University of Virginia Library

[Sage Cadmus, hail! to thee the Grecians owed]

Sage Cadmus, hail! to thee the Grecians owed
The art and science, that from letters flowed;
To thy great mind indebted ages stand,
And grateful Learning owns thy guardian hand.
Without the invention of a written tongue,
E'en Fame herself no lasting notes had sung;
Thy brow she crowns with tributary bays,
And sounds thy glory in immortal lays.
Hark! a swift whirlwind rushes through the heaven;
Before its wrath the stateliest oaks are riven.
Say! is the thunderbolt from Jove's right hand,
Launched on the earth to scourge a guilty land?
Say! have the embattled winds, in eddies whirled,
Joined their whole force to storm the shivering world?
Lo! bold Demosthenes advances forth,
His voice, like thunder bursting from the north;
Dread Philip hears, and trembles from afar;
Greece springs from slumber to the field of war.
From his keen eyes the livid lightnings dart,
And freedom's flame from breast to breast impart.