Bold Spirit! who art free to rove Among the starry courts of Jove, 15 And oft in splendour dost appear Embodied to poetic eyes, While traversing this nether sphere, Where Mortals call thee ENTERPRISE. Daughter of Hope! her favourite Child, 20 Whom she to young Ambition[413] bore, When hunter's arrow first defiled The grove, and stained the turf with gore; Thee wingèd Fancy took, and nursed On broad Euphrates' palmy shore, 25 And[414] where the mightier Waters burst From caves of Indian mountains hoar! She wrapped thee in a panther's skin; And Thou, thy favourite food to win, The flame-eyed eagle oft would scare 30 From her rock-fortress in mid air, With infant shout; and often sweep,[415] Paired with the ostrich, o'er the plain; Or,[416] tired with sport, wouldst sink asleep Upon the couchant lion's mane! 35 With rolling years thy strength increased; And, far beyond thy native East, To thee, by varying titles known As variously thy power was shown, Did incense-bearing altars rise, 40 Which caught the blaze of sacrifice, From suppliants panting for the skies! II What though this ancient Earth be trod No more by step of Demi-god Mounting from glorious deed to deed 45 As thou from clime to clime didst lead; Yet still, the bosom beating high, And the hushed farewell of an eye Where no procrastinating gaze A last infirmity betrays, 50 Prove that thy heaven-descended sway Shall ne'er submit to cold decay. By thy divinity impelled, The Stripling seeks the tented field; The aspiring Virgin kneels; and, pale 55 With awe, receives the hallowed veil, A soft and tender Heroine Vowed to severer discipline; Inflamed by thee, the blooming Boy Makes of the whistling shrouds a toy, 60 And of the ocean's dismal breast A play-ground,--or a couch of rest; 'Mid the blank world of snow and ice, Thou to his dangers dost enchain The[417] Chamois-chaser awed in vain 65 By chasm or dizzy precipice; And hast Thou not with triumph seen How soaring Mortals glide between Or through the clouds,[418] and brave the light With bolder than Icarian flight? 70 How they, in bells[419] of crystal, dive-- Where winds and waters cease to strive-- For no unholy visitings, Among the monsters of the Deep; And all the sad and precious things 75 Which there in ghastly silence sleep? Or, adverse tides and currents headed, And breathless calms no longer dreaded,