crew.

happiness and fertility. Present distress, the effect of | For all the pangs, the complicated wo,
slavery. Ithaca. Ulysses and Penelope. Argos and Her bravest sons, her faithful sailors know!
Mycenæ. Agamemnon. Macronisi. Lemnos. Vul. So pity, gushing o’er each British breast,
can and Venus. Delos. Apollo and Diana. Troy; Might sympathize with Briton's sons distrest :
Sestos. Leander and Hero. Delphos. Terople of
Apollo. Parnassus. The Muses.

For this, my theme through mazes I pursue,

The subject resumed. Sparkling of the sea.

Which nor Mæonides nor Maro knew !

Prodigious tempest, accompanied with rain, hail, and meteors. Darkness, A while the mast in ruins dragg'd behind, lightning, and thunder. Approach of day. Discovery Balanced th' impression of the helm and wind : of land. The ship, in great danger, passes the island of The wounded serpent, agonized with pain, St George. Turns her broadside to the shore. Her

Thus trails his mangled volume on the plain. bowsprit, foremast, and main topmast carried away. But now the wreck dissever'd from the rear, She strikes a rock. Splits asunder. Fate of the

The long reluctant prow began to veer;

And while around before the wind it falls, The scene stretches from that part of the Archipelago which lies ten · Square all the yards !"* th'attentive master calls; mles to the northward of Falconera, to Cape Colonna in Attica. You timoneers, her motion still attend ! The time is about seven hours, being from one till eight in the morning

For on your steerage all our lives depend.

So, steady!t meet her, watch the blast behind, When in a barbarous age with blood defiled,

And sleer her right before the seas and wind!" The human savage roam'd the gloomy wild ;

Starboard, again!" the watchful pilot cries; When sullen Ignorance her flag display'd,

Starboard !" the obedient timoneer replies. And Rapine and Revenge her voice obey'd ;

Then to the left the ruling helm returns ; Sent from the shores of light, the Muses came,

The wheelt revolves; the ringing axle burns ! The dark and solitary race to tame;

The ship, no longer foundering by the lee, 'Twas theirs the lawless passions to control,

Bears on her side th' invasions of the sea; And melt in tender sympathy the soul :

All lonely, o'er the desert waste she flies, The heart from vice and error to reclaim,

Scourged on by surges, storm, and bursting skies. And breathe in human breasts celestial flame.

As when the masters of the lance assail, The kindling spirit caught th' empyreal ray,

In Hyperborean seas, the slumbering whale; And glow'd congenial with the swelling lay.

Soon as the javelins pierce his scaly hide, Roused from the chaos of primeval night,

With anguish stung, he cleaves the downward tide; At once fair Truth and Reason sprung to light.

In vain he flies ! no friendly respite found ; When great Mæonides, in rapid song,

His life-blood gushes through th' inflaming wound. The thundering tide of battle rolls along.

The wounded bark, thus smarting with her pain, Each ravish'd bosom seels the high alarms,

Scuds from pursuing waves along the main ; And all the burning pulses beat to arms.

While, dash'd apart by her dividing prow, From earth upborne, on Pegasean wings,

Like burning adamant the waters glow. Far through the boundless realms of thought he Her joints forget their firm elastic tone; springs;

Her long keel trembles, and her timbers groan; While distant poets, trembling as they view

Upheaved behind her in tremendous height His sunward fight, the dazzling track pursue.

The billows frown, with fearful radiance bright! But when his strings, with mournful magic, tell

Now shivering o'er the topmost wave she rides, What dire distress Laertes' son befell,

While deep beneath th' enormous gulf divides. The strains, meandering through the maze of wo,

Now launching headlong down the horrid vale, Bid sacred sympathy the heart o'erflow.

She hears no more the roaring of the gale; Thus, in old time, the Muses' heavenly breath

Till up the dreadful height again she flies, With vital force dissolved the chains of death ;

Trembling beneath the current of the skies. Each bard in Epic lays began to sing,

As that rebellious angel who, from heaven, Taught by the master of the vocal string

To regions of eternal pain was driven; 'Tis mine, alas! through dangerous scenes to stray, When dreadless he forsook the Stygian shore, Far from the light of his unerring ray!

The distant realms of Eden to explore ; While, all unused the wayward path to tread,

Here, on sulphureous clouds sublime upheaved, Darkling I wander with prophetic dread.

With daring wing th' infernal air he cleaved ; To me in rain the bold Mæonian lyre

There, in some hideous gulf descending prone, Awakes the numbers, fraught with living fire !

Far in the rayless void of night was thrown. Full oft, indeed, that mournful harp of yore

E'en so she scales the briny mountain's height, Wept the sad wanderer lost upon the shore ;

Then down the black abyss precipitates her Aight. But o'er that scene th' impatient numbers ran,

The masts around whose tops the whirlwinds sing, Subservient only to a nobler plan.

With long vibrations round her axle swing.
Tis mine, th' unravell'd prospect to display,
And chain th' events in regular array.

To guide the wayward course amid the gloom,

The watchful pilots different posts assume.
Though hard the task, to sing in varied strains,
While all unchanged the tragic theme remains !
Thrice happy! might the secret powers of art
Unlock the latent windings of the heart,

* To square the yards, in this place, is meant to ar. Might the sad numbers draw Compassion's tear

range them directly athwart the ship's length.

† Steady is the order to steer the ship according to the For kindred miseries, oft beheld too near;

line on which she advances at this instant, without devi. For kindred wretches, oft in ruin cast

ating to the right or left thereof. On Albion's strand beneath the wintry blast ; 1 In all large ships, the helm is managed by a wheel.

sound

Albert and Rodmond, station’d on the rear, The last foretold the spark of vital fire,
With warning voice direct each timoneer ; The soul's fine essence, never could expire.
High on the prow the guard Arion keeps,

Here Solon dwelt, the philosophic sage,
To shun the cruisers wandering o'er the deeps ; That fled Pisistratus' vindictive rage.
Where'er he moves Palemon still attends,

Just Aristides here maintain'd the cause, As if on him his only hope depends ;

Whose sacred precepts shine through Solon's laws. While Rodmond, fearful of some neighbouring shore, Of all her towering structures, now alone, Cries, ever and anon, “ Look out afore !"

Some scatter'd columns stand, with weeds o'er. Four hours thus scudding on the tide she flew,

grown. When Falconera's rocky height they view : The wandering stranger near the port descries High o'er its summit, through the gloom of night, A milk-white lion of stupendous size ; The glimmering watch-tower cast a mournful light. Unknown the sculpture ; marble is the frame; In dire amazement riveted they stand,

And hence the adjacent haven drew its name.
And hear the breakers lash the rugged strand : Next, in the gulf of Engia, Corinth lies,
But soon beyond this shore the vessel flies,

Whose
gorgeous

fabrics seem'd to strike the skies, Swift as the rapid eagle cleaves the skies. Whom, though by tyrant victors oft subsued, So from the fangs of her insatiate foe,

Greece, Egypt, Rome, with awful wonder view'd. O'er the broad champaign scuds the trembling roe. Her name, for Pallas' heavenly art renown'd,* That danger past, reflects a feeble joy ;

Spread, like the foliage which her pillars crown'd; But soon returning fears their hopes destroy. But now, in fatal desolation laid, Thus, in th' Atlantic, oft the sailor eyes,

Oblivion o'er it draws a dismal shade. While melting in the reign of softer skies,

Then further westward, on Morea's land, Some alp of ice from polar regions blown,

Fair Misitra! thy modern turrets stand. Hail the glad influence of a warmer zone :

Ah! who, unmoved with secret wo, can tell Its frozen cliffs attemper'd gales supply ;

That here great Lacedæmon's glory fell ? In cooling streams th' aërial billows fly;

Here once she flourish'd at whose trumpet's A while deliver'd from the scorching heat, In gentle tides the feverish pulses beat.

War burst his chains, and nations shook around. So, when their trembling vessol pass'd this isle, Here brave Leonidas, from shore to shore, Such visionary joys the crew beguile;

Through all Achaia bade her thunders roar : Th' illusive meteors of a lifeless fire;

He, when imperial Xerxes, from afar, Too soon they kindle, and too soon expire!

Advanced with Persia's sumless troops to war, Say, Memory! thou, from whose unerring tonguo Till Macedonia shrunk beneath his spear, Instructive flows the animated song !

And Greece dismay'd beheld the chief draw near: What regions now the flying ship surround?

He, at Thermopylæ's immortal plain, Regions of old through all the world renown'd;

His force repellid with Sparta's glorious train. That once the Poet's theme, the Muses' boast,

Tall Eta saw the tyrant's conquer'd bands, Now lie in ruins; in oblivion lost!

In gasping millions, bleed on hostile lands. Did they, whose sad distress these lays deplore,

Thus vanquish'd Asia trembling heard thy name, Unskill'd in Grecian or in Roman lore,

And Thebes and Athens sicken'd at thy fame!
Unconcious pass each famous circling shore ? Thy state, supported by Lycurgus' laws,
They did ; for blasted in the barren shade,

Drew, like thine arms, superlative applause :
Here, all too soon, the buds of science fade : E'en great Epaminondas strove in vain
Sad Ocean's genius, in untimely hour,

To curb that spirit with a Theban chain.
Withers the bloom of every springing flower :

But ah! how low her free-born spirit now! Here Fancy droops, while sullen cloud and storm Her abject sons to haughty tyrants bow; The generous climate of the soul deform.

A false, degenerate, superstitious race Then if among the wandering naval train, Infest thy region, and thy name disgrace! One stripling exiled from th’ Aonian plain,

Not distant far, Arcadia's blest domains Had e'er, entranced in Fancy's soothing dream, Peloponnesus' circling shore contains. Approach'd to taste the sweet Castalian stream,

Thrice happy soil! where still serenely gay, (Since those salubrious streams with power di- Indulgent Flora breathed perpetual May! vine,

Where buxom Ceres taught th' obsequious field, To purer sense th' attemper'd soul refine,)

Rich without art, spontaneous gifts to yield; His heart with liberal commerce here unblest,

Then with some rural nymph supremely blest, Alien to joy! sincerer grief possest.

While transport glow'd in each enamour'd breast, Yet on the youthful mind, th' impression cast,

Each faithful shepherd told his tender pain, Of ancient glory, shall for ever last.

And sung of sylvan sports in artless strain. There, all unquench'd by cruel Fortune's ire,

Now, sad reverse! Oppression's iron hand It glows with inextinguishable fire.

Enslaves her natives, and despoils the land. Immortal Athens first, in ruin spread,

In lawless rapine bred, a sanguine train Contiguous lies at Port Liono's head.

With midnight ravage scour th' uncultured plain. Great source of science! whose immortal name

Westward of these, beyond the isthmus lies Stands foremost in the glorious roll of Fame ;

The long-lost isle of Ithacus the wise ; Here godlike Socrates and Plato shone,

Where fair Penelope her absent lord And, firm to truth, eternal honour won.

Full twice ten years with faithful love deplored. The first in Virtue's cause his life resign'd, By Heaven pronounced the wisest of mankind;

. Architecture,

2

i

Though many a princely heart her beauty won, Silver Scamander laves the verdant shore;
She, guarded only by a stripling son,

Scamander oft o'erflow'd with hostile gore !
Each bold attempt of suitor-kings repellid,

Not far removed from Ilion's famous land,
And undefiled the nuptial contract held.

