WHILE others sing the fortune of the great,
Empire and arms, and all the pomp of state, With Britain's hero set their souls on fire, And grow immortal as his deeds inspire, I draw a deeper scene; a scene that yields. A louder trumpet, and more dreadful fields; The world alarm'd, both earth and heav'n o'erthrown, And gasping Nature's last tremendous groan; Death's ancient sceptre broke, the teeming tomb, The righteous Judge, and man's eternal doom! 'Twixt joy and pain I view the bold design, And ask my anxious heart if it be mine? Whatever great or dreadful has been done Within the sight of conscious stars or sun, Is far beneath my daring: I look down On all the splendours of the British crown. This globe is for my verse a narrow bound; Attend me, all ye glorious worlds around! O! all ye angels, howsoe'er disjoin'd, Of every various order, place, and kind, Hear, and assist a feeble mortal's lays; 'Tis your eternal King I strive to praise.
But chiefly thou, great Ruler! Lord of all! Before whose throne archangels prostrate fall; If at thy nod, from discord, and from night, Sprang beauty, and yon sparkling worlds of light, Exalt e'en me; all inward tumults quell; The clouds and darkness of my mind dispel;
To my great subject thou my breast inspire,
And raise my labouring soul with equal fire.
Man! bear thy brow aloft, view every grace
In God's great offspring, beauteous Nature's face;
See Spring's gay bloom, see golden Autumn's store,
See how Earth smiles, and hear old Ocean roar.
Leviathans but heave their cumbrous mail,
It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies sail.
Here forests rise, the mountain's awful pride;
Here rivers measure climes, and worlds divide;
There vallies, fraught with gold's resplendent seeds,
Hold kings' and kingdoms' fortunes in their beds:
There to the skies aspiring hills ascend,
And into distant lands their shades extend.
View cities, armies, fleets; of fleets the pride,
See Europe's law in Albion's channel ride.
View the whole earth's vast landscape unconfin'd,
Or view in Britain all her glories join'd.
Then let the firmament thy wonder raise;
"Twill raise thy wonder, but transcend thy praise.
How far from east to west? the labouring eye
Can scarce the distant azure bounds descry:
Wide theatre! where tempests play at large,
And God's right hand can all its wrath discharge,
Mark how those radiant lamps inflame the pole,
Call forth the seasons, and the year control:
They shine through time with an unalter'd ray,
See this grand period rise, and that decay:
So vast, this world's a grain; yet myriads grace,
With golden pomp, the throng'd ethereal space;
So bright, with such a wealth of glory stor'd,
"Twere sin in Heathens not to have ador'd.
How great, how firm, how sacred, all appears!
How worthy an immortal round of years!
Yet all must drop, as autumn's sickliest grain,
And earth and firmament be sought in vain:
The tract forgot where constellations shone,
Or where the Stuarts fill'd an awful throne:
Time shall be slain, all nature be destroy'd,
Nor leave an atom in the mighty void.
Sooner or later, in some future date, (A dreadful secret in the book of fate!)
This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows,
Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose;
When scenes are chang'd on this revolving earth,
Old empires fall, and give new empires birth;
While other Bourbons rule in other lands,
And (if man's sin forbids not) other Annes;
While the still busy world is treading o'er
The paths they trod five thousand years before,
Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run,
Of earth dissolv'd, or an extinguish'd sun;
(Ye sublunary Worlds! awake, awake!
Ye Rulers of the nations! hear, and shake!)
Thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day,
In sudden night all earth's dominions lay,
Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend,
Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend;
The vallies yawn, the troubled ocean roar,
And break the bondage of his wonted shore,
A sanguine stain the silver moon o'erspread,
Darkness the circle of the sun invade;
From inmost heav'n incessant thunders roll,
And the strong echo bound from pole to pole.
When, lo! a mighty trump, one half conceal'd
In clouds, one half to mortal eye reveal'd,
Shall pour a dreadful note; the piercing call
Shall rattle in the centre of the ball;
Th' extended circuit of creation shake,
The living die with fear, the dead awake.
Oh powerful blast! to which no equal sound
Did e'er the frighted ear of Nature wound,
Though rival clarions have been strain'd on high,
And kindled wars immortal through the sky,
Though God's whole enginery discharg'd, and all
The rebel angels bellow'd in their fall.
Have angels sinn'd? and shall not man beware?
How shall a son of earth decline the snare?
Not folded arms, and slackness of the mind,
Can promise for the safety of mankind,
Ja mournful turn! the blissful earth, who late Aeisure on her axle roll'd in state, ele thousand golden planets knew no rest,
onward in their circling journey press'd;
grateful change of seasons some to bring,
d sweet vicissitude of fall and spring;
ne through vast oceans to conduct the keel,
id some those wat'ry worlds to sink or swell:
ound her some their splendours to display,
ad gild her globe with tributary day:
ais world so great, of joy the bright abode,
eaven's darling child, and favourite of her God,
ow looks an exile from her Father's care,
Deliver'd o'er to darkness and despair.
No sun in radiant glory shines on high,
No light, but from the terrors of the sky:
Fall'n are her mountains, her fam'd rivers lost,
And all into a second chaos toss'd:
One universal ruin spreads abroad;
Nothing is safe beneath the throne of God.
Such, Earth! thy fate; what then canst thou afford
To comfort and support, thy guilty lord!
Man, haughty lord of all beneath the moon,
How must he bend his soul's ambition down?
Prostrate, the reptile own, and disavow
His Boasted stature and assuming brow?
Claim kindred with the clay and curse his form,
That speaks distinction from his sister worm?
What dreadful pangs the trembling heart invade?
Lord! why dost thou forsake whom thou hast made?
Who can sustain thy anger? who can stand
Beneath the terrors of thy lifted hand?
It flies the reach of thought: oh, save me, Pow'r
Of pow'rs supreme, in that tremendous hour!
Thou who beneath the frown of Fate hast stood,
And in thy dreadful agony swate blood;
Thou who for me through every throbbing vein,
Hast felt the keenest edge of mortal pain;
wn death led captive through the realms below,
ht those horrid mysteries of woe;
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