The Columbiad: A Poem Part 17

Thus thro extremes of life, in every state, s.h.i.+nes the clear soul, beyond all fortune great; While smaller minds, the dupes of fickle chance, Slight woes o'erwhelm and sudden joys entrance.

So the full sun, thro all the changing sky, Nor blasts nor overpowers the naked eye; Tho transient splendors, borrowed from his light, Glance on the mirror and destroy the sight.

He bids brave Lincoln guide with modest air The last glad triumph of the finish'd war; Who sees, once more, two armies shade one plain, The mighty victors and the captive train.

Book VIII.

Argument.

Hymn to Peace. Eulogy on the heroes slain in the war; in which the Author finds occasion to mention his Brother. Address to the patriots who have survived the conflict; exhorting them to preserve liberty they have established. The danger of losing it by inattention ill.u.s.trated in the rape of the Golden Fleece. Freedom succeeding to Despotism in the moral world, like Order succeeding to Chaos in the physical world. Atlas, the guardian Genius of Africa, denounces to Hesper the crimes of his people in the slavery of the Afripans. The Author addresses his countrymen on that subject, and on the principles of their government.

Hesper, recurring to his object of showing Columbus the importance of his discoveries, reverses the order of time, and exhibits the continent again in its savage state. He then displays the progress of arts in America. Fur-trade. Fisheries. Productions. Commerce. Education.

Philosophical discoveries. Painting. Poetry.

Hail, holy Peace, from thy sublime abode Mid circling saints that grace the throne of G.o.d!

Before his arm around our embryon earth Stretch'd the dim void, and gave to nature birth.

Ere morning stars his glowing chambers hung, Or songs of gladness woke an angel's tongue, Veil'd in the splendors of his beamful mind, In blest repose thy placid form reclined, Lived in his life, his inward sapience caught, And traced and toned his universe of thought.

Borne thro the expanse with his creating voice Thy presence bade the unfolding worlds rejoice, Led forth the systems on their bright career, Shaped all their curves and fas.h.i.+on'd every sphere, s.p.a.ced out their suns, and round each radiant goal, Orb over orb, compell'd their train to roll, Bade heaven's own harmony their force combine.

Taught all their host symphonious strains to join, Gave to seraphic harps their sounding lays, Their joys to angels, and to men their praise.

From scenes of blood, these verdant sh.o.r.es that stain, From numerous friends in recent battle slain, From blazing towns that scorch the purple sky, From houseless hordes their smoking walls that fly, From the black prison s.h.i.+ps, those groaning graves, From warring fleets that vex the gory waves, From a storm'd world, long taught thy flight to mourn, I rise, delightful Peace, and greet thy glad return.

For now the untuneful trump shall grate no more; Ye silver streams, no longer swell with gore, Bear from your war-beat banks the guilty stain With yon retiring navies to the main.

While other views, unfolding on my eyes, And happier themes bid bolder numbers rise; Bring, bounteous Peace, in thy celestial throng.

Life to my soul, and rapture to my song; Give me to trace, with pure unclouded ray, The arts and virtues that attend thy sway, To see thy blissful charms, that here descend, Thro distant realms and endless years extend.

Too long the groans of death and battle's bray Have rung discordant thro my turgid lay: The drum's rude clang, the war wolfs hideous howl Convulsed my nerves and agonized my soul, Untuned the harp for all but misery's pains, And chased the Muse from corse-enc.u.mber'd plains.

Let memory's balm its pious fragrance shed On heroes' wounds and patriot warriors dead; Accept, departed Shades, these grateful sighs, Your fond attendants thro your homeward skies.

And thou, my earliest friend, my Brother dear, Thy fall untimely still renews my tear.

In youthful sports, in toils, in taste allied, My kind companion and my faithful guide, When death's dread summons, from our infant eyes, Had call'd our last loved parent to the skies.

Tho young in arms, and still obscure thy name, Thy bosom panted for the deeds of fame; Beneath Montgomery's eye, when by thy steel In northern wilds the frequent savage fell.

Fired by his voice, and foremost at his call, To mount the breach or scale the flamy wall, Thy daring hand had many a laurel gain'd, If years had ripen'd what thy fancy feign'd.

Lamented Youth! when thy great leader bled, Thro the same wound thy parting spirit fled, Join'd the long train, the self-devoted band, The G.o.ds, the saviors of their native land.

On fame's high pinnacle their names shall s.h.i.+ne, Unending ages greet the group divine, Whose holy hands our banners first unfurl'd, And conquer'd freedom for the grateful world.

And you, their peers, whose steel avenged their blood, Whose b.r.e.a.s.t.s with theirs our sacred rampart stood, Ill.u.s.trious relics of a thousand fields!

To you at last the foe reluctant yields.

But tho the Muse, too prodigal of praise, Dares with the dead your living worth to raise, Think not, my friends, the patriot's task is done, Or Freedom safe, because the battle's won.

