Cupid turned volunteer In a series of prints, designed by Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth; and Engraved by W. N. Gardiner: With poetical illustrations by Thomas Park |
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ASSUMES HIS FIRELOCK. |
 | Cupid turned volunteer |  |
3
ASSUMES HIS FIRELOCK.
Ere yet with earth's sulphurean veinsCombustion blent the nitrous spar,
Some prosing reader may here pause to remark, that charcoal, though not adverted to, is as essential an ingredient in the composition of gunpowder, as sulphur or saltpetre; but such reader will require to be informed, that poetry has long had license to substitute a part for the whole; which rendered it even unnecessary to employ the learned Roger Bacon's device, who denoted the word charcoal by an anagram.—Vid. Biog. Brit. Vol. I. p. 431.
Ere chemic art o'er lurid plains
Diffus'd the fateful flash of war,
And with a bold impiety
(Like his, the fabled king of yore
Who mimic'd Jove's artillery)
Made all th' ethereal concave roar;
Then did the spear or dart its vengeance shower,
And strength alone gave wider grasp to power:
But since the molten tube convey'd
The ball which quick arrests the breath,
Sooner is learn'd the soldier's trade
To poise the armory of death:—
Love seizes, hence, the light fusee,
Lifts it with triumph o'er his head,
And moving on with martial tread,
Shouts—England, George, and Victory!
| Cupid turned volunteer | |