FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41  
42   43   >>  
andsires fell; Childhood attentive hears the tragic tale; And learns to shudder at the name of War. GUNPOWDER! let the Soldier's Pean rise, Where e'er thy name or thundering voice is heard: Let him who, fated to the needful trade, Deals out the adventitious shafts of Death, Rejoice in thee; and hail with loudest shouts The auspicious era when deep-searching Art From out the hidden things in Nature's store Cull'd thy tremendous powers, and tutor'd Man To chain the unruly element of Fire At his controul, to wait his potent touch: To urge his missile bolts of sudden Death, And thunder terribly his vengeful wrath. Thy mighty engines and gigantic towers With frowning aspect awe the trembling World. Destruction, bursting from thy sudden blaze Hath taught the Birds to tremble at the sound; And Man himself, thy terror's boasted lord, Within the blacken'd hollow of thy tube, Affrighted sees the darksome shades of Death. Not only mourning groves, but human tears, The weeping Widow's tears, the Orphan's cries, Sadly deplore that e'er thy powers were known. Yet let thy Advent be the Soldier's song, No longer doom'd to grapple with the Foe With Teeth and Nails--When close in view, and in Each-other's grasp, to grin, and hack, and stab; Then tug his horrid weapon from one breast To hide it in another:--with clear hands He now expertly poizing thy bright tube, At distance kills, unknowing and unknown; Sees not the wound he gives, nor hears the shriek Of him whose breast he pierces.... GUNPOWDER! (O! let Humanity rejoice) how much The Soldier's fearful work is humaniz'd, Since thy momentous birth--stupendous power. In Britain, where the hills and fertile plains, Like her historic page, are overspread With vestiges of War, the Shepherd Boy Climbs the green hillock to survey his flock; Then sweetly sleeps upon his favourite hill, Not conscious that his bed's a Warrior's Tomb. The ancient Mansions, deeply moated round, Where, in the iron Age of Chivalry, Redoubted Barons wag'd their little Wars; The strong Entrenchments and enormous Mounds, Rais'd to oppose the fierce, perfidious Danes; And still more ancient traces that remain Of Dykes and Camps, from the far distant date When minstrel Druids wak'd the soul of War, And rous'd to arms old Albion's hardy sons, To stem the tide of Roman Tyranny: ... War's footsteps, thus imprinted on the ground, Shew that in Britain he, from age to age, Has rear'd his horrid head, a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41  
42   43   >>  



Top keywords:

Soldier

 
ancient
 
Britain
 

sudden

 
horrid
 
powers
 
GUNPOWDER
 

breast

 

fertile

 

Climbs


hillock
 

survey

 

Shepherd

 

vestiges

 
historic
 
overspread
 

plains

 

shriek

 

unknown

 
unknowing

expertly
 

poizing

 

bright

 

distance

 
fearful
 

humaniz

 

momentous

 
pierces
 

Humanity

 
rejoice

stupendous
 

Druids

 

minstrel

 

remain

 

traces

 
distant
 

Albion

 

ground

 

imprinted

 
footsteps

Tyranny

 

deeply

 

Mansions

 

moated

 
Warrior
 

sleeps

 

favourite

 
conscious
 

Chivalry

 

Redoubted