Unnumber'd foes, far different arms that wield, Wait the weak moment when she quits her s.h.i.+eld, To plunge in her bold breast the insidious dart, Or pour keen poison round her thoughtless heart.

Perhaps they'll strive her votaries to divide, From their own veins to draw the vital tide; Perhaps, by cooler calculation shown, Create materials to construct a throne, Dazzle her guardians with the glare of state, Corrupt with power, with borrowed pomp inflate, Bid thro the land the soft infection creep, Whelm all her sons in one lethargic sleep, Crush her vast empire in its brilliant birth, And chase the G.o.ddess from the ravaged earth.

The Dragon thus, that watch'd the Colchian fleece, Foil'd the fierce warriors of wide-plundering Greece; Warriors of matchless might and wondrous birth, Jove's sceptred sons and demiG.o.ds of earth.

High on the sacred tree, the glittering prize Hangs o'er its guard, and tires the warriors' eyes; First their hurl'd spears his spiral folds a.s.sail, Their spears fall pointless from his flaky mail; Onward with dauntless swords they plunge amain; He shuns their blows, recoils his twisting train, Darts forth his forky tongue, heaves high in air His fiery crest, and sheds a hideous glare, Champs, churns his poisonous juice, and hissing loud Spouts thick the stifling tempest o'er the crowd; Then, with one sweep of convoluted train, Rolls back all Greece, and besoms wide the plain, O'erturns the sons of G.o.ds, dispersing far The pirate horde, and closes quick the war.

From his red jaws tremendous triumph roars, Dark Euxine trembles to its distant sh.o.r.es, Proud Jason starts, confounded in his might, Leads back his peers, and dares no more the fight.

But the sly Priestess brings her opiate spell, Soft charms that hush the triple hound of h.e.l.l, Bids Orpheus tune his all-enchanting lyre, And join to calm the guardian's sleepless ire.

Soon from the tepid ground blue vapors rise, And sounds melodious move along the skies; A settling tremor thro his folds extends, His crest contracts, his rainbow heck unbends, O'er all his hundred hoops the languor crawls, Each curve develops, every volute falls, His broad back flattens as he spreads the plain, And sleep consigns him to his lifeless reign.

Flusht at the sight the pirates seize the spoil, And ravaged Colchis rues the insidious toil.

Yes! fellow freemen, sons of high renown, Chant your loud peans, weave your civic crown; But know, the G.o.ddess you've so long adored, Tho now she scabbards your avenging sword, Calls you to vigil ance, to manlier cares, To prove in peace the men she proved in wars: Superior task! severer test of soul!

Tis here bold virtue plays her n.o.blest role And merits most of praise. The warrior's name, Tho peal'd and chimed on all the tongues of fame, Sounds less harmonious to the grateful mind Than his who fas.h.i.+ons and improves mankind.

And what high meed your new vocation waits!

Freedom, parturient with a hundred states, Confides them to your hand; the nascent prize Claims all your care, your soundest wisdom tries.

Ah nurture, temper, train your infant charge, Its force develop and its life enlarge, Unfold each day some adolescent grace, Some right recognise or some duty trace; Mould a fair model for the realms of earth, Call moral nature to a second birth, Reach, renovate the world's great social plan, And here commence the sober sense of man,

For lo, in other climes and elder states, What strange inversion all his works awaits!

From age to age, on every peopled sh.o.r.e, Stalks the fell Demon of despotic power, Sweeps in his march the mounds of art away.

Blots with his breath the trembling disk of day, Treads down whole nations every stride he takes, And wraps their labors in his fiery flakes.

As Anarch erst around his regions hurl'd The wrecks, long crush'd, of time's anterior world; While nature mourn'd, in wild confusion tost, Her suns extinguisht and her systems lost; Light, life and instinct shared the dreary trance, And gravitation fled the field of chance; No laws remain'd of matter, motion, s.p.a.ce; Time lost his count, the universe his place; Till Order came, in her cerulean robes, And launch'd and rein'd the renovated globes, Stock'd with harmonious worlds the vast Inane, Archt her new heaven and fixt her boundless reign: So kings convulse the moral frame, the base Of all the codes that can accord the race; And so from their broad grasp, their deadly ban, Tis yours to s.n.a.t.c.h this earth, to raise regenerateman.

My friends, I love your fame, I joy to raise The high-toned anthem of my country's praise; To sing her victories, virtues, wisdom, weal, Boast with loud voice the patriot pride I feel; Warm wild I sing; and, to her failings blind, Mislead myself, perhaps mislead mankind.

Land that I love! is this the whole we owe?

Thy pride to pamper, thy fair face to show; Dwells there no blemish where such glories s.h.i.+ne?

And lurks no spot in that bright sun of thine?

Hark! a dread voice, with heaven-astounding strain, Swells Wee a thousand thunders o'er the main, Rolls and reverberates around thy hills, And Hesper's heart with pangs paternal fills.

