That saw him parting, never to return,
Herself in funeral flames decreed to burn.
O yet in clouds, thou genial source of light,
Conceal thy radiant glories from our sight!
Go, with thy smile adorn the happy plain,
And gild the scenes where health and pleasure
reign;

But let not here, in scorn, thy wanton beam
Insult the dreadful grandeur of my theme!
While shoreward now the bounding vessel
Full in her van St. George's cliffs arise : [flies,
High o'er the rest a pointed crag
is seen,
That hung projecting o'er a mossy 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 o'erflow.
While, as she wheels, unable to subdue
Her sallies, still they dread her broaching-to.
Alarming thought! for now no more a-lee
Her riven side could bear th' invading sea;
And if the following surge she scuds before,
Headlong she runs upon the dreadful shore;
A shore where shelves and hidden rocks abound,
Where death in secret ambush lurks around.
Far less dismay'd, Anchises' wandering son
Was seen the straits of Sicily to shun;
When Palinurus, from the helm, descry'd
The rocks of Scylla on his eastern side;
While in the west, 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 vessel flies.
With boundless involution, bursting o'er
The marble cliffs, loud-dashing surges roar.
Hoarse through each winding creek the tempest

raves,

And hollow rocks repeat the groan of waves. Destruction round th' insatiate coast prepares, To crush the trembling ship, unnumber'd

snares.

But haply now she 'scapes the fatal strand, Though scarce ten fathoms distant from the land.

Swift as the weapon issuing from the bow,
She cleaves the burning waters with her prow;
And forward leaping with tumultuous haste,
As on the tempest's wing the isle she past.
With longing eyes, and agony of mind,
The sailors view this refuge left behind;
Happy to bribe, with India's richest ore,
A safe accession to that barren shore!

When in the dark Peruvian mine confin'd,
Lost to the cheerful commerce of mankind,
The groaning captive wastes his life away,
For ever exil'd from the realms of day;
Not equal pangs his bosom agonise,
When far above the sacred light he eyes,
While, all forlorn, the victim pines in vain,
For scenes he never shall possess again.

But now Athenian mountains they descry, And o'er the surge Colonna frowns on high.

rage,

Through 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 compassion gaz'd upon the blind,
And while around his sad companions crowd,
He guides th' unhappy victim to the shroud.
Hie thee aloft, my gallant friend! he cries;
Thy only succour on the mast relies!
The helm, bereft of half its vital force,
Now scarce subdu'd the wild unbridled course -
Quick to th' abandon'd wheel Arion came,
The ship's tempestuous sallies to reclaim.
Amaz'd he saw her, o'er the sounding foam
Upborne, 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
Th' immortal coursers of the sun to guide.
The vessel, while the dread event draws nigh,
Seems more impatient o'er the waves to fly:
Fate spurs her on.-Thus issuing from afar,
Advances to the sun some blazing star :
And, as it feels th' attraction's kindling force,
Springs onward with accelerated course.

With mournful look the seamen 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 last.
Now on the trembling shrouds, before, behind
In mute suspense they mount into the wind.-
The Genius of the deep, on rapid wing,
The black eventful moment seem'd to bring.
The fatal sisters on the surge before,
Yok'd their infernal horses to the prore.-
The steersmen now receiv'd their last commas.
To wheel the vessel sidelong to the strand.
Twelve sailors, on the foremast who depend,
High on the platform of the top ascend;
Fatal retreat! for while the plunging prow
Immerges headlong in the wave below,
Down-prest by wat'ry weight the bows
bends,

And from above the stem deep crashing rends.
Beneath her beak the floating ruins lie;
The foremast totters, unsustain'd on high:
And now the ship, fore-lifted by the sea,
Hurls the tall fabric backward o'er her lee.
While, in the general wreck, the faithful stay
Drags the main-topmast from its post away.
Flung from the mast, the seamen strive in vat
Through hostile floods their vessel to regain.

