Lines, Extempore, by Thomas Paine, July 1803 Thomas Paine Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Cleary, Scott M., ed. Claeys, Gregory, gen. ed. Thomas Paine Collected Writings. Vol. II. Part 2: Poetry. Princeton Princeton UP 2026 pp. []-[]. 5 Volumes.

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Lines , Extempore , by Thomas Paine , July 1803 Quick as the light’ning’s vivid flash , The poet’s eye o’er Europe rolls , Sees battles rage — hears tempests crash , And dims at horror’s threatening scowls . Marks ambition’s ruthless king , With crimson’d banners scalp the globe , While trailing after conquest’s wing , Man’s fest’ring wounds his demon’s probe . Pall’d with the streams of reeking gore , That stain the proud imperial day , He turns to view the western shore , Where freedom holds her bloodless sway . ’Tis here her rage triumphant sways , An empire in the people’s love , ’Tis here the sovereign will obeys , No King but he who rules above .