Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/40

Their leafy brows sustain; fair Corinth first
Boasted their order, which Callimachus
(Reclining studious on Asopus' banks 195
Beneath an urn of some lamented nymph)
Haply compos'd; the urn with foliage curl'd
Thinly conceal'd the chapiter inform'd.
See the tall obelisks from Memphis old,
One stone enormous each, or Thebes, convey'd;200
Like Albion's spires they rush into the skies:
And there the temple where the summon'd state
In deep of night conven'd; ev'n yet methinks
The veh'ment orator in rent attire
Persuasion pours; Ambition sinks her crest; 205
And, lo! the villain, like a troubled sea,
That tosses up her mire! Ever disguis'd
Shall Treason walk? shall proud Oppression yoke
The neck of Virtue? Lo! the wretch abash'd,
Self-betray'd Catiline! O Liberty! 210
Parent of happiness, celestial born;
When the first man became a living soul
His sacred genius thou: be Britain's care;
With her secure prolong thy lov'd retreat;
Thence bless mankind; while yet among her sons, 215
Ev'n yet there are, to shield thine equal laws,
Whose bosoms kindle at the sacred names
Of Cecil, Raleigh, Walsingham, and Drake.
May others more delight in tuneful airs,
In mask and dance excel; to sculptur'd stone 220
Give with superior skill the living look;
More pompous piles erect, or pencil soft
With warmer touch the visionary board:
But thou thy nobler Britons teach to rule,
To check the ravage of tyrannic sway, 2255
To quell the proud, to spread the joys of peace,
And various blessings of ingenious trade.