Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/71
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Quick at the call of Virtue, Freedom, Truth,
Weak withering age and strong aspiring youth
Alike the expanding power of pity felt;
The coldest, hardest hearts began to melt;
From breast to breast the flame of justice glow'd;
Wide o'er its banks the Nile of mercy flow'd;
Through all the isle the gradual waters swell'd;
Mammon in vain the encircling flood repell'd;
O'erthrown at length, like Pharoah and his host,
His shipwreck'd hopes lay scatter'd round the coast.
Weak withering age and strong aspiring youth
Alike the expanding power of pity felt;
The coldest, hardest hearts began to melt;
From breast to breast the flame of justice glow'd;
Wide o'er its banks the Nile of mercy flow'd;
Through all the isle the gradual waters swell'd;
Mammon in vain the encircling flood repell'd;
O'erthrown at length, like Pharoah and his host,
His shipwreck'd hopes lay scatter'd round the coast.
High on her rock in solitary state,
Sublimely musing, pale Britannia sate:
Her awful forehead on her spear reclined,
Her robe and tresses streaming with the wind;
Chill through her frame foreboding tremors crept;
The Mother thought upon her Sons, and wept:
—She thought of Nelson in the battle slain,
And his last signal beaming o'er the main;6
Sublimely musing, pale Britannia sate:
Her awful forehead on her spear reclined,
Her robe and tresses streaming with the wind;
Chill through her frame foreboding tremors crept;
The Mother thought upon her Sons, and wept:
—She thought of Nelson in the battle slain,
And his last signal beaming o'er the main;6