The wounded bark, thus fmarting with her pain,
Scuds, from pursuing waves, along the main;
While, dash'd apart by her dividing prow,
Like burning adamant the waters glow :
Her joints forget their firm elastick tone;
Her long keel trembles, and her timbers groan.
Upheav'd behind her, in tremendous height,
The billows frown, with fearful radiance bright!
Now fhivering, o'er the topmost wave the rides,
While deep beneath th' enormous gulf divides.
Now, launching headlong down the horrid yale,
She hears no more the roaring of the gale;
Till up the dreadful height again she flies,
Trembling beneath the current of the fkies.
As that rebellious angel, who, from heaven,
To regions of eternal pain was driven;
When dreadless he forfook the Stygian fhore,
The distant 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 rayless void of night was thrown.

E'en fo fhe scales the briny mountain's height,
Then down the black abyss precipitates her flight.
The mafts, around whofe tops the whirlwinds fing,
With long vibration round her axle fwing.
To guide the wayward courfe amid the gloom,
The watchful pilots different pofts affume.
Albert and Rodmond, ftation'd on the rear,
With warning voice direct each timoneer.
High on the prow the guard Arion keeps ;
To fhun the cruifers wandering o'er the deeps.
Where'er he moves Palemon ftill attends,
As if on him his only hope depends;

While Rodmond, fearful of fome neighbouring fhore,
Cries, ever and anon, Look out afore !!

Four

Four hours thus fcudding, on the tide she flew,
When Falconera's rocky height they view;
High o'er it's fummit, thro' the gloom of night,
The glimmering watch-tower caft a mournful light,
In dire amazement rivetted they ftand,

And hear the breakers lash the rugged ftrand:
But foon beyond this shore the vessel flies,
Swift as the rapid eagle cleaves the fkies.

So from the fangs of her infatiate foe,
O'er the broad champain fcuds the trembling roe.
That danger past, reflects a feeble joy;
But foon returning fears their hope destroy.
Thus, in th' Atlantick, 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:
It's frozen cliffs attemper'd gales fupply;
In cooling ftream the aërial billows fly;
Awhile deliver'd from the fcorching heat,
In gentler tides the feverish pulfes beat.

So, when their trembling veffel pafs'd this ifle,
Such vifionary joys the crew beguile:

Th'illufive meteors of a lifeless fire!

Too foon they kindle, and too foon expire!

Şay, Memory! thou, from whofe unerring tongue

Inftructive flows the animated fong!

What regions now the flying fhip furround?
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, whose sad distress these lays deplore,
Unskill'd in Grecian or in Roman lore,
Unconscious, país each famous circling fhore?
They did; for blasted in the barren shade,
Here, all too foon, the buds of science fade:

}

Sad

1

Sad Ocean's genius, in untimely hour,
Withers the bloom of every springing flower.
Here fancy droops, while fullen cloud and ftorm
The generous climate of the foul deform.
Then if, among the wandering naval train,
One ftrippling exil'd from th' Aönian plain,
Had e'er, entranc'd in Fancy's foothing dream,
Approach'd to tafte the fweet Caftalian stream,
(Since thofe falubrious ftreams, with power divine,
To purer fenfe th' attemper'd foul refine)
His heart with liberal commerce here unblefs'd,
Alien to joy! fincerer grief poffefs'd.

Yet on the youthful mind, th' impreffion caft,
Of ancient glory, fhall for ever last.
There, all unquench'd by cruel Fortune's ire,
It glows with inextinguishable fire.

Immortal Athens firft, in ruin fpread,
Contiguous lies at Port Liono's head.

Great fource of science! 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 firft in Virtue's caufe his life refign'd,
By Heav'n pronounc'd the wifeft of mankind:
The laft foretold the spark of vital fire,
The foul's fine effence, never could expire.
Here Solon dwelt, the philofophick fage,
That fled 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 fcatter'd columns ftand, with weeds o'ergrown.
The wandering ftranger, near the port, defcries
A milk-white lion of ftupendous fize;

Unknown the sculptor; marble is the frame;
And hence th' adjacent haven drew it's name.

Next, in the gulf of Engia, Corinth lies, Whofe gorgeous fabricks 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 dismal shade.

Then, farther 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 fell?

Here once the flourish'd, at whofe trumpet's found,
War burft his chains, and nation's fhook around.
Here brave Leonidas, from fhore to shore,
Thro' all Achaia bade her thunders roar :

He, when imperial Xerxes, from afar,
Advanc'd with Perfia's fumless troops to war,
Till Macedonia fhrunk beneath his fpear,

And Greece, dismay'd, beheld the chief draw near;
He, at Thermophyla's immortal plain,

His force repell'd with Sparta's glorious train.
Tall Oeta faw the tyrant's conquer'd bands,
In grafping millions, bleed on hoftile lands.
Thus vanquish'd Afia trembling heard thy name,
And Thebes and Athens ficken'd at thy fame!
Thy ftate, fupported by Lycurgus' laws,
Drew, like thine arms, fuperlative applaufe.
E'en great Epaminondas ftrove in vain
To curb that fpirit with a Theban chain.
But, ah! how low her free-born spirit now!
Her abject fons to haughty tyrants bow;
A falfe, degenerate, fuperftitious race,
Infeft thy region, and thy name difgrace!
Not diftant far, Arcadia's blefs'd domains
Peloponnefus' circling fhore contains.

Thrice happy foil! where, still 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 blefs'd,
While tranfport glow'd in each enamour'd breast,
Each faithful fhepherd told his tender pain,
And fung of fylvan sports in artless ftrain.
Now, fad reverse! Oppreffion's iron hand
Enflaves her natives, and defpoils the land.
In lawless rapine bred, a fanguine train,
With midnight ravage fcour th' uncultur'd plain,
Weftward of these, beyond the Ifthmus, lies
The long-loft ifle of Ithacus the wife;
Where fair Penelope, her absent lord,

Full twice ten years, with faithful love deplor❜d.
Tho' many a princely heart her beauty won,
She, guarded only by a ftrippling 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.
True to her vows, and refolutely chaste,
The beauteous princefs triumph'd at the laft.
Argos, in Greece forgotten and unknown,
Still feems her cruel fortune to bemoan.
Argos, whose monarch led the Grecian hofts,
Far o'er th' Aegean main, to Dardan coasts.
Unhappy prince! who, on a hoftile shore,
Toil, peril, anguish, ten long winters bore.
And when to native realms reftor'd at last,
Το reap the harvest of thy labours past;
A perjur'd friend, alas! and faithlefs wife,
There facrific'd to impious luft thy life!
Fast by Arcadia ftretch these defart plains,
And o'er the land a gloomy tyrant reigns.