In counter view, appears the Thracian strand ;
With various arts to win her love they toil'd, Where beauteous Hero, from the turret's height,
But all their wiles by virtuous fraud she foild. Display'd her cresset each revolving night;
True to her vows, and resolutely chaste,

Whose gleam directed loved Leander o'er
The beauteous princess triumph'd at the last. The rolling Hellespont to Asia's shore,

Argos, in Greece forgotten and unknown, Till, in a fated hour, on Thracia's coast,
Süll seems her cruel fortune to bemoan ;

She saw her lover's lifeless body tost;
Argos, whose monarch led the Grecian hosts Then felt her bosom agony severe;
Far o'er the Ægean main to Dardan coasts. Her eyes, sad gazing, pour’d th' incessant tear!
Unhappy prince ! who on a hostile shore,

O'erwhelm'd with anguish, frantic with despair,
Toil, peril, anguish, ten long winters bore.

She beat her beauteous breast and tore her hair-
And when to native realms restored at last, On dear Leander's name in vain she cried ;
To reap the harvest of thy labours past,

Then headlong plunged into the parting tide :
A perjured friend, alas! and faithless wife, The parting tide received the lovely weight,
There sacrificed to impious lust thy life;-

And proudly now'd, exulting in its freight!
Fast by Arcadia, stretch these desert plains ; Far west of Thrace, beyond th' Ægean main,
And o'er the land a gloomy tyrant reigns.

Remote from ocean, lies the Delphic plain.
Next the fair isle of Helena* is seen,

The sacred oracle of Phæbus there
Where adverse winds detain'd the Spartan queen; High o'er the mount arose, divinely fair!
For whom, in arms combined, the Grecian host, Achaian marble form’d the gorgeous pile;
With vengeance fired, invaded Phrygia's coast; August the fabric! elegant its style !
For whom so long they labour'd to destroy On brazen hinges turn'd the silver doors ;
The sacred turrets of imperial Troy.

And checker'd marble paved the polish'd floors.
Here, driven by Juno's rage, the hapless dame, The roofs, where storied tablature appear'd,
Forlorn of heart, from ruin'd lion came.

On columns of Corinthian mould were rear’d: The port an image bears of Parian stone,

Of shining porphyry the shafts were framed,
Of ancient fabric, but of date unknown.

And round the hollow dome bright jewels flamed.
Due east from this appears th' immortal shore Apollo's suppliunt priests, a blameless train!
That sacred Phæbus and Diana bore.

Framed their oblation on the holy fane :
Delos, through all th' Ægean seas renown'd: To front the sun's declining ray 'twas placed ;
(Whose coast the rocky Cyclades surround) With golden harps and living laurels graced.
By Phæbus honour'd and by Greece revered ! The sciences and arts around the shrine
Her hallow'd groves e'en distant Persia feard : Conspicuous shone, engraved by hands divine !
But now, a silent unfrequented land !

Here Æsculapius' snake display'd his crest,
No human footstep marks the trackless sand. And burning glories sparkled on his breast;

Thence to the north, by Asia's western bound While, from his eye's insufferable light,
Fair Lemnos stands, with rising marble crown'd; Disease and Death recoil'd, in headlong flight.
Where, in her rage, avenging Juno hurl'd

of this great temple, through all time renown'd, ml-fated Vulcan from th' ethereal world.

Sunk in oblivion, no remains are found.
There his eternal anvils first he rear'd;

Contiguous here, with hallow'd woods o'er-
Then, forged by Cyclopean art, appear'd

spread,
Thunders, that shook the skies with dire alarms, Parnassus lifts to heaven its honour'd head;
And, form’d by skill divine, Vulcanian arms. Where from the deluge saved, by Heaven's com-
There, with this crippled wretch, the foul disgrace mand,
And living scandal of th' empyreal race,

Deucalion leading Pyrrha, hand in hand,
The beauteous queen of Love in wedlock dwelt. Repeopled all the desolated land.
In fires profane, can heavenly bosoms melt? Around the scene unfading laurels grow,

Eastward of this appears the Dardan shore, And aromatic flowers for ever blow.
That once th' imperial towers of Iium bore. The winged choirs, on every tree above,
Ilustrious Troy! renown'd in every clime, Carol sweet numbers through the vocal grove;
Through the long annals of unfolding time! While o'er th' eternal spring that smiles beneath,
How oft, thy royal bulwarks to defend,

Young zephyrs borne on rosy pinions breathe.
Thou saw'st thy tutelar gods in vain descend ! Fair daughters of the Sun! the sacred Nine,
Though chiefs unnumber'd in her cause were Here wake to ecstasy their songs divine ;
slain,

Or crown'd with myrtle in some sweet alcove,
Though nations perish'd on her bloody plain; Attune the tender strings to bleeding love ;
That refuge of perfidious Helen's shame

All sadly sweet the balmy currents roll,
Was doom'd at length to sink in Grecian flame. Soothing to softest peace the tortured soul,
And now, by Time's deep ploughshare harrow'd While hill and vale with choral voice around
o'er,

The music of immortal harps resound,
The seat of sacred Troy is found no more : Fair Pleasure leads in dance the happy hours,
No trace of all her glories now remains !

Still scattering where she moves Elysian flowers !
But corn and vines enrich her cultured plains. Even now, the strains, with sweet contagion

fraught, • Now known by the name of Micronisi. Shed a delicious languor o'er the thought

Adieu, ye vales, that smiling peace bestow, Hark! his strong voice the dismal silence breaks : Where Eden's blossoms ever vernal blow!

Mad chaos from the chains of death awakes! Adieu, ye streams, that o'er enchanted ground Loud and more loud the rolling peals enlarge ; In lucid maze the Aonian hills surround!

And blue on deck their blazing sides discharge; Ye fairy scenes, where Fancy loves to dwell, There, all aghasi, the shivering wretches stood ; And young Delight, for ever, O farewell!

While chill suspense and fear congeal'd their blood. The soul with tender luxury you fill,

Now in a deluge burst the living flame, And o'er the sense Lethean dews distil!

And dread concussion rends th’ ethereal frame. Awake, O Memory, from th’ inglorious dream! Sick Earth, convulsive, groans from shore to shore, With brazen lungs resume the kindling theme ! And Nature, shuddering, feels the horrid roar. Collect thy powers! arouse thy vital fire!

Still the sad prospect rises on my sight, Ye spirits of the storm, my verse inspire !

Reveal'd in all its mournful shade and light; Hoarse as the whirlwinds that enrage the main, Swift through my pulses glides the kindling fire, In torrents pour along the swelling strain! As lightning glances on th' electric wire.

Now, borne impetuous o'er the boiling deeps, But, ah! the force of numbers strives in vain, Her course to Attic shores the vessel keeps : The glowing scene unequal to sustain. The pilots, as the waves behind her swell,

But, lo! at last, from tenfold darkness born, Still with the wheeling stern their force repel. Forth issues o'er the wave the weeping morn. For, this assault should either quarter* feel, Hail, sacred Vision! who, on orient wings, Again to flank the tempest she might reel. The cheering dawn of light propitious brings ! The steersmen every bidden turn apply ;

All Nature, smiling, haild the vivid ray, To right and left the spokes alternate fly.

That gave her beauties to returning day: Thus when some conquer'd host retreats in fear, All but our ship, that, groaning on the tide, The bravest leaders guard the broken rear: No kind relief, no gleam of hope descried. Indignant they retire, and long oppose

For now, in front, her trembling inmates see Superior armies that around them close ;

The hills of Greece emerging on the lee. Still shield the flanks, the routed squadrons join, So the lost lover views that fatal morn, And guide the flight in one imbodied line.

On which, for ever from his bosom torn, So they direct the flying bark before

The nymph adored resigns her blooming charms,
Th' impelling floods, that lash her to the shore. To bless with love some happier rival's arms.
As some benighted traveller, through the shade, So to Eliza dawn'd that cruel day
Explores the devious path with heart dismay'd ; That tore Æneas from her arms away;
While prowling savages behind him roar,

That saw him parting never to return,
And yawning pits and quagmires lurk before Herself in funeral Names decreed to burn.
High o'er the poop the audacious seas aspire, O yet in clouds, thou genial source of light,
Uproll'd in hills of Auctuating fire.

