Poems, chiefly dramatic and lyric :: :: University of Virginia Library

Poems, chiefly dramatic and lyric

by the Revd. H. Boyd ... containing the following dramatic poems: The Helots, a tragedy, The Temple of Vesta, The Rivals, The Royal Message. Prize Poems, &c. &c

Boyd, Henry

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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COUNTESS OF MOIRA, BARONESS HASTINGS, &c. &c

TO THE REV. EDWARD BERWICK,

THE HELOTS. A TRAGEDY.

II.

II.

III.

II.

IV.

THE TEMPLE OF VESTA, A DRAMATIC POEM.

II.

II.

II.

III.

IV.

II.

II.

IV.

III.

II.

III.

IV.

II.

III.

IV.

III.

PRIZE, POEMS, ODES, ELEGIES, &c. &c.

HYMN TO SILENCE,

THE GENIUS OF THE WHITE ROSE,

WOODSTOCK.

THE WANDERER,

ODE THE FIRST. THE SHEPHERD'S DREAM.

ODE THE SECOND. THE SHEPHERD'S NUPTIALS.

ODE THE THIRD. THE SHEPHERD'S VOYAGE.

ODE THE FOURTH. THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN.

ON THE BIRTH DAY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF MOIRA, BARONESS HASTINGS, &c. &c.

ON THE BIRTH DAY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COUNTESS OF MOIRA, BARONESS HASTINGS, &c. &c.

ON THE BIRTH DAY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF MOIRA, BARONESS HASTINGS, &c. &c.

TO CHARLES WILLIAM BURY, ESQ. ON HIS RETURN FROM ITALY, 1789.

VERSES, LEFT AT THE REV. PETER TURPIN'S,

TO JOSEPH COOPER WALKER, ESQ. M. R. I. A.

TO JOSEPH COOPER WALKER, ESQ. M. R. I. A. &c. &c.

TO WILLIAM PRESTON, ESQ. ON HIS TRAGEDY, ENTITLED DEMOCRATIC RAGE.

ELEGIES.

TO THE REV. JOHN SMYTH, ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG FRIEND, 1779.

HENRIETTA,

ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. THOMAS STEWART,

TO THE REV. DR. LESLIE,

ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN RAWDON, LATE EARL OF MOIRA,

SPECIMEN OF THE CAPTIVES,

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHARLEMONT, &c.

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND THOMAS PERCY, LORD BISHOP OF DROMORE,

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505

ODE THE THIRD. THE SHEPHERD'S VOYAGE.

I.

Should some strong hand unmoon the sky
And spread from Demogorgon's loom
The curtain deep of Stygian gloom,
Nor leave a star, with twinkling eye
Our wand'ring planet to illume,
(Except some meteor broke the sable woof,
Shot thro' Heaven's umbrageous roof)
'Twould shew, our world's lamented plight,
Sunk in Slavery's thickest night,
When Freedom's ever-moving tide
From our sadden'd shores retir'd
Except one favour'd land, where fate conspir'd
To bid the doubtful blessing still abide,
Like the star that rules the flood
She bade her retinue obey

506

The shadowy throng her call pursu'd
And mov'd in order west away.
Hesperia's groves obedient bow'd
As the pomp aerial past,
As o'er Oswego's tranquil flood
Her breezy robe the goddess cast,
With murmurs low the foamy waters curl'd
And hail'd the mistress of the we stern world.
The genii of the woods and waves
The spirits of the hills and caves
Her presence felt; the savage tribes
Each the sacred power imbibes,
But intellectual light alone
Could give the Queen a stedfast throne
Cecropia's old and equal laws
Rome's well digested code, and Alfred's ancient saws.

II.

Religion too, seraphic maid
The goddess call'd to aid,
Then to the climes from whence the day-spring flows
Where the confed'rate powers of heaven and earth
Matur'd of old the intellectual birth,
Where blooms the citron, and, the palm tree blows
She look'd for aid, for with the rising sun
The dawn of science first begun,
And with slow progress verging west
The world's revolving shores like travelling summer blest

507

And see, the fated barque at anchor wait
Ordain'd from shore to shore to cull her precious freight,
The broad Atlantic first she skims,
Zibalterras sea-beat brims
She leaves, and many a far fam'd isle
To where Emanuel clos'd his earthly toil—
Thence, North by West the winged vessel steers
And from each Dorian, each Ionian coast,
Climes renown'd in ancient days
Themes of everlasting lays
A willing exile bears.
Thro' seas, by many a Land emboss'd
To Luna's port she plows her liquid road
Thence, by Massilia, thro' the midland flood
Then stems the tide to Calpes strand
To Britain thence, by Fate's command
Where on the shore the youthful stranger stood
Desponding on his wayward fate
With him his young and lovely mate
Ready to pass the foaming flood,
The vessel moor'd
They haste aboard,
The last of that heaven-destin'd freight.

III.

