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XXVII.

'Oh! still unblamed may fancy fondly deem That, lingering yet, benignant genii dwell Where mortal worth has hallow'd grove or

stream,

To sway the heart with some ennobling spell; For mightiest minds have felt their blest control In the wood's murmur, in the zephyr's sigh, And these are dreams that lend a voice and soul, And a high power, to Nature's majesty ! And who can rove o'er Grecian shores, nor feel, Soft o'er his inmost heart, their secret magic steal?

XXVIII.

Yet many a sad reality is there,

That Fancy's bright illusions cannot veil.
Pure laughs the light, and balmy breathes the air,
But Slavery's mien will tell its bitter tale;
And there, not Peace, but Desolation, throws
Delusive quiet o'er full many a scene-
Deep as the brooding torpor of repose

That follows where the earthquake's track hath been;

Or solemn calm on Ocean's breast that lies, When sinks the storm, and death has hush'd the seamen's cries.

XXIX.

Hast thou beheld some sovereign spirit, hurl'd By Fate's rude tempest from its radiant sphere, Doom'd to resign the homage of a world, For Pity's deepest sigh and saddest tear? Oh! hast thou watch'd the awful wreck of mind That weareth still a glory in decay? Seen all that dazzles and delights mankindThought, science, genius-to the storm a prey; And o'er the blasted tree, the wither'd ground, Despair's wild nightshade spread, and darkly flourish round?

XXX.

So mayst thou gaze, in sad and awe-struck thought,

On the deep fall of that yet lovely clime : Such there the ruin Time and Fate have wrought, So changed the bright, the splendid, the sublime. There the proud monuments of Valour's name, The mighty works Ambition piled on high, The rich remains by Art bequeath'd to FameGrace, beauty, grandeur, strength, and symmetry, Blend in decay; while all that yet is fair Seems only spared to tell how much hath perish'd there!

XXXI.

There, while around lie mingling in the dust The column's graceful shaft, with weeds o'er

grown,

The mouldering torso, the forgotten bust. The warrior's urn, the altar's mossy stoneAmidst the loneliness of shatter'd fanes, Still matchless monuments of other yearsO'er cypress groves or solitary plains, Its eastern form the minaret proudly rears: As on some captive city's ruin'd wall The victor's banner waves, exulting o'er its fall.

XXXII.

Still, where that column of the mosque aspires, Landmark of slavery, towering o'er the waste, There science droops, the Muses hush their lyres And o'er the blooms of fancy and of taste Spreads the chill blight;-as in that orient isle Where the dark upas taints the gale around,' Within its precincts not a flower may smile, Nor dew nor sunshine fertilise the ground; Nor wild birds' music float on zephyr's breath, But all is silence round, and solitude, and death.

XXXIII.

Far other influence pour'd the Crescent's light O'er conquer'd realms, in ages pass'd away; Full and alone it beam'd, intensely bright, While distant climes in midnight darkness lay. Then rose th' Alhambra, with its founts and shades,

Fair marble halls, alcoves, and orange bowers: Its sculptured lions, richly wrought arcades, Aerial pillars, and enchanted towers; Light, splendid, wild, as some Arabian tale Would picture fairy domes that fleet before the gale.

XXXIV.

Then foster'd genius lent each caliph's throne Lustre barbaric pomp could ne'er attain ;

1 For the accounts of the upas or poison tree of Java, now generally believed to be fabulous, or greatly exaggerated, set

the notes to DARWIN'S Botanic Garden.

2 "The court most to be admired of the Alhambra is that called the court of the Lions; it is ornamented with sixty elegant pillars of an architecture which bears not the least resemblance to any of the known orders, and might be called But its principal ornament, six and that from which it took its name, is an alabaster cup, feet in diameter, supported by twelve lions, which is said to have been made in imitation of the Brazen Sea of Solomon's temple."-BURGOANNE'S Travels in Spain.

the Arabian order.

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And stars unnumber'd o'er the orient shone, Bright as that Pleïad, sphered in Mecca's fane.1 From Bagdat's palaces the choral strains Rose and re-echoed to the desert's bound, And Science, woo'd on Egypt's burning plains, Rear'd her majestic head with glory crown'd; And the wild Muses breathed romantic lore From Syria's palmy groves to Andalusia's shore.

XXXV.

Those years have past in radiance—they have past,

As sinks the daystar in the tropic main;
His parting beams no soft reflection cast,
They burn-are quench'd—and deepest shadows
reign.

And Fame and Science have not left a trace
In the vast regions of the Moslem's power,-
Regions, to intellect a desert space,

A wild without a fountain or a flower,

Where towers Oppression midst the deepening glooms,

As dark and lone ascends the cypress midst the tombs.

XXXVI.

