Poems on Several Occasions With Imitations from Horace, Ovid, Martial, Theocritus, Bachylides, Anacreon, &c. To which is prefix'd A Discourse on Criticism, and the Liberty of Writing. In a letter to a Friend. By Samuel Cobb ... The Third Edition. To which is added, Poems on the Duke of Marlborough, Prince Eugene, the Electoral Prince of Hannover, with other Poems. Never before Printed |
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A Pindaric Ode,
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
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A Pindaric Ode,
Occasion'd by the Succession of Spain, the Wars in the North, and the Juncture of Affairs in the Year of our Lord 1700. in the 13th of the Reign of King William the Third.
[I.]
The Muse, which taught the Theban SwanTo stretch his Silver wings, and soar
Where Vulgar Pinions never can,
In Regions of the Sky, unknown before:
She, Queen of Numbers, who could raise
The Voice of PRIOR to a pitch so high,
As might with envy'd Cowley vye,
When lissning to his Lays,
Old smiling Janus blest the new-born Century.
Now from her Airy Bower descends,
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To honour Things of meaner state,
And to My Song attentive bends.
As Cytherea's feign'd to fly
From amorous Gods, and leave the Sky,
To bless with a Divine embrace
Some Favourite of Mortal Race,
And there disclose the Lustre of her Eye,
And each Ambrosial Grace.
II.
She calls me with a Voice, as would excellTh' Orphean, could the golden Lyre
And charming Tongue again conspire
To vindicate Eurydice from Hell.
Lo! from this abject Earth she seems to bear
Me, through untrodden Air.
Like Virgil's Fame, she flies
O'er tracts of Sea, and spacious Land,
Where-e're Nassovian Arms command,
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There views the Desert Æther round; a Place
Where Nothing lives, the blue, expanded Space
There sees the Stars, which rule the Night,
Which in the Sky, like a Republick, sway
With scattered and imperfect Light,
Whose Beams more happily unite
In the Great Monarch of the Day.
III.
Not all the rowling Lamps above will dareWith the Phebean to compare.
Nor can th' united Wit of Man below
With all his fondness and pretence
To Business, Management and Sense,
Such Universal Rays bestow
As the NASSOVIAN Influence.
Wheher He leave his Native seat
To warm us with his kindly heat:
10
And take Religion's injur'd part.
Like that Young God he flies, by Homer sung,
Descending from Olympus, to the Aid,
Of the wrong'd Priest, and ravish'd Maid,
When the vindictive Quiver on his shoulders hung,
And from his silver Bow the poison'd Arrow rung.
Fond Agamemnon! to provoke
Apollo's pestilential stroke.
What Heroes thro' Thy Passion slain
Of Thee in Stygian Groves complain!
Of Thee, whose blinded Lust could dare
The Pious Virgin to detain,
And combat against Innocence and Prayer.
IV.
Wrongs to Revenge, and Succour the Distrest,William was always nigh,
At the soft warning of a Sigh,
To thousand Ills expos'd his Valiant Breast.
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And sunk into the Womb of Night,
Too impotent to bear so great a Light.
Soon as that Hydra, Faction, rose,
She saw, and stagger'd at his dazling shine,
Nor durst her Multiplying Heads oppose
To Vertue so Divine.
For William, if his Counsel Fails,
Shakes but his Thunder, and prevails.
If on the Gallick or the Northern Shore,
From Oaken Walls his Cannons rore.
He frights the bold, presumptuous Crew,
As Ancient Jove is said to do.
When he hurl'd Typhon from th' affected Skies
To bellow under Ætna; where,
Bruis'd with the marks of Heav'nly Wrath, he fries
In rowling Sulphur, and when e're
He shifts his brawny side below,
Above he shakes th' Eternal Snow.
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Still to retort new Mountains at the Thunderer.
V.
In vain he tosses Fire, in vainHe bites his Adamantine Chain,
Struggles with Heav'n's Decree, and Everlasting Pain.
Just Penance! for the Wretch who dare,
War against the Gods declare.
Tho' to the Vulgar this a Fable seem,
Or some Poetic, Idle Dream.
Dorset, sagacious Hallifax, and Those
To whom the Muse her Secrets does betray,
Whom She instructs in her mysterious way,
This dark Ænigma can disclose;
And with Lyncean Eye,
Conceal'd to meaner Sight the Depth of this Vast Stream discry.
In Typhon They behold the Fall
Of the Vain Russian, and ambitious Gaul.
13
Who struck with Swedish Lightning, fell
Down from his Airy Steep, to prove
Ten thousand Gyants are no odds to Jove.
