University of Virginia Library

An ODE occasion'd by the Battel of Ramellies.

Our Roman Sires to Merit free,
Profuse of Immortality;
Of Him who had his Country serv'd,
In various Piles the Fame preserv'd:
On Earth the Hero frown'd in Brass,
And shook the Skies with Jove in Verse:

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His Fellows on his Fame rely,
And swear by his Divinity:
Had Fate indulg'd the Roman Name,
And with a Churchill swell'd her Fame,
New Obelisks had reach'd the Skies,
And shadow'd half their Deities.
Pharsalia vanish'd in the Blaze
Of Blenheim, and of Rammelies!
But meaner Paths the Roman trod,
By making Slaves to grow a God:
Whilst Britain's Hero never gains
A Conquest, but to break their Chains;
From whose each glorious Toil might rise
A Cæsar, or a Hercules.