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Her giant bulk the dread concuffion feels,
And quivering with the wound, in torment, reels.
So reels, convuls'd with agonifing throes,
The bleeding bull beneath the murd'rer's blows.-
Again the plunges! hark! a fecond fhock
Tears her ftrong bottom on the marble rock!
Down on the vale of death, with dismal cries,
The fated victims fhuddering roll their eyes
In wild despair; while yet another ftroke,
With deep convulfion, rends the folid oak:
Till like the mine, in whofe infernal cell
The lurking dæmons of destruction dwell,
At length asunder torn her frame divides,
And crashing fpreads in ruin o'er the tides.
O were it mine with tuneful Maro's art
To wake to fympathy the feeling heart;
Like him the fmooth and mournful verse to drefs
In all the pomp of exquifite diftrefs!
Then, too feverely taught by cruel fate
To thare in all the perils I relate,
Then might I with unrivall'd ftrains deplore
Th' impervious horrors of a leeward shore.
As o'er the furge the stooping main-maft hung,
Still on the rigging thirty feamen clung:
Some, ftruggling, on a broken crag were cast,
And there by oozy tangles grappled faft:
Awhile they bore th' o'erwhelming billows rage,
Unequal combat with their fate to wage;
Till all benumb'd and feeble they forego
Their flippery hold, and fink to fhades 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 defcend.
Now on the mountain-wave on high they ride,
Then downward plunge beneath th' involving tide;
Till one, who feems in agony to strive,
The whirling breakers heave on fhore alive;
The reft a speedier end of anguish knew,
And preft the ftony beach, a lifeless crew!
Next, O unhappy chief! th' eternal doom Of heaven decreed thee to the briny tomb! What scenes of mifery torment thy view! What painful ftruggles of thy dying crew! Thy perifh'd hopes all buried in the flood, O'erfpread with corfes! red with human blood! So pierc'd with anguish hoary Priam gaz'd, When Troy's imperial domes in ruin blaz'd'; While he, fevereft forrow 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 maft; His foul could yet fuftain the mortal blow, But droops, alas! beneath fuperior woe: For now foft nature's fympathetic chain
Tugs at his yearning heart with powerful strain ;
His faithful wife for ever doom'd to mourn
For him, alas! who never fhall return;
To black adverfity's approach expos'd,
With want and hardships unforeseen enclos'd:
His lovely daughter left without a friend,
Her Innocence to fuccour and defend;
By youth and indigence fet forth a prey
To lawless guilt, that flatters to betray--
While these reflections rack his feeling mind,
Rodmond, who hung befide, his grasp refign'd;
And, as the tumbling waters o'er him roll'd,
His out-stretch'd arms the mafter's legs enfold,➡
Sad Albert feels the diffolution near,
And strives in vain his fetter'd limbs to clear;
For death bids every clinching joint adhere.
All-faint, to heaven he throws his dying eyes,
And, "O protect my wife and child!" he cries:
The gufhing ftreams roll back th' unfinish'd found!
He gafps! he dies! and tumbles to the ground!
Five only left of all the perifh'd throng,
Yet ride the pine which fhoreward drives along;
With thefe Arion ftill his hold fecures,
And all the affaults of hoftile waves endures.
O'er the dire prospect as for life he strives,
He looks if poor Palemon yet furvives.
Ah wherefore, trufting to unequal art,
Didft thou, incautious! from the wreck depart?
Alas! thefe rocks all human skill defy,
Who ftrikes them once beyond relief muft die:
And now, fore wounded, thou perhaps art toft
On thefe, or in fome oozy cavern loft.
Thus thought Arion, anxious gazing round
In vain, his eyes no more Palemon found.
The demons of deftruction 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 gafp! they bleed !
And, groaning, cling upon th' elufive weed!-
Another billow burfts in boundless roar!
Arion finks! and Memory views no more!
