The Demagogue.docx

8/20/2019 The Demagogue.docx

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The Demagogue - Poem by William

Falconer

Bold is the attempt, in these licentious times,When with such towering strides sedition

climbs,

With sense or satire to confront her power,

And charge her in the great decisive hour

Bold is the man, who, on her con!uering day,

"tands in the pass of fate to bar her way#

Whose heart, by frowning arrogance unawed,

$r the deep-lur%ing snares of specious fraud,

The threats of giant-faction can deride,

And stem with stubborn arm her roaring tide

For him unnumber&d brooding ills await,"corn, malice, insolence, reproach, and hate#

At him, who dares this legion to defy,

A thousand mortal shafts in secret fly#

'evenge, e(ulting with malignant )oy,

Pursues the incautious victim to destroy#

And slander strives, with unrelenting aim,To spit her blasting venom on his name#

Around him faction&s harpies flap their wings,

And rhyming vermin dart their feeble stings#

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*n vain the wretch retreats, while in full cry

Fierce on his throat the hungry bloodhounds fly

+nclosed with perils, thus the conscious use,

Alarm&d, though undismay&d, her danger views

or shall unmanly Terror now control

The strong resentment struggling in her soul

While *ndignation, with resistless strain,

Pours her full deluge through each swelling vein.

By the vile fear that chills the coward breast,By sordid caution is her voice suppress&d

While Arrogance, with big theatric rage,

Audacious struts on power&s imperial stage.

While o&er our country, at her dread command,

Blac% Discord, screaming, sha%es her fatal

brand.While, in defiance of maternal laws,

The sacrilegious sword rebellion draws#

"hall she at this important hour retire,

And !uench in /ethe&s wave her genuine fire0

1onour forbid2 she fears no threat&ning foe,

When conscious )ustice bids her bosom glow#And while she %indles the reluctant flame,

/et not the prudent voice of friendship blame2

"he feels the sting of %een resentment goad,

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Though guiltless yet of satire&s thorny road

/et other 3ui(otes, frantic with renown,

Plant on their brows a tawdry paper crown2

While fools adore, and vassal-bards obey,

/et the great monarch ass through 4otham bray2

$ur poet brandishes no mimic sword,

To rule a realm of dunces self-e(plored.

o bleeding victims curse his iron sway.

or murder&d reputation mar%s his wayTrue to herself, unarm&d, the fearless use

Through reason&s path her steady course

pursues#

True to herself advances, undeterr&d

By the rude clamours of the savage herd

As some bold surgeon, with inserted steel,Probes deep the putrid sore, intent to heal.

"o the ran% ulcers that our patriot load,

"hall she with caustic&s healing fires corrode

5et ere from patient slumber satire wa%es,

And brandishes the avenging scourge of sna%es.

5et ere her eyes, with lightning&s vivid ray,The dar% recesses of his heart display.

/et candour own the undaunted pilot&s power,

Felt in severest danger&s trying hour2

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/et truth consenting, with the trump of fame,

1is glory, in auspicious strains, proclaim2

1e bade the tempest of the battle roar,

That thunder&d o&er the deep from shore to

shore

1ow oft, amid the horrors of the war,

6hain&d to the bloody wheels of danger&s car,

1ow oft my bosom at thy name has glow&d,

And from my beating heart applause bestow&d.Applause, that, genuine as the blush of youth

7n%nown to guile, was sanctified by truth2

1ow oft * blest the patriot&s honest rage,

That greatly dared to lash the guilty age.

That, rapt with 8eal, pathetic, bold, and strong,

'oll&d the full tide of elo!uence along.That power&s big torrent braved with manly

pride,

And all corruption&s venal arts defied2

When from afar those penetrating eyes

Beheld each secret hostile scheme arise.

Watch&d every motion of the faithless foe,+ach plot o&erturned, and baffled every blow#

A fond enthusiast, %indling at thy name,

* glow&d in secret with congenial flame.

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While my young bosom, to deceit un%nown,

Believed all real virtue thine alone

"uch then he seem&d, and such indeed might be,

*f truth with error ever could agree2

"ure satire never with a fairer hand

Portray&d the ob)ect she design&d to brand

Alas2 that virtue should so soon decay,

And faction&s wild applause thy heart betray2

The use with secret sympathy relents,And human failings, as a friend, laments#

But when those dangerous errors, big with fate,

"pread discord and distraction through the

state,

'eason should then e(ert her utmost power

To guard our passions in that fatal hourThere was a time, ere yet his conscious heart

Durst from the hardy path of truth depart.

While yet with generous sentiment it glow&d,

A stranger to corruption&s slippery road.

