WRITTEN IN JULY.

1834.

GREY, thou hast served, and well, the sacred Cause
That Hampden, Sydney died for. Thou hast stood,
Scorning all thought of Self, from first to last,
Among the foremost in that glorious field;
From first to last; and, ardent as thou art,
Held on with equal step as best became
A lofty mind, loftiest when most assailed;
Never, though galled by many a barbed shaft,
By many a bitter taunt from friend and foe,
Swerving, or shrinking. Happy in thy Youth,
Thy Youth the dawn of a long summer-day;
But in thy Age still happier; thine to earn
The gratitude of millions yet to be;
Thine to conduct, through ways how difficult,
A mighty people in their march sublime
From Good to Better. Great thy recompence,
When in their eyes thou read'st what thou hast done;
And may'st thou long enjoy it; may'st thou long
Preserve for them what still they claim as theirs,
That generous fervour and pure eloquence,
Thine from thy birth and Nature's noblest gifts,
To guard what They have gained!

WRITTEN IN

WESTMINSTER ABBEY,*

OCTOBER 10, 1806.

WHOE'ER thou art, approach, and with a sigh,
Mark where the small remains of Greatness lie.†
There sleeps the dust of FOX for ever gone;
How near the place where late his glory shone!
And, tho' no more ascends the voice of Prayer,
Tho' the last footsteps cease to linger there,
Still, like an awful dream that comes again,
Alas, at best, as transient and as vain,
Still do I see (while thro' the vaults of night
The funeral-song once more proclaims the rite)
The moving Pomp along the shadowy aisle,
That, like a Darkness, filled the solemn Pile;
The illustrious line, that in long order led,
Of those, that loved Him living, mourned Him dead;
Of those the Few, that for their Country stood
Round Him who dared be singularly good;
All, of all ranks, that claimed him for their own;
And nothing wanting-but Himself alone! ‡

Oh say, of Him now rests there but a name;
Wont, as He was, to breathe ethereal flame?
Friend of the Absent, Guardian of the Dead!
Who but would here their sacred sorrows shed?

*After the Funeral of the Right Hon. CHARLES JAMES Fox.

Venez voir le peu qui nous reste de tant de grandeur, &c. - BosSUET. Oraison funèbre de Louis de Bourbon.

Et rien enfin ne manque dans tous ces honneurs, que celui à qui on les rend. Ibid.

(Such as He shed on NELSON's closing grave;
How soon to claim the sympathy He gave!)
In Him, resentful of another's wrong,
The dumb were eloquent, the feeble strong.
Truth from his lips a charm celestial drew-
Ah, who so mighty and so gentle too?

What tho' with War the madding Nations rung,
'Peace,' when He spoke, was ever on his tongue!
Amid the frowns of Power, the tricks of State,
Fearless, resolved, and negligently great!
In vain malignant vapours gathered round;
He walked, erect, on consecrated ground.
The clouds, that rise to quench the Orb of day,
Reflect its splendour, and dissolve away!

When in retreat He laid his thunder by, For lettered ease and calm Philosophy, Blest were his hours within the silent grove, Where still his god-like Spirit deigns to rove; Blest by the orphan's smile, the widow's prayer, For many a deed long done in secret there. There shone his lamp on Homer's hallowed page, There, listening, sate the hero and the sage; And they, by virtue and by blood allied, Whom most He loved, and in whose arms He died. Friend of all Human-kind! not here alone (The voice, that speaks, was not to thee unknown) Wilt Thou be missed. - O'er every land and sea Long, long shall England be revered in Thee! And, when the Storm is hushed-in distant yearsFoes on thy grave shall meet, and mingle tears!

THE

VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.

1812.

CHI SE' TU, CHE VIENI— -?

DA ME STESSO NON VEGNO.

DANTE.

PREFACE.

THE following Poem (or, to speak more properly, what remains of it*) has here and there a lyrical turn of thought and expression. It is sudden in its transitions, and full of historical allusions; leaving much to be imagined by the reader.

The subject is a voyage most memorable in the annals of mankind. Columbus was a person of extraordinary virtue and piety, acting under the sense of a Divine impulse; and his achievement the discovery of a New World, the inhabitants of which were shut out from the light of Revelation, and given up, as they believed, to the dominion of malignant spirits.

*The Original in the Castilian language, according to the Inscription that follows, was found among other MSS. in an old religious house near Palos, situated on an island formed by the river Tinto, and dedicated to our Lady of La Rábida. The Writer describes himself as having sailed with Columbus; but his style and manner are evidently of an after-time.

Many of the incidents will now be thought extravagant; yet they were once perhaps received with something more than indulgence. It was an age of miracles; and who can say that among the venerable legends in the library of the Escurial, or the more authentic records which fill the great chamber in the Archivo of Simancus, and which relate entirely to the deep tragedy of America, there are no volumes that mention the marvellous things here described? Indeed the story, as already told throughout Europe, admits of no heightening. Such was the religious enthusiasm of the early writers, that the Author had only to transfuse it into his verse; and he appears to have done little more; though some of the circumstances, which he alludes to as well-known, have long ceased to be so. By using the language of that day, he has called up Columbus "in the habit as he lived;" and the authorities, such as exist, are carefully given by the Translator.

INSCRIBED ON THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.

UNCLASP me, Stranger; and unfold,

With trembling care my leaves of gold,
Rich in gothic portraiture-

If yet, alas, a leaf endure.

In RABIDA's monastic fane

I cannot ask, and ask in vain.
The language of CASTILE I speak;
Mid many an Arab, many a Greek,
Old in the days of CHARLEMAIN;