The Poems of Philip Freneau Volume I Part 18

Or Roanoke's and James's limpid waves The sound of musick murmurs in the gale: Another Denham celebrates their flow, In gliding numbers and harmonious lays.

EUGENIO

Now in the bow'rs of Tuscororah hills, As once on Pindus all the muses stray, New Theban bards high soaring reach the skies And swim along thro' azure deeps of air.

LEANDER

From Alleghany in thick groves imbrown'd, Sweet music breathing thro' the shades of night Steals on my ear, they sing the origin Of those fair lights which gild the firmament; From whence the gale that murmurs in the pines; Why flows the stream down from the mountains brow And rolls the ocean lower than the land.

They sing the final destiny of things, The great result of all our labours here, The last day's glory, and the world renew'd.

Such are their themes, for in these happier days The bard enraptur'd scorns ign.o.ble strains, Fair science smiling and full truth revealed, The world at peace, and all her tumults o'er, The blissful prelude to Emanuel's reign.

EUGENIO

And when a train of rolling years are past, (So sang the exil'd seer in Patmos isle,) A new Jerusalem sent down from heav'n Shall grace our happy earth, perhaps this land, Whose virgin bosom shall then receive, tho' late, Myriads of saints with their almighty king, To live and reign on earth a thousand years Thence call'd Millennium. Paradise anew Shall flourish, by no second Adam lost.

No dang'rous tree or deathful fruit shall grow, No tempting serpent to allure the soul, From native innocence; a Canaan here Another Canaan shall excel the old, And from fairer Pisgah's top be seen.

No thistle here or briar or thorn shall spring, Earth's curse before: the lion and the lamb In mutual friendship link'd shall browse the shrub, And tim'rous deer with rabid tygers stray O'er mead or lofty hill or gra.s.sy plain.

Another Jordan's stream shall glide along And Siloah's brook in circling eddies flow, Groves shall adorn their verdant banks, on which The happy people free from second death Shall find secure repose; no fierce disease No fevers, slow consumption, direful plague Death's ancient ministers, again renew Perpetual war with man: Fair fruits shall bloom Fair to the eye, sweet to the taste, if such Divine inhabitants could need the taste Of elemental food, amid the joys, Fit for a heav'nly nature. Music's charms Shall swell the lofty soul and harmony Triumphant reign; thro' ev'ry grove shall sound The cymbal and the lyre, joys too divine For fallen man to know. Such days the world And such, America, thou first shall have When ages yet to come have run their round And future years of bliss alone remain.

ACASTO

This is thy praise. America, thy pow'r, Thou best of climes, by science visited, By freedom blest and richly stor'd with all The luxuries of life. Hail, happy land, The seat of empire, the abode of kings, The final stage where time shall introduce Renowned characters, and glorious works Of high invention and of wond'rous art Which not the ravages of time shall waste Till he himself has run his long career; Till all those glorious...o...b.. of light on high, The rolling wonders that surround the ball, Drop from their spheres extinguish'd and consum'd; When final ruin with her fiery car Rides o'er creation, and all nature's works Are lost in chaos and the womb of night.

The 1786 edition, which was evolved with such great changes from the original version, furnished the text of the 1795 edition. There were some twenty variations and three added lines, viz., lines 354, 427, 438.

Line 265 was changed from "Which full enjoyment only finds for fools,"

to its final form; line 352 was changed from "A thousand kingdoms rais'd;" line 360, from "Our Alexanders, Pompeys, heroes, kings;" line 371, from "One monarchy;" and 461, from "Death's ancient." The other changes were largely verbal, nearly all being for the better. For the edition of 1809, Freneau used the 1795 text, with some twenty-one variations and one added line, viz., line 67. These variations, which nearly all concern single words, are generally not at all for the better: for instance, "Shackle," in line 343, is changed to "people;"

"our sons," in line 365, is changed to "a race;" "were born," in 367, to "we exist;" and "strumpets," in 409, to "vagrants." Freneau's notes in the various editions were as follows:

62. Genesis x, 25.

100. Hor. Epod. 16.

207. 1755.

251. Hom. Odyss. B. 24.

328. Newton.

373. The Ma.s.sacre at Boston. March 5th, 1770, is here more particularly glanced at.

ON RETIREMENT[46]

(By Hezekiah Salem)

A hermit's house beside a stream, With forests planted round, Whatever it to you may seem More real happiness I deem Than if I were a monarch crown'd.

A cottage I could call my own, Remote from domes of care; A little garden walled with stone, The wall with ivy overgrown, A limpid fountain near,

Would more substantial joys afford, More real bliss impart Than all the wealth that misers h.o.a.rd, Than vanquish'd worlds, or worlds restored-- Mere cankers of the heart!

Vain, foolish man! how vast thy pride, How little can your wants supply!-- 'Tis surely wrong to grasp so wide-- You act as if you only had To vanquish--not to die!

[46] The t.i.tle in the edition of 1786 was "Retirement." In 1795 it was changed to "The Wish of Diogenes."

