A winged Goddess, clothed in vesture wrought Of rainbow colours; One whose port was bold, Whose overburthened hand could scarcely hold The glittering crowns and garlands which it brought...
Jesu! bless our slender Boat, By the current swept along; Loud its threatenings, let them not Drown the music of a song Breathed thy mercy to implore, Where these troubled waters roar! ...
What lovelier home could gentle Fancy choose? Is this the stream, whose cities, heights, and plains, War's favourite playground, are with crimson stains Familiar, as the Morn with pearly dews?...
Was it to disenchant, and to undo, That we approached the Seat of Charlemaine? To sweep from many an old romantic strain That faith which no devotion may renew! Why does this puny Church present to view...
Amid this dance of objects sadness steals O'er the defrauded heart while sweeping by, As in a fit of Thespian jollity, Beneath her vine-leaf crown the green Earth reels:...
O for the help of Angels to complete This Temple, Angels governed by a plan Thus far pursued (how gloriously!) by Man, Studious that He might not disdain the seat Who dwells in heaven! But that aspiring heat...
From the fierce aspect of this River, throwing His giant body o'er the steep rock's brink, Back in astonishment and fear we shrink: But, gradually a calmer look bestowing,...
Uttered by whom, or how inspired designed For what strange service, does this concert reach Our ears, and near the dwellings of mankind! 'Mid fields familiarized to human speech?...
Doomed as we are our native dust To wet with many a bitter shower, It ill befits us to disdain The altar, to deride the fane, Where simple Sufferers bend, in trust To win a happier hour. ...
Not, like his great Compeers, indignantly Doth Danube spring to life! The wandering Stream (Who loves the Cross, yet to the Crescent's gleam Unfolds a willing breast) with infant glee...
O life! without thy chequered scene Of right and wrong, of weal and woe, Success and failure, could a ground For magnanimity be found; For faith, 'mid ruined hopes, serene? Or whence could virtue flow?...
For gentlest uses, oft-times Nature takes The work of Fancy from her willing hands; And such a beautiful creation makes As renders needless spells and magic wands, And for the boldest tale belief commands....
Meek Virgin Mother, more benign Than fairest Star, upon the height Of thy own mountain, set to keep Lone vigils through the hours of sleep, What eye can look upon thy shrine Untroubled at the sight?...
"What know we of the Blest above But that they sing and that they love?" Yet, if they ever did inspire A mortal hymn, or shaped the choir, Now, where those harvest Damsels float...
Dread hour! when, upheaved by war's sulphurous blast, This sweet-visaged Cherub of Parian stone So far from the holy enclosure was cast, To couch in this thicket of brambles alone, ...
I listen, but no faculty of mine Avails those modulations to detect, Which, heard in foreign lands, the Swiss affect With tenderest passion; leaving him to pine...
Now that the farewell tear is dried, Heaven prosper thee, be hope thy guide Hope be thy guide, adventurous Boy; The wages of thy travel, joy! Whether for London bound, to trill...