Imperious Death! on that Triumphant Day,
How didst Thou feast! how riot on thy Prey!
When Charles, like a Gustavus, rose
And through arm'd Myriads of his Foes
Mow'd his Victorious Way.
Let Narva tell, how many Leagues the Slain
Lay dismembred on the Plain,
Tell, how her VVaters blush'd with an inglorious Stain
VI.
Nor stops the Northern Worthy here,Swiftly he urges on his fiery Career,
Th' Apostate Saxon quakes, and warlike Polander.
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The steps of William, and creates new business for the Muse.
Next to Godlike William's Name,
In th' Eternal Book of Fame
Write him, O Clio, and prepare a place
Among the Heroes of Immortal Race,
In Valours Temple let him sit
With Roman Julius, or our great Plantagenet;
Let all to the Nassovian Name Submit.
All to Superiour Greatness bow,
Bring Olive to his Hands, and Laurel to his Brow.
Tell us, who at the Twentyeth Summer run
The Course of Fame, when Philip's Son
With all his hopes in Prophecy begun.
Propp'd on his Genius, William leads
To Conquest, and Heroic Deeds,
Nor Oracle, nor Omen needs;
Nor Armour to defend his Breast,
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Or such as stern Pelides bore,
At the Sea-Godess's Request.
Or such as to the British Arthur did belong,
By whose inchanted blaze, in Spencer's Song,
The cursed Paynim fell; while Saxons mourn
The Desolation of his Flaming Calliburn.
No: it is less than William, to desire
A magick Shield, or Sword, or Dart
At Lemnos forg'd in Vulcan's fire,
Or charm'd by Merlin's horrid Art;
No Armour like his Cause, no Weapon like his Heart.
VII.
Whether the Princely Youth ingageWith Luxemburg's experienc'd Age,
Or with cool Wisdom temper Conde's Rage,
No Forces could unhinge his Mind,
No Arts his cautious steps inclose,
Arts, which his Generous Soul declin'd,
And piti'd in his Foes.
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So feeble is Borbonian Wit,
When aim'd at Heav'n's peculiar Favourite!
Batavia, witness how Thy Heroe flew
To snatch Thee, like a flaming Brand,
From the fierce Ravager's destroying hand,
Thy Provinces reseize, Thy Liberty renew.
As a brave Eagle, when she finds the Nest
Robb'd, where her future Heroes us'd to rest,
Stays not to mourn, but through the Liquid Sky
Sails with full Wing to seek her Barb'rous Enemy,
She does at last the greedy Vulture spy
Lodg'd on some Mountain's top, or lofty Tree,
A helpless, undefending Sanctuary.
People below with wonder and affright
Behold the Noble Fight.
But She, who must Jove's Thunder bear,
Buffets the Dastard, and redeems the Prey,
And gives sure Omens of a better Day,
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Of her Imperial Ancestors,
She shall the struggling Dragon dare,
Provok'd by Hunger, or the Thirst of War,
And lead her Triumph o'er the wide Dominions of the Air.
VIII.
Lo! from the well hatch'd Seeds of Time, what FateHad registred To Be, the Months and Days
Leap forth in all their decency, and Rays,
Miraculously bright and great,
And all the future Year's reserv'd for WILLIAM's Praise.
Enough of Actions past; now look,
My Muse, in thy Mysterious Book;
Rowl o'er the next Immortal Page,
And View what's destin'd for maturer Age.
I see it: 'tis a vast Herculean Task
Which will Collected William ask.
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Of Father Cam, or Isis you delight
To bless the sacred Poet's Dream,
And succour his Auspicious Flight.
Or with thy Voice, or with thy Strings
Lament the Funeral of Kings.
See! a large Field lies open to thy View,
And the whole World is thy Purliew.
Whether the Eastern Islands you behold,
Or Western Mexico, or rich Peru,
(The fertil Womb of fatal Gold)
All mourning for the Monarch lost, and fearing for the New.
IX.
We call him happy, who is doom'd to wearA Diadem besieg'd with care.
Mistaken Notion! not to know
What Thorns on Crowns and Scepters grow,
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Is it for this perfidious Bourbon's Pride
Would o'er insulted Nations Ride,
And sail to Empire through a Sanguine Tide?
For this so many Leagues he breaks,
For this so many Widows makes;
For this so oft the Virgin sighs,
So oft his Iron Hand has wrung
Tears from the humble Shepherds Eyes,
And Curses from his Tongue.
X.
Beauteous Iberia! once a potent State,Magnificent and Fortunate!
