IV. That day's arriv'd, that fatal hour!----"Hear us, O hear, Almighty Pow'r! "Our guide in counsel, and our strength in fight! "Now war's important die is thrown, "If left the day to man alone, "How blind is Wisdom, and how weak is Might? V. "Let prostrate hearts, and awful fear, "And deep remorse, and sighs sincere "For Britain's guilt the wrath divine appease; "A wrath more formidable far "Than angry Nature's wasteful war, "The whirl of tempests, and the roar of seas. VI. "From out the deep to thee we cry, "To thee, at Nature's helm on high! "To thee for succour we resort; "Thy favour is our only port; "Our only rock of safety thy defence. "O Thou! to whom the lions roar, "And, not unheard, thy boon implore! "Thy throne our bursts of cannon loud invoke: "Thou can'st arrest the flying ball, "Or send it back, and bid it fall 20 50 40 "On those from whose proud deck the thunder broke. VIIT. "Britain in vain extends her care "To climes remote for aids in war; "Still farther must it stretch to crush the foe: "There's one alliance, one alone, "Can crown her arms, or fix her throne, "And that alliance is not found below. IX. "Ally Supreme! we turn to thee; "We learn obedience from the sea; "With seas and winds, henceforth, thy laws fulfil; "Tis thine our blood to freeze or warm, "To rouse or hush the martial storm, X. "Tis thine to beam sublime renown, "Or quench the glories of a crown; "'Tis thine to doom, 'tis thine from Death to free, "To turn aside his levell'd dart, "Or pluck it from the bleeding heart :--- "Thou! who hast taught the North to roar, "And streaming† lights nocturnal pour +6 Offrightful aspect! when proud foes invade, Their blasted pride with dread to seize, "Bid Britain's flags, as meteors, blaze, And George depute to thunder in thy stead. † Aurora Borealis. * Russia. 50 60 XII. The right alone is bold and strong; "Black hov'ring clouds appal the wrong "With dread of vengeance.---Nature's awful Sire! "Less than one moment shouldst thou frown, "Where is Puissance and Renown? "Thrones tremble, empires sink, or worlds expire. "Let George the just chastise the vain. "Thou! who dost curb the rebel main, "To mount the shore when boiling billows rave! "Bid George repel a bolder tide, The boundless swell of Gallic pride, "And check Ambition's overwhelming wave. XIV. * And when (all milder means withstood) "Regains her reason; then, on angels' wings, "How richly freighted! it triumphant brings 70 Volume IV. D A NAVAL LYRIC. Written in imitation of PINDAR'S SPIRIT. OCCASIONED BY His Majesty's return from Hanover, Sept. 1729, and the succeeding peace. Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres Concines laeteeque dies, et urbis PREFACE. HOR. A PINDARIC carries a formidable sound; but there is nothing formidable in the true nature of it, of which (with utmost submission) I conceive the critics have bilberto entertained a false idea. Pindar is as natural as Anacreon though not so familiar; as a fixed star is as much in the bounds of nature as a flower of the field, though less obvious, and of greater dignity. This is not the received notion of Pindar: I shall therefore soon support at large that hint which is now given. Trade is a very noble subject in itself more proper than any for an Englishman, and particularly seasonable at this juncture. We have more specimens of good writing in every province iban in the sublime, our two famous epic poems excepted. I was willing to make an attempt where I had the fewest rivals. If, on reading this Óde, any man has a fuller idea of the real interest, or possible glory, of his country than before, or a stronger impression from it, or a warmer concern for it, I give up to the critic any further reputation. A We have many copies and translations that pass fer originals. This Ode, I bumbly conceive, is an original, though it professes imitation. No man can be like Pinder, by imitating any of his particular works, any more than like Raphael, by copying the Cartoons. The genius and spirit of such great men must be collected from the whole; and when thus we are possessed of it, we must exert its energy in subjects and designs of our own. Nothing is so unpindarical as following Pindar on the foot. Pindar is an original; and he must be so too who would be like Pindar in that which is the greatest praise. Nothing so unlike as a close copy and a noble original. As for length, Pindar has an unbroken ode of six hundred lines. Nothing is long or short in writing, but relatively to the demand of the subject, and the manner of treating it. A distich may be long, and a folio short. However, I bave broken this Ode into strains, each of which may be considered as a separate ode, if you please. And if the variety and fulness of matter be considered, I am rather apprehensive of danger from brevity in this Ode, than from length. But lank writing is what I think ought most to be declined, if for nothing else, for our plenty of it. The ode is the most spirited kind of poetry, and the Pindarick is the most spirited kind of ode. This I speak at my own very great peril; but truth has an eternal title to our confession, though we are sure to suffer by it. Young.] Dij |