All nature smilling hail'd the vivid ray,
That gave her beauties to returning day:
All but our ship, that, groauing on the tide,
No kind relief, uo gleam of hope descry'd.
For now in front, her trembling inmates see
The hills of Greece emerging on the lee.
So the lost lover views that fatal morn,
On which, for ever from his bosom torn,
The nymph ador'd resigns her blooming
charms,

To bless with love some happier rival's arms.
So to Eliza dawn'd that cruel day,
That tore neas from her armis away;
That saw him parting, never to return,
Herself in funeral flames decreed to burn.
O yet in clouds thou genial source of light,
Conceal thy radiant glories from our sight!
Go, with thy smile adorn the happy plain,
And gild the scenes where health and pleasure
reigu:

But let not here, in scorn, thy wanton beam
Insult the dreadful grandeur of my theme!
While shoreward now the bounding vessel
flies,

Full in her van St. George's cliffs arise:
High o'er the rest a pointed crag is seen,
That hung projecting o'er a mossy green.
Nearer and nearer now the danger grows,
And all their skill relentless fates oppose.
For, while more eastward they direct

prow,

the

Enormous waves the quivering deck o'erflow.
While, as she wheels, unable to subdue
Her sallies, still they dread her broaching-to.
Alarming thought! for now no more a-lce
Her riven side could bear th' invading sea;
And if the following surge she scuds before,
Headlong she runs upon the dreadful shore;
A shore where shelves and hidden rocks
abound,

Where death in secret ambush lurks around.
Far less dismay'd, Anchises' wandering son
Was seen the straits of Sicily to shun:
When Palinurus, from the helm, descry'd
The rocks of Scylla on his eastern side;
While in the west, with hideous yawn dis-
clos'd,

His onward path Charybdis' gulph oppos'd;
The double danger as by turns he view'd,
His wheeling bark her arduous track pursu'd.
Thus, while to right and left destruction lies,
Between th' extremes the daring vessel flies.
With boundless involution, bursting o'er
The marble-cliffs, loud-dashing surges roar.
Hoarse thro' each winding creek the tempest

And forward leaping with tumultuous haste,
As on the tempest's wing the isle she past.
With longing eyes, and agony of mind,
The sailors view this refuge left behind';
Happy to bribe, with India's richest ore,
A safe accession to that barren shore!

When in the dark Peruvian mine confin'd,
Lost to the cheerful commerce of mankind,
The groaning captive wastes his life away,
For ever exiled from the realms of day;
Not equal pangs his bosom agonise,
When far above the sacred light he eyes,
While, all forlorn, the victim pines in vain,
For scenes he never shall possess again.

But now Athenian mountains they desery, And o'er the surge Colonna frowns on high. Beside the cape's projecting verge is plac'd A range of coluinns, long by time defac'd; First planted by devotion to sustain, In elder times, Tritonia's sacred fane. Foams the wild beach below with madd'ning'

blind;

And while around his sad companions crowd,
He guides th' unhappy victim to the shroud.
Hie thee aloft, my gallant friend! he cries ;
Thy only succour on the mast relies!—
The helm, bereft of half its vital force,
Now scarce subdu'd the wild unbridled course:
Quick to th' abandon'd wheel Arion came,
The ship's tempestuous sallies to reclaim.
Amaz'd he saw her, o'er the sounding foam
Upborn, to right and left distracted roam.
So gaz'd young Phaeton, with pale dismay,
When mounted on the flaming car of day,
With rash and impious hand the stripling

try'd

Th' immortal coursers of the sun to guide. --
The vessel, while the dread event draws nigh,
Seems more impatient o'er the waves to fly :
Fate spurs her on.-Thus issuing from afar,
Advances to the sun some blazing star;
And, as it feels th' attraction's kindling force,
Springs onward with accelerated course.

With mournful look the seamen ey'd the strand,

Where death's inexorable jaws expand:
Swift from their minds elaps'd all dangers past,
As, dumb with terror, they beheld the last.
Now on the trembling shrouds, before, be-
hind,

In mute suspense they mount into the wind.

