ODE

ON THE

VINDICATION OF LIBERTY.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host.

Exodus.

STROPHE.

FAR from their hallowed land, In sad captivity for many a year,

The stern Egyptian's cruel hand Afflicted Israel were assign'd to bear.

They knew the tyrant's whip and taunt†, With many a keen heart-piercing want, While in the Sun's ferocious blaze, They pass'd their long laborious days. When from unfriendly Earth no hope was giv'n, They rais'd their troubled thoughts to Heav'n; And smarting with th'oppressor's rod,

They pour'd their fervent pray'rs to Jacob's faithful God.

ANTISTROPHE.

Affliction's honest pray'r

Can mount like pleasing incense to the skies,
And cause the dread Creator hear,

Hear, and to aid insulted Virtue rise.

He sent a patriot and a chief,

To plead and to enforce relief;
Who led them with a daring hand
From stubborn Egypt's fell command.
The parted sea to Israel was a wall,

They fear'd not its protracted fall;
But loos'ning upon Pharaoh's host,

Tyrant and host beneath the roaring waves were lost.

+ The Israelites were required to make the same number of bricks without straw, as when straw was given to them, and were called idle when they repined. Sir George Staunton, in his Account of China, says, that in the East they use straw in making bricks, for the same purpose that we use sand, to prevent the bricks from ad hering to one another.

EPODE.

O raise to God the joyful song!
To him our songs of praise belong!
'Tis be the widow that will save,
The orphan, and the harass'd slave.
He is a skilful man in war*,

Whose bow will reach his foe from far.
O let th' opprest his worth proclaim,
While tyrants tremble at his name.
How truly good, is the august Supreme!
He merits all the glowing heart's esteem!
In Heav'n of Heav'ns he reigns eternal Lord,
In the full blaze of high magnificence,
By hosts of seraphs ardently ador'd;

Yet the Earth shows his great beneficence. Then let the Earth resound with songs of love, Responsive to the blest immortal choirs above.

The Lord is a man of war. Exodus.

E

ODE

ON

SPRING.

RELENTLESS Winter now is o'er,
His ruffian storms insult no more
The bare and barren earth;
And now, the genial Spring to greet,
The birds, in combination sweet,

The rapt'rous lay pour

forth.

Nor shall the kind and social muse,

In sullen apathy, refuse

To join this chorus gay;

But shall her free unlabour'd song,
Her brethren of the grove among,
Exultingly display.

Hail, offspring beauteous of the Sun,
Romantic herald, who dost run
The summer's gifts before!
Hail, love and mirth-inspiring Spring,
That giv'st fair pleasure, and dost bring
Th' expectancy of more!

Favonius now his gentle airs
Auspicious to the bosom bears,
With new and sweet delight;
And now his renovating pow'r
Expands the bud of many a flow'r,
And gives them to the sight.
Not only what the garden yields,
But what uncultivated fields
Spontaneously dispense;
The rose and lily of the vale,
The violet, and primrose pale,
Can all delight the sense.

Diffusing genuine fragrance wide,
In all youth's beauty and its pride,
Fair smiles the new-deck'd earth;
And looks like bridegroom of the east,
In gay and various colours drest,
Late come his chamber forth.

And now in youthful vigour green
The universal grain is seen,

Yet is its seed decay'd;
For nothing whatsoe'er we sow,
Will e'er reanimated grow,
Unless it first be dead.

The body thus in earth that's plac'd,
With a new beauty shall be grac'd,
(By the inspir'd 'tis said,)

And rising from its transient tomb,
In the fair fields of Heav'n shall bloom,
In Spring which ne'er shall fade.

ODE

ON

ADVERSITY.

O THOU dread pow'r, whose ruthless sway The gen'ral race of men obey! Full many a keen vindictive dart Of thine has pierc'd my lab'ring heart; Which my faults urg'd, or others' spite, To point, has ta'en unkind delight. Yet many of thy stings and scorn Right manfully for years I've borne. O grant that I henceforth may know (For oft these gifts thou deign'st bestow) A feeling, yet a patient mind, Which is delib'rate and resign'd; Which keeps a firm and equal state, Though tender not effeminate; That always for another's woe The tear of Sympathy may flow; But let me weakly ne'er lament, With heart-corroding Discontent, The Heav'n-appointed cares of man, Which is as impious as 'tis vain. Yet when I feel the chast'ning rod Of my Friend, Father, and my God, Let me, dejected in the dust, Confess the punishment is just: And may it happily improve My filial reverence and love! Thus Hope from Piety that's bred, Shall rise upon thy footstool head; Above this vale of tears aspire, Like great Elijah in his car of fire, And in exultant joy be driv'n To all the deathless bliss of Heav'n.

ON THE

Recovery of a Scotch Young Lady from Sickness. PALE sickness spread o'er Delia's face of late, Threaten'd her brilliant charms t'obliterate; Dimm'd was the lustre of that beauteous eye, Which apathy might warm to ecstasy.

They fear'd, who knew the highly valu’d maid,
That medicine would try in vain its aid,
That Death would seal th' inexorable doom,
And give her charms untasted to the tomb.
But Health again soon lighted up her face,
And gave fresh vigour to each fading grace.
Thus o'er a polish'd diamond when we cast
The tepid breath that from our lips has past,
Dim for a while its vivid beauties seem,
Its splendours darken and forget to beam;
But soon bursts forth their renovated blaze,
Making Esteem with new delight to gaze,

THE JASMIN;
Addressed to

A YOUNG LADY GOING INTO A NUNNERY.

GO, flow'r, more beauteous than the garish rose,
The motley'd pink, or any flow'r that blows;
Go, and attempt to deck that fragrant breast,
Where num'rous graces, num'rous virtues rest.
There die not instant, wither'd through despite,
To find its hue is of a purer white;

But say, when thou art seen in honour there,
Thou art a little emblem of my fair:

Say that her bloom is like thy fragrance sweet,
Her form, like thine, most elegantly neat;
And tell her too that she resembles thee,
In meekness and in gentle modesty,
In easy grace, and chaste simplicity.
Then die, to teach her how soon beauty flies,
(It buds, it blooms, and in a day it dies,)