Classic Poem

PRESENTED TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE .

Receive , lov'd Prince! the tribute of our praise,
This hasty welcome in unfinish'd lays:
At best, the pomp of song, the paint of art
Display the genius, but not speak the heart;
And oft, as ornament must truth supply,
Are but the splendid colouring of a lie.
These need not here; for to a soul like thine
Truth plain and simple will more lovely shine.
The truly good but wish the verse sincere;
They court no flattery who no censure fear.
Such Nassau is, the fairest, gentlest mind,
In blooming youth the Titns of mankind.
Crowds, who to hail thy wish'd appearance ran,
Forgot the prince to praise and love the man.
Such sense with sweetness, grandeur mix'd with ease!
Our nobler youth will learn of thee to please:
Thy bright example shall our world adorn,
And charm in gracious princes yet unborn.
Nor deem this verse from venal art proceeds,
That vice of courts, the soil for baneful weeds.
Here candour dwells, here honest truths are taught,
To guide and govern, not disguise, the thought.
See these enlighten'd sages who preside
O'er Learning's empire; see the youth they guide!
Behold all faces are in transport drest!
But those most wonder who discern thee best.
At sight of thee each free-born heart receives
A joy the sight of princes rarely gives,
From tyrants sprung, and oft themselves design'd
By Fate the future Neros of their kind:
But though thy blood, we know, transmitted springs
From laurell'd heroes and from warrior kings,
Through that high series we delighted trace
The friends of liberty and human race!
Oh! born to glad and animate our Isle!
For thee our heav'ns look pleas'd, our seasons smile;
For thee, late object of our tender fears,
When thy life droop'd, and Britain was in tears,
All-cheering Health, the goddess rosy-fair,
Attended by soft suns and vernal air,
Sought those fam'd springs where, each afflictive hour,
Disease, and age, and pain, invoke her pow'r:
She came, and while to thee the current flows,
Pour'd all herself, and in thy cup arose;
Hence to thy cheek that instant bloom deriv'd!
Hence with thy health the weeping world reviv'd!
Proceed to emulate thy race divine;
A life of action and of praise be thine!
Assert the titles genuine to thy blood,
By nature daring, but by reason good.
So great, so glorious thy forefathers shone,
No son of theirs must hope to live unknown:
Their deeds will place thy virtue full in sight,
Thy vice, if vice thou hast, in stronger light.
If to thy fair beginnings nobly true,
Think what the world may claim, and thou must do
The honours that already grace thy name
Have fix'd thy choice, and force thee into fame:
Ev'n she, bright Anna! whom thy worth has won,
Inspires thee what to seek and what to shun:
Rich in all outward grace, the' exalted fair
Makes the soul's beauty her peculiar care.
O! be your nuptials crown'd with glad increase
Of sons in war renown'd, and great in peace;
Of daughters fair and faithful, to supply
The patriot race, till Nature's self shall die!