• There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin,
      The dew on his thin robe was heavy and chill;
    For his country he sighed, when at twilight repairing
      To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill.
    But the day-star attracted his eye’s sad devotion,
    For it rose o’er his own native isle of the ocean,
    Where once, in the fire of his youthful emotion,...

  • What ’s hallowed ground? Has earth a clod
    Its Maker meant not should be trod
    By man, the image of his God,
          Erect and free,
    Unscourged by Superstition’s rod
          To bow the knee?

    That ’s hallowed ground where, mourned and missed,
    The lips repose our love has kissed;—
    But where ’s their memory’s mansion? Is ’t...

  • From “The Pleasures of Hope,” Part I.
    O SACRED Truth! thy triumph ceased awhile,
    And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile,
    When leagued Oppression poured to Northern wars
    Her whiskered pandours and her fierce hussars,
    Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn,
    Pealed her loud drum, and twanged her trumpet horn;
    Tumultuous...

  • [1821]
      AGAIN to the battle, Achaians!
      Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance;
    Our land,—the first garden of Liberty’s-tree,—
    Has been, and shall yet be, the land of the free;
      For the cross of our faith is replanted,
      The pale dying crescent is daunted,
    And we march that the footprints of Mahomet’s slaves
    May be washed out in...

  • [1800]
    on Linden, when the sun was low,
    All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
    And dark as winter was the flow
    Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

    But Linden saw another sight
    When the drum beat, at dead of night,
    Commanding fires of death to light
    The darkness of her scenery.

    By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
    Each...

  • [April 2, 1801]
    OF Nelson and the north
      Sing the glorious day’s renown,
    When to battle fierce came forth
      All the might of Denmark’s crown,
    And her arms along the deep proudly shone;
      By each gun the lighted brand
      In a bold determined hand,
      And the prince of all the land
    Led them on.

    Like leviathans afloat...