Ha! total night and horror here prefide! My stunn'd ear tingles on the whizzing tide! 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 difmal prospect opens round, The wreck, the fhores, the dying, and the drown'd! And fee! enfeebled by repeated fhocks, Those two who fcramble on th' adjacent rocks, Their faithlefs hold no longer can retain, They fink o'erwhelm'd, and never rise again!
Two with Arion yet the maft upbore, That now above the ridges reach'd the shore: Still trembling to defcend, 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' exhaufted wave's retreat, Then climb flow up the beach with hands and feet. O Heaven! deliver'd by whofe fovereign hand, Still on the brink of hell they fhuddering stand, Receive the languid incenfe they bestow, That damp with death appears not yet to glow. To thee each foul the warm oblation pays, With trembling ardour of unequal praise ; In every heart difmay with wonder ftrives, And Hope the ficken'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 thefe perils of the deep descry, Rous'd by the bluftering tempeft of the night, Anxious had clim'd Colonna's neighbouring height; When gazing downward on th' adjacent flood, Full to their view the fcene of ruin stood; The furf with mangled bodies ftrew'd around, And thofe yet breathing on the fea-wash'd ground!
Tho' loft to fcience and the nobler arts,
Yet nature's lore inform'd their feeling hearts:
Strait down the vale with haft'ning steps they hied,
Th' unhapy fufferers to affift and guide.
Mean while those three escap'd beneath explore
The first advent'rous youth who reach'd the shore:
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 foul !
If yet unhurt he lives again to view
His friend and this fole remnant of our crew!
With us to travel thro' this foreign zone,
And share the future good or ill unknown.
Arion thus; but ah! fad doom of fate!
That bleeding Memory forrows to relate,
While yet afloat on fome refifting rock,
His ribs were dash'd and fractured with the fhock:
Heart-piercing fight! those cheeks fo late array'd
In beauty's bloom, are pale with mortal fhade!
Diftilling blood his lovely breast o'erspread,
And clogg'd the golden treffes of his head!
Nor yet the lungs by this pernicious stroke
Were wounded, or the vocal organs broke.
Down from his neck, with blazing gems array'd,
Thy image, lovely Anna! hung portray'd;
Th' unconscious figure fmiling all ferene,
Sufpended in a golden chain was seen.
Hadft thou, foft maiden! in this hour of woe,
Beheld him writhing from the deadly blow,
What force of art, what language could exprefs
Thine agony! thine exquisite distress?
But thou, alas! art doom'd to weep in vain
For him thine eyes fhall never fee again!
With dumb amazement pale, Arion gaz'd,
And cautiously the wounded youth uprais'd;
Palemon then, with cruel pangs opprett,
In faultering accents thus his friend address'd:
"O refcu'd from deftruction late fo nigh
"Beneath whose fatal influence doom'd I lie;
"Are we then exil'd to this laft retreat
"Of life, unhappy! thus decreed to meet?
"Ah! how unlike what yefter-morn enjoy'd,
"Inchanting hopes, for ever now destroy'd!
"For wounded far beyond all healing power,
"Palemon dies, and this his final hour:
"By thofe fell breakers, where in vain I strove,
"At once cut off from fortune, life and love!
"Far other scenes must foon prefent my fight,
"That lie deep-buried yet in tenfold night.
"Ah! wretched father of a wretched fon,
"Whom thy paternal prudence has undone !
"How will remembrance of this blinded care
Bend down thy head with anguish and despair! "Such dire effects from avarice arife, "That, deaf to nature's voice, and vainly wife, "With force fevere endeavours to controul *The nobleft paffions that inspire the foul. "But O, thou facred Power! whofe law connects "Th' eternal chain of caufes and effects, "Let not thy chaftening minifters of rage "Afflict with fharp remorse his feeble age! "And you, Arion! who with these the last "Of all our crew furvive the Shipwreck paft"Ah! cease to mourn! those friendly tears reftrain! Nor give my dying moments keener pain!! "Since heaven may foon thy wandering fteps restore, When parted hence, to England's distant shore ;
"Shouldft thou, th' unwilling meffenger of fate,
"To him the tragic ftory first relate,
"Oh! friendship's generous ardour then fupprefs'
"Nor hint the fatal caufe of my distress;
"Nor let each horrid incident fuftain
"The lengthen'd tale to aggravate his pain.