Th

The Genius of the deep, on rapid wing,
The black eventful moment seem'd to bring.
The fatal Sisters on the surge before,
Yok'd their infernal horses to the prore. -
The steermen now receiv'd their last

mand

To wheel the vessel sidelong to the strand.
Twelve sailors, on the foremast who depend,
High on the platform of the top ascend;
Fatal retreat! for while the plunging prow
Immerges headlong in the wave below,
Down-prest by wat'ry weight the bowsprit
bends,

And from above the stem deep crashing rends.
Beneath her beak the floating ruins lie;
The foremast totters, unsustain'd on high:
And now the ship, fore-lifted by the sea,
Hurls the tall fabric backward o'er her lee;
While, in the general wreck, the faithful stay
Drags the main-topmast from its post away.
Flung from the mast the seamen strive in vain
Thro' hostile floods their vessel to regain.
The waves they buffet, till, bereft of strength,
O'erpower'd they yield to cruel fate at length.
The hostile waters close around their head,
They sink for ever, number'd with the dead!
Those who remain their fearful doom await,
Nor longer mourn their lost companions' fate.
The heart that bleeds with sorrows all its own,
Forgets the pangs of friendship to benioan. —
Albert and Rodinond and Palemon here,
With young Arion, on the mast appear;
Even they, amid th' unspeakable distress,
In every look distracting thoughts confess ;
In every vein the refluent blood congeals,
And every bosom fatal terror feels.

Inclos'd with all the demons of the main,
They view'd th' adjacent shore, but view'd in

rain.

Such torments in the drear abodes of hell,
Where sad despair laments with rueful yell,
Such torments agonise the damned breast,
While fancy views the mansions of the blest.
For heaven's sweet help their suppliant cries
implore;

But heaven, relentless, deigns to help no more!
And now, lash'd on by destiny severe,
With horror fraught, the dreadful scene drew
near!

The ship hangs hovering on the verge of death, Hell yawns, rocks rise, and breakers roar beneath!

In vain, alas! the sacred shades of yore
Would arm the mind with philosophic lore;
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
To smile serene amid the pangs of death.
Even-Zeno's self, and Epictetus old,
This fell abyss had shudder'd to behold.
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue fam'd,
And wisest of the sons of men proclaim'd,
Beheld this scene of phrenzy and distress,
His soul had trembled to its last recess !

O yet confirm my heart, ye powers above,
This last tremendous shock of fate to prove.

air trembles! and the deeps

Her giant bulk the dread concussion feels, And quivering with the wound, in torment, reels..

So reels, convuls'd with agonising throes, The bleeding bull beneath the murd'rer's blows.

Again she plunges! hark! a second shock
Tears her strong bottom on the marble rock!
Down on the vale of death, with dismal cries,
The fated victims shuddering roll their eyes
In wild despair; while yet another stroke,
With deep convulsion, rends the solid oak:
Till like the mine, in whose infernal cell
The lurking deurons of destruction dwell,
At length asunder torn her frame divides,
And crashing spreads in ruin o'er the tides.)

O were it mine with tuneful Maro's art
To wake to sympathy the feeling heart;
Like him to smooth and mournful verse to
dress

In all the pomp of exquisite distress!
Then, too severely taught by cruel fate
To share in all the perils I relate,
Then might I with unrivall'd strains deplore
Th' impervious horrors of a leeward shore.

As o'er the surge the stooping main-mast hung,

Still on the rigging thirty seamen clung:
Some, struggling, on a broken crag were cast,
And there by oozy tangles grappled fast:
Awhile they bore o'erwhelming billows rage,
Unequal combat with their fate to wage;
Till all benumb'd and feeble they forego
Their slippery hold, and sink to shades below,
Some, from the main-yard-arm impetuous
thrown

On marble ridges, die without a groan.
Three with Palemon on their skill depend,
And from the wreck on oars and rafts descend.
Now on the mountain-wave on high they ride,
Then downward plunge beneath th' involving
tide;

Till one, who seems in agony to strive,
The whirling breakers heave on shore alive;
The rest a speedier end of anguish knew,
And prest the stony beach, a lifeless crew!

Next, O unhappy chief! th' eternal doom
Of heaven decreed thee to the briny tomb!
What scenes of misery torment thy view!
What painful struggles of thy dying crew!
Thy perish'd hopes all buried in the flood,
O'erspread with 'corses! red with human blood!

