The trumpet's clangors pierce my ear,
A thousand widows' shrieks I hear.
Give me another horse, I cry,

Lo the base Gallic squadrons fly :-
Whence is this rage?-what spirit, say,
To battle hurries me away?

'Tis Fancy, in her fiery car,
Transports me to the thickest war,
There whirls me o'er the hills of slain,
Where tumult and destruction reign,
Where mad with pain the wounded steed
Tramples the dying and the dead:
Where giant terror stalks around,
With sullen joy surveys the ground,
And pointing to the ensanguined field
Shakes his dreadful Gorgon shield."

Strike the lyre.-The lyre is a musical instrument no longer in use; but among the ancients it was considered as one of the insignia, ensigns or marks of distinction of Apollo. It was said that Mercury was the inventor of the lyre, and that he sold his invention to Apollo

F

for the caduceus, a rod with two snakes twisted round it. This rod had various wonderful powers attributed to it; an account of which may be found in Lempriere.

I feel, &c.-The poet imagines that his bosom swells with high thoughts and warlike sentiments, that he hears the noises that accompany war, and that he sees the enemy flying before him, and like a true Englishman, he supposes that the that the enemy must be Gallic,

that is, French.

The remainder of this passage is sublime from its being terrific. The giant terror is described with wonderful force and effect.

Ensanguined.-A poetical word for

bloody.

Gorgon shield.-This Gorgon shield is of great notoriety in heathen my

thology. The Gorgon's head was sculptured on the shield of Minerva, and it excited such terror as benumbed the beholder. The story of this famous head is told at length in Ovid's metamorphoses, and may be found, but not complete, in Lempriere's Dictionary. Perseus the son of Jupiter and Danae, by the assistance of Minerva, Mercury, and Pluto, cut off the head of Medusa, who had the tremendous faculty of turning every body whom she fixed her eyes upon to stone. Minerva furnished him with a polished shield which he used as a glass, and by looking at the reflexion of Medusa in this shield, he cut off her head with a sword called Herpe or Harpen, which Vulcan had given to him. Her sister Gorgons, who were immortal, would have soon destroyed him had hẹ

not been rendered invisible by a helmet which had been given to him by Pluto.

The helmet of Pluto might represent secrecy or darkness. Medusa was one of three sisters who reigned in three islands near Africa; it was said that they had but one eye, because one wise minister (Phorcas) managed all their affairs, and Perseus stealing this eye, meant that he took the ship in which this minister was going from one island to another. It was also said that these beautiful ladies had but one tooth, that is to say, that this same wise minister alone supplied the dominions of his three sovereigns with provi sions.

After various adventures, the head of Medusa, that petrified or turned into stone every person who beheld it, was placed on the shield of Minerva—

which shield was called her ægis-and the Gorgon or Medusa's head ever after was an emblem of terror.

"Oh guide me from this horrid scene
To high arch'd walks and alleys green.”

The succeeding lines are but indif ferent, and are not suited to the rest of the poem, they are

omitted here.

therefore

"When young eyed Spring profusely throws, From her green lap the pink and rose,

When the soft turtle of the dale

To Summer tells her tender tale,
When Autumn cooling caverns seeks,
And stains with wine his jolly cheeks;
When Winter like poor pilgrim old,
Shakes his silver beard with cold,

At every season let my ear

Thy solemn whispers Fancy hear."

When young eyed Spring.-Spring