DISCOVERY[47]

Six thousand years in these dull regions pa.s.s'd, 'Tis time, you'll say, we knew their bounds at last, Knew to what skies our setting stars retire, And where the wintry suns expend their fire; What land to land protracts the varied scene, And what extended oceans roll between; What worlds exist beneath antarctic skies, And from Pacific waves what verdant islands rise.

In vain did Nature sh.o.r.e from sh.o.r.e divide: Art formed a pa.s.sage and her waves defied: When his bold plan the master pilot drew Dissevered worlds stept forward at the view, And lessening still the intervening s.p.a.ce, Disclosed new millions of the human race.

Proud even of toil, succeeding ages joined New seas to vanquish, and new worlds to find; Age following age still farther from the sh.o.r.e, Found some new wonder that was hid before, 'Till launched at length, with avarice doubly bold, Their hearts expanding as the world grew old, Some to be rich, and some to be renowned, The earth they rifled, and explored it round.

Ambitious Europe! polished in thy pride, Thine was the art that toil to toil allied, Thine was the gift, to trace each heavenly sphere, And seize its beams, to serve ambition here: Hence, fierce Pizarro stock'd a world with graves, Hence Montezuma left a race of slaves.-- Which project suited best with heaven's decree, To force new doctrines, or to leave them free?-- Religion only feigned to claim a share, Their riches, not their souls, employed your care.-- Alas! how few of all that daring train That seek new worlds embosomed in the main, How few have sailed on virtue's n.o.bler plan, How few with motives worthy of a man!-- While through the deep-sea waves we saw them go Where'er they found a man they made a foe; Superior only by superior art, Forgot the social virtues of the heart, Forgetting still, where'er they madly ran, That sacred friendship binds mankind to man, Fond of exerting power untimely shewn, The momentary triumph all their own!

Met on the wrecks and ravages of time, They left no native master of his clime, His trees, his towns, with hardened front they claimed, Seized every region that a despot named And forced the oath that bound him to obey Some prince unknown, ten thousand miles away.

Slaves to their pa.s.sions, man's imperious race, Born for contention, find no resting place, And the vain mind, bewildered and perplext, Makes this world wretched to enjoy the next.

Tired of the scenes that Nature made their own, They rove to conquer what remains unknown: Avarice, undaunted, claims whate'er she sees, Surmounts earth's circle, and foregoes all ease: Religion, bolder, sends some sacred chief To bend the nations to her own belief.

To their vain standard Europe's sons invite, Who hold no other world can think aright.

Behold their varied tribes, with self applause, First in religion, liberty, and laws, And while they bow to cruelty and blood, Condemn the Indian with his milder G.o.d.-- Ah, race to justice, truth, and honour blind, Are thy convictions to convert mankind!-- Vain pride--convince them that your own are just, Or leave them happy, as you found them first.

What charm is seen through Europe's realms of strife That adds new blessings to the savage life?-- On them warm suns with equal splendor shine, Their each domestic pleasure equals thine, Their native groves as soft a bloom display, As self-contented roll their lives away, And the gay soul, in fancy's visions blest, Leaves to the care of chance her heaven of rest.

What are the arts that rise on Europe's plan But arts destructive to the bliss of man?

What are all wars, where'er the marks you trace, But the sad records of our world's disgrace?

Reason degraded from her tottering throne, And precepts, called divine, observed by none.

Blest in their distance from that b.l.o.o.d.y scene, Why spread the sail to pa.s.s the gulphs between?-- If winds can waft to ocean's utmost verge, And there new islands and new worlds emerge-- If wealth, or war, or science bid thee roam, Ah, leave religion and thy laws at home, Leave the free native to enjoy his store, Nor teach destructive arts, unknown before-- Woes of their own those new found worlds invade, There, too, fierce pa.s.sions the weak soul degrade, Invention there has winged the unerring dart, There the swift arrow vibrates to the heart.

Revenge and death contending bosoms share, And pining envy claims her subjects there.

Are these too few?--then see despotic power Spends on a throne of logs her busy hour.

Hard by, and half ambitious to ascend, Priests, interceding with the G.o.ds, attend-- Atoning victims at their shrines they lay, Their crimson knives tremendous rites display, Or the proud despot's gore remorseless shed.

Through life detested, or adored when dead.

Born to be wretched, search this globe around, Dupes to a few the race of man is found!

Seek some new world in some new climate plac'd, Some gay Ta-ia[A] on the watery waste, Though Nature clothes in all her bright array, Some proud tormentor steals her charms away: Howe'er she smiles beneath those milder skies, Though men decay the monarch never dies!

Howe'er the groves, howe'er the gardens bloom, A monarch and a priest is still their doom!

[A] Commonly called Otaheite, an island in the Southern Pacific Ocean, noted for the natural civilization of its inhabitants.--_Freneau's note._

[47] The edition of 1786 has the date 1772 for this poem. Very little change was made in the text for the later editions.

THE PICTURES OF COLUMBUS,

THE GENOESE[48]

PICTURE I.

Columbus making Maps[A]

[A] History informs us this was his original profession: and from the disproportionate vacancy observable in the drafts of that time between Europe and Asia to the west, it is most probable he first took the idea of another continent, lying in a parallel direction to, and existing between both.--_Freneau's note._