So

So pierc'd with anguish hoary Priam gaz'd,
When Troy's imperial domes in ruin blaz'd;
While he, severest sorrow doom'd to feel,
Expir'd beneath the victor's murdering steel.
Thus with his helpless partners till the last,
Sad refuge! Albert hugs the floating mast;
His soul could yet sustain the mortal blow,
But droops, alas! beneath superior woe:
For now soft nature's sympathetic chain
Tugs at his yearning heart with powerful strain;
His faithful wife for ever doom'd to mourn
For him, alas! who never shall return;
To black adversity's approach expos'd,
With want and hardships unforeseen enclos'd:
His lovely daughter left without a friend,
Her innocence to succour and defend ;
By youth and indigence set forth a prey
To lawless guilt, that flatters to betray
While these reflections rack his feeling mind,
Rodmond, who hung beside, his grasp resign'd;
And, as the tumbling waters o'er hini roll'd,
His out-stretch'd arms the master's legs en-

fold.

He gasps! he dies! and tumbles to the ground!
Five only left of all the perish'd throng,
Yet ride the pine which shoreward drives along;
With these Arion still his hold secures,
And all the assaults of hostile waves endures.
O'er the dire prospect as for life he strives,
He looks if poor Palemon yet survives.
Ah wherefore, trusting to unequal art,
Didst thou, incautious! from the wreck de-
part?

Alas! these rocks all human skill defy,

Who strikes them once beyond relief must die:
And now, sore wounded, thou perhaps art tost
On these, or in some oozy cavern lost.
Thus thought Arion, anxious gazing round
In vain, his eyes no more Palemon found.
The demons of destruction hover nigh,
And thick their mortal shafts commission'd fly.
And now a breaking surge, with forceful sway,
Two next Arion furious tears away.
Hurl'd on the crags, behold, they gasp! they
bleed!

And, groaning, cling upon th' elusive weed!
Another billow bursts in boundless roar !
Arion sinks! and Memory views no more!

Ha! total night and horror here preside!
My stunn'd ear tingles to the whizzing title!
It is the funeral knell! and, gliding near,
Methinks the phantoms of the dead appear!

But lo! emerging from the watery grave, Again they float incumbent on the wave! Again the dismal prospect opens round, The wreck, the shores, the dying, and the drown'd!

And see! enfeebled by repeated shocks,
Those two who scramble on th' adjacent rocks,
Their faithless hold no longer can retain,
They sink o'erwhelm'd and never rise again!

Two with Arion yet the mast upbore,
That now above the ridges reach'd the shore :
Still trembling to descend, they downward

gaze,

With horror pale, and torpid with amaze :
The floods recoil! the ground appears below!
And life's faint embers now rekindling glow :
Awhile they wait th' exhausted waves retreat,
Then climb slow up the beach with hands and
feet.

O Heaven! deliver'd by whose sovereign hand,
Still on the brink of hell they shuddering stand,
Receive the languid incense they bestow,
That damp with death appears not yet to
glow.

To thee each soul the warm oblation pays,
With trembling ardor of unequal praise;
In every heart dismay with wonder strives,
And Hope the sicken'd spark of life revives;
Her magic powers their exil'd health restore,
Till horror and despair are felt no more.

A troop of Grecians who inhabit nigh,
And oft these perils of the deep descry,
Rous'd by the blustering tempest of the night,
Anxious had climb'd Colonna's neighbouring
height;

When gazing downward on th' adjacent flood,
Full to their view the scene of ruin stood;
The surf with mangled bodies strew'd around,
And those yet breathing on the sea-wash'd
ground!

Tho' lost to science and the nobler arts,

Yet nature's lore inform'd their feeling hearts: Strait down the vale with hast'ning steps they

hied,

Panting, with eyes averted from the day,
Prone, helpless, on the tangly beach he lay-
It is Palemon:-oh! what tumults roll
With hope and terror in Arion's soul!
If yet unhurt he lives again to view
His friend and this sole remnant of our crew!
With us to travel thro' this foreign zone,
And share the future good or ill unknown.
Arion thus; but ah! sad doom of fate!
That bleeding Memory sorrows to relate,
While yet afloat on some resisting rock,
His ribs were dash'd and fractur'd with the
shock:

Heart-piercing sight! those cheeks so late array'd,

In beauty's bloom, are pale with mortal shade!
Distilling blood his lovely breast o'erspread,
And clogg'd the golden tresses of his head!
Nor yet the lungs by this pernicious stroke
Were wounded, or the vocal organs broke.

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