Page:Poetical works of William Cullen Bryant (IA poeticalworksof00brya).pdf/43

 And thou didst drive, from thy unnatural breast,
 Thy just and brave to die in distant climes;
 Earth shuddered at thy deeds, and sighed for rest
 From thine abominations; after-times,
That yet shall read thy tale, will tremble at thy crimes !

XVII.

 Yet there was that within thee which has saved
 Thy glory, and redeemed thy blotted name;
 The story of thy better deeds, engraved
 On fame's unmouldering pillar, puts to shame
 Our chiller virtue; the high art to tame
 The whirlwind of the passions was thine own;
 And the pure ray, that from thy bosom came,
 Far over many a land and age has shone,
And mingles with the light that beams from God's own throne.

XVIU.

 And Rome—thy sterner, younger sister, she
 Who awed the world with her imperial frown—
 Rome drew the spirit of her race from thee,
 The rival of thy shame and thy renown.
 Yet her degenerate children sold the crown
 Of earth's wide kingdoms to a line of slaves;
 Guilt reigned, and woe with guilt, and plagues came down,
 Till the North broke its floodgates, and the waves
Whelmed the degraded race, and weltered o'er their graves.

XIX.

 Vainly that ray of brightness from above,
 That shone around the Galilean lake,
 The light of hope, the leading star of love,
 Struggled, the darkness of that day to break;