Could rove each defolated Ifle, Tho' midnight thunders shook the pile; (As faintly flash the lightnings blue) Thin shiv'ring Ghosts from yawning charnels throng, And glance with filent fweep the fhaggy vaults along. IV. But fuch terrific charms as these, I ask not yet: My fober mind My forrows are of softer kind. Thro' this ftill valley let me ftray, The conscious dignity of Song; And, fcorning from the facred ftore To waste a note on Pride, or Power, Roves, when the glimmering twilight glooms, And warbles mid the ruftic tombs: He too perchance (for well I know, His heart would melt with friendly woe) He too perchance, when these poor limbs are laid, ODE 19 CODE IV. On the Fate of TYRANNY. Taken from ISAIAH, Chap. XIV. THE Prophet, having in the preceding chapter foretold the destruction of Babylon, fubjoins the following Song of Triumph, which he supposes the Jews will fing when his prediction is fulfilled. «*And it fhall come "to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee reft from "thy forrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou waft made to ferve, that thou shalt take "up this proverb against the King of Babylon, and fay, &c. * Verses the third and fourth. C 2 -HOW 20 ISAIAH, Chapter XIV. Verse 4. 4. — HOW bath the oppressor seased! the golden city ceased! 5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the fceptre of the rulers. 6. He who fmote the people in wrath with a continual Stroke, be that ruled the nations in anger, is perfecuted and none bindereth. 7. The ODE IV. On the Fate of TYRANNY. 21 OPP I. 1. PPRESSION dies: the City falls : JEHOVAH breaks the Tyrant's rod. The Son of Wrath, whose ruthless hand Hurl'd Defolation o'er the land, Has run his raging race, has clos'd the scene of blood. Earth |