The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 432 pages of information about The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase.

The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 432 pages of information about The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase.
cries,
  No violated leagues, with sharp remorse
  Shall sting the conscious victor:  but mankind
  Shall hail him good and just.  For ’tis on beasts
  He draws his vengeful sword; on beasts of prey
  Full-fed with human gore.  See, see, he comes!
320
  Imperial Delhi opening wide her gates,
  Pours out her thronging legions, bright in arms,
  And all the pomp of war.  Before them sound
  Clarions and trumpets, breathing martial airs,
  And bold defiance.  High upon his throne,
  Borne on the back of his proud elephant,
  Sits the great chief of Tamur’s glorious race: 
  Sublime he sits, amid the radiant blaze
  Of gems and gold.  Omrahs about him crowd,
  And rein the Arabian steed, and watch his nod: 
330
  And potent Rajahs, who themselves preside
  O’er realms of wide extent; but here submiss
  Their homage pay, alternate kings and slaves. 
  Next these, with prying eunuchs girt around,
  The fair sultanas of his court; a troop
  Of chosen beauties, but with care concealed
  From each intrusive eye; one look is death. 
  A cruel Eastern law! (had kings a power
  But equal to their wild tyrannic will)
  To rob us of the sun’s all-cheering ray,
340
  Were less severe.  The vulgar close the march,
  Slaves and artificers; and Delhi mourns
  Her empty and depopulated streets. 
  Now at the camp arrived, with stern review,
  Through groves of spears, from file to file he darts
  His sharp experienced eye; their order marks,
  Each in his station ranged, exact and firm,
  Till in the boundless line his sight is lost. 
  Not greater multitudes in arms appeared,
  On these extended plains, when Ammon’s[8] son
350
  With mighty Porus in dread battle joined,
  The vassal world the prize.  Nor was that host
  More numerous of old, which the great king
  Poured out on Greece from all the unpeopled East;
  That bridged the Hellespont from shore to shore,
  And drank the rivers dry.  Meanwhile in troops
  The busy hunter-train mark out the ground,
  A wide circumference; full many a league
  In compass round; woods, rivers, hills, and plains,
  Large provinces; enough to gratify
360
  Ambition’s highest aim, could reason bound
  Man’s erring will.  Now sit in close divan
  The mighty chiefs of this prodigious host. 
  He from the throne high-eminent presides,
  Gives out his mandates proud, laws of the chase,
  From ancient records drawn.  With reverence low,
  And prostrate at his feet, the chiefs receive
  His irreversible decrees, from which
  To vary is to die.  Then his brave bands
  Each to his station leads; encamping round,
370
  Till the wide circle is completely formed;
  Where decent order reigns, what these command,
  Those execute with speed, and punctual care;
  In all the strictest discipline of war: 
Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.