The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton ... Fifth Edition, Corrected and Enlarged. To which are now added Inscriptionum Romanarum Delectus, and An Inaugural Speech As Camden Professor of History, never before published. Together with Memoirs of his Life and Writings; and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Richard Mant |
 | I, II. |
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| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. | ODE XVIII. FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1787. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
| XXIII. |
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 | The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton |  |
104
ODE XVIII. FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1787.
I.
In rough magnificence array'd,When ancient Chivalry display'd
The pomp of her heroic games;
And crested chiefs, and tissued dames,
Assembled, at the clarion's call,
In some proud castle's high-arch'd hall,
To grace romantic glory's genial rites:
Associate of the gorgeous festival,
The Minstrel struck his kindred string,
And told of many a steel-clad king,
Who to the turney train'd his hardy knights;
Or bore the radiant red-cross shield
Mid the bold peers of Salem's field;
Who travers'd pagan climes to quell
The wisard foe's terrific spell;
105
The Saracen's gigantic spear.
The listening champions felt the fabling rhime
With fairy trappings fraught, and shook their plumes sublime.
II.
Such were the themes of regal praiseDear to the Bard of elder days;
The songs, to savage virtue dear,
That won of yore the public ear!
Ere Polity, sedate and sage,
Had quench'd the fires of feudal rage,
Had stemm'd the torrent of eternal strife,
And charm'd to rest an unrelenting age.—
No more, in formidable state,
The castle shuts its thundering gate;
New colours suit the scenes of soften'd life;
No more, bestriding barbed steeds,
106
And now the Bard in alter'd tones
A theme of worthier triumph owns;
By social imagery beguil'd,
He moulds his harp to manners mild;
Nor longer weaves the wreath of war alone,
Nor hails the hostile forms that grac'd the Gothic throne.
III.
And now he tunes his plausive layTo Kings, who plant the civic bay;
Who choose the patriot sovereign's part,
Diffusing commerce, peace, and art;
Who spread the virtuous pattern wide,
And triumph in a nation's pride;
Who seek coy Science in her cloister'd nook,
Where Thames, yet rural, rolls an artless tide;
Who love to view the vale divine,
107
And clustering towers the tufted grove o'erlook;
To Kings, who rule a filial land,
Who claim a People's vows and pray'rs,
Should Treason arm the weakest hand!
To these his heart-felt praise he bears,
And with new rapture hastes to greet
This festal morn, that longs to meet,
With luckiest auspices, the laughing spring;
And opes her glad career, with blessings on her wing!
| The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton | |