IX.

Thou smilest:--these comparisons seem high To those who scan all things with dazzled eye; Linked with the unknown name of one whose doom Has nought to do with glory or with Rome, With Chili, Hellas, or with Araby;-- 200 Thou smilest?--Smile; 'tis better thus than sigh; Yet such he might have been; he was a man, A soaring spirit, ever in the van, A patriot hero or despotic chief,[fm] To form a nation's glory or its grief, Born under auspices which make us more Or less than we delight to ponder o'er. But these are visions; say, what was he here? A blooming boy, a truant mutineer. The fair-haired Torquil, free as Ocean's spray, 210 The husband of the bride of Toobonai.