![[frontispiece]](/images/authors/colour-portraits/banner-frontispiece.jpg)
![[section of text]](/images/screenshots/ECPA-snippet5.jpg)
![[poet writing]](/images/authors/colour-portraits/banner-poet.jpg)
[Page [140]]ODE TO PEACE. *
ODE TO PEACE. ** The Peace signed at Amiens, between the French and English, in 1801.
I.
[Page 141]1 She comes, benign enchantress, heav'n born PEACE!
2 With mercy beaming in her radiant eye;
3 She bids the horrid din of battle cease,
4 And at her glance the savage passions die.
5 'Tis Nature's festival, let earth rejoice,
6 And pour to Liberty exulting songs,
7 In distant regions, with according voice,
8 Let Man the vict'ry bless, its prize to Man belongs.
II.
9 Resistless Freedom! when she nerves the arm,
10 No vulgar triumph crowns the hero's might;
11 She, she alone can spread a moral charm
12 O'er war's fell deeds, and sanctify the fight.
13 O, GALLIA! in this bright immortal hour,
14 How proud a trophy binds thy laurel'd brow!
15 Republic, hail! whose independent power
16 All earth contested once, all earth confesses now.
III.
[Page 142]17 Protecting spirits of the glorious dead!
18 Ah, not in vain the hero's noble toil,
19 Ah, not in vain the patriot's blood is shed,
20 That blood shall consecrate his native soil.
21 Illustrious names! to hist'ry's record dear,
22 And breath'd when some high impulse fires the bard,
23 For you shall virtue pour the glowing tear,
24 And your remember'd deeds shall still your country guard.
IV.
25 And thou, lov'd BRITAIN, my parental Isle!
26 Secure, encircled by thy subject waves,
27 Thou, land august, where Freedom rear'd her pile,
28 While gothic night obscur'd a world of slaves;
29 Thy genius, that indignant heard the shock
30 Of frantic combat, strife unmeet for thee,
31 Now views triumphant, from his sea-girt rock,
32 Thee unsubdued alone, for thou alone wert free!
V.
[Page 143]33 O, happy thy misguided efforts fail'd,
34 My Country! when with tyrant-hosts combin'd —
35 O, hideous conquest, had thy sword prevail'd,
36 And crown'd the impious league against mankind!
37 Thou nurse of great design, of lofty thought,
38 What homicide, had thy insensate rage
39 Effac'd the sacred lesson thou hast taught,
40 And with thy purest blood inscrib'd on glory's page.
VI.
41 Ah, rather haste to Concord's holy shrine,
42 Ye rival nations, haste with joy elate;
43 Your blending garlands round her altar twine,
44 And bind the wounds of no immortal hate:
45 Go — breathe responsive rituals o'er the sod
46 Where Freedom martyrs press an early grave;
47 Go — vow that never shall their turf be trod
48 By the polluting step of tyrant or of slave.
VII.
[Page 144]49 And from your shores the abject vices chase,
50 That low Ambition generous souls disdain,
51 Corruption blasting every moral grace,
52 Servility that kneels to bless his chain;
53 O, Liberty, those demons far remove,
54 Come, nymph severely good, sublimely great!
55 Nor to the raptur'd hope of mortals prove
56 Like those illusive dreams that pass the iv'ry gate.
[VIII.]