Thou hearst him not; tis Atlas, throned sublime.

Great brother guardian of old Afric's clime; High o'er his coast he rears his frowning form, Overlooks and calms his sky-borne fields of storm, Flings off the clouds that round his shoulders hung, And breaks from clogs of ice his trembling tongue; While far thro s.p.a.ce with rage and grief he glares, Heaves his h.o.a.r head and shakes the heaven he bears: --Son of my sire! O latest brightest birth That sprang from his fair spouse, prolific earth!

Great Hesper, say what sordid ceaseless hate Impels thee thus to mar my elder state.

Our sire a.s.sign'd thee thy more glorious reign, Secured and bounded by our laboring main; That main (tho still my birthright name it bear) Thy sails o'ershadow, thy brave children share; I grant it thus; while air surrounds the ball, Let breezes blow, let oceans roll for all.

But thy proud sons, a strange ungenerous race, Enslave my tribes, and each fair world disgrace, Provoke wide vengeance on their lawless land, The bolt ill placed in thy forbearing hand.-- Enslave my tribes! then boast their cantons free, Preach faith and justice, bend the sainted knee, Invite all men their liberty to share, Seek public peace, defy the a.s.saults of war, Plant, reap, consume, enjoy their fearless toil, Tame their wild floods, to fatten still their soil, Enrich all nations with their nurturing store, And rake with venturous fluke each wondering sh.o.r.e.--

Enslave my tribes! what, half mankind imban, Then read, expound, enforce the rights of man!

Prove plain and clear how nature's hand of old Cast all men equal in her human mould!

Their fibres, feelings, reasoning powers the same, Like wants await them, like desires inflame.

Thro former times with learned book they tread, Revise past ages and rejudge the dead, Write, speak, avenge, for ancient sufferings feel, Impale each tyrant on their pens of steel, Declare how freemen can a world create, And slaves and masters ruin every state.-- Enslave my tribes! and think, with dumb disdain, To scape this arm and prove my vengeance vain!

But look! methinks beneath my foot I ken A few chain'd things that seem no longer men; Thy sons perchance! whom Barbary's coast can tell The sweets of that loved scourge they wield so well.

Link'd in a line, beneath the driver's goad, See how they stagger with their lifted load; The shoulder'd rock, just wrencht from off my hill And wet with drops their straining orbs distil, Galls, grinds them sore, along the rarnpart led, And the chain clanking counts the steps they tread.

By night close bolted in the bagnio's gloom, Think how they ponder on their dreadful doom, Recal the tender sire, the weeping bride, The home, far sunder'd by a waste of tide, Brood all the ties that once endear'd them there, But now, strung stronger, edge their keen despair.

Till here a fouler fiend arrests their pace: Plague, with his burning breath and bloated face, With saffron eyes that thro the dungeon s.h.i.+ne, And the black tumors bursting from the groin, Stalks o'er the slave; who, cowering on the sod, Shrinks from the Demon and invokes his G.o.d, Sucks hot contagion with his quivering breath, And, rack'd with rending torture, sinks in death.

Nor shall these pangs atone the nation's crime; Far heavier vengeance, in the march of time, Attends them still; if still they dare debase And hold inthrall'd the millions of my race; A vengeance that shall shake the world's deep frame, That heaven abhors, and h.e.l.l might shrink to name.

Nature, long outraged, delves the crusted sphere, And moulds the mining mischief dark and drear; Europa too the penal shock shall find, The rude soul-selling monsters of mankind:

Where Alps and Andes at their bases meet, In earth's mid caves to lock their granite feet, Heave their broad spines, expand each breathing lobe, And with their ma.s.sy members rib the globe, Her cauldron'd floods of fire their blast prepare; Her wallowing womb of subterranean war Waits but the fissure that my wave shall find, To force the foldings of the rocky rind, Crash your curst continent, and whirl on high The vast avulsion vaulting thro the sky, Fling far the bursting fragments, scattering wide Rocks, mountains, nations o'er the swallowing tide.

Plunging and surging with alternate sweep, They storm the day-vault and lay bare the deep, Toss, tumble, plough their place, then slow subside, And swell each ocean as their bulk they hide; Two oceans dasht in one! that climbs and roars, And seeks in vain the exterminated sh.o.r.es, The deep drencht hemisphere. Far sunk from day, It crumbles, rolls, it churns the settling sea, Turns up each prominence, heaves every side, To pierce once more the landless length of tide; Till some poized Pambamarca looms at last A dim lone island in the watery waste, Mourns all his minor mountains wreck'd and hurl'd, Stands the sad relic of a ruin'd world, Attests the wrath our mother kept in store, And rues her judgments on the race she bore.

No saving Ark around him rides the main, Nor Dove weak-wing'd her footing finds again; His own bald Eagle skims alone the sky, Darts from all points of heaven her searching eye, Kens, thro the gloom, her ancient rock of rest, And finds her cavern'd crag, her solitary nest.