SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven ;
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Task-Master's eye.
Ill
WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED
TO THE CITY
/^ APTAIN, or Colonel, or Knight in arms,
Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,
If ever deed of honour did thee please,
Guard them, and him within protect from harms.
He can requite thee, for he knows the charms 5
That call fame on such gentle acts as these,
And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas,
Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms.
Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower:
The great Emathian conqueror did spare 10
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground; and the repeated air
Of sad Electra's poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.
IV
ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT
\ VENGE, O Lord, Thy slaughtered Saints, whose
'**• bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold,
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old
Wher; all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones,
Forget not: in Thy book record their groans 5
• Who were Thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese that rolled
Mother with infant down the-rocks. Their-moans
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