Page:Modern poets and poetry of Spain.djvu/96

50 When near you may applaud the loftiness,

The harmony, and the consonance sublime,

All that in varied symphonies to express

Has power the greatest master of our time;

Haydn the great, and merited his fame,

Whom to embrace I beg you in my name.

But now the confines of the German land

I see you leaving, for the distant strand

Of Britain's isle your rapid course to take,

And tour political around to make.

There in the populous court, whose walls' long side

Bathes the deep Thames in current vast and wide,

A nation's image will before your eyes

In all things most extraordinary rise.

Not rich of old, but happy now we see

By totally unshackled industry.

A nation liberal, but ambitious too;

Phlegmatic, and yet active in its course;

Ingenuous, but its interests to pursue

Intent; humane, but haughty; and perforce

Whate'er it be, the cause it undertakes,

Just or unjust, defends without remorse,

And of all fear and danger scorn it makes.

There with inevitably great surprise,

What in no other country we may see,

You will behold to exert their energies

Men act and speak with perfect liberty.