STANZAS

ON THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO.

HEARTS of oak that have bravely deliver'd the

brave,

[grave, And uplifted old Greece from the brink of the 'Twas the helpless to help, and the hopeless to save,

That your thunderbolts swept o'er the brine: And as long as yon sun shall look down on the

wave,

The light of your glory shall shine.

For the guerdon ye sought with your bloodshed and toil,

Was it slaves, or dominion, or rapine, or spoil? No! your lofty emprise was to fetter and foil The uprooter of Greece's domain !

When he tore the last remnant of food from her soil,

Till her famish'd sank pale as the slain!

Yet, Navarin's heroes! does Christendom breed The base hearts that will question the fame of your deed?

Are they men ?-let ineffable scorn be their meed, And oblivion shadow their graves !—

Are they women?-to Turkish serails let them speed;

And be mothers of Mussulman slaves.

Abettors of massacre ! dare ye deplore

That the death-shriek is silenced on Hellas's shore? That the mother aghast sees her offspring no more By the hand of Infanticide grasp❜d!

And that stretch'd on yon billows distain'd by their gore

Missolonghi's assassins have gasp'd?

Prouder scene never hallow'd war's pomp to the mind,

Than when Christendom's pennons wooed social [bined,

the wind,

And the flower of her brave for the combat comTheir watch-word, humanity's vow: [kind Not a sea-boy that fought in that cause, but manOwes a garland to honour his brow!

Nor grudge, by our side, that to conquer or fall
Came the hardy rude Russ, and the high-mettled
Gaul:

For whose was the genius, that plann'd at its call,
Where the whirlwind of battle should roll?
All were brave! but the star of success over all
Was the light of our Codrington's soul.

That star of thy day-spring, regenerate Greek! Dimm'd the Saracen's moon, and struck pallid his

cheek:

In its fast flushing morning thy Muses shall speak When their lore and their lutes they reclaim : And the first of their songs from Parnassus's peak

Shall be "Glory to Codrington's name!"

LINES

ON REVISITING A SCOTTISH RIVER.

1828.

AND call they this Improvement!-to have

changed,

My native Clyde, thy once romantic shore,
Where Nature's face is banish'd and estranged,
And heaven reflected in thy wave no more;
Whose banks, that sweeten'd May-day's breath
before,

Lie sere and leafless now in summer's beam,
With sooty exhalations cover'd o'er;

And for the daisied green-sward, down thy stream
Unsightly brick lanes smoke, and clanking engines

gleam.

Speak not to me of swarms the scene sustains;
One heart free tasting Nature's breath and bloom
Is worth a thousand slaves to Mammon's gains.
But whither goes that wealth, and gladdening
whom?

See, left but life enough and breathing-room
The hunger and the hope of life to feel,
Yon pale Mechanic bending o'er his loom,
And Childhood's self as at Ixion's wheel,
From morn till midnight task'd to earn its little
meal.

Is this Improvement?-where the human breed
Degenerate as they swarm and overflow,
Till Toil grows cheaper than the trodden weed,
And man competes with man, like foe with foe,
Till Death, that thins them, scarce seems public
woe?

Improvement smiles it in the poor man's eyes,
Or blooms it on the cheek of Labour?-No-
To gorge a few with Trade's precarious prize,
We banish rural life, and breathe unwholesome
skies.

Nor call that evil slight; God has not given
This passion to the heart of man in vain,
For Earth's green face, th' untainted air of Heaven,
And all the bliss of Nature's rustic reign.
For not alone our frame imbibes a stain

From fœtid skies; the spirit's healthy pride

Fades in their gloom-And therefore I complain, That thou no more through pastoral scenes shouldst glide,

My Wallace's own stream, and once romantic Clyde !

THE "NAME UNKNOWN." I

IN IMITATION OF KLOPSTOCK.

1827.

PROPHETIC pencil! wilt thou trace

A faithful image of the face,

Or wilt thou write the "Name Unknown," Ordain'd to bless my charmed soul,

And all my future fate control,
Unrivall'd and alone?

Delicious Idol of my thought!

Though sylph or spirit hath not taught
My boding heart thy precious name;

Yet musing on my distant fate,

To charms unseen I consecrate
A visionary flame.

[1 These lines were written in Germany.]