Lines written at the request of the Highland So- ciety in London, when met to commemorate Valedictory Stanzas to J. P. Kemble, Esq. Lines, spoken by Mr. ***, at Drury Lane Theatre, on the first opening of the house after the death of the Princess Charlotte, 1817 Lines on receiving a Seal, with the Campbell crest, from K. M- before her marriage Stanzas to the memory of the Spanish patriots ANALYSIS OF PART I. 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-the seaman on his midnight watch-the soldier marching into battle-allusion to the interesting adventures of Byron. The inspiration of Hope, as it actuates the efforts of genius, whether in the department of science or of taste-domestic felicity, how intimely connected with views of future happiness-picture 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 amelioration of society, and the extension of liberty and truth over despotic and barbarous countries, by 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-the barbarous policy of Europeans in India-prophecy 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 glittering 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. t.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 What potent spirit guides the raptured eye Can Wisdom lend, with all her heav'nly power, Or, if she hold an image to the view, "Tis Nature pictured too severely true. With thee, sweet Hope! resides the heavenly light, That pours remotest rapture on the sight: Thine is the charm of life's bewilder'd way, That calls each slumb'ring passion into play: |