The waves they buffet, till, bereft of strength,
O'erpower'd they yield to cruel fate at length.
The hostile waters close around their head,
They sink for ever, number'd with the dead!
Those who remain their fearful doom await,
Nor longer mourn their lost companions' fate.
The heart that bleeds with sorrows all its own,
Forgets the pangs of friendship to bernoan.—
Albert and Rodmond and Palemon here,
With young Arion, on the mast appear;
E'en they, amid th' unspeakable distress,
In every look distracting thoughts confess;
In
every vein the refluent blood congeals,
And every bosom fatal terror feels.

Inclos'd with all the demons of the main,
They view'd th' adjacent shore, but view'd

vain.

Till like the mine, in whose infernal cell The lurking demons of destruction dwell, At length asunder torn her frame divides, And crashing spreads in ruin o'er the tides.

In vain, alas! the sacred shades of yore,
Would arm the mind with philosophic lore;
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
To smile serene amid the pangs of death.
E'en Zeno's self, and Epictetus old,
This fell abyss had shudder'd to behold.
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue fam'd,
And wisest of the sons of men proclaim'd,
Beheld this scene of phrensy and distress,
His soul had trembled to its last recess !-
O

yet confirm my heart, ye powers above, This last tremendous shock of fate to prove; The tottering frame of reason yet sustain, Nor let this total ruin whirl my brain!

In vain the cords and axes were prepar'd, For now th' audacious seas insult the yard High o'er the ship they throw a horrid shade, And o'er her burst, in terrible cascade. Uplifted on the surge, to heaven she flies, Her shatter'd top half buried in the skies. Then headlong plunging thunders on the ground; Earth groans! air trembles! and the deeps re

sound!

Her giant bulk the dread concussion feels,
And, quivering with the wound, in torment
reels.

So reels, convuls'd with agonising throes,
The bleeding bull beneath the murd'rer's blows.
Again she plunges! hark! a second shock
Tears her strong bottom on the marble rock!
Down on the vale of death, with dismal cries,
The fated victims shuddering roll their eyes
In wild despair! while yet another stroke,
With deep convulsion, rends the solid oak:

A while they bore o'erwhelming billows' rage,
Unequal combat with their fate to wage;
Till all benumb'd and feeble they forego
Their slippery hold, and sink to shades below.
Some, from the main-yard-arm impetuous
thrown

On marble ridges, die without a groan.
Three with Palemon on their skill depend,

And from the wreck on oars and rafts descend.

Now on the mountain-wave on high they ride, Then downward plunge beneath th' involving tide,

Till one, who seems in agony to strive,
The whirling breakers heave on shore alive;
The rest a speedier end of anguish knew,
And prest the stony beach, a lifeless crew!

Next, O unhappy chief! th' eternal doom
Of Heaven decreed thee to the briny tomb!
What scenes of misery torment thy view!
What painful struggles of thy dying crew!
Thy perish'd hopes all buried in the flood,
O'erspread with corses, red with human blood!
So piere'd with anguish hoary Priam gaz'd,
When Troy's imperial domes in ruin blaz'd;
While he, severest sorrow doom'd to feel,
Expir'd beneath the victor's murdering steel.
Thus with his helpless partners till the last,
Sad refuge! Albert hugs the floating mast;
His soul could yet sustain the mortal blow,
But droops, alas! beneath superior woe:
For now soft nature's sympathetic chain
Tugs at his yearning heart with powerful strain;
His faithful wife for ever doom'd to mourn
For him, alas! who never shall return;
To black adversity's approach expos'd,
With want and hardships unforeseen enclos'd:
His lovely daughter left without a friend,
Her innocence to succour and defend;
By youth and indigence set forth a prey
To lawless guilt, that flatters to betray-
While these reflections rack his feeling mind,
Rodmond, who hung beside, his grasp re-
sign'd;

And, as the tumbling waters o'er him roll'd,
His outstretch'd arms the master's legs enfold.
Sad Albert feels his dissolution near,

And strives in vain his fetter'd limbs to clear;
For death bids every clinching joint adhere.

