[Footnote 1: 'Baptised with blood:' Charlemagne obliged four thousand Saxon prisoners to embrace the Christian religion, and immediately after they were baptized, ordered their throats to be cut. Their prince, Vitikind, fled for shelter to Gotrick, king of Denmark.]
[Footnote 2: 'Adriatic wave:' although Venice was built a considerable time before the era here assigned for the birth of Independence, the republic had not yet attained to any great degree of power and splendour.]
[Footnote 3: 'Neptune's wide domain:' the Low Countries, and their revolt from Spain, are here alluded to.]
[Footnote 4: 'Uri's rocks:' alluding to the known story of William Tell and his associates.]
[Footnote 5: 'Calvi's rocky shore:' the noble stand made by Paschal Paoli, and his associates, against the usurpations of the French king.]
1 While with fond rapture and amaze, On thy transcendent charms I gaze, My cautious soul essays in vain Her peace and freedom to maintain: Yet let that blooming form divine, Where grace and harmony combine, Those eyes, like genial orbs that move, Dispensing gladness, joy, and love, In all their pomp assail my view, Intent my bosom to subdue, My breast, by wary maxims steel'd, Not all those charms shall force to yield.
2 But when, invoked to Beauty's aid, I see the enlighten'd soul display'd; That soul so sensibly sedate Amid the storms of froward fate, Thy genius active, strong, and clear, Thy wit sublime, though not severe, The social ardour, void of art, That glows within thy candid heart; My spirits, sense, and strength decay, My resolution dies away, And, every faculty oppress'd, Almighty Love invades my breast!
1 To fix her!--'twere a task as vain To count the April drops of rain, To sow in Afric's barren soil, Or tempests hold within a toil.
2 I know it, friend, she's light as air, False as the fowler's artful snare, Inconstant as the passing wind, As winter's dreary frost unkind.
3 She's such a miser, too, in love, Its joys she'll neither share nor prove, Though hundreds of gallants await From her victorious eyes their fate.
4 Blushing at such inglorious reign, I sometimes strive to break her chain, My reason summon to my aid, Resolved no more to be betray'd.