Alas for thee, fair Greece! when Asia pour'd Her fierce fanatics to Byzantium's wall; When Europe sheath'd, in apathy, her sword, And heard unmoved the fated city's call. No bold crusaders ranged their serried line Of spears and banners round a falling throne; And thou, O last and noblest Constantine ! 2 Didst meet the storm unshrinking and alone. Oh! blest to die in freedom, though in vainThine empire's proud exchange the grave, and

not the chain !

XXXVII.

Hush'd is Byzantium-'tis the dead of night—
The closing night of that imperial race !3
And all is vigil-but the eye of light
Shall soon unfold, a wilder scene to trace:

1 "Sept des plus fameux parmi les anciens poëtes Arahiques sont désignés par les écrivains orientaux sous le nom de Pleiade Arabique, et leurs ouvrages étaient suspendus autour de la Caaba, ou Mosque de la Mecque."-SISMONDI, Littérature du Midi.

"The distress and fall of the last Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine Cæsars."— GIBBON'S Decline and Fall, &c. vol. xii. p. 226.

* See the description of the night previous to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II.-GIBBON's Decline and Fall, ke. vol. xii. p. 225.

There is a murmuring stillness on the train Thronging the midnight streets, at morn to die; And to the cross, in fair Sophia's fane, For the last time is raised Devotion's eye; And, in his heart while faith's bright visions rise, There kneels the high-soul'd prince, the summon'd of the skies.

XXXVIII.

Day breaks in light and glory-'tis the hour Of conflict and of fate-the war-note callsDespair hath lent a stern, delirious power To the brave few that guard the rampart walls. Far over Marmora's waves th' artillery's peal Proclaims an empire's doom in every note; Tambour and trumpet swell the clash of steel; Round spire and dome the clouds of battle float, From camp and wave rush on the Crescent's host, And the Seven Towers are scaled, and all is won and lost.

XXXIX.

Then, Greece! the tempest rose that burst on thee, Land of the bard, the warrior, and the sage ! Oh! where were then thy sons, the great, the free, Whose deeds are guiding stars from age to age? Though firm thy battlements of crags and snows, And bright the memory of thy days of pride, In mountain might though Corinth's fortressrose, On, unresisted, roll'd th' invading tide!

Oh! vain the rock, the rampart, and the tower, If Freedom guard them not with Mind's unconquer'd power.

XL.

Where were th' avengers then, whose viewless might

Preserved inviolate their awful fane,"

When through the steep defiles, to Delphi's height,

In martial splendour pour'd the Persian's train? Then did those mighty and mysterious Powers, Arm'd with the elements, to vengeance wake, Call the dread storms to darken round their towers,

Hurl down the rocks, and bid the thunders break;

4 "This building (the Castle of the Seven Towers) is mentioned as early as the sixth century of the Christian era, as a spot which contributed to the defence of Constantinople; and it was the principal bulwark of the town on the coast of the Propontis, in the last periods of the empire."-POUQUEVILLE'S Travels in the Morea.

5 See the account from Herodotus of the supernatural defence of Delphi.-MITFORD'S Greece, vol. i. p. 396-7.

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1 "In succeeding ages the Athenians honoured Theseus as a demigod, induced to it as well by other reasons as because, when they were fighting the Medes at Marathon, a considerable part of the army thought they saw the apparition of Theseus completely armed, and bearing down before them upon the barbarians."-LANGHORNE's Plutarch, Life of Theseus.

2 "From Thermopyla to Sparta, the leader of the Goths (Alaric) pursued his victorious march without encountering any mortal antagonist; but one of the advocates of expiring paganism has confidently asserted that the walls of Athens ⚫ were guarded by the goddess Minerva, with her formidable ægis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles, and that the conqueror was dismayed by the presence of the hostile deities of Greece."-GIBBON'S Decline and Fall, &c. vol. v. p. 183. "Even all the chief ones of the earth."-ISAIAH, XIV. 4 "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!"-SAMUEL, book ii. chap. i.

XLIV.

Yet, where some lone sepulchral relic stands, That with those names tradition hallows yet, Oft shall the wandering son of other lands Linger in solemn thought and hush'd regret. And still have legends mark'd the lonely spot Where low the dust of Agamemnon lies; And shades of kings and leaders unforgot, Hovering around, to fancy's vision rise. Souls of the heroes! seek your rest again, Nor mark how changed the realms that saw your glory's reign.

XLV.

Lo, where th' Albanian spreads his despot sway O'er Thessaly's rich vales and glowing plains, Whose sons in sullen abjectness obey, Nor lift the hand indignant at its chains: Oh! doth the land that gave Achilles birth, And many a chief of old illustrious line, Yield not one spirit of unconquer'd worth To kindle those that now in bondage pine? No! on its mountain-air is slavery's breath, And terror chills the hearts whose utter'd plaints were death.

