Page:The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems.pdf/122



Where soft gradations melt in light away! And vernal sweets, in rich profusion blow, E'en 'midst the reign of solitude and snow! Yet what avail the bright ambrosial stores, Which gay redundance o'er thy region pours? Devoted land! from long-departed time, The chosen theatre of war and crime! What tho' for thee transcendent suns arise, The myrtle blossoms, and the zephyr sighs; What tho' for thee again Arcadia blooms, And cloudless radiance all thy realm illumes; There still has Rapine seiz'd her yielding prey, There still Oppression spreads th' unbounded sway; There oft has War each blooming charm effac'd, And left the glowing vale, a bleak, deserted waste!

Is there a land, where halcyon peace has reign'd, From age to age, in glory unprofan'd? Has dwelt serenely in perpetual rest, "Heav'n in her eye," and mercy in her breast?