The last faint accents trembled on his tongue, That now inactive to the palate clung; His bosom heaves a mortal groan-he dies! And Shades eternal Sink upon his eyes. As thus defaced in death PALEMON lay, ARION gazed upon the lifeless clay; Transfixed he stood, with awful terror filled, While down his cheek the silent drops distilled : "O ill-starred Votary of unspotted Truth! 66 Untimely perished in the bloom of youth; "Should e'er thy Friend arrive on ALBION's land, "He will obey, though painful, thy command; "His tongue the dreadful Story shall display, "And all the horrors of this dismal day: "Disastrous day! what ruin hast thou bred, "What anguish to the living and the dead! "How hast thou left the Widow all forlorn; "And ever doomed the orphan Child to mourn, "Through Life's sad journey hopeless to complain : "Can sacred Justice these events ordain? 66 But, O my Soul! avoid that wondrous maze "Where Reason, lost in endless error, strays; "As through this thorny Vale of life we run, "Great CAUSE of all Effects, THY WILL BE DONE!" The generous Natives, moved with social pain, 140 OCCASIONAL ELEGY, IN WHICH THE PRECEDING NARRATIVE IS CONCLUDED. THE Scene of Death is closed! the mournful strains Dissolve in dying languor on the ear; Yet PITY weeps, yet SYMPATHY complains, And dumb SUSPENSE awaits o'erwhelm'd with fear: But the sad MUSES 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 Shade can hear The voice of Friendship still lament thy doom, Yet to the sad Oblations bend thine ear, That rise in vocal incense o'er thy Tomb: From young ARION first the news received And from her cheek the rose of beauty fled. In vain, alas! the gentle Virgin wept, Corrosive Anguish nipt her vital bloom; A longer date of woe, the widowed WIFE Yet both were rescued from the chains of life The FATHER unrelenting Phrenzy stung, Ye lost Companions of distress, adieu! Your toils, and pains, and dangers are no more; The Tempest now shall howl unheard by you, While Ocean smites in vain the trembling Shore; On you the Blast, surcharged with rain and snow, In Winter's dismal nights no more shall beat; Unfelt by you the vertic Sun may glow, And scorch the panting earth with baneful heat : No more the joyful Maid, with sprightly strain, Shall wake the dance to give you welcome home; Nor hopeless Love impart undying pain, When far from Scenes of social joy you roam; No more on yon wide watery Waste you stray, While Hunger and Disease your life consume, While parching Thirst, that burns without allay, Forbids the blasted rose of health to bloom; No more you feel CONTAGION'S mortal breath, The thundering Drum, the Trumpet's swelling strain Unheard, shall form the long embattled Line; Unheard, the deep foundations of the Main Shall tremble, when the hostile squadrons join: |