Of Plato's genius, from its lofty sphere,
Fell round him in the grove of Academe,
Softening their inbred dignity austere
That he, not too elate

With self-sufficing solitude,

But with majestic lowliness endued,
Might in the universal bosom reign,
And from affectionate observance gain
Help, under every change of adverse fate.

II.

Five thousand warriors, -O the rapturous day!

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Each crowned with flowers, and armed with spear and shield,

Or ruder weapon which their course might yield,

To Syracuse advance in bright array.

Who leads them on? The anxious people see
Long-exiled Dion marching at their head,
He also crowned with flowers of Sicily,
And in a white, far-beaming corslet clad!
Pure transport undisturbed by doubt or fear
The gazers feel; and rushing to the plain,
Salute those strangers as a holy train
Or blest procession (to the Immortals dear)
That brought their precious liberty again.

Lo! when the gates are entered, on each hand,
Down the long street, rich goblets filled with wine
In seemly order stand,

On tables set, as if for rites divine;

And as the great Deliverer marches by,

He looks on festal ground with fruits bestrown; And flowers are on his person thrown

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In boundless prodigality;

Nor doth the general voice abstain from prayer,
Invoking Dion's tutelary care,

As if a very Deity he were !

III.

Mourn, hills and groves of Attica! and mourn
Ilissus, bending o'er thy classic urn!

Mourn, and lament for him whose spirit dreads

Your once sweet memory, studious walks and shades!
For him who to divinity aspired,

Not on the breath of popular applause,

But through dependence on the sacred laws.

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Framed in the schools where Wisdom dwells retired,
Intent to trace the ideal path of right

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(More fair than heaven's broad causeway paved with stars) Which Dion learned to measure with sublime delight;

But He hath overleaped the eternal bars ;

And following guides whose craft holds no consent

With aught that breathes the ethereal element,
Hath stained the robes of civil power with blood,

Unjustly shed, though for the public good.

Whence doubts that came too late, and wishes vain,
Hollow excuses, and triumphant pain;

And oft his cogitations sink as low

As, through the abysses of a joyless heart,

The heaviest plummet of despair can go.

But whence that sudden check? that fearful start?

He hears an uncouth sound,

Anon his lifted eyes

Saw, at a long-drawn gallery's dusky bound,

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A Shape of more than mortal size

And hideous aspect, stalking round and round.
A woman's garb the Phantom wore,

And fiercely swept the marble floor, -
Like Auster whirling to and fro,

His force on Caspian foam to try;
Or Boreas when he scours the snow
That skins the plains of Thessaly,
Or when aloft on Mænalus he stops
His flight, 'mid eddying pine-tree tops!

IV.

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So, but from toil less sign of profit reaping,
The sullen Spectre to her purpose bowed,
Sweeping vehemently sweeping,

No pause admitted, no design avowed! "Avaunt, inexplicable Guest!-avaunt,"

Exclaimed the Chieftain, "let me rather see

The coronal that coiling vipers make;

The torch that flames with many a lurid flake,
And the long train of doleful pageantry

Which they behold whom vengeful Furies haunt;
Who, while they struggle from the scourge to flee,

Move where the blasted soil is not unworn,

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And, in their anguish, bear what other minds have borne !"

V.

But Shapes that come not at an earthly call
Will not depart when mortal voices bid;
Lords of the visionary eye whose lid,

Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall!
Ye Gods, thought He, that servile Implement

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Obeys a mystical intent!

Your Minister would brush away

The spots that to my soul adhere;

But should she labor night and day,
They will not, cannot disappear;

Whence angry perturbations, — and that look
Which no Philosophy can brook!

VI.

Ill-fated Chief! there are whose hopes are built
Upon the ruins of thy glorious name;

Who, through the portal of one moment's guilt,
Pursue thee with their deadly aim !

O matchless perfidy! portentous lust

Of monstrous crime ! that horror-striking blade,
Drawn in defiance of the Gods, hath laid
The noble Syracusan low in dust!

Shuddered the walls the marble city wept -
And sylvan places heaved a pensive sigh;
But in calm peace the appointed Victim slept,
As he had fallen in magnanimity;

Of spirit too capacious to require

That Destiny her course should change; too just
To his own native greatness to desire

That wretched boon, days lengthened by mistrust.
So were the hopeless troubles, that involved
The soul of Dion, instantly dissolved.

Released from life and cares of princely state,
He left this moral grafted on his Fate:
"Him only pleasure leads, and peace attends,
Him, only him, the shield of Jove defends,
Whose means are fair and spotless as his ends."

COMPOSED AT CORA LINN,

IN SIGHT OF WALLACE'S TOWER.

1814. — 1820.

LORD of the vale! astounding Flood;
The dullest leaf in this thick wood
Quakes conscious of thy power;
The caves reply with hollow moan;
And vibrates, to its central stone,
Yon time-cemented Tower!

And yet how fair the rural scene !
For thou, O Clyde, hast ever been
Beneficent as strong;

Pleased in refreshing dews to steep
The little trembling flowers that peep
Thy shelving rocks among.

Hence all who love their country, love
To look on thee, - delight to rove
Where they thy voice can hear;
And, to the patriot-warrior's Shade,
Lord of the vale! to Heroes laid
In dust, that voice is dear!

Along thy banks, at dead of night
Sweeps visibly the Wallace Wight;
Or stands, in warlike vest,

Aloft, beneath the moon's pale beam,

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