scene,

so wie auch die eines Erdbebens, sind dem Dichter sehr wohl gelungen. Den Beschluss dieses Gesanges macht dic schöne Episode Junio and Theana. Die Erndte des Zukkerrohrs und das Sieden desselben sind der vornehmste Ge. genstand des dritten Gesangs. Der Verfasser zeigt hierbei so wie überall, viele Sachkenntniss. Nach einer kleinen Di. gression zum Lobe des beliebten Rum, folgt eine der l'oll. endung nahe schöne Schilderung einer Westindischen Gegend. Der Gegenstand des vierten Gesangs ist die Behandlung der Neger. Auch unser Dichter redet nachdrücklich für die se unterdrückten Unglücklichen. Lesenswerth ist unter andern in diesem Gesange die Beschreibung eines Negertonzes. Die hier mitgetheilten Probestücke werden den Leser überzeugen, dass unser Dichter seht glücklich ist, wenn

er Nalur. scenen schildert; wir mögten beinah sagen, dass er darin den grössern Theil der übrigen Englischen Dichter weit hinter : sich zurücklässt; wir wollen indessen sehr gern" zugeben, dass er vielleicht darum leichter seinen Zweck erreicht, weil er Ge. genstände schildert, die für den Europäischen Leser noch den Reiz der Neuheit haben. Was den eigentlichen didaktischen Theil seines Gedichts betrifft, so ist dieser allerdings hier und da trocken, und der Verfasser scheint bei dem Bestreben zu unterrichten, zuweilen zu vergessen, dass er seinen Gegen. siand als Dichter zu behandeln gehabt habe.

(A West - Indian Ballad.)
The north - east wind did briskly blow

The ship was safely moord,
Young Bryan thought the boat's crew slow,

And so leapt over board.
Pereene, the pride of Indian dames,

His heart did long enthral,
And whoso his iinpatience blames,

I wot ne'er loved at all.
A long, long year, one month and day

He dwelt on English land,
Nor once in thought would ever stray,

Though ladies sought his hand.

For Bryan he was tall and strong,

Right blithsome rollid his een,
Sweet was his voice whene'er he sung,

He scánt had twenty seen.
But who the countless charms can draw,

That grac'd his mistress true;
Such charms the old world never saw,

Nor oft I ween the new.
Her raven hair plays round her neck,

Like tendrils of the vine,
Her cheeks red dewy rose buds deck,
Her
eyes

like diamonds shine.
Soon as his well known ship she spied,

She cast her weeds away,
And to the palmy shore she hied,

All in her best array.
In sea - green silk so neatly clad,

She there impatient stood;
The crew with wonder saw the lad,

Repel the foaming flood.
Her hands a handkerchief display'd,

Which he at parting gave;
Well pleas'd the token he survey'd

And manlier beat the wave. Her fair companions one and all,

Rejoicing crowd the strand; For now her lover swam in call

And almost touch'd the land.
Then through the white surf *) did she haste,

To clasp her lovely swain,
When, ah! a shark bit through his waist:

His heart's blood dy'd the main!
He shriek d! his half sprung from the wave,

Streaming with purple gore, And soon it found a living grave,

And ah! was seen no more,

sórf, Brandung.

Now haste; now baște, ye maids, I pray,

Fetch water from the spring:
She falls, she falls, she dies away,

And soon her knell they ring.
Now 'each May morning round her tomb,

Ye fair, fresh flow'rets strew,
So may your lovers 'scape his doom,

Her hapless fațe 'scape you,

2) A HURRICANB DESCRIBED.

O CAINS AND EARTHQUAKES *),

Say, can the Muse, the pencil in her hand,
The all- wasting hurricane observant ride? i
Can she, undazzled, view the lightning's glare,
That fires the welkin? Can she, unappalld,
When all the flood-gates of the sky are ope,
The shoreless deluge stem? The muse hath seen
The pillar'd flame, whose top hath reach'd the stars ;
Seen rocky, molten fragmenta, slung in air
From Arna's vext abyss; seen burning streams
Pour down its channellid sides; tremendous scenes!
Yet not vext Ægna's pillar'd names, that strike
The stars ; nor molten mountains hurl'd on high;
Nor ponderous rapid deluges, that burn
Its deeply-channell'd sides; cause such dismay,
Such desolation, Hurricane! ag thou;
When the Almighty gives thy rage to blow,
And all the battles of thy winds engage.

