Opening the text

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

History

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

English poetry; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Poetry; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1789-1820

Are we then, it may be asked, to wage eternal war?—No; a glorious
resistance leads to an honourable peace. The French people have been
long weary of the war; their spirit has been forced by a system which
must end in the failure of the engagement to give them the plunder of
this country. They will awake from their dream, and raise a cry for
peace, which their government will not dare to resist. The monarchs of
Europe must now begin clearly to perceive that their fate hangs on the
destiny of England; they will unite to compel a satisfactory peace on a
broad foundation; and peace, when war has been tried to the utmost, will
probably be permanent. A few years of wise economy and redoubled
industry will place us again on the rising scale; and if the pressure of
the times may have rendered it necessary sometimes to have cast a
temporary veil over the statue of Liberty, she may again safely be shown
in an unimpaired lustre.

Of the following verses I have nothing to say: if it should be decided
that the greatness of the object cannot bear out the mediocrity of the
execution, I will not appeal from the decision.


                           ODE TO MY COUNTRY.
                              MDCCXCVIII.

                           S. 1.

         Britons! hands and hearts prepare:
           The angry tempest threatens nigh,
         Deep-toned thunders roll in air,
           Lightnings thwart the livid sky;
       Throned upon the wingéd storm,
       Fell DESOLATION rears her ghastly form,
       Waves her black signal to her Hell-born brood,
       And lures them thus with promised blood:

                           A. 1.

         “Drive, my sons, the storm amain!
           Lo, the hated, envied land,
         Where PIETY and ORDER reign,
           And Freedom dares maintain her stand.
       Have ye not sworn, by night and hell,
       These from the earth for ever to expel?
       Rush on, resistless, to your destined prey,
       Death and rapine point the way.”

                           E. 1.

         Britons! stand firm! with stout and dauntless heart
           Meet unappall’d the threatening boaster’s rage;
         Yours is the great, the unconquerable part,
           For your loved hearths and altars to engage,
       And sacred LIBERTY, more dear than life—
       Yours be the triumph in the glorious strife.
       Shall theft and murder braver deeds excite
       Than honest scorn of shame and heavenly love of right?

                           S. 2.

         Turn the bright historic page!
           Still in glory’s tented field,
         Albion’s arms, for many an age,
           Have taught proud Gallia’s bands to yield.
       Are not WE the sons of those
       Whose steel-clad sires pursued the insulting foes,
       E’en to the centre of their wide domain,
       And bowed them to a BRITON’S reign?[259]

                           A. 2.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

English poetry; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Poetry; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1789-1820

Are we then, it may be asked, to wage eternal war?—No; a glorious
resistance leads to an honourable peace. The French people have been
long weary of the war; their spirit has been forced by a system which
must end in the failure of the engagement to give them the plunder of
this country. They will awake from their dream, and raise a cry for
peace, which their government will not dare to resist. The monarchs of
Europe must now begin clearly to perceive that their fate hangs on the
destiny of England; they will unite to compel a satisfactory peace on a
broad foundation; and peace, when war has been tried to the utmost, will
probably be permanent. A few years of wise economy and redoubled
industry will place us again on the rising scale; and if the pressure of
the times may have rendered it necessary sometimes to have cast a
temporary veil over the statue of Liberty, she may again safely be shown
in an unimpaired lustre.

Of the following verses I have nothing to say: if it should be decided
that the greatness of the object cannot bear out the mediocrity of the
execution, I will not appeal from the decision.


                           ODE TO MY COUNTRY.
                              MDCCXCVIII.

                           S. 1.

         Britons! hands and hearts prepare:
           The angry tempest threatens nigh,
         Deep-toned thunders roll in air,
           Lightnings thwart the livid sky;
       Throned upon the wingéd storm,
       Fell DESOLATION rears her ghastly form,
       Waves her black signal to her Hell-born brood,
       And lures them thus with promised blood:

                           A. 1.

         “Drive, my sons, the storm amain!
           Lo, the hated, envied land,
         Where PIETY and ORDER reign,
           And Freedom dares maintain her stand.
       Have ye not sworn, by night and hell,
       These from the earth for ever to expel?
       Rush on, resistless, to your destined prey,
       Death and rapine point the way.”

                           E. 1.

         Britons! stand firm! with stout and dauntless heart
           Meet unappall’d the threatening boaster’s rage;
         Yours is the great, the unconquerable part,
           For your loved hearths and altars to engage,
       And sacred LIBERTY, more dear than life—
       Yours be the triumph in the glorious strife.
       Shall theft and murder braver deeds excite
       Than honest scorn of shame and heavenly love of right?

                           S. 2.

         Turn the bright historic page!
           Still in glory’s tented field,
         Albion’s arms, for many an age,
           Have taught proud Gallia’s bands to yield.
       Are not WE the sons of those
       Whose steel-clad sires pursued the insulting foes,
       E’en to the centre of their wide domain,
       And bowed them to a BRITON’S reign?[259]

                           A. 2.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

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