Classic Poem

Hail , venerable relics, that present
The memory of Desmond's forfeit claim
To honours towering as the mind could frame,
Ere Treason, the polluted Fiend, had sent
Her flaming torch, and cruel Discord rent
Asunder all the pageants of a name,
Unrival'd in achievement. Raleigh's fame
Upon thy ramparts next her banners lent,
The meteor of a day, whom Spanish fraud
In vengeance from the World (his country) tore.
But prouder hail, that Error's gloomy night
Here fled, and Science threw her beams abroad
At his illustrious birth, whose key the door
Of Nature open'd on the wondering sight.