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The naval battle at Navarino successfully seals the liberation struggle of the Greeks, and paves the way for the establishment of the independent Greek state. The driving force behind this great victory is clearly the British Prime Minister Georges Canning, who, before he died in August 1927, gave clear instructions to Admiral Codrington to implement the London treaty even by force of arms.<\/p>\n
But how many of us know that Canning was a true Philhellene, and a poet influenced by Lord Byron, with a real interest in the Greeks, who also wrote a poem entitled “the slavery of Greece”? On the occasion of the anniversary of the naval battle of Navarino, we present from the collection of the Philhellenism Museum the translation into French of a book containing George Canning’s poetry collection including the following poem dedicated to Greece.<\/p>\n
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The Slavery Of Greece<\/strong><\/p>\n Unrivall’d Greece! thou ever honor’d name, Thee Freedom cherish’d once with fostering hand, Here, lov’d by Pallas and the sacred Nine, How skill’d the Greeks; confess what Persians slain Nor war’s vast art alone adorn’d thy fame, To bend the arch to bid the column rise, This was thy state! But oh! how chang’d thy fame, Thy sons (sad change!) in abject bondage sigh; The day of labour, night’s sad sleepless hour, Disastrous fate! still tears will fill the eye, So some tall rock, whose bare broad bosom high, The naval battle at Navarino successfully seals the liberation struggle of the Greeks, and paves the way for the establishment of the independent Greek state. The driving force behind this great victory is clearly the British Prime Minister Georges Canning, who, before he died in August 1927, gave clear instructions to Admiral Codrington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-media"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThou nurse of heroes dear to deathless fame!
\nThough now to worth, to honor all unknown,
\nThy lustre faded, and thy glories flown;
\nYet still shall Memory, with reverted eye,
\nTrace thy past worth, and view thee with a sigh.<\/p>\n
\nAnd breath’d undaunted valour through the land;
\nHere, the stern spirit of the Spartan soil,
\nThe child of poverty, inur’d to toil.<\/p>\n
\nOnce did fair Athens’ tow’ring glories shine,
\nTo bend the bow, or the bright faulchion wield,
\nTo lift the bulwark of the brazen shield,
\nTo toss the terror of the whizzing spear,
\nThe conqu’ring standard’s glitt’ring glories rear,
\nAnd join the mad’ning battle’s loud career.<\/p>\n
\nWere strew’d on Marathon’s ensanguin’d plain;
\nWhen heaps on heaps the routed squadron fell,
\nAnd with their gaudy myriads peopled hell.
\nWhat millions bold Leonidas withstood,
\nAnd seal’d the Grecian freedom with his blood;
\nWitness Thermopyl\u00e6! how fierce he trod!
\nHow spoke a hero, and how mov’d a God!
\nThe rush of nations could alone sustain,
\nWhile half the ravag’d globe was arm’d in vain.
\nLet Leuctra say, let Mantinea tell,
\nHow great Epaminondas fought and fell!<\/p>\n
\n“But mild philosophy endear’d thy name.”
\nWho knows not, sees not with admiring eye,
\nHow Plato thought, how Socrates could die?<\/p>\n
\nAnd the tall pile aspiring pierce the skies;
\nThe awful scene magnificently great,
\nWith pictur’d pomp to grace, and sculptur’d state,
\nThis science taught; on Greece each science shone:
\nHere the bold statue started from the stone;
\nHere, warm with life, the swelling canvass glow’d;
\nHere, big with life, the poet’s raptures flow’d;
\nHere Homer’s lip was touch’d with sacred fire,
\nAnd wanton Sappho tun’d her am’rous lyre;
\nHere bold Tyrt\u00e6us rous’d th’ enervate throng
\nAwak’d to glory by th’ inspiring song;
\nHere Pindar soar’d a nobler, loftier way,
\nAnd brave Alc\u00e6us, scorn’d a tyrant’s sway;
\nHere gorgeous Tragedy, with great controul,
\nTouch’d every feeling of th’ impassion’d soul;
\nWhile in soft measure tripping to the song,
\nHer comic sister lightly danc’d along\u2014<\/p>\n
\nAnd all thy glories fading into shame.
\nWhat! that thy bold, thy freedom-breathing land,
\nShould crouch beneath a tyrant’s stern command;
\nThat servitude should bind in galling chain;
\nWhom Asia’s millions once oppos’d in vain,
\nWho could have thought? Who sees without a groan,
\nThy cities mould’ring and thy walls o’erthrown?
\nThat where once tower’d the stately solemn fane,
\nNow moss-grown ruins strew the ravag’d plain;
\nAnd unobserv’d but by the traveller’s eye
\nProud vaulted domes in fretted fragments lie;
\nAnd thy fall’n column on the dusty ground,
\nPale ivy throws its sluggish arms around.<\/p>\n
\nUnpitied toil, and unlamented die;
\nGroan at the labours of the galling oar,
\nOr the dark caverns of the mine explore.
\nThe glitt’ring tyranny of Othman’s sons,
\nThe pomp of horror which surrounds their thrones
\nHas aw’d their servile spirits into fear;
\nSpurn’d by the foot, they tremble and revere.<\/p>\n
\nTh’ inflictive scourge of arbitrary pow’r,
\nThe bloody terror of the pointed steel,
\nThe murd’rous stake, the agonizing wheel,
\nAnd (dreadful choice!) the bow-string or the bowl,
\nDamps their faint vigour, and unmans the soul.<\/p>\n
\nStill recollection prompt the mournful sigh,
\nWhen to thy mind recurs thy former fame,
\nAnd all the horrors of thy present shame.<\/p>\n
\nTow’rs from th’ earth, and braves th’ inclement sky;
\nOn whose vast top the blackening deluge pours,
\nAt whose wide base the thund’ring ocean roars;
\nIn conscious pride its huge gigantic form
\nSurveys imperious, and defies the storm.
\nTill worn by age and mould’ring to decay,
\nTh’ insidious waters wash its base away;
\nIt falls, and falling cleaves the trembling ground,
\nAnd spreads a tempest of destruction round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"