Conceal thy radiant glories from our sight!
As some fell conqueror, frantic with success, Go, with thy smile adorn the happy plain, (reign,
Sheds o'er the nations ruin and distress;

And gild the scenes where health and pleasure So, while the watery wilderness he roams, But let not here, in scorn, thy wanton beam Incensed to sevenfold rage the tempest foams; Insult the dreadful graudeur of my theme! And o'er the trembling pines, above, below,

While shoreward now the bounding vessel Aies, Shrill through the cordage howls, with notes of wo. Full in her van St. George's cliffs arise ; Now thunders wafted from the burning zone, High o'er the rest a pointed crag is seen, Growl from afar, a deaf and hollow groan! That hung projecting o'er a mossy green. The ship's high batilements, to either side

Nearer and nearer now the danger grows For ever rocking, drink the briny tide ;

And all their skill relentless fates oppose; Her joints unhinged, in palsied languors play, For, while more eastward they direct the prow, As ice dissolves beneath the noontide ray. Enormons waves the quivering deck o'erflow. The skies asunder torn, a deluge pour;

While, as she wheels, unable to subdue The impetuous hail descends in whirling shower. Her sallies, still they dread her broaching-to.* High on the masts, with pale and livid rays, Alarming thought! for now no more a-lee Amid the gloom portentous meteors blaze. Her riven side could bear th' invading sea ; Th'ethereal dome, in mournful pomp array'd, And if the following surge she scuds before, Now lurks behind impenetrable shade;

Headlong she runs upon the dreadful shore: Now, flashing round intolerable light,

A shore where shelves and hidden rocks abound, Redoubles all the terrors of the night.

Where Death in secret ambush lurks around. Such terrors Sinai's quaking hill o'erspread, Far less dismay’d, Anchises' wandering son When heaven's loud trumpet sounded o'er its was seen the straits of Sicily to shun: head.

When Palinurus, from the helm descried
It seem'd, the wrathful angel of the wind

The rocks of Scylla on his eastern side;
Had all the horrors of the skies combined ;
And here, to one ill-fated ship opposed,
At once the dreadful magazine disclosed.

Broaching-to is a sudden and involuntary movement And lo! tremendous o'er the deep he springs,

in navigation, wherein a ship, whilst sailing or scudding

before the wind, unexpectedly turns her side to wind. Th' inflaming sulphur flashing from his wings !

ward. It is generally occasioned by the difficulty of

steering her, or by some disaster happening to the * The quarter is the hinder part of a ship side; or that machinery of the helm. See the last note of the second part which is near the stern.

Canto.

While in the west, with hideous yawn disclosed, With mournful look the seamen eyed the strand,
His onward path Charybdis' gulf opposed. Where Death's inexorable jaws expand :
The double danger as by turns he view'd, Swift from their minds elapsed all dangers past,
His wheeling bark her arduous track pursued. As, dumb with terror they beheld the last.
Thus while to right and left destruction lies, Now, on the trembling shrouds, before, behind,
Between the extremes the daring vessel flies. In mute suspense they mount into the wind.-
With boundless involution, bursting o'er

The genius of the deep, on rapid wing,
The marble cliffs, loud dashing surges roar ;

The black eventful moment seem'd to bring ;
Hoarse through each winding creek the tempest The fatal sisters on the surge before,
raves,

Yoked their infernal horses to the prore.-
And hollow rocks repeat the groan of waves ; The steersmen now received their last command,
Destruction round th' insatiate coast prepares, To wheel the vessel sidelong to the strand.
To crush the trembling ship, unnumber'd snares. Twelve sailors, on the foremast who depend,
But haply now she 'scapes the fatal strand, High on the platform of the top ascend;
Though scarce ten fathoms distant from the land ; Fatal retreat! for while the plunging prow
Swift as the weapon issuing from the bow, Immerges headlong in the wave below,
She cleaves the burning waters with her prow; Down-prest by watery weight the bowsprit bends,
And forward leaping, with tumultuous haste, And from above the stem deep-crushing rends.
As on the tempest's wing the isle she past. Beneath her beak the floating ruins lie;
With longing eyes and agony of mind,

The foremast totters, unsustain'd on high :
The sailors view this refuge left behind;

And now the ship, fore-lifted by the sea, Happy to bribe, with India's richest ore,

Hurls the tall fabric backward o'er the lee;
A safe accession to that barren shore !

