The poetical works of Mark Akenside.

  • Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poetical works of Mark Akenside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Fame, virtue, freedom, welcome ! Ob ! forgive The Muse, that, ardent in her sacred cause, Your glory questioned; she beholds with joy, She owns, she triumphs in her wished mistake. See! from her sea-beat throne in awful march Britannia towers : upon her laurel crest The plumes majestic nod ; behold she heaves Her guardian shield, and, terrible in arms, For battle shakes her adamantine spear : Loud at her foot the British lion roars, Frighting the nations; haughty Spain full soon Shall hear and tremble. Go then, Britons, forth, Your country's daring champions ; tell your foes, Tell them in thunders o’er their prostrate land, You were not born for slaves : let all your deeds Show that the sons of those immortal men, The stars of shining story, are not slow In virtue’s path to emulate their sires, T' assert their country’s rights, avenge her sons, And hurl the bolts of justice on her foes. HYMN TO SCIENCE.* “ 0 vitae Philosophia dux! 0 virtutis indagatrix, ex- pultrixque vitiorum.—Tu urbes peperisti; tu inventrix legum, tu magistra morum ct discipline fuisti: Ad te confugimus, a te opem petimus.”—Cic. Tus. Qu. lib. v. c. 2. CIENCE ! thou Fair effusive ray From the great source of mental day, Free, generous, and refined ! Descendwith all thy treasures fraught, Illumine each bewildered thought, And bless my labouring mind. * First published in the Gentleman’s Maq. for Oct 1739. y