E'en now my ear with quick vibration feels
Th' explosion burst in strong rebounding peals;
Swift through my pulses glides the kindling fire,
As lightning glances on th' electric wire:
Yet ah! the languid colours vainly strive
To bid the Scene in native hues revive.
But lo! at last, from tenfold darkness born, Forth issues o'er the wave the weeping Morn: Hail, sacred Vision! who, on orient wings, The cheering dawn of light propitious brings; All Nature smiling hailed the vivid ray
gave her beauties to returning Day,
All but our Ship! which groaning on the tide
No kind relief, no gleam of Hope descried;
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 maid adored resigns her blooming charms
To bless with love some happier rival's arms;
So to ELIZA dawned that cruel day
That tore ÆNEAS from her sight 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 reign:
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,
Huge breakers on the larboard Bow appear,
And full a-head its eastern ledges bear:
To steer more eastward ALBERT still commands,
And shun, if possible, the fatal strands—
Nearer and nearer now the danger grows,
And all their skill relentless fates oppose;
For while more eastward they direct the prow,
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-lee
Her trembling side could bear the mountained Sea, And if pursuing Waves she scuds before,
Headlong she runs upon the frightful shore;
A Shore, where Shelves and hidden Rocks abound,
Where death in secret ambush lurks around:
Not half so dreadful to ENEAS' eyes
The Straits of SICILY were seen to rise,
When Palinurus from the helm descry'd
The Rocks of SCYLLA on his eastern side,
While in the west, with hideous yawn disclosed,
His onward path CHARYBDIS' gulph opposed;
The double danger he alternate viewed,
And cautiously his arduous track pursued:
Thus, while to right and left destruction lies,
Between th' extremes the daring Vessel flies:
With terrible irruption bursting o'er
The marble Cliffs, tremendous Surges roar;
Hoarse thro' each winding creek the Tempest raves,
And hollow rocks repeat the groan of waves:
Should once the bottom strike this cruel Shore,
The parting Ship that instant is no more;
Nor she alone, but with her all the Crew
Beyond relief are doomed to perish too :
But haply she escapes the dreadful Strand,
Tho' scarce her length in distance from the land;
Swift as the weapon quits the Scythian bow
She cleaves the burning billows with her prow,
And forward hurrying with impetuous haste,
Borne on the Tempest's wings 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 half such pangs his bosom agonize
When up to distant light he rolls his eyes!
Where the broad Sun, in his diurnal way
Imparts to all beside his vivid ray,
While, all forlorn, the Victim pines in vain
For Scenes he never shall possess again.
V. But now Athenian Mountains they descry
And o'er the surge COLONNA frowns on high,
Where marble Columns, long by time defaced,
Moss covered on the lofty Cape are placed;
There reared by fair Devotion to sustain
In elder times TRITONIA's sacred fane;
The circling Beach in murderous form appears,
Decisive Goal of all their hopes, and fears:
The Seamen now in wild amazement see
The scene of ruin rise beneath the Lee;
Swift from their minds elapsed all dangers past,
As dumb with terror they behold the last :
And now, while winged with ruin from on high
Through the rent Cloud the ragged Lightnings fly,
A Flash, quick glancing on the nerves of light,
Struck the pale Helmsman with eternal night:
RODMOND, Who heard a piteous groan behind,
Touched with compassion gazed upon the 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.”
|