WILLIAM COLLINS
“Ode to Peace”

O Thou who badst thy turtles bear
Swift from his grasp thy golden hair,
And sought’st thy native skies;
When War, by vultures drawn from far,
To Britain bent his iron car,                                                       5
And bade his storms arise!

—–Tir’d of his rude tyrannic sway,
Our youth shall fix some festive day,
His sullen shrines to burn :—
But thou, who hear’st the turning spheres,                            10
What sounds may charm thy partial ears,
And gain thy blest return!

O Peace, thy injur’d robes up-bind!
O rise! and leave not one behind
Of all thy beamy train:                                                        15
The British Lion, Goddess sweet,
Lies stretch’d on earth to kiss thy feet,
And own thy holier reign.

Let others court thy transient smile;
But come to grace thy western isle,                                          20
By warlike Honour led;
And, while, around her ports rejoice,
While all her sons adore thy choice,
With him for ever wed!

NOTES:

1 badst “Commanded” (OED).

3 sought’st “To go in search or quest of” (OED).

4 War Reference to the second Jacobite rebellion (1745-1746), Charles Edward Stuart, the “Young Pretender,” was finally defeated in the Battle of Culloden, in northern Scotland, on 16 April 1746 (Britannica).

6 bade “Bid” (OED).

16 The British Lion “The lion as the national emblem of Great Britain; hence often used figuratively for the British nation (OED).

19 transient “Temporary; fleeting” (OED).

SOURCE: The Poetical Works of Mr. William Collins (Glasgow, 1777), pp. 48-49 [Google Books]
Edited by Montel Mosuela