I thank thee, I thank thee, Hodeirah's son!
I thank thee for doing what can't be undone,
For binding thyself in the chain I have spun!'

Then from his head she wrench'd

A lock of his raven hair,

And cast it in the fire,
And cried aloud as it burnt,
‘Sister! Sister! hear my voice!
*Sister! Sister! come and rejoice!

The thread is spun,
The prize is won,

The work is done,
For I have made captive Hodeirah's Son.'

FROM KEHAMA.'

O force of faith! O strength of virtuous will ! Behold him in his endless martyrdom,

Triumphant still! The Curse still burning in his heart and brain,

And yet doth he remain
Patient the while, and tranquil, and content!
The pious soul hath framed unto itself

A second nature, to exist in pain
As in its own allotted element.

Such strength the will reveald had given
This holy pair, such influxes of grace,
That to their solitary resting place

They brought the peace of Heaven.
Yea, all around was hallow'd! Danger, Fear,

Nor thought of evil ever enter'd here. A charm was on the Leopard when he came

Within the circle of that mystic glade ; Submiss he crouch'd before the heavenly maid,

And offer'd to her touch his speckled side ; Or with arch'd back erect, and bending head, And eyes half-closed for pleasure, would he stand

Courting the pressure of her gentle hand.

Trampling his path through wood and brake, And canes which crackling fall before his way, And tassel-grass, whose silvery feathers play

O'ertopping the young trees,

On comes the Elephant, to slake
His thirst at noon in yon pellucid springs.
Lo! from his trunk upturn'd, aloft he flings

The grateful shower; and now

Plucking the broad-leaved bough
Of yonder plane, with wavey motion slow,

Fanning the languid air,

He moves it to and fro. But when that form of beauty meets his sight,

The trunk its undulating motion stops, From his forgetful hold the plane-branch drops, Reverent he kneels, and lifts his rational eyes

To her as if in prayer ; And when she pours her angel voice in song

Entranced he listens to the thrilling notes, Till his strong temples, bathed with sudden dews,

Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse.

Lo! as the voice melodious floats around,

The Antelope draws near, The Tigress leaves her toothless cubs to hear ; The Snake comes gliding from the secret brake,

Himself in fascination forced along

By that enchanting song ;
The antic Monkeys, whose wild gambols late,
When not a breeze waved the tall jungle grass,
Shook the whole wood, are hush'd, and silently

Hang on the cluster'd tree.
All things in wonder and delight are still ;

Only at times the Nightingale is heard,
Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird

Her rival strain would try, A mighty songster, with the Maid to vie ; She only bore her part in powerful sympathy.

Well might they thus adore that heavenly Maid !

For never Nymph of Mountain,

Or Grove, or Lake, or Fountain,
With a diviner presence fillid the shade.

No idle ornaments deface

Her natural grace,
Musk-spot, nor sandal-streak, nor scarlet stain,
Ear-drop nor chain, nor 'arm nor ankle-ring,

Nor trinketry on front, or neck, or breast,
Marring the perfect form : she seem'd a thing
Of Heaven's prime uncorrupted work, a child

Of early nature undefiled,
A daughter of the years of innocence.
And therefore all things loved her. When she stood

Beside the glassy pool, the fish, that flies

Quick as an arrow from all other eyes,
Hover'd to gaze on her.' The mother bird,

When Kailyal's step she heard,
Sought not to tempt her from her secret. nest,
But hastening to the dear retreat, would fly

To meet and welcome her benignant eye.

ODE, WRITTEN DURING THE NEGOCIATIONS WITH

BUONAPARTE, IN JANUARY, 1814.

I.

Who counsels peace at this momentous hour, When God hath given deliverance to the oppressid,

And to the injured power ?
Who counsels peace, when Vengeance like a flood
Rolls on, no longer now to be repressid ;

When innocent blood
From the four corners of the world cries out

For justice upon one accursed head;
When Freedom hath her holy banner spread

Over all nations, now in one just cause
United; when with one sublime accord

Europe throws off the yoke abhorr’d,
And Loyalty and Faith and Ancient Laws

Follow the avenging sword!

2.

Woe, woe to England ! woe and endless shame,

If this heroic land,
False to her feelings and unspotted fame,
Hold out the olive to the Tyrant's hand !
Woe to the world, if Buonaparte's throne

Be suffer'd still to stand!
For by what names shall Right and Wrong be known, .

What new and courtly phrases must we feign For Falsehood, Murder, and all monstrous crimes, If that perfidious Corsican maintain

Still his detested reign, And France, who yearns even now to break her chain,

Beneath his iron rule be left to groan ?

No! by the innumerable dead Whose blood hath for his lust of power been shed,

Death only can for his foul deeds atone ; That peace which Death and Judgment can bestow,

That peace be Buonaparte's . . that alone!

3.

For sooner shall the Ethiop change his skin,
Or from the Leopard shall her spots depart,
Than this man change his old flagitious heart.

Have ye not seen him in the balance weighed,
And there found wanting ?-On the stage of blood

Foremost the resolute adventurer stood ;

And when, by many a battle won,

He placed upon his brow the crown,
Curbing delirious France beneath his sway,

Then, like Octavius in old time,
Fair name might he have handed down,

Effacing many a stain of former crime.
Fool ! should he cast away that bright renown!

Fool! the redemption proffer'd should he lose ! When Heaven such grace vouchsafed him that the way

To Good and Evil lay
Before him, which to choose.

4.
But Evil was his Good,
For all too long in blood had he been nurst,
And ne'er was earth with verier tyrant curst.

Bold man and bad,
Remorseless, godless, full of fraud and lies,
And black with murders and with perjuries,

Himself in Hell's whole panoply he clad; No law but his own headstrong will he knew,

No counsellor but his own wicked heart.
From evil thus portentous strength he drew,
And trampled under foot all human ties,
All holy laws, all natural charities.

5. O France ! beneath this fierce Barbarian's sway

Disgraced thou art to all succeeding times; Rapine, and blood, and fire have mark'd thy way,

All loathsome, all unutterable crimes. A curse is on thee, France ! from far and wide It hath gone up to Heaven; all lands have cried

For vengeance upon thy detested head; All nations curse thee, France ! for wheresoe'er In peace or war thy banner hath been spread, All forms of human woe have follow'd there :

The Living and the Dead Cry out alike against thee! They who bear, Crouching beneath its weight, thine iron yoke,

Join in the bitterness of secret prayer

The voice of that innumerable throng Whose slaughtered spirits day and night invoke

The everlasting Judge of right and wrong, How long, O Lord! Holy and Just, how long!

6. A merciless oppressor hast thou been, Thyself remorselessly oppress'd meantime; Greedy of war, when all that thou couldst gain Was but to dye thy soul with deeper crime,

And rivet faster round thyself the chain.