The Poetical Works of John Critchley Prince (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A VISION OF THE FUTURE. Grieved at the crimes and sorrows of mankind, My soul grows sick of this unquiet world: When shall the links of Error be untwined, And withering Falsehood from her seat be hurled ? When shall pure Truth pour sunshine on the mind, And Love's unspotted pinions be unfurled ? When shall Oppression's blood-stained sceptre fall, And Freedom's wide embrace encircle all ? Celestial Hope ! on thine eternal wings, Through all thy boundless regions let me fly: Remembrance of the past no comfort brings, Oh, give the future to my anxious eye ! 'Tis done ! and lo, some prophet-spirit flings The mantle of its power, and I descry, Through the vast shadows of advancing time, A cheering vision, lovely and sublime. Enchanting picture of that happy scheme, Whose blessings few have known, yet all shall know! I hail thy coming, for thy dawning beam Shall fill the world with its unclouded glow! Ere long the patriot's hope, the poet's dream, Shall change to sweet reality below; And man, the slave of ignorance and strife, Wake to a birth of intellectual life. In fancy I behold the home of love, Bathed in the sunlight of an azure June, Where the rich mountains lift their forms above The crystal calmness of the bright lagoon; Where timid Peace, like some domestic dove, Broods in the lap of Joy, and every boon That harmonising Liberty can give, Clings round a spot on which 'tis heaven to live ! I see no splendid tyrant on a throne, Extorting homage with a bauble rod: No senate, heedless of a people's moan, Cursing the produce of the fertile sod; No sensual priest, with pampered pride o'erblown, Shielding oppression in the name of God; No pensioned concubine?no pauper peer, To scorn the widow...