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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.

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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
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

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• 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,

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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,†

* 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 dis◄ covers 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

The pennon'd fish he seeks-in sparkling flight
The victim rises and eludes his sight

The deep dividing, from the surface springs,

And cuts the buxom air with pearly wings- 850
But short, his progress through the realms of day,
Languid he drops, an unresisting prey.

But see, as though invoking the soft gale,
The buoyant Nautilus exalt his sail,

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In spreading pomp his course around us keep, 855 And mock our stately frigate on the deep.+

IV.

Now while the sky unveils its living light,
And the broad sun burns out intensely bright,

evanescent tints passed over the surface of his body, exhibiting changes from blue to orange or gold, spotted with blue and lilac; while its fins revealed the gorgeous colours of a peacock's neck.

• The Flying Fish are seen in shoals sparkling from the sea, endeavouring to elude the rapid pursuit of their cruel enemy the dolphin. They can fly only while their finny wings are wet, and sometimes drop on the ship's deck. On emerging from the water, after their first fluttering flight, they do little more than describe an extended curve.

+ It is amusing to behold the Nautilus, with a hull not bigger than a walnut-shell, and a sail not larger than a butterfly's wing, affect the lofty port the incedo regina, of a stately ship.

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From the carv'd stern, the bowsprit, and the mast,
Their manly forms* the crew discumber'd cast
In ocean's arms-like shapes aërial glide,
And dash their dancing shadows on the tide.
Another follows whence the former stood,
Spreads wide his arms, and shoots the silver flood,
Plunging he falls, and ere he lifts his brow,

Again the surface parts, the waters glow.+

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V.

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Now two Virginian youths their forms display,
In April beauty, naked as the day,
Standing prepar'd their snowy limbs to lave
In the clear crystal of the slumbering wave,
With breasts ambitious of a swimmer's fame,
Their height, complexion, and their age the same.
So bright their shapes, so exquisitely fine,
Both had seem'd statues by a hand divine,
But that Frank smiling, open'd to the view
His ruddy lip, a berry moist with dew,

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* The Americans, from their extensive line of sea-coast, and the intersection of their country by noble streams, are generally adepts in the pleasant, healthy, and useful art of swimming. Franklin was so consummate a swimmer, that he once had it in contemplation to establish a swimming-school on the Thames.

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