57 New Age! that roll'st o'er man thy dawning year,
58 Ah, sure all happy omens hail thy birth,
59 Sure whiter annals in thy train appear,
60 And purer glory cheers the gladden'd earth:
61 Like the young eagle, when his stedfast glance
62 Meets the full sun-beam in his upward flight,
63 So thou shalt with majestic step advance,
64 And fix thy dauntless eye on Liberty and Light.
Text
- TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 148K / ZIP - 16K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
- Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 2.9K / ZIP - 1.7K)
Facsimile (Source Edition)
(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)
Images
- Image #1 (JPEG - 4.7M)
- Image #2 (JPEG - 4.8M)
- Image #3 (JPEG - 4.8M)
- Image #4 (JPEG - 4.8M)
- Image #5 (JPEG - 4.7M)
All Images (PDF - 5.3M)
About this text
Author: Helen Maria Williams
Themes:
liberty; war
Genres:
ode
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Williams, Helen Maria, 1759-1827. Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, pp. [140]-144. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Helen Maria Williams
- AN ADDRESS TO POETRY. ()
- AN AMERICAN TALE. ()
- THE BASTILLE, A VISION. ()
- THE CHARTER; ADDRESSED TO MY NEPHEW ATHANASE C. L. COQUEREL, ON HIS WEDDING DAY, 1819. ()
- THE COMPLAINT OF THE GODDESS OF THE GLACIERS TO DOCTOR DARWIN. ()
- DULCE DOMUM, AN OLD LATIN ODE. ()
- DUNCAN, AN ODE. ()
- EDWIN AND ELTRADA, A LEGENDARY TALE. (); EDWIN AND ELTRUDA. ()
- ELEGY ON A YOUNG THRUSH, WHICH ESCAPED FROM THE WRITER'S HAND, AND FALLING DOWN THE AREA OF A HOUSE, COULD NOT BE FOUND. ()
- EUPHELIA, AN ELEGY. ()
- HYMN, IMITATED FROM THE FRENCH. ()
- HYMN, WRITTEN AMONG THE ALPS. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- IMITATION OF LINES ADDRESSED BY M. D—, A YOUNG MAN OF TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF AGE, THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS EXECUTION, TO A YOUNG LADY TO WHOM HE WAS ENGAGED. — 1794. ()
- IMITATION OF LINES WRITTEN BY ROUCHER, BELOW HIS PICTURE, WHICH A FELLOW-PRISONER HAD DRAWN, AND WHICH HE SENT TO HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN THE DAY BEFORE HIS EXECUTION. — 1794. ()
- LINES ADDRESSED TO A. C., AN INFANT, ON HIS FIRST NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1821. ()
- LINES ON THE TOMB OF A FAVOURITE DOG. ()
- LINES TO HELEN, A NEW-BORN INFANT, 1821. ()
- LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE BARONESS D' H——, TO HER TWO DAUGHTERS. ()
- LINES WRITTEN ON THE PILLAR ERECTING TO THE MEMORY OF MR. BARLOW, Minister of the United States at Paris, WHO DIED AT NAROWITCH IN POLAND, ON HIS RETURN FROM WILNA, DEC. 26, 1812. ()
- THE LINNET AND THE CAT. ()
- THE MORAI. ()
- ON THE BILL WHICH WAS PASSED IN ENGLAND FOR REGULATING THE SLAVE-TRADE; A SHORT TIME BEFORE ITS ABOLITION. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PARAPHRASE. ()
- PART OF AN IRREGULAR FRAGMENT. ()
- PERUVIAN TALES. ()
- QUEEN MARY'S COMPLAINT. ()
- SCOTCH BALLAD. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONNET ON READING BURNS' “MOUNTAIN DAISY.” ()
- SONNET TO DISAPPOINTMENT. ()
- SONNET TO EXPRESSION. ()
- SONNET TO HOPE. ()
- SONNET TO LOVE. ()
- SONNET TO MRS. BATES. ()
- SONNET TO MRS. SIDDONS. ()
- SONNET TO PEACE OF MIND. ()
- SONNET TO SIMPLICITY. ()
- SONNET TO THE CALBASSIA-TREE. ()
- SONNET TO THE CURLEW. ()
- SONNET TO THE MOON. ()
- SONNET TO THE STRAWBERRY. ()
- SONNET TO THE TORRID ZONE. ()
- SONNET TO THE WHITE-BIRD OF THE TROPIC. ()
- SONNET TO TWILIGHT. ()
- TO A FRIEND, WHO SENT ME FLOWERS, WHEN CONFINED BY ILLNESS. ()
- TO DR. MOORE, IN ANSWER TO A POETICAL EPISTLE WRITTEN TO ME BY HIM IN WALES, SEPTEMBER 1791. ()
- TO JAMES FORBES, ESQ. Author of “The Oriental Memoirs,” WHO ASKED FOR SOME LINES OF MY HAND-WRITING ON LEAVING FRANCE, AFTER HIS CAPTIVITY AT VERDUN. ()
- TO JAMES FORBES, ESQ. ON HIS BRINGING ME FLOWERS FROM VAUCLUSE, AND WHICH HE HAD PRESERVED BY MEANS OF AN INGENIOUS PROCESS IN THEIR ORIGINAL BEAUTY. ()
- TO MRS. K—, ON HER SENDING ME ENGLISH CHRISTMAS PLUMB-CAKE, AT PARIS. ()
- TO SENSIBILITY. ()
- TO THE BARON DE HUMBOLDT, ON HIS BRINGING ME SOME FLOWERS IN MARCH. ()
- THE TRAVELLERS IN HASTE; ADDRESSED TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ESQ. IN 1814, WHEN MANY ENGLISH ARRIVED AT PARIS, BUT REMAINED A VERY SHORT TIME. ()
- VERSES ADDRESSED TO MY TWO NEPHEWS, ON SAINT HELEN'S DAY, 1809. ()