 | Fra Cipolla, and other poems |  |
Of all the gods whom superstition's sway
From clime to clime hath made the world obey,
That cunning ruler, in whose teeming shrine
Each human passion found a power divine,
A heavenly patron, from the immortal sphere
To shield and guard its lowlier follower here;
Though passed their rites, and dwindled to a tale
The names that awed each old Ionian vale;
Yet still shall one, of all mankind pursued,
Their changeful passions as of old delude;
Aye still shall Proteus his old shapes assume,
And cheat that world, which Reason's rays illume:
Now robed like freedom, bid the nations rise,
Now start Napoleon to their humbled eyes,
Then change again, and as they dash away
That brazen idol with the feet of clay,
Another still they find, and still shall he,
Whate'er his mask, their cunning mocker be.
From clime to clime hath made the world obey,
That cunning ruler, in whose teeming shrine
Each human passion found a power divine,
A heavenly patron, from the immortal sphere
To shield and guard its lowlier follower here;
Though passed their rites, and dwindled to a tale
The names that awed each old Ionian vale;
Yet still shall one, of all mankind pursued,
Their changeful passions as of old delude;
Aye still shall Proteus his old shapes assume,
And cheat that world, which Reason's rays illume:
106
Now start Napoleon to their humbled eyes,
Then change again, and as they dash away
That brazen idol with the feet of clay,
Another still they find, and still shall he,
Whate'er his mask, their cunning mocker be.
| Fra Cipolla, and other poems | |