Visit of Hope to Sydney Cove
Where Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells,
Courts her young navies, and the storm repels;
High on a rock amid the troubled air
HOPE stood sublime, and wav'd her golden hair;
Calm'd with her rosy smile the tossing deep,
And with sweet accents charm'd the winds to sleep;
To each wild plain she stretch'd her snowy hand,
High-waving wood, and sea-encircled strand.
'Hear me,' she cried, 'ye rising Realms! record
'Time's opening scenes, and Truth's unerring word.--
'There shall broad streets their stately walls extend,
'The circus widen, and the crescent bend;
'There, ray'd from cities o'er the cultur'd land,
'Shall bright canals, and solid roads expand.--
'There the proud arch, Colossus-like, bestride
'Yon glittering streams, and bound the chasing tide;
'Embellish'd villas crown the landscape-scene,
'Farms wave with gold, and orchards blush between.--
'There shall tall spires, and dome-capt towers ascend,
'And piers and quays their massy structures blend;
'While with each breeze approaching vessels glide,
'And northern treasures dance on every tide!'--
Then ceas'd the nymph--tumultuous echoes roar,
And JOY's loud voice was heard from shore to shore--
Her graceful steps descending press'd the plain,
And PEACE, and ART, and LABOUR, join'd her train.