Classic Poem

I.

Daughter of Hell, insatiate power!
Destroyer of the human race,
Whose iron scourge and madd'ning hour
Exalt the bad, the good debase;
Thy mystic force, despotic sway,
Courage and innocence dismay,
And Patriot Monarchs vainly groan
With pangs unfelt before, unpitied, and alone!

II.

When first to scourge the sons of earth,
Thy Sire his darling Child design'd,
Gallia recerved the monstrous birth —
Voltaire inform'd thy infant mind:
Well-chosen nurse! his sophist lore
He bade thee many a year explore!
He mark'd thy progress, firm though slow,
And statesmen, princes, leagued with their invet'rate foe.

III.

Scared at thy frown terrific, fly
The morals (antiquated brood)
Domestic Virtue, Social Joy,
And Faith, that has for ages stood;
Swift they disperse, and with them go
The Friend sincere, the generous Foe. —
Traitors to God and Man avow'd,
By thee, now raised aloft, now crush'd beneath the crowd.

IV.

Revenge, in blood-stain'd robe array'd,
Immersed in gloomy joy profound:
Ingratitude, by guilt dismay'd,
With anxious eye wild glancing round,
Still on thy frantic steps attend:
With Death, thy victim's only friend,
Injustice, to the truth severe,
And Anguish, dropping still the life-consuming tear.

V.

Oh! swiftly on my Country's head,
Destroyer, lay thy ruthless hand;
Not yet in Gallic terrors clad,
Nor circled by the Marseilles Band ,
(As by the mitiate thou art seen)
With thund'ring cannon, Guillotine ,
With screaming horrors funeral cry,
Fire, rapine, sword, and chains, and ghastly Poverty.

VI.

Thy sophist veil, dread Goddess, wear,
Falsehood insidiously impart;
Thy philosophic train be there,
To taint the mind, corrupt the heart;
The generous Virtues of our Isle,
Teach us to hate and to revile;
Our glorious Charter's faults to scan,
Time-sanction'd Truths despise, and preach THE R IGHTS OF M AN .