While, in the general wreck, the faithful stay
When in the dark Peruvian mine confined, Drags the main topmast from its post away.
Lost to the cheerful commerce of mankind, Flung from the mast, the seamen strive in vain.
The groaning captive wastes his life away, Through hostile floods their vessels to regain;
For ever exiled from the realms of day;

The waves they buffet, till bereft of strength,
No equal pangs his bosom agonize,

O'erpower'd they yield to cruel fate at length. When far above the sacred light he eyes,

The hostile waters close around their head,
While, all forlorn, the victim pines in vain, They sink, for ever, number'd with the dead !
For scenes he never shall possess again.

Those who remain, their fearful doom await,
But now Athenian mountains they descry, Nor longer mourn their lost companions' fate;
And o'er the surge Colonna frowns on high: The heart, that bleeds with sorrows all its own,
Beside the cape's projecting verge are placed Forgets the pangs of friendship to bemoan.
A range of columns, long by time defaced; Albert and Rodmond, and Palemon here,
First planted by devotion to sustain,

With young Arion, on the mast appear;
In elder times, Tritonia's sacred fane.

E'en they, amid th' unspeakable distress, Foams the wild beach below, with maddening in every look distracting thoughts confess; rage,

In every vein the refluent blood congeals;
Where waves and rocks a dreadful combat wage. And every bosom fatal terror feels.
The sickly heaven, fermenting with its freight, Enclosed with all the demons of the main,
Sull vomits o'er the main the feverish weight: They view'd th' adjacent shore, but view'd in
And now, while wing'd with ruin from on high,

vain.
Through the rent cloud the ragged lightnings fly, Such torments in the drear abodes of hell,
A flash, quick glancing on the nerves of light, Where sad despair laments with rueful yell,
Struck the pale helmsman with eternal night: Such torments agonize the damned breast,
Rodmond, who heard the piteous groan behind, While Fancy views the mansions of the blest.
Touch'd with compassion gazed upon the blind : For Heaven's sweet help, their suppliant cries
And, while around his sad companions crowd,

implore ;
He guides the unhappy victim to the shroud. But Heaven relentless deigns to help no more!
"Hie thee aloft, my gallant friend !” he cries ; And now, lash'd on by destiny severe,
" Thy only succour on the mast relies!"-

With horror fraught, the dreadful scene drew near
The helm, bereft of half its vital force,

The ship hangs hovering on the verge of death,
Now scarce subdued the wild unbridled course: Hell yawns, rocks rise, and breakers roar beneath
Quick to th' abandon'd wheel Arion came, In vain, alas! the sacred shades of yore
The ship's ternpestuous sallies to reclaim.

Would arm the mind with philosophic lore;
Amazed he saw her, o'er the sounding foam In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
Upborne, to right and left distracted roam. To smile serene amid the pangs of death.
So gazed young Phaeton, with pale dismay, E’en Zeno's self, and Epictetus old,
When, mounted in the flaming car of day, This fell abyss had shudder'd to behold.
With rash and impious hand the stripling tried Had Socrates, for godlike virtue famed,
The immortal coursers of the sun to guide. And wisest of the sons of men proclaim'd,
The vessel, while the dread event draws nigh, Boheld this scene of frenzy and distress,
Seems more impatient o'er the waves to fly; His soul had trembled to its last recess!
Fate spurs her on :-thus issuing from afar, O yet confirm my heart, ye Powers above,
Advances to the sun some blazing star ;

This last tremendous shock of Fate to provo;
And, as it feels th' attraction's kindling force, The tottering frame of Reason yet sustain!
Springs onward with accelerated course. Nor let this total ruin whirl my brain!