And on her threw his eye's returning love,

The glance he gives Onchestus' hallow'd grove,"
Or Calaureia, his ador'd retreat,

When seaward rapt by his swift coursers' feet.
Ineffable to view his head he rears,
And at each naval cheering pricks his ears.
Then as his huge form o'er the deep he bent,
Back to the ship his lofty voice he sent,
Thrice to its fullest pitch. Again, again, again,
His rending clamours shake the sky and main.

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CANTO V.

1

THE MARINER ON THE ICE ISLAND.

ἐν ἡϊόνεσσι καθίζων,

Δάκρυσι καὶ στοναχῆσι καὶ ἄλγεσι θυμὸν ἐρέχθων,
Πόντον ἐπ ἀτρύγετον δερκέσκετο, δάκρυα λείβων.

ODYSSEY. E. v. 159.

I.

Now while the waters of the ocean lie

One blue ethereal, like another sky,

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When not a breath disturbs the deep profound,
A glorious calm expanse without a bound;
The chief with uprais'd eye, and anxious mind,
Prefers a prayer, and importunes the wind; 3175
With look averted views the lingering prow,

And chides the slumber of the sea below.

Yet dear to me the hour without alloy,
When all is ocean, holiday and joy,
Ev'n infancy partakes the rapturous glow,
And my sweet prattler flies her nurse below
To revel on the sun'd deck, and rejoice
Her father with the accents of her voice.

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While round my neck thy little arms are spread,
And this fond breast conceals thy little head; 3185
While thus thou holdst me in affection's chain,
I grow myself in heart a child again.

Soon, I may hope, yon glorious orb of light
Thy lips will hymn, seen o'er the headland height,
And that it soon shall dart on us its ray,

As on the evening shore we mildly stray,
Where thou delighted, with thy busy hands,
Stooping for shells upon the ebbing sands,
Shalt treasures heap-while I, as round I cast,
My eye o'er sea, will tell of travel past!

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But see, once more the breezes curl the main,
And to the east direct the fluttering vane:
Joyful the chief beholds the rising gale,

Joyful he hears the rustling of the sail.

Out reefs! he cries, the weather now is kind, 3200
Columbians! spread the canvass to the wind.
The top-sails swell, our ship with stately mien
Walks the wide surge, the ocean's vested queen.
Now the white billow hides her, now she keeps
Her course with airy lightness o'er the deeps.
Steady along! the quarter-master cries,

Steady along! the timoneer replies.*

Like Eol's harps that daintily entwine

Their wires with leafy porch of eglantine,

Sweet through our shrouds the balmy breezes blow,
While with new life the ocean seems to glow.
Sporting ahead the porpoise shews his form,
No dire precursor of the raging storm,

* In men of war, a quarter-master is appointed to con, or direct the helmsman. During a head-wind, or when the ship is closehauled-standing by the dog-vane staff on the quarter-deck, he looks aloft, to the mast-head, and growls out-Thus! Thus!-or, Near, boy, Near! Sounds producing dyspepsia, and symptomatic headache among the passengers; which the ship, rolling lee gunwhale in, or pitching her bumpkins into the water, aggravates to vehement nausea. But when the ship is going large, with a noble breeze abaft the beam-her weather main-clue-garnet hauled up single reefed topsails-jib and spanker set-and knocking it off finely, at the rate of nine, aye, eleven knots an hour, with oh! such a following sea-then, may it please your worships, you will hear the said old yarn call cheerfully to the sea-dog at the wheel-Steady so! steady! or, Port! my soul, Port!-or, Starboard! my boy, Starboard a little! While the Lieutenant of the watch, pacing the quarter deck, will stop for a moment at the binnacle, and utter,-Don't come to windward of your course!-sounds that excite a general hilarity of countenance, and involuntary rubbing of the hands.

But the companion of our watery way,

His brown back seen above the glittering spray.

III.

Now as o'er sea to pleasure's voice we glide,
A streak effulgent marks the briny tide,*
Where, at its verge, the saucy billows rise
In antic shapes, and mingle with the skies.
From all the deck intensely gaze the crew,
And alps of ice burst dazzling on the view,
Their base an island, awful to explore
Broke from the frozen chains of Labrador,
And conscious flying southward from the reign
Of endless winter o'er a torpid main.+

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* On approaching an island of ice, in clear weather, a luc d streak is seen spreading along that part of the atmosphere which is next to the horizon, to which mariners have given the name of ice-blink. It not nnfrequently exhibits a counterpart or picture-shadow of the island for a considerable distance before the actual mass becomes visible; resembling, in this respect, the curious atmospherical phenomenon of the Mirage. It is evidently produced by the refraction of the rays of light on the water.

These lofty ice-islands, floating in mid-ocean, have their origin in the northern seas, and are the slow growth of centuries. They first adhere to the main-land, where they accumulate to an enormous height and extent, by the falling of snows and rain, which instantly congeal, till their great weight overcoming the power of