GROWN sick of war, and war's alarms, Good George has changed his note at last -- Conquest and death have lost their charms; He and his nation stand aghast, To think what fearful lengths they've gone, And what a brink they stand upon. Old Bute and North, twin sons of hell, If you advised him to retreat Before our vanquished thousands fell, Prostrate, submissive at his feet: Awake once more his latent flame, And bid us yield you all you claim. The Macedonian wept and sighed Because no other world was found Where he might glut his rage and pride, And by its ruin be renowned; The world that Sawney wished to view George fairly had -- and lost it too! Let jarring powers make war or peace, Monster! -- no peace can greet your breast! Our murdered friends can never cease To hover round and break your rest! The Furies will your bosom tear, Remorse, distraction, and despair And hell, with all its fiends, be there! Cursed be the ship that e'er sets sail Hence, freighted for your odious shore; May tempests o'er her strength prevail, Destruction round her roar! May Nature all her aids deny, The sun refuse his light, The needle from its object fly, No star appear by night: Till the base pilot, conscious of his crime, Directs the prow to some more Christian clime. Genius! that first our race designed, To other kings impart The finer feelings of the mind, The virtues of the heart; Whene'er the honors of a throne Fall to the bloody and the base, Like Britain's tyrant, pull them down, Like his, be their disgrace! Hibernia, seize each native right! Neptune, exclude him from the main; Like her that sunk with all her freight, The Royal George, take all his fleet, And never let them rise again; Confine him to his gloomy isle, Let Scotland rule her half, Spare him to curse his fate awhile, And Whitehead, thou to write his epitaph. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPITAPH ON THE MONUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM DYER by KATHERINE DYER THE TWO TREES by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS KING EDWARD THE THIRD by WILLIAM BLAKE EPITAPH by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN NATALIA'S RESURRECTION: 29 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE WHITE WATCH (OPUS 28: NO. 3) by GORDON BOTTOMLEY SONG BY JULIUS ANGORA by EMILY JANE BRONTE |