ODE FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1793.

By HENRY JAMES PYE, Efq. Poet Laureat. TOT with more joy from defert fhades, Where prowl untam'd the favage train,

N°

VERSES to the mentory of Samuel Edward

of

Marshall, Captain in the imperial navy
Ruffia; who, after having figually contri-
buted to the victory gained over the
Swedes, July 4, 1790, in the memorable
engagement with the fame enemy, July 10,
1790, having fought his fhips 17 hours, in
direct attack of the King of Sweden, who
commanded in perfon, and received many
wounds, one of which carried away his
left heel, fupported himself to the last by
the colours of his ship, wrapt himself up
in them when he was juft finking, and
perifhed with her in the waves,

WHEN Grecia's firm, unconquerable host
Chas'd the invader from their native coaft;
And Salamis beheld the crimson main
Heaving with mighty heaps of Perfian flain.;
When Afric's tawny fons their fails unfurl',
To dare with Rome the Empire of the
Each drove with eager force the pondrous
world
[prow,
Each hand to hand affail'd th' indignant foe
Till friendly night would baply intervene,
And veil the glories of the doubtful scene.........
So fought the Britain on the Baltic flood,.
Joyful in wounds, and prodigal of blood;
Like Jove's own eagle, darted on his prey,
To bear the royal facrifice away,

Who, tho' protected by a + bastion'd ftrand Scarce fcap'd the vengeance of the ‡ chufen band:

Pelides-like, the hero fcorn'd to feel
The tort'ring anguifh of a mangled heel;
True to his colours, rear'd the shatter'd
maft,

Cheer'd his few & brave affeciates to the laft,
From down to twilight urg'd th' unequal
fight,
[night
Long as his bark furviv'd, then funk in
Long as the annals of the brave shall laft,
And truth record the deeds of ages paft,
She nor to Greece nor Rome fhall yield his
fame,

But with Themistocles enroll his name.

* Guftavus III, King of Sweden. + The Swedish galleys were drawn up under cover of rocks and iflets, on which they had erected batteries.

The Empress devoted to this forlorn hope her British officers, of whom twe captains, Dennison and Parry, befides Marthal, fell gloriously.

A few hrave fellows ftaid by him after his gun-battery was under water, and thefe he fent out of the hip just before the tunk. All the powder had been brought upon decky that, they might hold out to the last extre mity, keeping up a constant fire with their quarter-deck guns.

1

It fould be recorded, to the honour of Guitavus, that, long an eye-witnefs to the perfonal valour and profeflional kill of his, antagonist, he expreffed great anxiety to

Lave

And fecond in esteem to none; A ftranger to all jealous fear,

I rofe above the Monarch's throne.

Lydia. When none but Lydia fhar'd your love,
Ere Chloe's cha: ms your foul inflam'd;

I wish'd no happier ftate to prove,
More than the Roman Ilia fam'd.
Horace. Now Cretan Chloe wins my care,.
The lyre fhe wakes to fweetest sounds;
Whom to preferve I'd freely bear,
Whatever pain in death abounds.
Lydia. Young Calais, a Thurian fwain,
Unites our hearts with kindred ties:
The ranfom of his life to gain,

Mine twice thould fall a facrifice.

Horace

Horace. Should Venus now, as once, fucceed, And mutual fentiments impart,

And, in this tair ufurper's stead,

My Lydia claim my willing heart?'

Lydia. He's bright as Sol-your temper wrought

Of fickle winds and ftormy feas; Yet, long as Life infpires a thought, Your prefence ftill and Love can please. Cumberland. W. SINGLETON.

That hung on Cheviot-hills his trophies high, Proud theatre of antique archery !

But mental darkness dims her curious eye, Ah! too short-fighted fhe to prophecy:Let this fuffice, for this fhe dares to tell; Lift! lift! O Expectation, tiptoe (well; "Spite oftheir boasted British fires of old, "Their hearts of oak, their limbs' gigantic "mould, [bold. "Our moderns-talk as big, and swear as PHILO POP."

Thron'd, by the godhead of the filver bow, See it thou?-or are these Chiefs below thy

care?

[war? Thefe feather-champions, and their arrowy A puny race! unlike thy fons of Yew, Who with Herculean arm the tough bow drew:

Heav'ns! with what fury on the foe beneath From Scotia's mountains fhower'd the miffile death! [art, From no dark covert, they, with Indian Murder'd by stealth, or launc'd a poifon'd dart; [wingDeath they approach'd, and fac'd him on the Qur archers tremble at the twanging ftring. But, lo! the fcene of fight, the ladies

name)

Pluck not the palm of Amazonian fame;
The boast of chivalry, the bow, forfake,
A fitter, prettier, bow-like weapon take;
A weapon, innocent of blood or war,
Let the poor peaceful pop gun be your care!
In fmart battalia rang'd, each hero ftand;
This fashionable tube thall grace your hand,
And he, who loudest pops, fhall bear away
A filver fquirt,-bright emblem of the fray!
Big with the glorious thought, my Mufe
would pry

Through the dark veil of long futurity,
To fing what Chief, by novel flame in-
fpir'd,

Their tiny inftrument with ardour fir'd,
Or eke, with unaffected pathos, tell,
Scar'd at the thund'ring pop, what myriads

fell.

