ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST PART. THE Poem opens with a comparison between the beauty of remote objects in a landscape, and those ideal scenes of felicity which the imagination delights to contemplate-The influence of anticipation upon the other passions is next delineated An allusion is made to the well known fiction in Pagan tradition, that, when all the guardian Deities of mankind abandoned the world, Hope alone was left behind The consolations of this passion in situations of danger and distress seaman on his midnight watch- The soldier marching Allusion to the interesting adventures of into battle Byron. The The inspiration of Hope as it actuates the efforts of genius, whether in the department of science, or of taste Domestic felicity, how intimately connected with views of future happinessPicture of a mother watching her infant when asleep Pictures of the prisoner, the maniac, and the wanderer. From the consolations of individual misery a transition is made to prospects of political improvement in the future state of society. The wide field that is yet open for the progress of humanizing arts among uncivilized nations-From these views of the amelioration of society, and the extension of liberty and truth over despotic and barbarous countries, by a melancholy contrast of ideas, we are led to reflect upon the hard fate of a brave people recently conspicuous in their struggles for independence Description of the capture of Warsaw, of the last contest of the oppressors and the oppressed, and the massacre of the Polish Patriots at the Bridge of Prague Apostrophe to the self - interested enemies of human improvement - The wrongs of Africa ProThe barbarous policy of Europeans in India phecy in the Hindoo mythology of the expected descent of the Deity to redress the miseries of their race, and to take vengeance on the violators of Justice and Mercy. - THE PLEASURES OF HOPE. PART I. Ar summer eve, when Heav'n's aerial bow Spans with bright arch the glittʼring hills below, Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, Whose sun-bright summit mingles with the sky! Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear More sweet than all the landscape smiling near'Tis Distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue. Thus, with delight, we linger to survey Can Wisdom lend, with all her heav'nly pow'r, With thee, sweet Hope! resides the heav'nly light That pours remotest rapture on the sight: Thine is the charm of life's bewilder'd way When Peace and Mercy, banish'd from the plain, Thus, while Elijah's burning wheels prepare, Auspicious Hope! in thy sweet garden grow Wreaths for each toil, a charm for ev'ry woe: Won by their sweets, in Nature's languid hour, The way-worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bow'r; There, as the wild--bee murmurs on the wing, What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring! What viewless forms th' Æolian organ play, [away! And sweep the furrow'd lines of anxious thought Angel of life! thy glitt'ring wings explore Earth's loneliest bounds, and Ocean's wildest shore. Lo to the wint'ry winds the pilot yields His bark careering o'er unfathom'd fields; Now on Atlantic waves he rides afar, With meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd, But Hope can here her moonlight vigils keep, |