There was a time our patriot durst avow

Those honest ma(ims he despises now1ow did he then his country&s wounds bewail,

And at the insatiate 4erman vulture rail2

Whose cruel talons Albion&s entrails tore,

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Whose hungry maw was glutted with her gore2

The mists of error, that in dar%ness held

$ur reason, li%e the sun, his voice dispell&d

And lo2 e(hausted, with no power to save,

We view Britannia panting on the wave#

1ung round her nec%, a millstone&s pond&rous

weight

Drags down the struggling victim to her fate2

While horror at the thought our bosom feels,We bless the man this horror who reveals

But what alarming thoughts the heart ama8e,

When on this 9anus& other face we ga8e2

For, lo, possess&d of power&s imperial reins,

$ur chief those visionary ills disdains2

Alas, how soon the steady patriot turns2*n vain this change astonish&d +ngland mourns2

1er vital blood, that pour&d from every vein,

"o late, to fill the accursed Westphalian drain,

Then ceased to flow. the vulture now no more

With unrelenting rage her bowels tore

1is magic rod transforms the bird of prey2The millstone feels the touch, and melts away2

And, strange to tell, still stranger to believe,

What eyes ne&er saw, and heart could ne&er

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conceive,

At once, transplanted by the sorcerer&s wand,

6olumbian hills in distant Austria stand2

America, with pangs before un%nown,

ow with Westphalia utters groan for groan#

By sympathy she fevers with her fires,

Burns as she burns, and as she dies e(pires

From ma(ims long adopted thus he flew,

For ever changing, yet for ever true#"woln with success, and with applause

imflamed,

1e scorn&d all caution, all advice disclaim&d#

Arm&d with war&s thunder, he embraced no more

Those patriot principles maintain&d before

Perverse, inconstant, obstinate, and proud,Drun% with ambition, turbulent and loud,

1e wrec%s us headlong on that dreadful strand

1e once devoted all his powers to brand2

$ur hapless country views with weeping eyes,

$n every side, o&erwhelming horrors rise.

Drain&d of her wealth, e(hausted of her power,And agoni8ed as in the mortal hour.

1er armies, wasted with incessant toils,

$r doom&d to perish in contagious soils,

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To guard some needy royal plunderer&s throne,

And sent to fall in battles not their own

The enormous debt at home, though long

o&ercharged,

With grievous burdens annually enlarged#

6rush&d with increasing ta(es to the ground,

That suc%, li%e vampires, every bleeding wound#

4round with severe distress the industrious

poor Driven by the ruthless landlord to the door

While thus our land her hapless fate bemoans

*n secret, and with inward sorrow groans.

Though dec%&d with tinsel trophies of renown,

All gash&d with sores, with anguish bending

down.6an yet some impious parricide appear,

Who strives to ma%e this anguish more severe0

6an one e(ist, so much his country&s foe,

To bid her wounds with fresh effusion flow0

There can. to him in vain she lifts her eyes,

1is soul relentless hears her piercing sighs2"hameless of front, impatient of control,

1e spurs her onward to destruction&s goal2

or yet content on curst Westphalia&s shore

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With mad profusion to e(haust her store,

"till peace his pompous fulminations brand,

As pirates tremble at the sight of land#

"till to new wars the public eye he turns,

Defies all peril, and at reason spurns.

Till press&d with danger, by distress assail&d,

That baffled courage, and o&er s%ill prevail&d.

Till foundering in the storm himself had brew&d,

1e strives at last its horrors to elude"ome wretched shift must still protect his name,

And to the guiltless head transfer his shame#

Then hearing modest diffidence oppose

1is rash advice, that golden time he chose.

And while big surges threaten&d to o&erwhelm

The ship, ingloriously forsoo% the helmBut all the events collected to relate,

/et us his actions recapitulate

1e first assumed, by mean perfidious art,

Those patriot tenets foreign to his heart#

e(t, by his country&s fond applauses swell&d,

Thrust himself forward into power, and heldThe reins on principles which he alone,

4rown drun% and wanton with success, could

own.

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Betray&d her interest and abused her trust.

Then, deaf to prayers, forsoo% her in disgust.

With tragic mummery, and most vile grimace,

'ode through the city with a woful face,

As in distress, a patriot out of place2

*nsults his generous prince, and in the day

$f trouble s%ul%s, because he cannot sway2

*n foreign climes embroils him with allies,

And bids at home the flames of discord rise2"he comes2 from hell the e(ulting fury springs,

With grim destruction sailing on her wings2

Around her scream a hundred harpies fell2

A hundred demons shrie% with hideous yell2

From where, in mortal venom dipt on high,

Full-drawn the deadliest shafts of satire fly.Where 6hurchill brandishes his clumsy club,

And Wil%es unloads his e(cremental tub,

Down to where +ntic%, aw%ward and unclean,

6rawls on his native dust, a worm obscene2

While with unnumber&d wings from van to rear

yriads of nameless bu88ing drones appear#From their dar% cells the angry insects swarm,

And every little sting attempt to arm

1ere 6haplains, Privileges, moulder round,

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And feeble "courges:, rot upon the ground#

1ere hungry ;enric% strives, with fruitless aim,

With 4rub-street slander to e(tend his name#

At Bruin flies the slavering, snarling cur,

But only fills his famish&d )aws with fur

1ere Baldwin spreads the assassinating cloa%,

Where lur%ing rancour gives the secret stro%e.

While gorged with filth, around this senseless

bloc%,A swarm of spider-bards obse!uious floc%#

While his demure Welch goat, with lifted hoof,

*n Poet&s corner hangs each flimsy woof.

And fris%y grown, attempts, with aw%ward

prance,

$n wit&s gay theatre to bleat and dance1ere, sei8ed with iliac passion, mouthing /eech,

Too low, alas2 for satire&s whip to reach,

From his blac% entrails, faction&s common sewer,

Disgorges all her e(cremental store

With e!ual pity and regret the use

The thundering storms that rage around herviews.

*mpartial views the tides of discord blend,

Where lordly rogues for power and place

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contend.

Were not her patriot-heart with anguish torn,

Would eye the opposing chiefs with e!ual scorn

/et freedom&s deadliest foes for freedom bawl,

Ali%e to her who govern or who fall2

Aloof she stands, all unconcern&d and mute,

While the rude rabble bellow, &Down with Bute2&

While villany the scourge of )ustice bil%s,

1owl on, ye ruffians2 &/iberty and Wil%es&/et some soft mummy of a peer, who stains

1is ran%, some sodden lump of ass&s brains,

To that abandon&d wretch his sanction give.

"upport his slander, and his wants relieve2

/et the great hydra roar aloud for Pitt,

And power and wisdom all to him submit2/et proud ambition&s sons, with hearts severe,

/i%e parricides, their mother&s bowels tear2

"edition her triumphant flag display,

And in embodied ran%s her troops array2

While coward )ustice, trembling on her seat,

/i%e a vile slave descends to lic% her feet2or here let censure draw her awful blade,

*f from her theme the wayward use has stray&d2

"ometimes the impetuous torrent, o&er its

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mounds

'edundant bursting, swamps the ad)acent

grounds.

But rapid, and impatient of delay,

Through the deep channel still pursues its way

$ur pilot now retired, no pleasure %nows,

But every man and measure to oppose.

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With cruel rancour wresting from his heirs

What nature taught them to e(pect as theirs.

Wouldst thou with this detested robber )oin,

Their legal wealth to plunder and purloin0

Forbid it, 1eaven2 thou canst not be so base,

To blast thy name with infamous disgrace2

The use who wa%es, yet triumphs o&er thy hate,

Dares not so blac% a thought anticipate#

By 1eaven, the use her ignorance betrays.For while a thousand eyes with wonder ga8e,

Though gorged and glutted with his country&s

store,

The vulture pounces on the shining ore.

*n his strong talons gripes the golden prey,

And from the weeping orphan bears awayThe great, the alarming deed is yet to come,

That, big with fate, stri%es e(pectation dumb

$h, patient, in)ured +ngland, yet unveil

Thy eyes, and listen to the use&s tale,

That true as honour, unadorn&d with art,

Thy wrongs in fair succession shall impart2+re yet the desolating god of war

1ad crush&d pale +urope with his iron car,

1ad shoo% her shores with terrible alarms,

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And thunder&d o&er the trembling deep, &To arms2&

*n climes remote, beyond the setting sun,

Beyond the Atlantic wave, his rage begun

Alas2 poor country, how with pangs un%nown

To Britain did thy filial bosom groan2

What savage armies did thy realms invade,

7narm&d, and distant from maternal aid2

Thy cottages with cruel flames consumed,

And the sad owner to destruction doom&d.angled with wounds, with pungent anguish

torn,

$r left to perish na%ed and forlorn2

What carnage ree%&d upon thy ruin&d plain2

What infants bled2 what virgins shrie%&d in vain2

*n every loo% distraction seem&d to glare,+ach heart was rac%&d with horror and despair

To Albion then, with groans and piercing cries,

America lift up her dying eyes.

To generous Albion pour&d forth all her pain,

To whom the wretched never wept in vain

"he heard, and instant to relieve her flew,1er arm the gleaming sword of vengeance drew.

Far o&er the ocean wave her voice was %nown,

That shoo% the deep abyss from 8one to 8one#

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"he bade the thunder of the battle glow,

And pour&d the storm of lightning on the foe.

or ceased till, crown&d with victory complete,

Pale "pain and France lay trembling at her feet

1er fears dispell&d, and all her foes removed,

1er fertile grounds industriously improved,

1er towns with trade, with fleets her harbours

crown&d,

And plenty smiling on her plains around#Thus blest with all that commerce could supply,

America regards with )ealous eye,

And can%er&d heart, the parent, who so late

1ad snatch&d her gasping from the )aws of fate.

Who now, with wars for her begun, rela(&d,

With grievous aggravated burthens ta(&d,1er treasures wasted by a hungry brood

$f cormorants, that suc% her vital blood.

Who now of her demands that tribute due,

For whom alone the avenging sword she drew

"carce had America the )ust re!uest

'eceived, when, %indling in her faithless breast,'esentment glows, enraged sedition burns,

And, lo2 the mandate of our laws she spurns2

1er secret hate, incapable of shame

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$r gratitude, incenses to a flame,

Derides our power, bids insurrection rise,

*nsults our honour, and our laws defies.

$&er all her coasts is heard the audacious roar,

&+ngland shall rule America no more2&

"oon as on Britain&s shore the alarm was heard,

"tern indignation in her loo% appear&d.

5et, both to punish, she her scourge withheld

From her perfidious sons who thus rebell&d.ow stung with anguish, now with rage assail&d,

Till pity in her soul at last prevail&d,

Determined not to draw her penal steel

Till fair persuasion made her last appeal

And now the great decisive hour drew nigh,

"he on her darling patriot cast her eye.1is voice li%e thunder will support her cause,

+nforce her dictates, and sustain her laws.

'ich with her spoils, his sanction will dismay,

And bid the insurgents tremble and obey

1e comes2=but where, the ama8ing theme to hit,

Discover language or ideas fit0"play-footed words, that hector, bounce, and

swagger,

The sense to pu88le, and the brain to stagger0

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$ur patriot comes2 with fren8y fired, the use

With allegoric eye his figure views2

/i%e the grim portress of hell-gate he stands,

Bellona&s scourge hangs trembling in his hands2

Around him, fiercer than the ravenous shar%,

&A cry of hell-hounds& never-ceasing bar%.&

And lo2 the enormous giant to bedec%,

A golden millstone hangs upon his nec%2

$n him ambition&s vulture darts her claws,And with voracious rage his liver gnaws

$ur patriot comes2=the buc%les of whose shoes

ot 6romwell&s self was worthy to unloose

'epeat his name in thunder to the s%ies2

5e hills fall prostrate, and ye vales arise2

Through faction&s wilderness prepare the way2Prepare, ye listening senates, to obey2

The idol of the mob, behold him stand,

The Alpha and $mega of the land2

ethin%s * hear the bellowing demagogue

Dumb-sounding declamations disembogue,

+(pressions of immeasurable length,Where pompous )argon fills the place of

strength.

Where fulminating, rumbling elo!uence,

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With loud theatric rage, bombards the sense.

And words, deep ran%&d in horrible array,

+(asperated metaphors convey2

With these au(iliaries, drawn up at large,

1e bids enraged sedition beat the charge#

From +ngland&s sanguine hope his aid

withdraws,

And lists to guide in insurrection&s cause

And lo2 where, in her sacrilegious hand,The parricide lifts high her burning brand2

4o, while she yet suspends her impious aim,

With those infernal lungs arouse the flame2

Though +ngland merits not her least regard,

Thy friendly voice gold bo(es shall reward2

Arise, embar%2 prepare thy martial car,To lead her armies and provo%e the war2

'ebellion wa%es, impatient of delay,

The signal her blac% ensigns to display

To thee, whose soul, all steadfast and serene,

Beholds the tumults that distract our scene.

And, in the calmer seats of wisdom placed,+n)oys the sweets of sentiment and taste#

To thee, $ arius2 whom no factions sway,

The impartial use devotes her honest lay2

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*n her fond breast no prostituted aim,

or venal hope, assumes fair friendship&s name#

"ooner shall 6hurchill&s feeble meteor-ray,

That led our foundering demagogue astray,

Dar%ling to grope and flounce in +rror&s night,

+clipse great ansfield&s strong meridian light,

Than shall the change of fortune, time, or place,

Thy generous friendship in my heart efface2

$h2 whether wandering from thy country far,And plunged amid the murdering scenes of war.

$r in the blest retreat of virtue laid,

Where contemplation spreads her awful shade.

*f ever to forget thee * have power,

ay 1eaven desert me at my latest hour2

"till satire bids my bosom beat to arms,And throb with irresistible alarms

/i%e some full river charged with falling showers,

"till o&er my breast her swelling deluge pours

But rest and silence now, who wait beside,

With their strong flood-gates bar the

impetuous tide

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The Demagogue.docx