Your country's good, Your country's' full-blown glory greet. What pow'rful charm Can death disarm? Your long, your iron slumbers break? By George's name, Awake! awake! awake! awake! With spiral shell, Full blasted, tell, That all your wat'ry realms should ring; Your coral groves, Should echo theirs, and Britain's king. As long as stars Guide mariners, As Carolina's virtues please, Or suns invite The ravish'd sight, The British flag shall sweep the seas. Peculiar both! Our soil's strong growth, And our bold natives' hardy mind; Our hearts and oak, To give a master to mankind. That noblest birth Of teeming earth, 1 Written soon after King George the First's accession. Of forests fair, that daughter proud, Our grandeur boasts, And Britain's pleasure speaks aloud: Sends fate from far, If rebel realms their fate demand; Of foreign soils Pours in the bosom of our land. Hence Britain lays In scales, and weighs The fate of kingdoms, and of kings; Or smiles, on crowns A night, or day of glory, springs. Thus ocean swells The streams and rills, And to their borders lifts them high; The mighty cause, And leaves their famish'd channels dry. How mixt, how frail, How sure to fail, Is every pleasure of mankind! A damp destroys My blooming joys, While Britain's glory fires my mind. For who can gaze On restless seas, Unstruck with life's more restless state? Where all are tost, And most are lost, By tides of passion, blasts of fate? The world's the main, How vext! how vain! Ambition swells, and anger foams; May good men find, Beneath the wind, A noiseless shore, unruffled homes! The public scene Of harden'd men Teach me, O teach me to despise ! But to their woe, Our crimes with our experience rise; All tender sense Is banish'd thence, All maiden nature's first alarms Disgust no more, And what disgusted has its charms. In landscapes green True bliss is seen, With innocence, in shades, she sports; In wealthy towns Proud labour frowns, And painted sorrow smiles in courts. These scenes untried Seduc'd my pride, To fortune's arrows bar'd my breast; A hoary dame! And told me pleasure was in rest. "O may I steal Along the vale Of humble life, secure from foes! My judgment clear! And gentle business my repose! "My mind be strong To combat wrong! Grateful, O king! for favours shown! Soft to complain For others' pain! And bold to triumph o'er my own! "(When fortune's kind) Acute to find, And warm to relish every boon! Fantastic ill, Whose frightful spectres stalk at noon! "No fruitless toils! No brainless broils! Each moment levell'd at the mark! Our day so short Invites to sport; Be sad and solemn when 'tis dark. "Yet, prudence, still Rein thou my will! What's most important, make most dear! For 'tis in this Resides true bliss ; True bliss, a deity severe ! "When temper leans To gayer scenes, And serious life void moments spares, Or The sylvan chase My sinews brace ! song unbend my mind from cares! "Nor shun, my soul! The genial bowl, Where mirth, good nature, spirit, flow! Ingredients these, Above, to please The laughing gods, the wise, below. "Though rich the vine, More wit, than wine, More sense, than wit, good-will than art, May I provide ! Fair truth, my pride! My joy, the converse of the heart! "The gloomy brow, The broken vow, To distant climes, ye gods! remove! Their commerce hold With words of truth and looks of love! "O glorious aim ! |