1. A SHIP from Egypt, o'er the deep impelled J.Fittler Cup The wayward steps of Fortune they pursued, Had crowned each painful voyage with success; Thrice had the Sun to rule the varying year Across th' equator rolled his flaming sphere, Since last the Vessel spread her ample sail From ALBION's coast, obsequious to the gale; She o'er the spacious flood from shore to shore Unwearying wafted her commercial store; The richest ports of AFRIC she had viewed, Thence to fair ITALY her course pursued; Had left behind TRINACRIA's burning isle, And visited the margin of the Nile : And now, that Winter deepens round the Pole, The circling voyage hastens to its goal; They, blind to Fate's inevitable law, No dark event to blast their hope foresaw, Before whose vivid intellectual ray Distress recedes, and danger melts away: Already British Coasts appear to rise, The chalky Cliffs salute their longing eyes; Each to his breast, where floods of rapture roll, Nor less o'erjoyed, with sympathetic truth, Each faithful Maid expects th' approaching Youth: And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow- Thus time elapsed, while o'er the pathless Tide Their Ship through Grecian Seas the pilots guide. |