PART III.

Poets-The late Percy Byshe Shelley-Campbell-Sou

THE REPROOF OF BRUTUS.

PART III.

Sed Vatem egregium, cui non sit publica vena,
Qui nihil expositum soleat deducere, nec qui

Communi feriat carmen triviale monetâ.

JUVENALIS Sat. vii.

A TIME there was when Poets led the way, And hail'd the dawning of a brighter day; Prophetic bards-whose glance, extending far Beyond their age, beheld the rising star Of science glitter with its varied hues,

And o'er the world its hallow'd light transfuse.

Where now the minds with glowing wisdom

fraught?

Alas! our Poets must themselves be taught:
No cheering hopes, no blissful truths are sung-
The muse neglected, and the lyre unstrung.

And how can ye descry a distant ray,
Who, all-unconscious of the risen day,

When science pours abundance thro' the land,
Though barbarous laws consign a wretched band
To abject want-to unrequited toil-

Or drive them exiles from their native soil?

When the first EDWARD led his hostile bands Along the vale in Cambria's distant lands, He paused to hear th' indignant bard on high Sublimely pour his stormy minstrelsy.

What if no foreign chiefs our shores invade,Shall stripling lords their country's sons degrade, The weak descendants of a noble race,

Whose fading honours only stamp disgrace

For virtues long since fled;-shall these dare

bind

The ardent struggling energies of mind;
Debase man's form; and yet no patriot brave
Remorseless despots, and their victims save?
If warlike EDWARD, though in conflict bold,
Trembled to hear his awful doom foretold;
Shall not a puny race, with finer nerve,
From hidden paths of dire oppression swerve,

* There are so many intermediate agents between the rich and the poor, that the former, although absorbing almost all the produce of labour, are seldom regarded as the real oppressors. Tenants, whose high rents and diminished profits compel them to adopt a rigid economy; stewards and bailiffs, who are bound to make as large a revenue as possible for their employers; the various officers of justice, whose duties are imperative. These classes coming in immediate contact with the poor, bear all the odium of exacting from the labourer the fruits of his exertions.

When bards arise, inflamed with holy zeal,
To truth and justice make the loud appeal,
To drooping friendless virtue hope impart,
And fill with deep alarm the tyrant's heart?

Farewell, lamented SHELLEY, fled too soon To witness others' joys, the greatest boon Sought by thy fervent spirit-to impart The constant yearning of thy feeling heart; Whose early incense at the shrine of truth Brought persecution on thy sanguine youth; Who wisdom sought amid Idalian bowers, And strew'd our philosophic paths with flowers; Who on truth's triumphs could so ably dwell, And joys prospective who could sing so well! When angry zealots vilify thy name,

And 'gainst thy conscientious doubts declaim, Who think to them some special grace is given,

To lead on others in the road to heaven;