Nor hand officious heap'd thy rising bed
Of swelling earth, memorial of the dead.
O worthy better fate! whose lov'd remains,
Unrescu'd from its rage, the deep contains,
No more, dear boy, the boatswain's shrilly call
Shall at the dawn thy waking ear enthral,

780

No more the backstay through thy palm shall glide,
Thy body poising o'er the azure tide,

Nor shall thy hand o'er the proud mast display
The trophied flag that marks Columbia's sway.
A patriot's ardour swell'd thy youthful breast,
For thy great country's weal too soon represt,
Thy cherish'd wish on this terraqueous ball,
Like Hull to triumph, or like Burrows+ fall,

790

Hull commanded the United States frigate Constitution in her action with the Guerriere. The engagement took place in latitude 41 deg. North, and longitude 55 deg. West. The Constitution carried guns of a twenty-four pound calibre; the Guerriere eighteens. At five P. M. they commenced close action-at twenty minutes past five the Guerriere's mizen-mast fell, and at twenty minutes past six her fore and main-masts went over the side, leaving the ship an unmanageable wreck. There was great firmness shewn on board the Guerriere in maintaining the fight an hour against a superior force, after the loss of her mizen-mast. Hull's chief merit is, that his crew were so skilfully trained to their great guns, that they fired them more like rifle-men than artillerists; and that he brought his ship out of the action comparatively uninjured. As the Guerriere struck, a sail hove in sight, when the Yankey frigate got all clear for another engagement.

+ Burrows commanded the United States brig Enterprize in her memorable action with the British Brig Boxer, commanded by Cap

To awe the tyrants of the turban'd host,

And foreign fleets expel from Freedom's coast-
But gone art thou, nor shall with grateful glow 795
Columbia wreathe a laurel round thy brow.
When homeward steering the indulgent gales
Back to our port restore our spreading sails,
When with mix'd tumult, black'ning all the strand,
Crowds swarm on crowds to hail our ship to land,
When throbs thy mother, eager to explore
The bark her Talbot through the surges bore,
And throwing back her veil, with fond alarms
Hopes, hopes to press thee in her longing arms,
How harrow up her veins, how fades her eye, 805
To see our drooping colours half-mast high!
Her breast misgiving fears with boding pain
Thou ne'er wilt bless her blazing hearth again,
But not thee yet her darkest thoughts can form
A vagrant corse before th' infuriate storm.
Thy fate reveal'd, to me she makes her moans,
Mingles her talk with tears, her sighs with groans,
Me she rebukes, who her sweet solace led

O'er the dark deep to mingle with the dead

810

Where plummet never reach'd; oh! wayward doom, Denied a funeral and a lasting tomb.

tain Blythe. This gallant affair took place between Seguin and Cape Elizabeth, near Portland, Massachusetts. Both commanders fell in the conflict, and both were buried in the same grave. Burrows expired in the arms of victory, as the Boxer was hauling down her colours.

VII.

The warrior ceas'd, and with a sigh represt
The mighty sorrow in his swelling breast,
And bade his young Lieutenants loose the sail,
And spread the canvass to the veering gale,
For westward now the orb of day again
Broke from a cloud that hover'd o'er the main,
And unconcern'd its full reflection threw
O'er the bow'd bodies of our mourning crew.

820

CANTO IV.

THE CALM.

MORNING AT SEA-CREW BATHING-NEPTUNE'S VISIT-EPISODE OF YARROW-THE SHARK-BAIT.

The angry storm is laid, and Phoebus now 825
Peeps o'er the weary waves that rest below,
And, as the morning vapour lifts its veil,
Paints with his dawning blush our languid sail.
No billow curls, but the hush'd ocean keeps
An equal motion swelling as it sleeps-*
The helm, abandon'd by the pilot's hands,
Unheeded sways-our slumb'ring vessel stands

826

* An alternate rise and depression of the sea continue long after the fury of the storm is exhausted.

Fix'd as in ice-the vanes no longer stream,
And all is calm beneath the orient beam.

II.

Joy to the new-born day!-not only we,

But gladden'd myriads hail thee from the sea.
Drawn from their depths the scaly tenants sport,
And vast Leviathan maintains his court.
Musing the sailor murmurs as he eyes
The cumbrous monster of enormous size,
Lift o'er the placid wave his nostrils bare,
And spout the liquid column in the air,
With tail erect the blue recesses seek,

835

840

And thundering plunge his carcass down the deep.*

III.

Now sports the nimble dolphin o'er the tides, 845 Floats in the sun, like living sapphire glides,t

The Whale comes up to the surface of the sea to blow the water and fetch air. When floating he resembles a black hillock, and discovers only the crown of his head, and part of his back; but, in going down, he makes a display of his fins, and erects his huge tail.

The cerulean brilliance of the Dolphin moved by golden fins, is an object of delightful contemplation. We caught one of these fish during the calm. In the agony of dying a succession of beautiful but