Page:Poems Sigourney 1827.pdf/194

194  Say, —what was his reward who with the band Of constellated souls thus saved a threaten'd land?— To see the war-clouds fade away, And peace resume her blissful sway,— See liberty and equal law Crush fell Discord's brood malign, From every clime of earth to draw Admiring pilgrims round his household shrine,— To amass from learning's store, The proudly treasured lore, To see fair cities rise amid the uncultured waste, And in his mountain paradise to taste Those ripen'd fruits whose germ was sown in blood, And mark his country's flag wave high o'er Glory's flood. To wreath around his brow bright Honour's crown, And find in weary age the love-smooth'd couch of down.

But one desire remain'd,—to see His prosperous nation's Jubilee;— Forth came that glorious morn with radiant vest, He caught its smile, and enter'd to his rest, From life's protracted banquet rose serene, Earth's latest wish fulfill'd, and sought a higher scene.

 

Assyria boasted him who humbled Tyre, Her warrior monarch. Greece the clarion swell'd For him of Macedon, whose sick'ning tear Flow'd o'er the narrow limits of a world, 