With Thy own Indies Thou art sold,
And wilt, I fear, repent, as Midas did of old,
Thy Thirst and Avarice of Gold.
How often wilt Thou wish in vain
For the grim Moor, the Suevian, or Alane,
The Vandal or the Goth, a milder Reign?
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And boistrous as the North, from whence they came,
Ravage Thy Lands, and all thy Countries fill
With Slaughter, and depopulating Flame.
Th' intriguing Gaul, like a dissembling Sea,
Whose Smiling waters steal below the ground
Eats under, the Foundation to betray,
Taught through the weaken'd Earth to work it's way,
And with a bursting Quake the tottering Ball confound.
XI.
For this Europa, like a Sacrifice,The Sword just lifted, on the Altar lies;
Hark! how she knocks her Lovely Breast, and wounds the Suffering Skies.
Like that Phænician Dame,
From whence she drew her Name,
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Laid down his Heav'nly Arms, and that commanding Nod,
With which he rules the Powers Above,
Degrading his Divinity for Love.
When on his milky Shoulders through the Sea,
He bore His beauteous, panting Prey.
In vain on the Sidonian Strand
Her fellow Virgins weeping stand;
In vain to th' unattentive Sky
Europa lifts her snowy hand,
And calls on Jove; but thinks not Jove so nigh.
With the false Waves the traiterous Winds conspire
Against th' afflicted Fair,
To gratifie th' Immortal Thief's desire,
And blow each gentle sigh away, and each ingaging Prayer,
But O, Europa, now forget to fear,
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Behold thy better Jupiter appear,
Not to beguile Thee to a Rape,
But save Thee from the Ravisher.
XII.
That Gallick Pride, which many years has stroveTo satisfie his large, insatiate Love,
Still like the fabled Heav'nly Lust of old,
Try'd all his Strength, and all his Charms,
To grasp the Virgin to his Arms.
He shook his Thunder, and he rain'd his Gold.
Till long-departed Justice came below,
With awful step she march'd, and dreadful to behold,
Like the German, stern and bold,
Her Vengeance certain, tho' her Motion slow.
Lead on, Astræa, thy Triumphant way,
And to th' affrighted World display
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Successful Rapine and absolve the Skies.
Down from the Alpin Hills her Armies pour,
Eridanus is with amazement struck,
And wonders why the Mountain shook,
Convulsions never felt before,
Such Thunder never heard to rore,
Since Phaeton fell headlong from the Sky
She now no Second Fall can fear,
But thinks the God himself is nigh,
When she beholds his Eagle there.
XIII.
Let wise Impiety be dumb,Like her own thoughtless Deity become.
Which neither rule nor order keeps,
But in Eternal ease supinely sleeps.
Madness! behold God's strange Mysterious way,
How sure his Arrows fly, no random play;
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To raise the weak, and mortify the proud,
See marching from afar
His Ministers of Wrath, a formidable Crowd,
With all the horrid clang of a tumultuous War,
Fierce as his Lightning, as his Thunder loud.
Loud as the Water-falls of Nile,
When they with mighty flow
Rowl from some Æthiopian Hill,
And drown or deafen all below.
When Savoy's Eugene and his Fortunes lead the way,
O Italy, how frail is Thy Pretence
Of Nature's strong and rocky Fence!
In vain thy Rivers swell, in vain thy Alps obstruct his stay
When He of old to Victory was flown,
The Moon of Ottoman began to wane,
The Lesser Stars grew pale, which fill'd her Eastern train;
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Bow to his Awful Name;
But onward marching, his Triumphant Fame
Knocks at Versailles, and shakes the Celtick Throne.
XIV.
Where Purple Cruelty in haughty state,Presides, Tyrannically Great:
Moves Arbitrary in his Orb of Light,
Till urg'd by the Decrees of Fate,
From his high Solstice in his fullest blaze
He takes his Ignominious flight,
Rowls backward his diminish'd Rays,
And in succeeding Darkness ends the Glory of his Days.
Yet sleep not, Albion; for, with armed Hand
And watchful Eyes, thy Foes around thee stand.
Nay, thy own Sons, with thy best Blessings fed,
Conspire against thy sacred Head,
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While their black Malice, and ingrateful Wit
Does like the Augur's Razor seem,
Which cut the Hone that sharpened it.
But Heav'n has nodded with a firm consent
To guard thy Island from her Cruel Foes,
And all their fruitless Treachery prevent
Who dare with Force, or golden Arms oppose
Thy NAVY, and Thy PARLIAMENT.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |