W

THEN in a barbarous age, with blood defil'd,
The human favage roam'd the gloomy wild;
When fullen Ignorance her flag difplay'd,
And Rapine and Revenge her voice obey'd;
Sent from the fhores of light the Mufes came,
The dark and folitary race to tame.
'Twas their's the lawless paffions to controul,
And melt in tender fympathy the foul;
The heart from vice and error to reclaim,
And breathe in human breafts celestial flame.
The kindling fpirit caught th' empyreal ray,
And glow'd congenial with the fwelling lay.
Rous'd from the chaos of primeval night,
At once fair Truth and Reafon fprung to light.-
When great Mæonidas, in rapid fong,
The thundering tide of battle rolls along,
Each ravish'd bofom feels the high alarms,
And all the, burning pulfes beat to arms.
From earth upborn, on Pegafean wings,
Far thro' the boundless realms of thought he fprings;
While diftant poets, trembling as they view
His funward flight, the dazzling track purfue
But when his ftrings, with mournful magic, tell
What dire diftrefs Laertes' fon befel,
The ftrains, meand'ring thro' the maze of woe,
Bid facred fympathy the heart o'erflow.
Thus, in old time, the Mufes' heavenly breath
With vital force diffolv'd the chains of death:
Each bard in epic lays began to fing,
Taught by the master of the vocal string.—
"Tis mine, alas! thro' dangerous fcenes to ftray,
Far from the light of his unerring ray!
While, all unus'd the wayward path to tread,
Darkling I wander with prophetic dread.
To me in vain the bold Mæonian lyre
Awakes the numbers, fraught with living fire!-
Full oft indeed, that mournful harp of yore
Wept the fad wanderer loft upon the shore;
But o'er that scene th' impatient numbers ran,
Subfervient only to a nobler plan.

'Tis mine, the unravel'd prospect to display,
And chain th' events in regular array.
Tho' hard the task, to fing in varied strains,
While all unchang'd the tragic theme remains!
Thrice happy! might the fecret powers of art
Unlock the latent windings of the heart!
Might the fad numbers draw compaffion's tear
For kindred-miferies, oft beheld too near:
For kindred-wretches, oft in ruin caft
On Albion's Itrand, beneath the wint'ry blast :
For all the pangs, the complicated woe,
Her braveit fons, her faithful failors know!
So pity gufhing o'er each British breast,
Might fympathife with Britain's fons diftreft:

For this, my theme thro' mazes I purfue,
Which nor Mæonidas nor Maro knew.

Awhile the maft, in ruins dragg'd behind,
Balanc'd the impreffion of the helm and wind:
The wounded ferpent, agoniz'd with pain,
Thus trails his mangled volume on the plain,
But now the wreck diffever'd from the rear,
The long reluctant prow began to veer;
And while around before the wind it falls,
Square all the yards! the attentive mafter calls-
You, timoneers, her motion till attend!
For on your fteerage all our lives de pend.
So, fteddy +! meet her, watch the blaft behind,
And fteer her right before the feas and wind!
Starboard again! the watchful pilot cries;
Starboard, the obedient timoneer replies.
Then to the left the ruling helm returns ;
The wheel revolves; the ringing axle burns?
The hip no longer, foundering by the lee,
Bears on her fide th' invafions of the fea:
All loanly o'er the defart wafte fhe flies,
Scourg'd on by furges, ftorm and bursting skies.
As when the mafters of the lance affail,
In Hyperborean feas, the flumbering whale;
Soon as the javelins pierce his fealy hide,
With anguish ftung, he cleaves the downward tide;
In vain he flies! no friendly refpite found;
His life-blood gushes thro' th' inflaming wound.
The wounded bark, thus fmarting with her pain,
Scuds from pursuing waves along the main ;
While, dafh'd apart by her dividing prow,
Like burning adamant the waters glow.
Her joints forget their firm elaftic tone;
Her long keel trembles, and her timbers groin.
Upheav'd behind her, in tremendous height,
The billows frown, with fearful radiance bright!
Now fhivering, o'er the topmost wave she rides,
While deep beneath th' enormous gulf divides.
Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,
She hears no more the roaring of the gale;
Till up the dreadful height again the flies,
Trembling beneath the current of the skies.
As that rebellious angel who from heaven
To regions of eternal pain was driven;
When dreadlefs he forfook the Stygian fhore,
The diftant realms of Eden to explore;
Here on fulphureous clouds fublime upheav'd,
With daring wing th' infernal air he cleav'd;
There, in fome hideous gulf defcending prone,
Far in the raylefs void of night was thrown:
Even fo fhe fcales the briny mountain's height,
Then down the black abyf's precipitates her flight.
The mafts, around whofe tops the whirlwinds fing,
With long vibration round her axle fwing.
To guide the wayward course amid the gloom,
The watchful pilots different posts affume.
Albert and Rodmond, ftation'd on the rear,
With warning voice direct each timoneer.
High on the prow the guard Arion keeps,
To thun the cruifers wandering o'er the deeps:

*To fquare the yards, in this place is meant to arrange them directly athwart the ship's length.

