“Beyond the vast Atlantic deep
A dome by viewless genii shall be raised,
The walls of adamant, compact and steep,
The portals with sky-tinctured gems emblazed:
There on a lofty throne shall Virtue stand;
To her the youth of Delaware shall kneel;
And when her smiles reign plenty o’er the land,
Bow, tyrants, bow beneath the avenging steel!
_Commerce with fleets shall mock the waves,_
_And Arts, that flourish not with slaves,_
_Dancing with every Grace and every Muse,_
_Shall bid the valleys laugh and heavenly beams diffuse._”
Wraxall remarks, that “here, in a fine frenzy of inspiration,” the
poet “seems to behold, as in a vision, the modern Washington and the
Congress met, after successfully throwing off all subjection to Great
Britain,” while “George the Third is pretty clearly designated in
the line apostrophizing tyrants.”[587] But to an American the most
captivating verses are those which open the vista of peaceful triumphs,
where Commerce and the Arts unite with every Grace and every Muse.
Kindred in sentiment were other contemporary verses by the anonymous
author of the “Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers,” now understood
to be the poet Mason,[588] which Wraxall praises for their beauty, but
condemns for their politics.[589] After describing the corruption of
the House of Commons under Lord North, the poet declares that it will
augment in enormity and profligacy,--
“Till, mocked and jaded with the puppet play,
Old England’s genius turns with scorn away,
Ascends his sacred bark, the sails unfurled,
_And steers his state to the wide Western World_.
High on the helm majestic Freedom stands;
In act of cold contempt she waves her hands:
‘Take, slaves,’ she cries, ‘the realms that I disown,
Renounce your birthright, and destroy my throne!’”[590]
The two poets united in a common cause. One transported to the other
side of the Atlantic the virtues which had been the glory of Britain,
and the other carried there nothing less than the sovereign genius of
the great nation itself.