"Ah! then remember well my last request
"For her who reigns for ever in my breast;
"Yet let him prove a father and a friend,
"The helpless maid to fuccour and defend.
"Say, I this fuit implor'd with parting breath,
"So heaven befriend him at his hour of death!
"But oh! to lovely Anna fhouldst thou tell
"What dire untimely end thy friend befel,
"Draw o'er the difmal fcene foft pity's veil,
"And lightly touch the lamentable tale:
"Say that my love, inviolably true,
"No change, no diminution ever knew,
"Lo! her bright image pendent on my neck,
"Is all Palemon refcu'd from the wreck ;
"Take it and fay, when panting in the wave,
"I ftruggled, life and this alone to fave!
"My foul that fluttering haftens to be free,
"Would yet a train of thoughts impart to thee,
"But ftrives in vain!-The chilling ice of death
"Congeals my blood, and choaks the stream of
breath:
"Refign'd the quits her comfortless abode,
"To courfe that long, unknown, eternal road.-
"O facred Source of ever-living light!
"Conduct the weary wanderer in her flight!
"Direct her onward to that peaceful shore,
"Where peril, pain and death are felt no more!
"When thou fome tale of hapless love shalt hear,
"That steals from pity's eye the melting tear,
"Of two chafte hearts, by mutual paffion join'd,
"To abfence, forrow and defpair confign'd,
"Oh! then, to fwell the tides of focial woe,
"That heal th' afflicted bofom they o'erflow,
"While Memory dictates, this fad Shipwreck tell,
"And what distress thy wretched friend befel!
"Then, while in streams of soft compassion drown'd,
"The fwains lament, and maidens weep around;
"While lifping children, touch'd with infant fear,
"With wonder gaze, and drop th' unconscious tear
"Oh! then this moral bid their fouls retain,
"All thoughts of happiness on earth are vain *."
The laft faint accents trembled on his tongue,
That now inactive to the palate clung;
His bofom heaves a mortal groan-he dies!
And fhades eternal fink upon
his eyes!
As thus defac'd in death Palemon lay,
Arion gaz'd upon the lifeless clay;
Transfix'd he ftood, with awful terror fill'd,
While down his cheek the filent drop diftill'd
Oh, ill-ftarr'd vot'ry of unfpotted truth!
Untimely perish'd in the bloom of youth,
Should e'er thy friend arrive on Albion's land,
He will obey, tho' painful, thy demand:
His tongue the dreadful story shall display,
And all the horrors of this difmal day!
Difaftrous day! what ruin hast thou bred!
What anguish to the living and the dead!
fed fcilicet ultima femper
Expectanda dies homini; "dicique beatus
Ante obitum nemo fupremaque funera debet."
Ovid. Metam. lib. 3.
How haft thou left the widow all forlorn,
And ever doom'd the orphan child to mourn ;
Thro' life's fad journey hopeless to complain!
Can facred juftice thefe events ordain ?
But, O my foul! avoid that wond'rous maze,
Where reafon, loft in endless error, strays!
As thro' this thorny vale of life we run,
Great Cause of all effects," Thy will be done!"
Now had the Grecians on the beach arriv'd,
To aid the helpless few who yet furviv'd:
While paffing they behold the waves o'erfpread
With thatter'd rafts and corfes of the dead,
Three still alive, benumb'd and faint they find,
In mournful filence on a rock reclin'd.
The generous natives, mov'd with focial pain,
The feeble ftrangers in their arms fultain;
With pitying fighs their hapless lot deplore,
And lead them trembling from the fatal shore.
Nor hopeless Love impart undying pain,
When far from fcenes of focial joy you roam.
No more on yon wide watʼry waste you stray, While hunger and disease your life confume; While parching thirst, that burns without allay, Forbids the blafted rofe of health to bloom.
