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 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
ON THE BIRTH DAY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COUNTESS OF MOIRA, BARONESS HASTINGS, &c. &c.
|
|
 | Poems, chiefly dramatic and lyric |  |
530
ON THE BIRTH DAY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COUNTESS OF MOIRA, BARONESS HASTINGS, &c. &c.
APRIL 10th, 1792.
I.
While yet the messenger of springFaintly hails the rising year,
While yet with storms the forests ring
And the pale pleiads from their sphere,
For Nature's tints of vernal hue
Blank scenes of desolation view;
While Discord loads the passing gale,
Or Sorrow's plaintive tones prevail:
While many a Prince of Bourbon's line
Lamenting roams along the Rhine,
531
And calls his tardy legions on.
Fate smiles severe, and mocks their trust,
For Cæsar's ear is stop'd with dust.—
The pitying muse the fading prospect sees,
And from th'unreal scene her pinions plies
To find where living virtue warms the breeze,
And baffling the bleak year, perfumes the northern skies.
II.
While Bourbon, yet a petty thane,Was lost in Gallia's martial train,
And Austria's sires, unnam'd, unknown
Their homage paid to Suevia's throne;
Champions of Heaven, renown'd in days of yore,
Eliza's regal fathers brav'd the sield,
And sheath'd in arms, to Jordan's hallow'd shore,
Led the long triumphs of the Red Cross shield;
Or by the claims of honour fir'd,
Or in their country's cause inspir'd;
532
Against some tyrant's lawless might.
Their mild munificence, of heavenly birth,
The fosterer of neglected worth,
With all the kindred virtues, rais'd, refin'd,
By circling Time's despotic sway,
Are centred in their noble daughter's mind,
Like gems, that drink abstracted light,
Dawning thro' the waste of night;
Or round the flowing robe display'd,
Or midst the locks of some distinguish'd maid,
With mingled beams, salute the eye,
The absence of the sun supply;
Or in his presence make a double day.
III.
And, while the fairies of the mineBelow, shall course the wand'ring beam,
And with the breded light combine
The central, deep, chrystalline stream;
Still thine honour'd line shall live
And propagate her worth along.
Fair theme of many a future song!
It boasts no frail, material source,
Nor Nature's blind, and plastic force
The genial power, that forms the mind,
The unspent energy assign'd.
Thro' civil discord, calm repose,
Thro' Nature's harmony and strife,
533
And gains new powers of light and life;
And, with accelerated speed
Along the path, by Heaven decreed.
Still may the circling pomp its lustre lend
To many a plausive age to come!
Then, (when yon sun has quench'd his fires)
'Mongst the full empyreal choirs
In Heaven's eternal dome;
At the dread consummating hour
Claiming their everlasting power,
May Heaven's great jubilee behold its winged virtues blend.
The first notice we find, in history, of the family of the Bourbon, is in the year 1381; when James de Bourbon, Count de la Marche, was sent against the Gascons, by John, King of France, and defeated. Their union with the Royal Family of Navarre (which opened their way to the crown of France) did not commence till about the end of the 15th century; whereas the branch of Hastings, by the medium of the family of Navarre, are descended in a right line from Charlemagne. —For an account of the family of Austria, see Sully's Memoirs, vol. I. b. 1. Notes.
| Poems, chiefly dramatic and lyric | |