our wonderful talk on the road; Of the learning, the wit, and devotion, Which almost each syllable showed: Why divided allegiance agrees So ill with our free constitution; How Catholics swear as they please, In hope of the priest's absolution; How the Bishop of Norwich had bartered We were all so much touched and excited And in tones, which each moment grew louder, Thus from subject to subject we ran, Till at last Dr. Humdrum began; From that time I remember no more. SONG. (1827.) O STAY, Madonna! stay; "Tis not the dawn of day That marks the skies with yonder opal streak: Then press thy lips to mine, O sleep, Madonna! sleep; O'er fancy's vanished dream, O wake, Madonna! wake; Even now the purple lake Is dappled o'er with amber flakes of light; And every trickling rill In golden threads leaps down from yonder height. O fly, Madonna! fly, Lest day and envy spy What only love and night may safely know: Fly, and tread softly, dear! Lest those who hate us hear The sounds of thy light footsteps as they go. THE DELIVERANCE OF VIENNA. TRANSLATED FROM VINCENZIO DA FILICAIA. (Published in the "Winter's Wreath," Liverpool, 1828.) "Le corde d'oro elette," &c. THE chords, the sacred chords of gold, And frame a sparkling wreath of joyous songs Who marshals for the fight Earthquake and thunder, hurricane and flame? He smote the haughty race Of unbelieving Thrace, And turned their rage to fear, their pride to shame. Upon their vast array; Passed like a dream away. Such power defends the mansions of the just: The grandeur of the mortal falls Who glories in his strength, and makes not God his trust. The proud blasphemers thought all earth their own; Would sweep down The Christian altars a And soon, they cr To the dust her lo The princedoms of Almayne Shall wear the Phrygian chain; In humbler waves shall vassal Tiber roll; Her laurelled tresses shorn, Shall feel our iron in her inmost soul. As the curling smoke wreaths fly The flock so dearly bought, and loved so well. Of guilty pride and power Full on the circumcised Thy vengeance fell. And every bird of prey, and every beast, What terror seized the fiends obscene of Nile! Riding on storms and wrapped in deepest night. And quaked with mystic awe : The proud Sultana of the Straights bowed down Her jewelled neck and her embattled crown. miscreants, as they raised their eyes g defiance on Thy skies, Saw adverse winds and clouds display Whose fiery aspect turned of yore to flight Gird its bright harness for a deadlier war. Beneath Thy withering look Scattered on earth the crescent banners lay; Sabre and targe and spear, Through the proud armies of the rising day. As his who, scared in feverish sleep Then backward falls again. Their ten thousand ranks gave way; Be all the glory to Thy name divine! The swords were ours; the arm, O Lord, was Thine. Therefore to Thee, beneath whose footstool wait The pride of Europe's foe, And taught Byzantium's sullen lords to fear, In a triumphant shout, And call all ages and all lands to hear. |