No more you feel Contagion's mortal breath, That taints the realms with mifery fevere; No mare behold pale Famine, fcattering death, With cruel ravage defolate the year.
The thundering drum, the trumpet's fwelling strain,
Unheard fhall from the long embattled line:
Unheard, the deep foundations of the main
Shall tremble when the hoftile fquadrons join.
Since grief, fatigue and hazards ftill moleft
The wandring vaffals of the faithlefs deep,
O! happier now efcap'd to endless reft,
Than we who still survive to wake and weep.
What tho' no funeral pomp, no borrow'd tear, Your hour of death to gazing crouds fhall tell Nor weeping friends attend your fable bier,
Who fadly liften to the paffing bell:
The tutor'd figh, the vain parade of woe, No real anguish to the foul impart;
HE fcene of death is clos'd, the mournful And oft, alas! the tear that friends bestow,
Diffolve in dying langour on the ear:
Yet pity weeps, yet fympathy complains,
And damb fufpence awaits o'erwhelm'd with fear.
But the fad Mufes with prophetic eye
At once the future and the past explore; Their harps oblivion's influence can defy, And waft the spirit to th' eternal shore.
Then, O Palemon! if thy fhade can hear
The voice of Friendship still lament thy doom; Yet to the fad oblations bend thine ear,
That rife in vocal incenfe o'er thy tomb,
In vain, alas! the gentle maid fhall weep, While fecret anguish nips her vital bloom; O'er her foft frame shall stern diseases creep,
And give the lovely victim to the tomb.
Relentless phrenzy hall the Father sting,
Untaught in Virtue's school distress to bear;
Severe remorfe his tortur'd soul shall wring,
'Tis his to groan and perish in despair.
Ye loft companions of distress, adieu!
Your toils and pains and dangers are no more! The Tempeft now fhall howl unheard by you, While ocean fmites in vain the trembling shore.
On you the blast, surcharg'd with rain and snow,
In winter's difmal nights no more shall beat:
Unfelt by you the vertic fun may glow,
And fcorch the panting earth with baneful heat.
No more the joyful Maid, the fprightly strain,
Shall wake the dance to give you welcome home;
VOL. VNI.
Is my intent: Melpomene inspire,
While, with fad notes, I ftrike the trembling lyre!
And may my lines with easy motion flow,
Melt as they move, and fill each heart with woe:
Big with the forrow it defcribes, my song,
In folemn pomp, majestic, move along.
Oh! bear me to fome awful filent glade
Where cedars form an unremitting shade;
Where never track of human feet was known;
Where never cheerful light of Phoebus shone;
Where chirping linnets warble tales of love,
And hoarfer winds howl murm'ring thro' the grove;
Where fome unhappy wretch ay mourns his doom,
Deep melancholy wand'ring thro' the gloom;
Where Solitude and Meditation roam,
The noble Chief interr'd in youthful bloom,
Lies in the dreary regions of the tomb.
Adown AUGUSTA's pallid vifage flow
The living pearls, with unaffected woe:
Difconfolate, hapless, fee pale Britain mourn,
Abandon'd ifle! forfaken and forlorn!
With defp'rate hands her bleeding breast she beats;
While o'er her, frowning, grim Destruction threats,
She mourns with heart-felt grief, she rends her hair,
And fills with piercing cries the echoing air.
Well may'st thou mourn thy Patriot's timeless end,
Thy Mufes patron, and thy Merchants friend.
What heart shall pity thy full-flowing grief?
What hand now deign to give thy poor relief?
T'encourage arts, whofe bounty now shall flow,
And learned fcience to promote, beftow?
Who now protect thee from the hostile frown,
And to the injur'd Juft return his own?
From us'ry and oppreffion who fhall guard
The helpless, and the threat'ning ruin ward?
Alas! the truly noble Briton's gone,
And left us here in ceafelefs woe to moan!