Soon as the Virgin's charms ingross the sun;
And till his weaker flame the Scorpion feels;
But, chief, while Libra weighis the unsteady year:
Planter, with mighty props thy dome support:
Each llaw repair; and well, with massy bars,
Thy doors and windows guard; securely lodge
Thy stocks and mill-points **). — Then, or calms obtain;
Breathless the royal palun - tree's airiest van;

Sogar Cane B. II. v. 270 --- 427. *) The sails are fastened to the mill-points, as those are to the stocks. They sboald always be taken down before the hurricane season.

While, o'er the panting isle, the demon hoat
High hurls his faming brand; vast, distant waves
The main drives furious, in, and heaps the shore
With

strange productions: Or, the blue serene
Assumes a louring aspect, as the clouds
Fly, wild - careering, through the vault of heaven;
Then transient birds, of various kinds, frequent
Each stagnant pool; some hover o'er thy roof;
Then Eurus reigns no more; but each bold wind,
By turns usurps the empire of the air
With quick' inconstancy;
Thy berds, as sapient of the coming storm,
(For beasts partake some portion of the sky, )
In

troops associate; and, in cold sweats bath'd,
Wild- bellowing, eye the pale. Ye seamen, nov,
Ply to the southward, if the changeful moon,,
Or, in her interlunar palace hid,
Shuns night: or, full-orb'd, in night's forehead glowas
Por, see! the mists, that late involved the hill,
Disperse; the mid-day sun looks red; strange burs *)
Surround the stars, which vaster fill the eye,
A horrid stench the pools, the main emits;
Fearful the genius of the forest sighs ;
The mountains moan; deep groans the cavern'd clift,
A night of vapour, closing fast around,
Snatches the golden noon.

Each wind appeas'd,
The north flies forth, and hurls the frighted air:
Not all the brazen engineries of man,
At once exploded, the wild burst surpass.
Yet thunder, yok'd with lighting and with raio,
Water with fire, increase the infernal din:
Canes, shrubs, trees, huts, are whirl'd aloft in air,
The wind is spent; and all the igle below,
„Is hush as doab."
Soon issues forth the west, witla sudden burst;
And blasts more rapid, more resistless drives ::

CP

*) These are astral halos. Columbus soov mede himself mas, ler of the signs that precede a hurricane in the West-Indies, by which means be saved his own squadron; while another large Heet, wbose commander despised his proguostics, put 10 sea, and was wrecked.

Rushes the headlong sky; the city rocks;
The good man ibrows him on the trembling ground;
And dies the murderer in his inmost soul
Sullen, the west withdraws his eager storms. -
Will not the tempest now his furies chain?
Ah, no! as when in Indian forests, wild,
Barbaric armies suddenly retire
After some furious onset, and, behind
Vast rocks and trees, their horrid forms conceal,
Brooding on slaughter, not repuls'd: for soon

Their growing yell the affrighted welkin rends,
And bloodier carnage mows th' ensanguin'd plain:
So the south, sällying from his iron caves
With mightier force, renews the aërial war;
Sleep, frighted, flies; and, see! yon lofty palm,
Fair nature's triumph, pride of Indian groves,
Cleft by the sulphurous boll! See yonder dome,
Where grandeur with propriety combind,
And Theodorus with devotion dwelt;
Involv'd in smouldering flames. From every rock
Dashes the turbid torrent; through each street
A river foams, which sweeps, with untam'd might,
Men, oxen, cane- lands to the billowy main.
Pauses the wind.

Anon the savage east
Bids his wing'd teinpests more relentless rave;
Now brighter', vaster corruscations flash;
Deepens the deluge; nearer thunder roll;
Earth trembles; ocean reels, and, in her fangs,
Grim desolation tears the shrieking isle,
Ere rosy morn possess the ethereal plain,
To pour on darkness the full flood of day

Nor does the hurricane's all - wasting wrath
Alone bring ruin on its sounding wing:
Even calons are dreadful, and the fiery south
Oft reigns a tyrant in these fervid isles :
For, from its burning furnace, when it breathes,
Europe and Asia's vegetable sons,
Touch'd by its tainting vapour, sbriveld, die.
The hardiest children of the rocks repine:
And all the upland Tropic-plants hang down
Their drooping heads, show arid, coil'd, adust. -
The main itself seems parted ivio streams,