Steddy, is the order to fteer the fhip according to the line on which the advances at that inftant, without deviating to the right or left thereof.

In all large fhips the helm is managed by a wheel.

Where'er he moves Palemon till attends,
As if on him his only hope depends:
While Rodmond, fearful of fome neighbouring
fhore,

Cries, ever and anon, Look out afore!

Four hours thus fcudding on the tide the flew,
When Falconera's rocky height they view.
High o'er its fummit, thro' the gloom of night,
The glimmering watch-tower cafts a mournful light.
In dire amazement rivetted they stand,
And hear the breakers lafh the rugged strand:
But foon beyond this fhore the veffel flies,
Swift as the rapid eagle cleaves the skies.
So from the fangs of her infatiate foe,

O'er the broad champain feuds the trembling roe.--
'That danger palt, reflects a feeble joy ;
But foon returning fears their hope destroy.
Thus, in th' Atlantic, oft the failor eyes,
While melting in the reign of fofter skies,
Some Alp of ice, from polar regions blown,
Hail the glad influence of a warmer zone :
Its frozen cliffs attemper'd gales fupply:
In cooling stream the aerial billows fly;
Awhile deliver'd from the fcorching heat,
In gentler tides the feverish pulfes beat.

So, when their trembling veffel past this ifle,
Such vifionary joys the crew beguile:
Th' illufive meteors of a lifelefs fire!
Too foon they kindle, and too foon expire!

Say, Memory! thou from whofe unerring tongue
Inftructive flows the animated fong!
What regions now the flowing fhip surround?
Regions of old, thro' all the world renown'd;
That, once the poet's theme the mufes boaft,
Now lie in ruins; in oblivion loft!
Did they, whofe fad diftrefs these lays deplore,
Unfkill'd in Grecian or in Roman lore,
Unconscious pafs each famous circling shore?

They did; for, blafted in the barren fhade, Here, all too foon, the buds of fcience fade: Sad ocean's genius, in untimely hour, Withers the bloom of every fpringing flower. Here fancy droops, while fullen cloud and storm The generous climate of the foul deform, Then if, among the wandering naval train, One ftripling, exil'd from th' Aonian plain, Had e'er, entranc'd in fancy's foothing dream, Approach'd to taste the sweet Caftalian stream, (Since thofe falubrious ftreams, with power divine, To purer fenfe th' attemper'd foul refine) His heart, with liberal commerce here unbleft, Alien to joy! fincerer grief poffeft. Yet on the youthful mind th' impression cast Of ancient glory, fhall for ever lait. There, all unquench'd by cruel fortune's ire, It glows with inextinguishable fire.

Immortal Athens first, in ruin spread,
Contiguous lies at Port Liono's head,

Great fource of fcience! whofe immortal name
Stands foremost in the glorious roll of fame.
Here godlike Socrates and Plato fhone,
And, firm to truth, eternal honour won,
The first in Virtue's caufe his life refign'd,
By Heav'n pronounc'd the wifelt of mankind;
The laft foretold the spark of vital fire,
The foul's fine effence, never could expire.
Hore Solon dwelt, the philofophic fage
That fed Pififtratus' vindictive rage.

Juft Ariftides here maintain'd the cause,
Whofe facred precepts fhine, thro' Solon's laws,
Of all her towering ftructures, now alone.
Some scatter'd columns ftand, with weeds o'ergrown,
The wandering stranger, near the port, defcries
A milk-white lion of ftupendous fize;,
Unknown the sculptor; marble is the frame:
And hence th' adjacent haven drew its name.

Next, in the gulph of Engia, Corinth lies,
Whofe gorgeous fabrics feem'd to strike the skies;
Whom, tho' by tyrant victors oft' fubdu'd,
Greece, Egypt, Rome, with awful wonder view'd,
Her name, for Pallas' heavenly art renown'd *,
Spread like the foliage which her pillars crown'd.
But now, in fatal defolation laid,

Oblivion o'er it draws a difmal fhade.