Impending Defolation hangs around,
And ruin hovers o'er the trembling ground:
The blooming Spring droops her enamel'd head,
Her glories wither, and her flow'rs all fade:
die:The fprouting leaves already drop away;
And where no dawning glimpse of hope can come:
Place me in such an unfrequented fhade,
To speak to none but with the mighty dead:
T'affift the pouring rains with brimful eyes,
And aid hoarfe howling Boreas with my fighs.
When Winter's horrors left Britannia's ifle,
And Spring in blooming verdure gan to smile;
When rils unbound, began to purl along,
And warbling larks renew'd the vernal song;
When sprouting roses, deck'd in crimson dye,
Began to bloom,-
Hard fate! then, noble FRED'RIC, didft thou
Doom'd by inexorable Fate's decree,
Th'approaching fummer ne'er on earth to fee;
In thy parch'd vitals burning fevers rage,
Whofe flame the virtue of no herbs affwage;
No cooling med'cine can its heat allay,
Relentless Destiny cries, "No delay.”
Ye Pow'rs! and must a prince so noble die?
(Whofe equal breathes not under th' ambient sky :)
Ah! muft he die, then, in youth's full-blown
prime,
Cut by the scythe of all-devouring Time?
Yes, Fate has doom'd! his foul now leaves
And all are under the decree of Fate;
Th' irrevocable doom of Deftiny
Pronounc'd, All mortals muft fubmiffive die.
The Princes wait around with weeping eyes,
And the dome echoes all with piercing cries:
With doleful noife the matrons fcream around,
With female fhrieks the vaulted roofs rebound:
A difmal noife! Now one promifcuous roar
Cries, "Ah! the noble FRED'RIC is no more!"
The Chief reluctant yields his latest breath,
His eye-lids fettle in the fhades of death;
Dark fable fhades prefent before each eye,
And the deep vaft abyss, Eternity!
Thro' Perpetuity's expanfe he fprings;
And o'er the vaft profound he shoots on wings:
The Soul to diftant regions fteers her flight,
And fails incumbent on inferior night:
With vaft celerity the fhoots away,
And meets the regions of eternal day,
To fhine for ever in the heav'nly birth,
And leave the body here to rot on earth.
The melancholy patriots round it wait,
And mourn the royal hero's timeless fate.
Difconfolate they move, a mournful band!
In folemn pomp they march along the ftrand:
Languifh the living herbs with pale decay:
The bowing trees, fee; o'er the blasted heath,
Depending, bend beneath the weight of death:
Wrapp'd in th' expanfive gloom, the lightnings play,
Hoarfe thunder mutters thro' th' aerial way:
All nature feels the pangs, the ftorms renew,
And fprouts, with fatal hafte, the baleful yew.
Some pow'r avert the threat'ning horrid weight,
And, godlike, prop Britannia's finking state!
Minerva, hover o'er young GEORGE's foul;
May facred wifdom all his deeds controul!
its Exalted grandeur in each action shine,
His conduct all declare the youth divine.
Methinks I fee him shine a glorious star,
Gentle in peace, but terrible in war!
Methinks each region does his praise resound,
And nations tremble at his name around!
His fame, thro' ev'ry diftant kingdom rung,
Proclaims him of the race from whence he fprung!
So fable fmoke, in volumes, curls on high,
Heaps roll on heaps, and blacken all the sky:
Already fo, his fame, methinks, is huri'd
Around th' admiring venerating world.
So the benighted wand'rer, on his way,
Laments the abfence of all-cheering day;
Far diftant from his friends and native home,
And not one glimpfe does glimmer thro' the gloom:
In thought he breathes, each figh his latest breath,
Prefent, each meditation, pits of death:
Irreg'lar, wild chimæras fill his foul,
And death, and dying, every step controul.
Till from the eaft there breaks a purple gleam,
His fears then vanish as a fleeting dream.
Hid in a cloud the Sun firft fhoots his ray,
Then breaks effulgent on th' illumin'd day;
We fee no fpot then in the flaming rays,
Confus'd and loft within th' exceffive blaze.
