Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1823-01-18
POETRY.


tire, Philadelphia.
When learning slumbered in the converts
shade
AND molly craft the cropping nations swsY'd,
bN dulness banned, the muses. wandered long,
Each Tyre neglected, and forgot each song,
Til Heavens bright halo wreath'd the dramas
dome,
And great Apollo calId the pilgrims home.
Then their glad barps, that charmed old
Greece, they swept,
Their affairs throng'd, and joys high sabbath
kept.
Young Genius there his glorious banner rear'd,
10 loat forever loved, forever feared.
The mystic legends of the cloisier known,
Old Superstition tumbled from his throne;
Back TO his cell the king Of Gloom retird
Bhe buskn triumph'd and the world admir'd
Since that proud hour, through each unfet-
tered age,
The sons of light have clustered round the
stage.
From fiction's realms her choicest spoils they
bring,
And pleasures walls with rap,ure's echoes
ring.
Here hermit wisdom lays his mantle down,
To win with smiles the heart that fears his
frown;
In mirth's gay robe he talks to wandering
youth,
And grandeur listens to the stranger, Truth
Here beauty's daughters bend with tingling
ear,
When love repeats the tale to love so dear;
Their sacred bowers the sons OF learning quit,
To rove with fancy and to feast with wit.
All come to gaze, the valiant and the vain,
Virtues bright troop, and fashions glittering
train.
Here labor rests, pale grief forgets her wo,
And vice, that prints his slime on all below,
Even vice looks on For this the stage was
reared,
To scourge the fend, so scorned and yet so
feared.
The halls of Judgment as the moral school,
His foot defies the bronzed and reckless fool
Gods lovely temple shall behold him there,
With eye upturned and aspect false as fair
Then hither let the unbhshing villain roam,
Satire shall knot its whip and strike it home.
The stage one groan from his dark soul shall
draw,
That nocks religion, and that laughs at law
To grace the stage, the bard's carcering mind
Seeks other worlds, and leaves his own behind.
He lures from air its bright imprisoned forms,
Breaks through the tomb and deaths dull re-
glon storms.
Ger ruined realms he pours creative day,
And slumbering kings his mighty voice obey.
From its damp STROUD the long laid spirit
walks,
And round the murderer's bed in vengeance
stalks,
Poor maniac beauty brings her cypress wreath,
Her smile moonbeam DER blasted heath;
.YlI L.,
comes to strew,
And lost to reason, still to love is true
Hate shuts his soul when dove-eyed mercy
pleads;
Power lifts the axe, and truths bold servant
bleeds;
Nemcrse drops anguish from his burning eyes,
Feels hell's eternal worm. and shuddering dies
Wars trophed minion, too. forsakes the dust
Grasps his worn shield, and waves his sword Of
rust.
Springs to The slaughter at the trumpet's call,
Again to conquer, or again to fall.
With heads to censure vet with souls TO feel,
Friends to the stage receive orr frank appeal
No suppliant lay we frame; acquit your trust
The drama guard; be gentle, but be Just
Within her courts unbrbed, unslumbernr
stand;
Scourge lawless wit, and leaden duness brand
Lash pert pretence, but bashful merit spare,
His firstlings hail, and speak the trember fair
Yet shall he cast his cloud, and proudly claim
The loftiest station and the brightest fame.
So from his mountain perch, through seas of
light,
Our untamed eagle takes his glorious fight;
To Heaven the monarch-bird exalted springs,
And shakes the night-fog from his might,
wings,
Bards all our own shall yet cnchant their age,
And pour redeeming splendor DER the stage,
For them, for you, truth boards nobler theme
Than ever blest voting fancy's heetest dream.
Doll hearts shall kindle and bright eyes shall
gaze,
When genius wakes the tale Of other DAYS,
Sheds hfe's own lustre DER each holy deed
OF him who planted and of him who freed!
And now, fair pile, thou chaste and gloriou
shrine,
Our fondest wish, our warmest smile be thine
The home of genius and the CO urt of taste,
w beauty raised, be thou by beauty graced.
Within thy walls may wits gay bcvy throng,
TO drink the magic of the poets song.
Within thy walls may youth and goodness draw
From every scene lecture or law.
So bright thy fame, be priest and Offering pure,
And friends shall bless, and bigot foes endure
Long, long be spared to echo truth sublime,
And lift thy pillars through the storms oftime
RFy.XUXNNS.