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A sordid groupe the Belgian marshes pleased,
And Saxony's wild forests Freedom seized,
There held her juries, poised the legal scales;—
And Spain's romantic hills and lonely dales
The pensive Lover sought; and Spain became
The land of gallantry and amorous flame.
Hail, favour'd clime! whose lone retreats inspire
The softest dreams of languishing desire,
Affections trembling with a glow all holy,
Wildly sublime, and sweetly melancholy;
'Till rapt devotion to the Fair, refine
And bend each passion low at Honour's shrine.
So felt the iron Goth when here he brought
His worship of the Fair with valour fraught:
Soon as Iberia's mountains fixt his home,
He rose a character unknown to Rome;
His manners wildly colour'd as the flowers
And flaunting plumage of Brazilian bowers:
New to the world as these, yet polish'd more
Than e'er the pupil of the Attic lore