Ισλαίαι ήτις την ιερα δωρα θεῳ·

Αλλα τι Σοι προφέρων δώρον, η τας μεν

παρχας

α

Ασπάζω νύμφη ; άσμαία, έρωτα, κεαρο

AN EPITHALAMIUM ON HANNAH GURNEY (formerly CHAPMAN) written by her Sifer

L

WALKER.

ONG may this morn in pleas'd remembrance rife!

Hail each fenfation, charm'd at its return! Whilft fleeting time on airy pinions flier,

Thy gentle breaft may know no course to

mourn !

May Bartlett's name long prove thy fav'rite theme! [eafe ! Long may you live in plenty, peace, and May true content enliven every scene!

And thine the wish to ftudy how to please!

Eafy the task where ftrict affection binds

May genuine Virtue harmonize your minds, The feeling heart its dictates will obey; And Reafon's law exert their utmost fwayl In duty's fphere thy feet unerring mov'd, Caught from the eye each anxious latent thought,

By fympathetic care a daughter prov❜d, Perform'd the with before the accents broke,

Still in fraternal love alike thou fhone,

Nor did diftrefs e'er fue to thee in vain ; The daughter, fifter, friend, liv'd all in one ; And pity melted at the voice of pain. Calm may thefe virtues follow thee thro' life! Thy joys chief center'd in thy Bartlett's breaft!

Combine thofe names now in a faithful wife,

To footh his carer be ev'ry with compreft! Thy fifters hearts in unifon will move,

Affection's power from ev'ry quarter ftream;

To fee thee fhine in virtue, truth, and love,

Will glad the torront of each languid ven.

My wishes foar above the giddy throng

Of Folly's votaries, whofe uncertain joys Quickly are blasted as they pafs along, The scythe of time each tranfient scene deftroys.

May better Wisdom all thy steps attend! Reflection's power the erring thought controul ! [end, Bach morn ferene in peaceful evenings And Refignation's aid direct the whole ! Progreffive fpring now decks the flow'ring meads,

The feafons pafs in quick gradation round; The drooping fun to contemplation leads, Directs the mind where happiness is found. May thou purfue it with a steady pace Thro' life's wide maze to Time's concluding [grace, Then will old age fhine with peculiar And fmiling Peace review thy mind ferene.

scene!

Long has it cherish'd innocence and truth,
Stranger to guile and ev'ry lower art;
Compaffion's beams shone in thy early youth
To veil the errors of another's heart.
May every virtue added years improve,

Lighted by wifdom to life's journey's end! The nobler paffions fix'd on things above, Celestial bleffings that on truth depend. Then certain hopes fhall gild thy fetting fun, Difpel the gloom of fickness and disease ; Sleep in that calm in which thy life begun, And wake to joys of everlasting peace.

A POETICAL EFFUSION on the Religious and Political Principles of ;a well-known but not popular Character. Refumptuous man! can thy electric flash

PRef

Oppofe the great artill'ry of the sky,
And mock the rolling thunder? Can thy
fteams

Of philofophic fulphur dim the blaze
Of light celeftial? Dares thy earth-born

rant

Disturb the Seraph choirs, that ceafe!efs fing
Their loud Hofanrahs to the Triune God?
Child of the duft! thy optics cannot bear
Terreftrial glory; the meridian (un
Dazzles thy fenfe: and yet thou dar'ft invade
The dread receffes of the highest heavens,
Dark with excess of light, and furious tear
Th' Eternal Son from his Eternal Sire.
Thou rebel reafoner! canft thou compre
hend
[grafs,
His lowest works? the fmalleft blade of
That drinks the dew, is mystery to thee;
And canft thou level, with unfalt'ring hand,
Reafon's dim telescope at things divine,
Incomprehenfibly fublime? Away
To Bedlam's regimen, dark rooms, and
ftraw!
[word?
How dar'ft thou queftion the Almighty's

Ere tainted by thy breath: in every street
The voice of labour fang away its cares;
The church and fectaries harmonious breath'
The genuine fpirit of fraternal love :
But when thy puritanic fowl appear'd,
The heavens grew dark, and thy familiar
fiend
[prefs,
Flam'd in the pulpit, thunder'd from the
Till all was uproar, and ftrong vengeance
hurl'd

Sedition's temples smoking to the ground.
Birmingham, 1792.

TO A LADY DRESSED WITH A VERY
LARGE BOUQUET.

