Mundi et Cordis De Rebus Sempiternis et Temporariis: Carmina. Poems and Sonnets. By Thomas Wade |
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| I. | I.
THE THREE GREAT DAYS. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
 | Mundi et Cordis |  |
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I. THE THREE GREAT DAYS.
TO THE FRENCH.
(WRITTEN IN AUGUST, 1830.)
1
High Pharos of the Nations! HeliceOf those that navigate the unslumbering sea
Whose billows waft, through tempest and through terror,
Unto the golden shores of Liberty!
Your beacon and your star again are burning;
A guide to enterprise, a sign to error;
And those Saturnian times, anew returning,
Life's antique heart make strong and young
As Hebe's when from Air she sprung!
The Kingdoms gaze on ye, and pant for breath;
Grey Superstition trembles;
Old Tyranny is gloating on his death;
And the world's hope resembles
The dark sky's, when the free wind speaks aloud,
And constellations leap from every cloud!
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2
Ye have been hiving wisdom from the Past:Your freedom's harvest old was overcast
By showers that deluged it with freedom's blood;
But from that gory feast this afterpast
Of holy joy and temperate revel cometh;
The plenty, not repletion, of whose food
Gives to pale Liberty the health that bloometh.
Your deeds unto the kindling Nations
Shall be, as solemn inspirations
Unto the Poet's and the Prophet's heart!
Ye have erased the stains
Ye and your sires did to her cause impart;
And now alone remains
The glory of her beauty undefiled,
To shame the dotards that too long reviled.
3
Like strong Tirynthius, ye but ascendedThe burning pile your madness had upblended—
And died on Liberty's Nemæan pillow!
To rise again, with vision more extended,
And commune closely with the powers of Heaven.
Now, now, the impulse to that thundering billow
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'Tis salt upon the lips of Spain;
The Lusian drinks the glorious rain;
The Islands and the Ghost of buried Rome
Feel their locks wet withal:
Its echoes fill the everlasting dome;
And rock to rock doth call
Of living heart, with an awaken'd mirth—
'Tis ye have struck this spirit from the Earth!
4
America and England, each to other,Greet the regeneration of a brother;
For the Isle's King, as yours, is Freedom's guard!
And o'er the wave salute they one another:—
“We are our people's Chief, but not their Master;
“We rule in love, and love is our reward!”
The cement of your strength is past disaster:
The freedom ye have dearly earn'd
Shall not again be overturn'd
By democrat's blood-quaffing violence:
If Anarchy arise,
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That beams in Freedom's eyes,
With tears of gore, excite her infant strength
To stretch the writhed snake at innocuous length!
5
O, holy Battailers in that contention,Of Myriads to strike down the Few's pretension,
Which still hath been the birthdom of the world!
Ye have wrought bravely for the bright extension
Of each man's influence in his own behoof:
And Right's proud banner shall no more be furl'd
As heretofore; but underneath the roof
Of million-tinted air and heaven,
With suns and planets densely paven
Whose aspect prompteth Liberty's strong panting,
It shall wave high for ever!
Her seeds of amaranth Great Mind is planting,
With infinite endeavour,
Thick in the human heart's unfathom'd soil;
Whose blooms no solemn drones hereafter shall despoil!
6
Your triumph in this Verse be high-recorded!The tottering Despot's scabbard was unsworded,
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And some few tyrant slaves their aid afforded
To wield the weapon that must crush the striker,
Turn'd on himself by her repelling charm.
He smote: ye rose indignantly; and, liker
To storm and earthquake than to mortal
In rapid power, from her arm'd portal
Struck mail'd Oppression, with one gush of blood!
Who are the mighty now?
The Bourbon stoops, a mendicant for food!
Upon his uncrown'd brow
Sit thoughts of curses from his desolate heirs;
Whilst bitter scorn laughs loud in the supervolant airs.
7
The thunder of your great deliverance roll'dOver the hills of Fame: she heard and told,
The lightning of her spirit round her flashing,
Of feminine limbs and babes, as manhood bold,
Wearing the armour of your retribution;
The base male recreants of the earth abashing:
And stripling boyhood framing the confusion
Of rage, just bursting wrong's old border,
Into sublime, consummate order:
Of cruelty and wrath and selfishness
To depths Avernal vanish'd;
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Of Love; and Memory banish'd
From a grieved Nation's heart, save that sufficient
To sceptre Wisdom on her throne omniscient.
8
As sunbeams play above the heated shingle,The rays of Freedom glowingly did tingle
Over your shores, with swift, tremescent motion,
And in a blaze of light electric mingle!
One mighty waste of wild and writhing foam—
An agony of tempest—was your ocean:
Until its sullen barriers, overcome,
Left it to flow in gentle state;
And none could deem a storm so late
Had cleft it to its undermost foundations!
Ye have enforced the world
Into a labyrinth of contemplations;
Which soon, unintertwirl'd,
Must open to the light of human glory;
When Earth shall gaze on Life from Freedom's promontory,
9
Succeed to farms legitimate dullards mayAs long as clods are clods; but not to sway
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That fashion from the world shall die away;
And ye have set the signet to that fiat!
The lessons ye have taught old Time inherits,
To wean the Future from subjection's quiet.
As the wing'd wind unto the sea,
To Mind shall your example be;
Urging on high the waters of her splendour,
Whose tempest Love assuages;
But to whose curbed force must slow surrender
The tyranny of ages
Enrock'd around them: Despots stand aghast
In their high towers, which shake in Freedom's thunderblast!
10
A solemn voice is heard immurmurateFrom the oppressed Lands Peninsulate,
Caught from the tempest of your exultation!
The heart of Europe beats in high debate
In the full senate-house of Liberty;
And to your eloquent lip breathes confirmation
Which, pass'd some brooding years, shall burst on high!
The American hath kindled long
Pure fires upon her altars strong;
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Striking the air afar,
And view her deep eye fix'd on their dominions—
A clear, though distant, star!
That full orb from Life's World all darkness shall disperse;
Those gorgeous plumes enfold our Human Universe!
| Mundi et Cordis | |