Poetry > Course of time

BOOK NINTH.
273
Commanded, gave rewards; or with the edge
Vindictive, smote, now light, now heavily,
According to the stature of the crime.
Conspicuous like an oak of healthiest bough,
Deep-rooted in his country’s love, he stood,
And gave his hand to Virtue, helping up
The honest man to honour and renown ;
And with the look which goodness wears in wrath,
Withering the very blood of Knavery,
And from his presence driving far, ashamed.
Nor less remarkable, among the blest,
Appeared the man who, in the senate-house,
Watchful, unhired, unbribed, and uncorrupt,
And party only to the common weal,
In virtue’s awful rage, pleaded for right,
With truth so clear, with argument so strong,
With action so sincere, and tone so loud
And deep, as made the despot quake behind
His adamantine gates, and every joint
In terror smite his fellow-joint relaxed ;
Or, marching to the field, in burnished steel,
While, frowning on his brow, tremendous hung
The wrath of a whole people, long provoked—
Mustered the stormy wings of war, in day
Of dreadful deeds, and led the battle on;
When Liberty, swift as the fires of heaven,
In fury rode, with all her hosts, and threw
The tyrant down, or drove invasion back.
Illustrious he—illustrious all appeared,
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