Ode VIII. the Cradle of Shakespear

Child of wonder! Child of wonder! Monarch of the feeling heart! Wielder wild of Terror's thunder, Pleasure's flame, and Pity's dart! When thou wert born the queen of night In silence shed her lovely light; While every minim of the green To share thy smiles forsook her sheen, Forsook the grove, forsook the glade To find the cot where thou wert laid: There dancing o'er the hallowed hearth, Each blessed by turns thy sacred birth. 'Lo' Ariel cried, 'a tender tale 'Coned from a dying nightingale, The melting bliss of sadness bearing, 'Save I for thy infant hearing; 'The sigh of love, the plaint of care, 'The piercing accents of despair. 'I will guide thy step ere long 'Where the red-breast lisps her song 'To Pity's ear: and when the blast 'Desolates the howling waste, 'We will seek the rocky cell 'Where giant Horror loves to dwell, 'Listening to the dismal roar 'Of waves that dash the savage shore, 'Or shrieks of death that float afar 'From the sanguine plain of war, 'Where Slaughter spurs in furious mood 'His sable steed, besmeared with blood, 'Thro' files that strive, thro' files that fly 'With wings of dread, or daring die; 'Till from his loud trump Rage supply 'The lofty peal of victory, 'And Fear, astonied at the sound, 'Hurries from the horrid bound, 'Her haggard glance reverting still 'As Danger rears his outcry shrill. 'Then thro' the bleak air will we sally 'To where amid some murky valley, 'White with bones of mortals slain 'By pining grief or racking pain, 'The weird sisters weave the spell 'That thrills the latent powers of hell, 'Who rising from the molten mound, 'With sullen darkness circled round, 'Pervert the iron laws of fate 'To fill the beldams deadly hate. 'Yet tho' fell Envy should call forth 'Her blacker brood that prey on worth, 'And Censure point with leering eye 'The path that leads to infamy, 'Their clouds unblest shall swell in vain 'To check the lustre of thy reign, 'Maintained by every victor art 'That chills the soul, or charms the heart. 'Such powers I give. Successive days 'Shall add new verdure to the bays 'That from malevolent dews shall shade 'The sacred honours of thy head. 'While Nature holds her league with Time, 'Thro' every period, every clime, 'Never shalt thou and Glory sander, 'Child of wonder! Child of wonder! 'Behold,' said Florimel, 'I bring 'Each flower that gratulates the Spring, 'All on the verdant banks that beam 'Of lonely Avon's azure stream, 'With roses from the Pestan thore 'Wrapt in a veil that Beauty wore. 'Joys that carol, Sports that stray 'O'er laughing Pleasure's primrose way, 'Attend, attend my votive lay, 'Here to your bard due homage pay— 'Avaunt, avaunt!' in sullen tone Rose the dread voice of Oberon, 'With brighter tints thy morn I varnish, 'Prouder spoils thy cradle garnish. 'Let others, borne on leaden plume, 'Sail thro' Oblivion's silent gloom, 'Or haply catching Fortune's gale, 'The golden dawn of Fame assail; 'Tis thine along the desert sky 'On lightning's wing of fire to fly; 'From Fancy's store give Nature laws 'While raptured nations weep applause: "Child of wonder! Child of wonder! "Monarch of the feeling heart! "Wielder wild of Terror's thunder, "Pleasure's flame, and Pity's dart!"