XLVI.

Yet if thy light, fair Freedom, rested there, How rich in charms were that romantic clime, With streams, and woods, and pastoral valleys fair,

And wall'd with mountains, haughtily sublime! Heights that might well be deem'd the Muses'

reign,

Since, claiming proud alliance with the skies, They lose in loftier spheres their wild domainMeet home for those retired divinities That love, where nought of earth may e'er intrude, Brightly to dwell on high, in lonely sanctitude,

XLVII.

There in rude grandeur daringly ascends
Stern Pindus, rearing many a pine-clad height;
He with the clouds his bleak dominion blends,
Frowning o'er vales in woodland verdure bright.
Wild and august in consecrated pride,
There through the deep-blue heaven Olympus
towers,

Girdled with mists, light-floating as to hide
The rock-built palace of immortal powers;

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Yet bright on earth their fame who proudly fell, True to their shields, the champions of thy cause,

Whose funeral column bade the stranger tell How died the brave, obedient to thy laws !1 O lofty mother of heroic worth,

How couldst thou live to bring a meaner offspring forth?

LVI.

Hadst thou but perish'd with the free, nor known A second race, when glory's noon went by, Then had thy name in single brightness shone A watchword on the helm of liberty!

Thou shouldst have pass'd with all the light of fame,

And proudly sunk in ruins, not in chains.

But slowly set thy star midst clouds of shame, And tyrants rose amidst thy falling fanes; And thou, surrounded by thy warriors' graves, Hast drain'd the bitter cup once mingled for thy slaves.

LVII.

Now all is o'er-for thee alike are flown Freedom's bright noon and slavery's twilight cloud;

And in thy fall, as in thy pride, alone,
Deep solitude is round thee as a shroud.
Home of Leonidas! thy halls are low;
From their cold altars have thy Lares fled;
O'er thee, unmark'd, the sunbeams fade or
glow,

And wild-flowers wave, unbent by human tread; And midst thy silence, as the grave's profound, A voice, a step, would seem as some unearthly sound.

LVIII.

Taygetus still lifts his awful brow

High o'er the mouldering city of the dead,
Sternly sublime; while o'er his robe of snow
Heaven's floating tints their warm suffusions
spread.

And yet his rippling wave Eurotas leads
By tombs and ruins o'er the silent plain;
While, whispering there, his own wild graceful
reeds

Rise as of old, when hail'd by classic strain;

1 The inscription composed by Simonides for the Spartan monument in the pass of Thermopyla has been thus translated :-"Stranger, go tell the Lacedemonians that we have obeyed their laws, and that we lie here."

There the rose-laurels still in beauty wave, And a frail shrub survives to bloom o'er Sparta' grave.

LIX.

Oh, thus it is with man! A tree, a flower, While nations perish, still renews its race, And o'er the fallen records of his power Spreads in wild pomp, or smiles in fairy grace. The laurel shoots when those have pass'd away, Once rivals for its crown, the brave, the free; The rose is flourishing o'er beauty's clay, The myrtle blows when love hath ceased to be; Green waves the bay when song and bard are fled, And all that round us blooms is blooming o'er the dead.

LX.

And still the olive spreads its foliage round
Morea's fallen sanctuaries and towers.
Once its green boughs Minerva's votaries
crown'd,

Deem'd a meet offering for celestial powers.
The suppliant's hand its holy branches bore;3
They waved around the Olympic victor's head;
And, sanctified by many a rite of yore,

Its leaves the Spartan's honour'd bier o'erspread. Those rites have vanish'd-but o'er vale and hill Its fruitful groves arise, revered and hallow'd still."

LXI.

Where now thy shrines, Eleusis! where thy fane
Of fearful visions, mysteries wild and high?
The pomp of rites, the sacrificial train,
The long procession's awful pageantry?
Quench'd is the torch of Ceres—all around
Decay hath spread the stillness of her reign;
There never more shall choral hymns resound
O'er the hush'd earth and solitary main,

2 In the Eurotas I observed abundance of those famous reeds which were known in the earliest ages; and all the rivers and marshes of Greece are replete with rose-laurels, while the springs and rivulets are covered with lilies, tuberoses, hyacinths, and narcissus orientalis."-POUQUEVILLE'S Travels in the Morea.

3 It was usual for suppliants to carry an olive branch bound with wool.

4 The olive, according to Pouqueville, is still regarded with veneration by the people of the Morea.

5 It was customary at Eleusis, on the fifth day of the festival, for men and women to run about with torches in their hands, and also to dedicate torches to Ceres, and to contend who should present the largest. This was done in memory of the journey of Ceres in search of Proserpine, during which she was lighted by a torch kindled in the flames of Etna.-PORTER's Antiquities of Greece, vol. i. p. 392.

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