The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

Name: The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside
Author: Akenside, Mark

Akenside, Mark

English poetry -- 18th century

Such are the words of Hermes: such the praise,
  O Naiads, which from tongues celestial waits
  Your bounteous deeds. From bounty issueth power:
  And those who, sedulous in prudent works,
  Relieve the wants of nature, Jove repays                      130
  With noble wealth, and his own seat on earth,
  Pit judgments to pronounce, and curb the might
  Of wicked men. Your kind unfailing urns
  Not vainly to the hospitable arts
  Of Hermes yield their store. For, O ye Nymphs,
  Hath he not won [V] the unconquerable queen
  Of arms to court your friendship  You she owns
  The fair associates who extend her sway
  Wide o'er the mighty deep; and grateful things
  Of you she littereth, oft as from the shore                   140
  Of Thames, or Medway's vale, or the green banks
  Of Vecta, she her thundering navy leads
  To Calpe's [W] foaming channel, or the rough
  Cantabrian surge; her auspices divine
  Imparting to the senate and the prince
  Of Albion, to dismay barbaric kings,
  The Iberian, or the Celt. The pride of kings
  Was ever scorn'd by Pallas; and of old
  Rejoiced the virgin, from the brazen prow
  Of Athens o'er AEgina's gloomy surge, [X]                      150
  To drive her clouds and storms; o'erwhelming all
  The Persian's promised glory, when the realms
  Of Indus and the soft Ionian clime,
  When Libya's torrid champaign and the rocks
  Of cold Imaues join'd their servile bands,
  To sweep the sons of Liberty from earth.
  In vain; Minerva on the bounding prow
  Of Athens stood, and with the thunder's voice
  Denounced her terrors on their impious heads,
  And shook her burning aegis. Xerxes saw; [Y]                   160
  From Heracleum, on the mountain's height
  Throned in his golden car, he knew the sign
  Celestial; felt unrighteous hope forsake
  His faltering heart, and turn'd his face with shame.

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

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The Poetical Works of Mark AkensideAkenside, Mark

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The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

Akenside, Mark

English poetry -- 18th century

Such are the words of Hermes: such the praise,
  O Naiads, which from tongues celestial waits
  Your bounteous deeds. From bounty issueth power:
  And those who, sedulous in prudent works,
  Relieve the wants of nature, Jove repays                      130
  With noble wealth, and his own seat on earth,
  Pit judgments to pronounce, and curb the might
  Of wicked men. Your kind unfailing urns
  Not vainly to the hospitable arts
  Of Hermes yield their store. For, O ye Nymphs,
  Hath he not won [V] the unconquerable queen
  Of arms to court your friendship  You she owns
  The fair associates who extend her sway
  Wide o'er the mighty deep; and grateful things
  Of you she littereth, oft as from the shore                   140
  Of Thames, or Medway's vale, or the green banks
  Of Vecta, she her thundering navy leads
  To Calpe's [W] foaming channel, or the rough
  Cantabrian surge; her auspices divine
  Imparting to the senate and the prince
  Of Albion, to dismay barbaric kings,
  The Iberian, or the Celt. The pride of kings
  Was ever scorn'd by Pallas; and of old
  Rejoiced the virgin, from the brazen prow
  Of Athens o'er AEgina's gloomy surge, [X]                      150
  To drive her clouds and storms; o'erwhelming all
  The Persian's promised glory, when the realms
  Of Indus and the soft Ionian clime,
  When Libya's torrid champaign and the rocks
  Of cold Imaues join'd their servile bands,
  To sweep the sons of Liberty from earth.
  In vain; Minerva on the bounding prow
  Of Athens stood, and with the thunder's voice
  Denounced her terrors on their impious heads,
  And shook her burning aegis. Xerxes saw; [Y]                   160
  From Heracleum, on the mountain's height
  Throned in his golden car, he knew the sign
  Celestial; felt unrighteous hope forsake
  His faltering heart, and turn'd his face with shame.

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

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

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