ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

V.

The Desolator desolate!

The Victor overthrown!

The Arbiter of others' fate
A Suppliant for his own!

Is it some yet imperial hope

That with such change can calmly cope?
Or dread of death alone?

To die a prince or live a slave
Thy choice is most ignobly brave!

VI.

He who of old would rend the oak,
Dreamed not of the rebound;

Chained by the trunk he vainly broke,

Alone how looked he round?

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Thou, in the sternness of thy strength,
An equal deed hast done at length,
And darker fate hast found:
He fell, the forest-prowlers' prey;
But thou must eta thy heart away!

VII.

The Roman, 5 when his burning heart Was slaked with blood of Rome, Threw down the dagger dared depart, In savage grandeur, home.

He dared depart, in utter scorn

Of men that such a yoke had borne,
Yet left him such a doom!

His only glory was that hour
Of self-upheld abandoned power.

VIII.

The Spaniard, when the lust oft sway

Had lost its quickening spell,

Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell;

A strict accountant of his beads,
A subtle disputant on creeds,
His dotage trifled well:

Yet better had he neither known

A bigot's shrine, nor despot's throne.

But thou

IX.

from thy reluctant hand

The thunderbolt is wrung

Too late thou leav'st the high command

To which thy weakness clung;

All Evil Spirit as thou art,

It is enough to grieve the heart,

To see thine own unstrung;

To think that God's fair world hath been The footstool of a thing so mean;

X.

And Earth hath spilt her blood for him, Who thus can hoard his own!

And Monarchs bowed the trembling limb,
And thanked him for a throne!

Fair Freedom! we may hold thee dear,
When thus thy mightiest foes their fear
In humblest guise have shown.
Oh! ne'er may tyrant leave behind
A brighter name to lure mankind!

XI.

Thine evil deeds are writ in gore,
Nor written thus in vain

Thy triumphs tell of fame no more,
Or deepen every stain.

If thou hadst died as honour dies,
Some new Napoleon might arise,

To shame the world again

But who would soar the solar height,
To set in such a starless night?

XII.

Weighed in the balance, hero dust

Is vile as vulgar clay;

Thy scales, Mortality! are just

To all that pass away;

But yet methought, the living great
Some higher sparks should animate,

To dazzle and dismay;

Nor deemed Contempt could thus make mirth Of these, the Conquerors of the earth.

XIII.

And she, proud Austria's mournful flower, Thy still imperial bride;

How bears her breast the torturing hour?

Still clings she to thy side?

Must she too bend, must she too share
Thy late repentance, long despair,
Thou throneless Homicide?

If still she loves thee, hoard that gem,
'Tis worth thy vanished diadem!

XIV.

Then haste thee to thy sullen Isle,
And gaze upon the sea;

That element may meet thý smile,
It ne'er was ruled by thee!
Or trace with thine all idle hand,
In loitering mood, upon the sand,
That Earth is now as free!

That Corinth's pedagogue hath now
Transferred his by-word to thy brow.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »