1798 12

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1798.12
Ode on the late glorious Victory of
the 1st of August 1798[1]
"W. Case, jun."
[William Case, Jr.][2]
The Lady's Magazine, XXIX (1798), 565

Lo! what unrivall'd trophies crown
Britannia's happy monarch's reign!
To her brave heroes Neptune yields
The fasces of the billowy main.

But chief, O victor of the Nile!
    To thee exultant strains we owe;
Thou, Nelson! crush'd proud Gallia's
                    power,
    And laid'st her fairest laurels low.

Thy vollied thunders, fraught with
                    death,
    With crimson stain'd the hoary waves,
Pour'd wide destruction on the foe,
    And shook old Ocean's cozy caves.

Meanwhile the setting orb of day
Diffus'd faint streams of purple light,
And long hung glimmering in the west,
As loth to quit the glorious fight.

Hark! hark! the shouts of victory burst,
    Aloft Britannia's streamers fly,
And show her sons will e'er remain
    Free as the western gale, that wantons
               through the sky.

Lynn, Dec. 1798