Then further weftward on Morea's land,
Fair Mifitra! thy modern turrets stand,
Ah! who, unmov'd with fecret woe, can tell
That here great Lacedæmon's glory tell?
Here once the flourish'd, at whofe trumpet's found
War burft his chains, and nations fhook around.
Here brave Leonidas from fhore to fhore
Thro' all Achaia bade her thunders roar :
He, when imperial Xerxes, from afar,
Advanc'd with Perfia's fumlefs troops to war,
Till Macedonia fhrunk beneath his spear,
And Greece difmay'd beheld the chief draw near;
He, at Thermopyla's immortal plain,

| His force repell'd with Sparta's glorious train.
Tall Oeta faw the tyrant's conquer'd bands,
In gafping millions, bleed on hoftile lands.
Thus vanquish'd Afia trembling heard thy name,
And Thebes and Athens ficken'd at thy fame!
Thy state, fupported by Lycurgus' laws,
Drew, like thine arms, fuperlative applause,
Even great Epaminondas ftrove in vain
To curb that spirit with a Theban chain.
But ah! how low her free-born fpirit now!
Her abject fons to haughty tyrants bow;
A falfe, degenerate, fuperftitious race
Infeit thy region, and thy name difgrace!

Not diftant far, Arcadia's bleft domains
Peloponnefus' circling shore contains.
Thrice happy foil! where ftill ferenely gay,
Indulgent Flora breath'd perpetual May;
Where buxom Ceres taught th' obfequious field,
Rich without art, fpontaneous gifts to yield.
Then with fome rural nymph fupremely bleit,
While tranfport glow'd in each enamour'd breaft,
Each faithful fhepherd told his tender pain,
And fung of fylyan fports in artless strain.
Now, fad reverfe!
Oppreffion's iron hand
Enslaves her natives, and defpoils the land.
In lawless rapine bred, a fanguine train
With midnight-ravage fcour th' uncultur'd plain.
Weftward of thefe, beyond the Isthmus, lies
The long-loft isle of Ithacus the wise ;
Where fair Penelope her abfent lord
Full twice ten years with faithful love deplor'd.
Tho' many a princely heart her beauty won,
She, guarded only by her ftripling fon,
Each bold attempt of fuitor-kings repell'd,
And undefil'd the nuptial contract held.
With various arts to win her love they toil'd,
But all their wiles by virtuous fraud fhe foil'd

* Architecture. Sa

Awake, O Memory, from th' inglorious dream!
With brazen lungs resume the kindling theme!
Collect thy powers! aroufe thy vital fire!
Ye fpirits of the ftorm, my verfe inspire!
Hoarfe as the whirlwinds that enrage the main,
In torrents pour along the fwelling strain !

No, borne impetuous o'er the boiling deeps,
Her courfe to Attic fhores the veffel keeps:
The pilots, as the waves behind her fwell,
Still with the wheeling ftern their force repel,
For this affault should either quarter * feel,
Again to flank the tempeft the might reel.
The fteersmen every bidden turn apply
To right and left the spokes alternate fly.
Thus when fome conquer'd hoft retreats in fear,
The braveft leaders guard the broken rear;
Indignant they retire, and long oppofe
Superior armies that around them clofe;

Still fhield the flanks; the routed squadrons join ;
And guide the flight in one embodied line :
So they direct the flying bark before
Th' impelling floods that lafh her to the fhore.
As fome benighted traveller, thro' the shade,
Explores the devious path with heart dismay'd ;
While prowling favages behind him roar,
And yawning pits and quagmires lurk before-
High o'er the poop th' audacious feas aspire,
Uproll'd in hills of fluctuating fire.

As fome fell conqueror, frantic with fuccefs,
Sheds o'er the nations ruin and diftrefs;
So, while the wat'ry wilderness he roams,
Incens'd to fevenfold rage the tempeft foams;
And o'er the trembling pines, above, below,
Shrill thro' the cordage howls, with notes of woe.
Now thunders, wafted from the burning zone,
Growl, from afar, a deaf and hollow groan!
The fhip's high battlements, to either fide
For ever rocking, drink the briny tide:
Her joints unhing'd, in paled languors play,
As ice diffolves beneath the noon-tide ray.
The skies, afunder torn, a deluge pour;
The impetuous hail defcends in whirling shower.
High on the mafts, with pale and livid rays,
Amid the gloom portentous meteors blaze.
Th' ætherial dome, in mournful pomp array'd.
Now lurks behind impenetrable shade;
Now, flashing round intolerable light,
Redoubles all the terrors of the night.
Such terror Sinai's quaking hill o'erfpread,
When heaven's loud trumpet founded o'er his head.
It feem'd, the wrathful Angel of the wind
Had all the horrors of the fkies combin'd;
And here, to one ill-fated fhip oppos'd,
At once the dreadful magazine difclos'd.
And lo! tremendous o'er the deep he springs,
Th' inflaming fulphur flashing from his wings!
Hark! his ftrong voice the difmal filence breaks;
Mad chaos from the chains of death awakes!
Loud and more loud the rolling peals enlarge,
And blue on deck their blazing fides discharge:
There, all aghaft, the fhivering wretches ftood,
While chill fufpence and fear congeal'd their blood.
Now in a deluge burfts the living flame,
And dread concuffion rends th' ætherial frame;

The quarter is the hinder part of a ship's fide; or that part which is near the stern.

Sick earth convulfive groans from shore to shore,
And nature shuddering feels the horrid roar.
Still the fad profpect rifes on my fight,
Reyeal'd in all its mournful fhade and light.
Swift thro' my pulfes glides the kindling fire,
As lightning glances on th' electric wire.
But ah! the force of numbers strives in vain,
The glowing scene unequal to sustain.

But lo at laft, from tenfold darkness born, Forth iffues o'er the wave the weeping morn. Hail, facred vifion! who, on orient wing, The cheering dawn of light propitious bring! All nature smiling hail'd the vivid ray, That gave her beauties to returning day: All but our fhip, that, groaning on the tide, No kind relief, no gleam of hope descry'd. For now, in front, her trembling inmates fee The hills of Greece emerging on the lee. So the loft lover views that fatal morn, On which, for ever from his bofom torn, The nymph ador'd refigns her blooming charms, To blefs with love some happier rival's arms. So to Eliza dawn'd that cruel day, That tore Eneas from her arms away; That faw him parting never to return, Herfelf in funeral flames decreed to burn. O yet in clouds, that genial fource of light, Conceal thy radiant glories from our fight! Go, with thy fmile adorn the happy plain, And gild the scenes where health and pleasure reign: But let not here, in fcorn, thy wanton beam Infult the dreadful grandeur of my theme! While fhoreward now the bounding veffel flies, Full in her van St George's cliffs arife: High o'er the reft a pointed crag is seen, Thus hung projecting over a mofly green. Nearer and nearer now the danger grows, And all their skill relentless fates oppose. For, while more eastward they direct the prow, Enormous waves the quivering deck overflow. While, as the wheels, unable to fubdue Her fallies, ftill they dread her broaching-to *. Alarming thought! for now no more a-lee Her riven fide could bear th' invading fea; And if the following furge the fcuds before, Headlong the runs upon the dreadful shore; A fhore where shelves and hidden rocks abound, Where death in fecret ambush turks around. Far lefs difmay'd, Anchifes' wandering fon Was feen the ftraits of Sicily to shun : When Palinurus, from the helm, descry'd The rocks of Scylla on his eastern fide; While in the weft, with hideous yawn disclos'd, His onward path Charybdis' gulph oppos'd; The double danger as by turns he view'd, His wheeling bark her arduous track pursu’d. Thus, while to right and left destruction lies, Between th' extremes the daring veffel flies.

* Broaching-to, is a fudden and involuntary movement in navigation, wherein a ship, whilst scudding or failing before the wind, unexpectedly turns her fide to windward. It is generally occafioned by the difficulty of steering her, or by fome disaster happening to the machinery of the helm. See the laft note of

the Second Canto.

With boundless involution, bursting o'er
The marble cliffs, lond-dafhing furges roar.
Hoarse thro' each winding creek the tempest raves,
And hollow rocks repeat the groan of waves.
Destruction round th' infatiate coaft prepares,
To crush the trembling ship, unnumber'd fnares.
But haply now the 'fcapes the fatal strand,
Tho' fcarce ten fathoms diftant from the land.
Swift as the weapon iffuing from the bow,
She cleaves the burning waters with her prow;
And forward leaping, with tumultuous haste,
As on the tempeft's wing, the ifle she past.
With longing eyes, and agony of mind,
The failors view this refuge left behind;
Happy to bribe, with India's richest ore,
A fafe acceffion to that barren fhore !

When in the dark Peruvian mine confin'd,
Loft to the chearful commerce of mankind,
The groaning captive wastes his life away,
For ever exil'd from the realms of day;
Not equal pangs his bofom agonize,
When far above the facred light he eyes,
While, all forlorn, the victim pines in vain,
For fcenes he never fhall poffefs again.

