The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
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 | The Age Reviewed |  |
From living fools to parted greatness turn,
And shed an heart-flowed tear on Byron's urn:
Oh! when again will Britain give to birth
A master-mind of such gigantic worth,
Whose genius brightened into quenchless blaze,
And bade the world one glorious altar raise!
“His thoughts more boundless than the dark blue sea,”
With Grecian soul he wished the Grecian free;
And like a hero, sought the battle plain,
To die in arms, or burst the Moslem chain.
But blighting Death then struck his noble prey,
And sadly darken'd Freedom's dawning day;
The same glad guns that greeted him to shore,
For clay-cold Byron pealed their minute roar!
And shed an heart-flowed tear on Byron's urn:
Oh! when again will Britain give to birth
A master-mind of such gigantic worth,
Whose genius brightened into quenchless blaze,
And bade the world one glorious altar raise!
“His thoughts more boundless than the dark blue sea,”
With Grecian soul he wished the Grecian free;
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To die in arms, or burst the Moslem chain.
But blighting Death then struck his noble prey,
And sadly darken'd Freedom's dawning day;
The same glad guns that greeted him to shore,
For clay-cold Byron pealed their minute roar!
The reader will excuse the few unpretending lines devoted to Lord Byron above. I thought they might be tired of a long list of fools and poetasters, and that the name of Byron would be a passing relief. There is such romance about his character, life, and fame, that he would of himself form a subject adequate for the finest poem. However, he wants no stony record to perpetuate his name; it will flourish ever green, when generations shall have passed off, and the indiscretions of youth shall be forgotten; when the sneers of political turncoats shall cease, and calumnious envy wither away, till truth blossom in its place.
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