Verses written during the War, 1756–1763

Go, lovely boy! to yonder tow'r,
The fane of Janus, ruthless King!
And shut, O! shut the brazen door,
And here the keys in triumph bring.

Full many a tender heart hath bled,
Its joys in Belgia's soil entomb'd:
Which thou to Hymen's smiling bed,
And length of sweetest hours, had doom'd.

Oh glory! you to ruin owe
The fairest plume the hero wears:
Raise the bright helmet from his brow;
You'll mock, beneath, the manly tears,

Who does not burn to place the crown
Of conquest on his Albion's head?
Who weeps not at her plaintive moan,
To give her hapless orphans bread?

Forgive, ye brave, the generous fault,
If thus my virtue fails; alone
My Delia stole my earliest thought,
And fram'd its feelings by her own.

Her mind so pure, her face so fair;
Her breast the seat of softest love;
It seem'd her words an angel's were,
Her gentle precepts from above.

My mind thus form'd, to misery gave
The tender tribute of a tear:
O! Belgia, open thy vast grave,
For I could pour an ocean there.

When first you show'd me at your feet
Pale liberty, religion tied,
I flew to shut the glorious gate
Of freedom on a tyrant's pride.

Tho' great the cause, so wore with woes:
I cannot but lament the deed:
My youth to melancholy bows,
And Clotho trifles with my thread.

But stop, my Clio, wanton muse,
Indulge not this unmanly strain:
Beat, beat the drums, my ardour rouse,
And call the soldier back again.

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife,
Throughout the sensual world proclaim,
One crouded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.

Go then, thou little lovely boy,
I cannot, must not, hear thee now;
And all thy soothing arts employ
To cheat my Delia of her woe.

If the gay flow'r, in all its youth,
The scythe of glory here must meet,
Go, bear my laurel, pledge of truth,
And lay it at my Delia's feet.

Her tears shall keep it ever green,
To crown the image in her breast;
Till death doth close the hapless scene,
And calls its angel home to rest.