sway. Vast was his empire, absolute his power, 10 No cruel purpose lurk'd within his heart, 15 Begat a tranquil confidence in all, Each animal, of every name, conceived 25 A jealousy, and an instinctive fear, The seeds of cruelty, that since have swell'd 40 To gratify the frenzy of his wrath, With blood of their inhabitants impaled. The wilderness is theirs, with all its caves, terms Of royal mercy, and through gen'rous scorn roof. They prove too often at how dear a rate He sells protection.-Witness at his foot 70 The spaniel dying for some venial fault Under dissection of the knotted scourge; Witness the patient ox, with stripes and yells Driven to the slaughter, goaded, as he runs, To madness; while the savage at his heels Laughs at the frantic suff'rer's fury, spent Upon the guiltless passenger o'erthrown. He too is witness, noblest of the train That wait on man, the flight-performing | But God will never. horse; With unsuspecting readiness he takes 80 His murderer on his back; and push'd all day With bleeding sides and flanks, that heave for life, To the far distant gaol, arrives and dies. So little mercy shews who needs so much! Does law, so jealous in the cause of man, Denounce no doom on the deliquent? None. He lives, and o'er his brimming beaker boasts (As if barbarity were high desert) Is register'd in heav'n; and these no doubt When he charged the Jew To assist his foe's down-fallen beast to rise; And when the bush-exploring boy, that seized THOMAS GRAY. not well received. He refused the office of Poet Laureate, offered to him at the death of Colley Cibber, and retired to live a quiet life at Cambridge, where he remained with little interruption till his death in 1771. His celebrity is mainly based upon his beautiful Elegy in a Country Church-yard.' It is one of the finest poems in the English language; and we find it continually quoted by writers from Gray's time till the present day. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 15 Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twitt'ring from the strawbuilt shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 20 For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care, Nor children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield; Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear; For thee, who, mindful of th'unhonour'd Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. dead, Dost in these lines their artless tale re late; If, chance, by lonely contemplation led, 95 Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, There at the foot of yonder nodding beech: high, 18 His listless length at noon-tide would he | And float amid the liquid noon: stretch, And pore upon the brook that bubbles by. ODE ON THE SPRING. Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd hours, Some lightly o'er the current skim, To Contemplation's sober eye And they that creep, and they that fly, Methinks I hear in accents low Thy joys no glittering female meets, THE BARD. (1) I. 1. 30 35 40 45 50 Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested pride Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay, Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side A broader browner shade; He wound with toilsome march his long 50 'Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward's race; Give ample room, and verge enough The characters of hell to trace. Mark the year, and mark the night, When Severn shall re-echo with affright; The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roofs that ring, 55 Shrieks of an agonizing King! (2) She-wolf of France, (3) with unrelenting fangs, That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate, From thee be born, (4) who o'er thy country hangs (1) Caernarvonshire. (2) Edward II. murdered in Berkeley Castle. (3) Isabel of France, Edward's adulterous queen. (4) Edward III. famous for his victories over the French. Close by the regal chair 85 And through the kindred squadrons mow And spare the meek usurper's holy head! (6) 95 (1) The Black Prince, who died before his father. (2) Splendour of the early part of the unfortunate Richard II.'s reign. (3) Wars of the Roses. (4) The heroic Margaret of Anjou. (5) Henry V. (6) Henry VI. (7) The badge of Richard III. |