But now Athenian mountains they defcry,
And o'er the furge Colonna frowns on high.
Befide the cape's projecting verge is plac'd
A range of columns, long by time defac'd;
First planted by devotion to sustain,
In elder times, Tritonia's facred fane.
Foams the wild beach below with mad'ning rage,
Where waves the rocks a dreadful combat wage.
The fickly heaven, fermenting with its freight,
Still vomits o'er the main the feverish weight:
And now, while wing'd with ruin from on high,
Thro' the rent cloud the ragged lightnings fly,
A flash, quick-glancing on the nerves of light,
Struck the pale helmsman with eternal night:
Rodmond, who heard a piteous groan behind,
Touch'd with compaffion gaz'd upon the blind;
And while around his fad companions croud,
He guides th' unhappy victim to the shroud.
Hie thee aloft, my gallant friend! he cries;
Thy only fuccour on the maft relies!-
The helm, bereft of half its vital force,
Now scarce fubdu'd the wild unbridled courfe:
Quick to th' abandon'd wheel Arion came,
The ship's tempeftuous fallies to reclaim.
Amaz'd he faw her, o'er the founding foam
Upborn, to right and left distracted roam.
So gaz'd young Phaeton, with pale dismay,
When mounted on the flaming car of day,
With rash and impious hand the stripling try'd
Th' immortal courfers of the fun to guide.
The veffel, while the dread event draws nigh,
Seems more impatient o'er the waves to fly :
Fate fpurs her on. Thus iffuing from afar,
Advances to the fun some blazing star;
And, as it feels th' attraction's kindling force,
Springs onward with accelerated courfe,

With mournful look the feamen ey'd the strand, Where death's inexorable jaws expand: Swift from their minds elaps'd all dangers past, As, dumb with terror, they beheld the laft. Now on the trembling shrouds, before, behind, In mute fufpence they mount into the wind.The Genius of the deep, on rapid wing, The black eventful moment feem'd to bring.

The fatal Sifters, on the furge before,
Yok'd their infernal horfes to the prore.
The fteerfmen now receiv'd their last command
To wheel the veffel fidelong to the strand.
Twelve failors, on the foremaft who depend,
High on the platform of the top afcend;
Fatal retreat! for while the plunging prow
Immerges headlong in the wave below,
Down-preft by wat'ry weight the bowsprit bends,
And from above the ftem deep crashing rends.
Beneath her beak the floating ruins lie;
The foremaft totters, unfuftain'd on high:
And now the fhip, fore-lifted by the fea,
Hurls the tall fabric backward o'er her lee;
While, in the general wreck, the faithful stay
Drags the main-topmaft from its polt away.
Flung from the maft, the feamen strive in vain
Thro' hoftile floods their veffel to regain.
The waves they buffet, till, bereft of ftrength,
O'erpower'd they yield to cruel fate at length.
The hoftile waters clofe around their head,
They fink for ever, number'd with the dead!

Those who remain their fearful doom await,
Nor longer mourn their loft companion's fate.
The heart that bleeds with forrow all its own.
Forgets the pangs of friendship to bemoan.➡
Albert and Rodmond and Palemon here,
With young Arion, on the maft appear;
Even they, amid th' unfpeakable distress,
In every look diftracting thoughts confefs;
In every vein the refluent blood congeals,
And every bofom fatal terror feels.
Inclos'd with all the demons of the main,
They view'd th' adjacent fhore, but view'd in vain.
Such torments in the drear abodes of hell,
Where fad despair laments with rueful yell,
Such torments agonize the damned breast,
While fancy views the manfions of the bleft.
For heaven's fweet help their fuppliant cries im-
plore;

But heaven, relentlefs, deigns to help no more!
And now, lafh'd on by deftiny fevere,

With horror fraught, the dreadful scene drew near?
The ship hangs hovering on the verge of death,
Hell yawns, rocks rife, and breakers roar be-
neath!-

In vain, alas! the facred fhades of yore
Would arm the mind with philofophic lore;
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
To fmile ferene amid the pangs of death.
Even Zeno's felf, and Epictetus old,
This fell abyfs had fhudder'd to behold.
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue fam'd,
And wifeft of the fons of men proclaim'd,
Beheld this scene of phrenzy and diftrefs,
His foul had trembled to its laft recefs!-
O yet confirm my heart, ye powers above,
This laft tremendous fhock of fate to prove.
The tottering frame of reafon yet fustain!
Nor let this total ruin whirl my brain!

In vain the cords and axes were prepar'd
For now th' audacious feas infult the yard;
High o'er the fhip they throw a horrid shade,
And o'er her burft, in terrible cascade.
Uplifted on the furge, to heaven the flies,
Her fhatter'd top half buried in the skies,
Then headlong plunging thunders on the ground,
Earth groans air trembles! and the deeps refound!