Page:Pocahontas, and Other Poems.djvu/190

 174 FEMALE EDUCATION FOR GREECE.

Seek ye the West? that land of noteless birth, That when proud Athens rul'd with regal sway All climes and kindreds of the awe-struck earth, Still in its cold, mysterious cradle lay, Till the world-finder rent the veil away, And quell'd the red-hrow'd hunters' savage tone ? Turn ye to us, young emmets of a day, Who flit admiring round your ancient throne ? Seek ye a boon of us, the nameless, the unknown P

We, who have blest you with our lisping tongue, And to your baptism bow'd when life was new, And, when upon our mother's breast we hung, Your flowing nectar with our life-stream drew, Who dipp'd our young feet in Castalian dew, And pois'd with tiny arm that lance and shield Before whose might the boastful Persian flew, We, who Ulysses trac'd o'er flood and field, What can ye ask of us, we would not joy to yield ?

Ye ask no warrior's aid, the Turk hath fled, And on your throne Bavaria's prince reclines, No gold or gems, their dazzling light to shed, Pearl from the sea, nor diamond from the mines: Ye ask that ray from Learning's lamp which shines, To guide your sons, so long in error blind, The cry speeds forth from yon embowering vines, " Give bread and water to the famish'd mind, And from its durance dark, the irnprison'd soul unbind."

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