<< With force severe endeavours to control "The noblest passions that inspire the soul. "But O, thou sacred Power! whose law con

nects

"Th' eternal chain of causes and effects, "Let not thy chastening ministers of rage "Afflict with sharp remorse his feeble age "And you, Arion! who with these the last "Of all our crew survive the shipwreck past"Ah! cease to moura! those friendly tears restrain !

restore,

"Nor give my dying moments keener pain ! "Since heaven may soon thy wandering steps [shore; "When parted hence, to England's distant Shouldst thou, th' unwilling messenger of fate, "To him the tragic story first relate, "Oh! friendship's generous ardor then suppress! "Nor hint the fatal cause of my distress; "Nor let each horrid incident sustain "The lengthen'd tale to aggravate his pain. "Ah! then remember well my last request "For her who reigns for ever in my breast; "Yet let him prove a father and a friend, "The helpless maid to succour and defend.

Say, I this suit implord with parting breath, "So Heaven befriend him at his hour of death!

"But oh! to lovely Anna shouldst thou tell "What dire untimely end thy friend befel, "Draw o'er the dismal scene soft pity's veil, "And lightly touch the lamentable tale: "Say that my love, inviolably true, "No change, no diminution ever knew. "Lo! her bright image, pendent on my neck, "Is all Palemon rescu'd from the wreck; "Take it, and say, when panting in the wave, "I struggled, life and this alone to save!

My soul that fluttering hastens to be free, "Would yet a train of thoughts impart to thee,

"But strives in vain!-the chilling ice of death "Congeals my blood, and chokes the stream of breath:

"While lisping children, touch'd with infant fear, [tear; "With wonder gaze, and drop th' unconscious "Oh! then this moral bid their souls retain, "All thoughts of happiness on earth are vain." The last faint accents trembled on his tongue, That now inactive to the palate clung; His bosom heaves a mortal groan-he dies! And shades eternal sink upon his eyes!

As thus defac'd in death Palemon lay, Arion gaz'd upon the lifeless clay; Transfix'd he stood, with awful terror fill'd, While down his cheek the silent drops distill'd. Oh, ill-starr'd vot'ry of unspotted truth! Untimely perish'd in the bloom of youth, Should e'er thy friend arrive on Albion's land He will obey, though painful, thy command: His tongue the dreadful story shall display, And all the horrors of this dismal day! Disastrous day! what ruin hast thou bred! What anguish to the living and the dead! How hast thou left the widow all forlorn, And ever doom'd the orphan child to mourn, Through life's sad journey hopeless to complain! Can sacred justice these events ordain ? But, O my soul! avoid that wondrous maze, Where, reason, lost in endless error, strays! As through this thorny vale of life we run, Great Cause of all effects, "thy will be done!"

Now had the Grecians on the beach arriv'd, To aid the helpless few who yet surviv'd: While passing they behold the waves o'erspread With shatter'd rafts and corses of the dead, Three still alive, benumb'd and faint they find, In mournful silence on a rock reclin'd. The generous natives, mov'd with social pain, The feeble strangers in their arms sustain; With pitying sighs their hapless lot deplore, And lead them trembling from the fatal shore.

Up to thy summit, Lewesdon, to the brow
Of yon proud rising, where the lonely thorn
Bends from the rude South-east with top cut
sheer

By his keen breath, along the narrow track,
By which the scanty-pastured sheep ascend
Up to thy furze-clad summit, let me climb,-
My morning exercise,—and thence look round
Upon the variegated scene, of hills
And woods and fruitful vales and villages
Half hid in tufted orchards, and the sea
Boundless, and studded thick with many a sail.
Ye dew-fed vapors, nightly balm, exhaled
From earth, young herbs and flowers, that in
Ascend as incense to the Lord of day, [the morn
I come to breathe your odors; while they float
Yet near this surface, let me walk enbathed
In your invisible perfumes, to health
So friendly, nor less grateful to the mind,
Administering sweet peace and cheerfulness.
How changed is thy appearance, beauteous
hill!