Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1851-05-23
POETICAL.
-Y,r cpEEE SLAVE.

THE GREEh OLA
pourrs' CELEBRATED STATUE OF THE uREEK oLA's
now in Richmond and will be exhibited Tor lew Gays
,he skvleht Daguerrean Gallery, No. las Main street,
The following graceful lines appeared In former No. OF u
southern Literary Messenger They are we believe, fro
the pen of the accomplished Editor John T. thompson rs
THE GREEK SLAVE OF POWERS.
1t is not that the sculptor's patient toll
C;ives sweet expression to the poets dream
II ia not that the cold and rigid stone
Ia taught to mock the human face divine,
That silently stand before her form
And feel as in a holy presence there.
But in those fair, calm lneaments OF hers,
All pure and passionless, we catch the glow,
The bright intelligence Of So'A infused:
And tender memories of gentle things
And sorrowing innocence and hoPeini uus..
The perfect uttrance of ideal grace,
Lifeli as Hermione, there she STANDS,
40 If her bosom ,hrobbed with high designs,
And those celestial lips would part IN speech
To tell the brief sad story OF her wrongs!
In some secluded vale of Already,
In playful gambols DER its sunny slopes,
Had nature led her childish feet to stray.
Or she had watched the blue Egean wave
Dash ON the sands of 'sea-born Salamis"
Or, in her infant sports, had sank to sleep,
Beneath the wasting shadow of that porch,
Whose sculptured gods, upon its crumblng front,
Reveal the glores Of by gone age.
There, watered by affections richest dews
And the warm tear-drops of maternal love,
This lovely howret, day by day, grew up
In beauty and in fragrance. Such the hne,
That marked the short and simple chronicle,
OF ife's clear morning. Soon the spoer came,
The mercenary Turk with horse and spear,
And this meek blossom rudely tore away
To deck the harem of some brutal iord.
A long and tosome road they took, and off,
In the warm twilight OF q summers eve,
This lovely girl had fallen in the path,
Weary and sick at heart. And then tide
OF gushing recolections quickly came
From feelings fount "to ope the source OF tears
And her Young spirit bowed in anguish there
apo opftyp trh Rah
Remembering Sion, they sat down and wept!
Her ear perchance had caught passing strain,
Some weknown melody of youthful days,
And she had feebly lisped prayer to God,
That she might live to see her childhood's hills
And look again into her mothers face.
AS when, in foreign climes, the Switzer hears
That wild effusion of his native Alps,
The thrilling RAM des Vaches, ne longs TO climb,
In freedom once again, the chamois track
OF his remembered home.
And now a slave,
Fet,ered and friendless in the market-place
Of that imperial city Of the East,
Whose thousand minarets ut eve resound
With the muezZin's sunset call TO prayer,
She stands exposed to the unhalowed gaze
And the rude jests Of ey'ry passer by.
There in her loneliness, disrobed for sale,
Girt with no yesture save her purity,
A ray of placid resignation beams
In ey'ry line of her sweet countenance,
And on the lip halt-disdainful curl
Proclams the helpless victim in her chains
Victorious in her maiden modesty!
There does the poor detected slave display
A rnien the tabled goddess could not wear,
A look and gesture that mig ht well beseem
Some seraph from that bright meridian shore,
Where walk the angels of the Christian creed
Sweet visions cheered the soul ptors lonely hours,
And glorious images of heavenly mould
Came trooping at his call, as blow by blow,
The marble yielded TO his constant toll;
And when he gave his last informing touch
And raised the chisel from that radiant brow,
And gazed upon the work of his own hands
So cunningly struck out from shapeless stone,
His eye dilated witha conscious JOY,
That patient effort with enduring life
Had clothed his beauteous and majestic child
Such are thy trumphs, genius, such rewards
As far outweigh all perishable gifts,
Ingots of silver and barbaric gold
And all the trophies Of tiaraed pride!