Shep. Yet the woods, the rocks, the streams, Unbeloved, shall bring to mind, Warm with evening's purple beams, Dearer objects left behind.

And thy native country's song,
Carolled in a foreign clime,
When new echoes shall prolong,—
Simple, tender, and sublime,-

How will thy poor cheek turn pale!
And, before thy banished eyes,
Underwalden's charming vale
And thine own sweet cottage rise!

Wand. By the glorious ghost of TELL!
By Morgarthen's awful fray!
By the field where Albert fell
In thy last and bitter day!

SOUL OF SWITZERLAND, arise!-
Ha! the spell has waked the dead :
From her ashes to the skies
Switzerland exalts her head!

See the Queen of Mountains stand,
In immortal mail complete,
With the lightning in her hand,
And the Alps beneath her feet.

Hark! her voice:- 66 My sons, awake!
Freedom dawns, behold the day!
From the bed of bondage break:
'Tis your mother calls,- obey!"

At the sound, our fathers'

graves,

On each ancient battle-plain,

Utter groans, and toss like waves
When the wild blast sweeps the main.

Rise, my brethren! cast away
All the chains that bind you slaves:
Rise! your mother's voice obey,
And appease your fathers' graves!

Strike!-the conflict is begun;
Freemen soldiers! follow me!
Shout!-the victory is won,-
Switzerland and liberty!

Shep. Warrior! warrior! stay thine arm! Sheathe, oh, sheathe thy frantic sword! Wand. Ah, I rave!-I faint!-the charm Flies, and memory is restored!

Yes, to agony restored

From the too transporting charm:—
Sleep for ever, O my sword!
Be thou withered, O mine arm!

Switzerland is but a name!

Yet I feel, where'er I roam,

That my heart is still the same-
Switzerland is still my home!

THE

WEST INDIES.

A Poem in Four Parts.

WRITTEN IN HONOUR OF THE ABOLITION OF THE AFRICAN
SLAVE TRADE BY THE BRITISH LEGISLATURE,
IN 1807.

"Receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved."-Phil, v. 15, 16.

THE WEST INDIES.

PART I.

ARGUMENT.

Introduction; on the Abolition of the Slave Trade-The Mariner's CompassColumbus-The Discovery of America-The West Indian Islands-The Charibs --Their Extermination.

HY chains are broken, Africa, be free!"

Thus saith the island-empress of the sea;
Thus saith Britannia-O ye winds and waves!
Waft the glad tidings to the land of slaves;
Proclaim on Guinea's coast, by Gambia's side,
And far as Niger rolls his eastern tide,
Through radiant realms, beneath the burning zone,
Where Europe's curse is felt, her name unknown,
"Thus saith Britannia, empress of the sea,
Thy chains are broken, Africa, be free!"

Long lay the ocean-paths from man concealed;
Light came from heaven,--the magnet was revealed,
A surer star to guide the seaman's eye
Than the pale glory of the northern sky;
Alike ordained to shine by night and day,

Through calm and tempest, with unsetting ray;
Where'er the mountains rise, the billows roll
Still with strong impulse turning to the pole,
True as the sun is to the morning true,
Though light as film, and trembling as the dew.
Then man no longer plied with timid oar,
And failing heart, along the windward shore;
Broad to the sky he turned his fearless sail,
Defied the adverse, wooed the favouring gale,
Bared to the storm his adamantine breast,
Or soft on ocean's lap lay down to rest;
While free, as clouds the liquid ether sweep,

His white-winged vessels coursed the unbounded deep ;
From clime to clime the wanderer loved to roam,

The waves his heritage, the world his home.

Then first Columbus, with the mighty hand
Of grasping genius, weighed the sea and land;
The floods o'erbalanced :—where the tide of light,
Day after day, rolled down the gulf of night,
There seemed one waste of waters :-long in vain
His spirit brooded o'er the Atlantic main;
When sudden as creation burst from nought,
Sprang a new world through his stupendous thought,
Light, order, beauty!-While his mind explored
The unveiling mystery, his heart adored;
Where'er sublime imagination trod,

He heard the voice, he saw the face of GOD.
Far from the western cliffs he cast his eye
O'er the wide ocean stretching to the sky:
In calm magnificence the sun declined,
And left a Paradise of clouds behind :
Proud at his feet, with pomp of pearl and gold,
The billows in a sea of glory rolled.

“Ah! on this sea of glory might I sail,
Track the bright sun, and pierce the eternal veil
That hides those lands, beneath Hesperian skies,
Where daylight sojourns till our morrow rise!

Thoughtful he wandered on the beach alone;
Mild o'er the deep the vesper planet shone,
The eye of evening, brightening through the west
Till the sweet moment when it shut to rest :
"Whither, O golden Venus! art thou fled?
Not in the ocean-chambers lies thy bed;
Round the dim world thy glittering chariot drawn
Pursues the twilight, or precedes the dawn;
Thy beauty noon and midnight never see,
The morn and eve divide the year with thee.”
Soft fell the shades, till Cynthia's slender bow
Crested the furthest wave, then sunk below:
"Tell me, resplendent guardian of the night,
Circling the sphere in thy perennial flight,
What secret path of heaven thy smiles adorn,
What nameless sea reflects thy gleaming horn?"
Now earth and ocean vanished, all serene

The starry firmament alone was seen;

Through the slow, silent hours, he watched the host

Of midnight suns in western darkness lost,.

Till Night himself, on shadowy pinions borne,

Fled o'er the mighty waters, and the morn

Danced on the mountains;-" Lights of heaven!" he cried, "Lead on ;-I go to win a glorious bride;