A POEM.
87
Or shine in daring Lucan's manly strain,
Who sung of freedom in a tyrant's reign.
Still in Greek annals live their mighty dead:
The whole we see—and feel whate'er we read.
But if great Homer's martial trumpet sound,
Then troops expire, and heroes bite the ground; 140
Steeds neigh, swords gleam, darts hiss, and helmets nod,
And hills of carnage dam the streams of blood.
A muse more sacred, next the roll expands,
Which shook tall Sinai, and his heaving sands:
From tented hosts on Edom's sultry plain,
O'er Egypt's warriors wakes the exulting strain:
Impetuous chieftains Judah's God defy,
As fierce Rabsaces lifts his voice on high:
"March on, ye hosts, by great Sennacherib led,
And tread each river from its marshy bed. 150
Hark how the cedars of the mountain fall;
The lofty mound o'ertops proud Salem's wall;
While, as the clouds of arrows blot the day,
Like mildewed grass, the Hebrew tribes decay."
And here the sage, by reason's power refined,
Anatomizes all the tribes of mind;
Her various powers and faculties explores;
How she collects, how treasures wisdom's stores.—
Who sung of freedom in a tyrant's reign.
Still in Greek annals live their mighty dead:
The whole we see—and feel whate'er we read.
But if great Homer's martial trumpet sound,
Then troops expire, and heroes bite the ground; 140
Steeds neigh, swords gleam, darts hiss, and helmets nod,
And hills of carnage dam the streams of blood.
A muse more sacred, next the roll expands,
Which shook tall Sinai, and his heaving sands:
From tented hosts on Edom's sultry plain,
O'er Egypt's warriors wakes the exulting strain:
Impetuous chieftains Judah's God defy,
As fierce Rabsaces lifts his voice on high:
"March on, ye hosts, by great Sennacherib led,
And tread each river from its marshy bed. 150
Hark how the cedars of the mountain fall;
The lofty mound o'ertops proud Salem's wall;
While, as the clouds of arrows blot the day,
Like mildewed grass, the Hebrew tribes decay."
And here the sage, by reason's power refined,
Anatomizes all the tribes of mind;
Her various powers and faculties explores;
How she collects, how treasures wisdom's stores.—
