Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Radicalism, Scientific Practitioners, Mechanics, Machinery, Publishing

    The poet celebrates the genii of freedom found in the Andes. Invokes the spirit of 'Colon' (i.e. Christopher Columbus), and hears the revolutionary portents of South America coming to rouse the English in finding freedom. In a state of 'philosophic gloom' wanders forth 'to seek the sacred tomb, / Binding Archimedes in chains of stone'. (359) Addresses him: 'thou hast smiled amid alarms / Dauntless, once braved the Roman arms, / And swift destruction hurled:— / Give me, thou cried'st, another sphere, / On which my engines vast to rear, / And I will move the world'. At length this thought has been brought to life: 'The force resistless of th' omniscient Press, / Mankind to move, to meliorate, and bless, / Now moves the world,—though fettered by the laws, / From branding vice, or pleading virtue's cause; / Yet shall this Saviour, burst his legal bands [...] Soon shall his blessings prove, how great his might, / Soon shall his power erect the reign of right, / And human misery sink in endless night'. (360)