Now, 'twixt the old world and the new
Suspended, like that favour'd crew

508

Who mann'd the sacred planks by Heaven decreed
To save the last remains of mans' devoted seed,
They hover on the Atlantic deep.
Ah! would the banded West but rise
And drive them back to Dover's steep
Ere old Columbus gain the prize!
In vain the wish, in vain the prayer!
They go, transplanted to a kindlier mold
Where warmer suns sublime the year
Before our vales their blooms unfold!—
As Egypt fabled, from the west
Forgetful of his Indian bed
In new-born state triumphant drest
Another sun shall lift his head
And eastward turn his ardent face
And backward tread th'ecliptic way
The muses shall attend his race
And all the arts in bright array.
Hyperion's son shall wond'ring view
His glittering rival cross his car,
His steeds of mere ethereal hue
Whose footsteps sire the ambient air.
Of ripen'd fruits Hyperion boasts
The spreading palm, the sparkling gem
The golden hoard, the spicy coast
The offspring of his potent beam.
Not so, the lord of intellectual light
He bids the purest germs of genius bloom

509

Which chaces from the mind Cimmerian night
And bids Virginia's warriours equal Rome.
See! how the rising zephyrs breathe away
Yon envious clouds that hide his sapphire throne!
See, Tyranny beholds with dire dismay,
And flies before the God from zone to zone.

IV.

But oh! presumptuous muse! detain
The frenzy of the rising strain—
—Yet, but the dubious dawn is seen
O'er th'Atlantic wavy green,
Columbus' world in soft repose
Yet no startling signal knows.
For yet her heavenly guests on alien ground
Roam in disguise like weary pilgrims round,
Yet, where they walk, the lawns extend
Desolation leaves the path
And, with less savage wreath
The woods around the hills their less'ning umbrage bend
The wood nymphs forc'd to leave the strand
Left a fearful curse behind,
And see it settles o'er the land
It blackens in the wind!
Hovering o'er the old world far
Brews the stygian storm
The god of battles climbs his car
Oppression, avarice, factious rage
Fanatic feuds, by many an age

510

Nurst to a giant form
See! where their victims crowd the strand
Some from the pressure of the tyrant's hand
Some by the spectre Want pursue'd
Some, by the restless spark within
Impell'd the watry world to roam
Impatient of a settled home,
Or by some stroke of cruel fate,
Hapless love, or ruthless hate,
Doom'd to trust the fickle wind
And leave their loves, their cares behind.
Each fiery spirit check'd at home
Or pent in deep oblivion's gloom,
There hop'd an ample range to find
For th'excursions of the mind.
With joy Oppression saw them go
And smooth'd his formidable brow
When those, he deem'd the demons of the storm
Who us'd to spread the wild alarm
And oft unsettled all his schemes
And often broke his golden dreams
Were gone, she hoped again to know
The halcyon days of bliss below,
As when Assyria felt his rod
And Persia own'd an earthly God.
Nor more the Spartan fife to hear
Deadly music to her ear.

511

But instead, some courtly strain
In Lydian measure breath'd to soothe his tyrant reign.

V.

Oh! ill advis'd! because the parched vale
Rises in dust beneath the Orient blast.
To think the western storm no more will swell
To lay at once thy waving harvest waste?
That power which keeps the air in equal poise
And bids the viewless current ebb and flow,
Who now bids Auster load the humid skies
And now Aquilon sift his virgin snow.
That power, for wiser ends has sent the scourge
Of lawless power this weeping planet round,
He'll waft again his exile o'er the surge
And nations tremble at her Clarion's sound.
When he would call some great event to birth
To startle heaven, and shake the sons of earth,
He bids men's selfish views the fabric raise
And from his stormy rage elicits praise.
He calls the mental beam away
To the source of endless light
The passions hail the welcome night
And domineer with furious sway.
Then drives the vessel of the state
On the rocks of mad debate.
Despotic power, in the fierce conflict spent,
To fill her faint, exhausted veins
Quaffs the life-blood of the swains.

512

The swains at last resent
And their rous'd vengeance sweeps away
At once the plunder and the prey.
Thus man, by others harm untaught
Learns moderation from his own disastrous lot.

VI.

And thou, perfidious Gaul
That lend'st thy weak hand to thy neighbour's ponderous fall
And swell'st the loud alarm afar
Where Boston breathes revenge and war
Ill does thy feeble pipe, with tuneful strife
Aspire to join its sounds with Sparta's fife.
Yet long enur'd to themes of glory
Soon it leaves the Lydian measure
Learn'd in scenes of courtly pleasure
Ere freedom op'd her wond'rous leaf of story.
O brainsick men! to think each slavish tool
Will come from this tremendous school,
With the same habitudes he felt before
On your voluptuous, smooth, seductive shore.
No—like the fam'd Trophonian grot
Where oft the sons of dance and song
At their first entrance frisk'd along
Then visited the world with alter'd sober thought.
Thy merry slaves are taught another mood
In yonder solemn groves beyond the flood.
Like Britons now they learn to think and feel,
And in the tyrant's face to lift the light'ning steel!

513

Thee too and thy arts of yore
Felt by that Helvetian swain,
The Leman lake's resounding shore
Mourn'd thro' all her wide domain.
Him tho' thy dark, pernicious arts annoy'd,
And drove to Britain, thence to Georgia's wild;
And thought the spirit-stirring race destroy'd,
The parent lives, transplanted in the child.

North America.

Old name of Gibraltar.

On the western coast of Italy.

See Ode 2d.

Machinations of the French against the liberties and religion of Switzerland; and the persecutions of the puritans in England; set on foot partly by French politics.