In Cornwall and Across the Sea With Poems Written in Devonshire. By Douglas B. W. Sladen |
 |
| I. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
|
ENGLAND AND ATHENS. |
|
|
 | In Cornwall and Across the Sea |  |
259
ENGLAND AND ATHENS.
I.
Khartoum has gone: Kassala too must goTo show the world that England, if not yet
By statute a republic, can forget
Her allies as republics long ago,
Veered by each puff of party that might blow,
Above, below, within, without,—have set
An infamous example. Great the debt
Not for her writers only, that we owe,
To Athens. She has taught us that a state
Of warlike men whose greatness sprung from war,
In commerce and free institutions great,
May, by an Æschines beguiled, deplore
Freedom and empire lost alike while he
Rises upon the ruin of the free.
260
II.
Athens, an old-world queen of libertyEnslaved in name of Freedom! Is not she,
A voice from Fate to England: on the sea
Her navies swept imperial: she could vie
With the world's fleets united; could defy
The menace of the nations: she was free
But lost her freedom when she came to be
Pitted against a despot-enemy
Who met the feeble, vacillating sword
Of men who fought for self and party first
And commonweal and country afterward,
With his unwavering phalanxes, that burst
Upon the long-effete Hellenic world
Like thunderbolts from Mount Olympus hurled.
261
III.
Athens and Carthage! What high-hearted boy,Who reads of antique Greece and Italy
On history's page, but breathes a generous sigh,
When Rome and Sparta triumph, thrills with joy
When Hector does a doughty deed for Troy,
And Hannibal and Conon light the sky,
Darkling to night, with fires of victory,
While Fate their homes advances to destroy?
Athens and Troy and Carthage! We love all
For their brief empire-splendour. But we can
Scarce find a sigh for Athens' second fall
Before the youthful Macedonian
In ardour fresh his mission to fulfil,
While she was impotent for good or ill.
| In Cornwall and Across the Sea | |