Classic Poem

VI.

She told why rulers were assign'd,
And salutary laws ordain'd;
What fit restrictions these confin'd;
How those wild anarchy restrain'd.
She spoke with extacy impell'd:
Along the banks of foaming Scheld
The peaceful Fleming, arm'd for fight,
Bade a capricious prince, with shame,
His inconsistent schemes disclaim,
No, hope the brave will yield their well attested right.

VII.

Sprung from a race of tyrants, see
The monarch of the Gallick shores
A captive, and his people free!
He now the policy deplores,
Which hail'd him unrestricted Lord,
And bade him with despotic sword
To spread proud empire's purple pall;
Regardless of the nobler art,
Which, while it subjugates the heart,
Deals with benignant hand felicity to all.

VIII.

Thy present aims, fair France! pursue,
With glory's palm thy brows enwreath;
No more let luxury subdue;
No more let levity deceive.
Will not the lustre of thy reign
Revive the wonted worth of Spain?
She aw'd the Roman and the Moor.
Let god-like Africanus tell,
Speak ye who at Grenada sell,
If the Iberian mind should slavery endure.

IX.

Lo! Prejudice, who vainly strove,
By time, to fortify her lyes,
From all her dark recesses drove,
Before the sun of Freedom flies:
Bright in the Western world it beams,
And shall the orient lack its gleams?
There did its ancient lustre shine
Where sleeps the manly Spartan soul;
See haughty Athens brook controul;
See enterprizing Thebes her dear-bought rights resign.

X.

In vain luxuriant Asia boasts
Of Nature's gifts on her conferr'd:
Alas, along her beauteous coasts
Are slavery's clanking fetters heard.
In silent pomp, in barb'rous state,
There Desolation stalks elate
O'er regions wasted by his spear;
The abject mind, with servile awe,
Submits to each new master's law,
And pays with cringing dread the rites of heartless fear.