The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume V

.PArEns OF l\Im,\:J3EAt: BuONAPAl!TE LnrAn 'Who would refuse his sword to draw For her defence and Freedoms law But with a trembling, coward soul \Vould bow to Despots cursed control, If such there be let such go read \Vhen Marcus made great Julius bleed And should his heart be calleous still And feel no patriotic thrill May he in life imprisoned dwell, Doomed upon earth for future Hell. Here too among the tunefulband Great Colriclge takes an equal stand No fabled Nine to him belong For God alone inspires his song His genius soars from pole to pole Boundless us the rays of sol Like Homers self he strikes the Lyre, Now full of strength, now beaming fire Through all his strains, in gentle stream Religion pours its lucid beam. Great bard thy works will ever shine, 'Will triumph o'er the lapse of time \Vhen ,Jeffrey's slanderous race is run His works forgot and he unsung. Bold Byron sits in monkish mood; His genius strong as Nigers flood, A soul of wrath and vengancc warm, He ><peaks like Demon of the storm, No tender thrill his bosom knows, The child of misery--heir of woes; Lay11 to Love he never carroled Hi11 themes are Corsair and Childe Harold, Demons dark, and dread, and drear That vell of murder in the ear. I lo,·e· not Bards of rugged mind, \Vhose heroes are of sooty kind, They do my inmost soul affright, And make me dream of hell at night. Give me the bard of fancy gay That sings like birds in blue-ey'd May, ·warbling within some flow'y dale, A simple song or moving tule A11 l\Iilton says, in winding 'bout Of linked sweetness long clratr.n out. I lo,·e the burd wbo!'le tender soul Feels youthful Cupid's soft control, O'er whose lays in dear delight, Love gaily waves his purple light, 'Whose ~[use fore,·er on the wing, Collects the treasures of the spring, And in profusion renders us The sweets of flowery tenderness; Whose sportive, guy and laughing style Vi'ill make the dull misanthrope smile, Gorgeous as the rainbow's hue. Sparkling as the morning dew, Flowing e\'er in siln•r light, Like limped stream of chrystal hright. Such is the bard who C'lln impart. Enrapturing transports to m~· h<'art, And such the strains. that Tommv 11oore, The young Anacreon·~ h•urnt to J;our.

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