FA

Ashion's the tyrant of mankind,
Whofe univerfal fway.
Can captive lead the willing mind,
And in its filken fetters bind

Vain mortals to obey.

See Mira with the load opprefs'd

Of a whole garden's pride;
The nofegay totters at her breast,
And, mifer-like, of wealth poffefs'd,
Its treafure feeks to hide.
There fee the Jasmin, once fo meek,

Erect its filver heads;

No longer languid now, and weak,
It gains new iuftre-from her cheek,
And ten-fold whiteness spreads.

The blufhing Rofe, in contrast sweet,
Its fragrant leaf difplays;
Whilft Pinks, that fprang beneath her feet,
Now feel her heart with rapture bear,
Whilft the her flaves furveys.

Go,

Go, gaudy flow'rs, nor in defpight

Presume thofe charms to fhade; The Rifing Sun ftill puts to flight The envious clouds of parting night,

That would his reign invade.

Go, feek the bofom, fwoln with pride,
Spleen, envy, and despair;
There spread your ample foliage wide,
And, like the Pagan temple, hide

The fiend that's worship'd there.

PROLOGUE

To the Speeches at the Academy in Scho Square,
Dece 15, 1792, by the REV. DR. BARROW.
HO' little rhyme or reafon grace his
THO
ftrains,

Yearly the Bellman feels poetic pains; Sing, fing he muft with wayward Muse or willing, [thilling. No fong, no Christmas beer, no Christmas But how shall task-verse keep its friends and favour! [ever. No voice, no bell, can chime in tune for Ev'n birth-day bards tho' laureat fack infpire, [tire: Their Pegafus, o'erftrain'd, at last must His annual heats let Cibber ride, or Pye, The fteed may prance, but cannot always fly. Worfe for the wear will grow the choicest 1 things,

And Odes exhauft the virtues-even of kings. Since then no Christmas-box nor royal bays [ways, Can teach to fing old fubjects in new No wonder, hackney'd in this annual courfe, Poor Prologus at laft fhould jade his horfe; Condemn'd to hobble o'er the fame dull round, [bound; The beaft will ceafe to curvet and to The proverb fpoil'd, the poet's curfe will follow,

"Semel in anno non riddet Apollo.”

To luckier play-house bards new matter. rifes, [prices: Drawn from new plays, new houses, and new Their bustling Mufe may dash through thick and thin.

From Lifle to Metz, from Paris to Berlin ;
Nay rhyme and reason rudely may disjoint;
And mifs her grammar, if the hits her point;
Of Rhyme and Mufe make Heliconian foun-
tains,
[mountains;
And change Parnaffus for the "Champagne
Sing Bruntwick's Duke with courage (pent

in writing,

And right keen appetite, but not for fighting,
Homeward retreating to fubftantial fare,
Untaught to dine on freedom, frogs, and air.
Then, cross the Channel bound, when'er the
will,

To Bagfhot's tented beath and Beacon-hill,
Of braver Britons fing the fierce campaign,
If not with bullets, pelted fore with rain;
Or march'd through Hartford-flats in firm
array,

Storming redoubts-or gallows by the way;

Battle's loud bray with what fang froidthey bear,

And fight of dead men-dangling in the air;
Profufe of powder for their country's good,
Shedding, like Shylock, not one drop of
blood;

A mournful tale of Monarchy's o'erthrow,
Next he may tell, by fans culottes and ça.
How Democrats in clubs and taverns rail,
Turn felons loofe, and fovereigns fend to
jail;
[bread,
How meagre Jacobins feize churchmen's
Let fickle France, true tragic-comic nation,
And exil'd priefts on foreign alms are fed.
Style, if the pleafe, confufion reformation;
But ne'er let Britons ape the revolution,
Nor Paris plafter daub our conftitution.

While happier Prologues treats like these
prepare,

We ftill prefent the fame old-fashion'd fare. Of fiery new French fauce we know the fault,

And give no feas'ning but old Attic falt. Our court'ous friends, we trust, will bound their wishes [difhes. To Greek and Roman, mix'd with English In treats, or, books, we bow to claffic rules, The doctrine and the difcipline of schools.

*One word at laft indulge me on the
ftate

Of your poor Prologue's poorer advocate,
Grown, like his theme, a fuperannuate.

Seafon on season doom'd thefe boards to tread,

As fock or buskin, Greek or Latin, led. To-night, the curtain dropp'd, I quit the stage,

Far diffrent fcenes my future cares engage. But may my bark, hence vent'ring from the shore,

Thro' life's rude furge new regions to explore," With gales of favour her firft fails expand, Not Cenfure's tempefts wreck me on this ftrand. [cheer, Farewel. If you vouchfafe the speeding. Smooth glides the bark, with wind and tide we feer.

And may this ftage, in long fucceffion .