GAIN the royal ftreamers play!
To glory Edward hastes away;
Adieu, ye happy filvan bowers,
Where Pleafure's fprightly throng await!
Ye domes, where regal Grandeur towers
In purple ornaments of state!
Ye scenes where Virtue's facred strain
Bids the tragic Mufe complain!
Where Satire treads the comic stage,
To fcourge and mend a venal age;
Where Mufic pours the foft, melodious lay,
And melting Symphonies congenial play!
Ye filken Sons of Eafe, who dwell
In flowery vales of Peace, farewell!
In vain the Goddefs of the Myrtle Grove
Her charms ineffable displays;
In vain the calls to happier realms of Love,
Which Spring's unfading bloom arrays:
In vain her living roses blow,
And ever-vernal pleasures grow;
"The gentle sports of youth no more
Allure him to the peaceful shore:
Arcadian ease no longer charms,
For War and Fame alone can please.
His throbbing bofom beats to arms,
To War the Hero moves, thro' ftorms and wintery feas.
The gentle fports of youth no more
Allure him to the peaceful fhore,
For War and Fame alone can please ;
To War the Hero moves, thro' ftorms and wintery feas.
Though Danger's hoftile train appears
To thwart the courfe that Honour fteers;
Unmov'd he leads the rugged way,
Defpifing peril and dismay :
His Country calls; to guard her laws,
Lo! every joy the gallant youth refigns ;
Th' avenging naval fword he draws,
And o'er the waves conducts her martial lines:
Hark! his fprightly clarions play;
Follow where he leads the way!
The piercing fife, the founding drum,
Tell the deeps their Mafter's come.
Hark! his fprightly clarions play; Follow where he leads the way!
The piercing fife, the founding drum, Tell the deeps their Master's come.
Thus Alcmena's warlike Son The thorny courfe of Virtue run, When, taught by her unerring voice, He made the glorious choice: Severe, indeed, th' attempt he knew, Youth's genial ardors to fubdue: For Pleasure Venus' lovely form affum'd; Her glowing charms, divinely bright, In all the pride of beauty bloom'¿, And ftruck his ravish'd fight. Transfix'd, amaz'd, Alcides gaz'd: Inchanting grace Adorn'd her face,
And all his changing looks confest Th' alternate paffions in his breast: Her fwelling bofom half reveal'd,
Her eyes that kindling raptures fir'd, A thousand tender pains inftill'd, A thousand flatt'ring thoughts infpir'd: Perfuafion's fweeteft language hung In melting accent on her tongue: Deep in his heart, the winning tale Infus'd a magic power;
She preft him to the rofy vale,
And fhew'd th' Elyfian, bower: Her hand, that trembling ardors move, Conducts him blushing to the blest alcove:
Ah! fee, o'erpower'd by Beauty's charms, And won by Love's refistlefs arms, The captive yields to Nature's foft alarms!
Ah! fee, o'erpower'd by Beauty's charms, And won by Love's refiftless arms,
The captive yields to Nature's foft alarms!
Affift, ye guardian powers above,
From Ruin fave the son of Jove,
By heavenly mandate Virtue came,
And check'd the fatal flame:
Swift as the quivering needle wheels,
Whofe point the magnet's influence feels,
Infpir'd with awe,
He, turning, faw
The Nymph divine
Tranfcendent fhine;
And, while he view'd the godlike maid,
His heart a facred impulse sway'd:
His eyes with ardent motion roll,
And Love, Regret, and Hope, divide his foul. But foon her words his pain destroy,
And all the numbers of his heart, Return'd by her celeftial art, Now fwell'd to ftrains of nobler joy. Inftructed thus by Virtue's lore, His happy steps the realms explore Where guilt and error are no more: The clouds that veil'd his intellectual ray, Before her breath difpelling, melt away: Broke loofe from Pleafure's glittering chain, He fcorn'd her foft inglorious reign: Convinc'd, refolv'd, to Virtue then he turn'dy And in his breaft paternal glory hura'd.
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