"Yet never Seaman more serenely brave

"Led Britain's conquering Squadrons o'er the wave. "Where full in view AUGUSTA's spires are seen

"With flowery lawns, and waving woods between, "An humble habitation rose, beside

“Where Thames meandring rolls his ample tide: "There live the hope and pleasure of his life, "A pious Daughter, and a faithful Wife. "For his return with fond officious care "Still every grateful object these prepare; "Whatever can allure the smell or sight, "Or wake the drooping spirits to delight.

"This blooming Maid in Virtue's path to guide "Th' admiring parents all their care applyed; "Her spotless soul to soft affection trained, "No vice untuned, no sickening folly stained: "Not fairer grows the Lily of the vale "Whose bosom opens to the vernal gale: "Her eyes, unconscious of their fatal charms, "Thrilled every heart with exquisite alarms; "Her face, in Beauty's sweet attraction drest, "The smile of maiden innocence exprest;

"While Health, that rises with the new-born day, "Breathed o'er her cheek the softest blush of May: "Still in her look Complacence smiled serene; "She moved the Charmer of the rural scene!

""Twas at that Season, when the fields resume "Their loveliest hues arrayed in vernal bloom; "Yon Ship, rich freighted from th' Italian shore, "To Thames' fair banks her costly tribute bore: "While thus my Father saw his ample hoard "From this return, with recent treasures stor'd; "Me, with affairs of commerce charged, he sent "To ALBERT's humble mansion-soon I went! "Too soon, alas! unconscious of th' event.

"There, struck with sweet surprise and silent awe, "The gentle Mistress of my hopes I saw;

"There, wounded first by Love's resistless arms, "My glowing bosom throbbed with strange alarms:

"My ever charming ANNA! who alone

"Can all the frowns of cruel fate atone;

"Oh! while all-conscious Memory holds her power,

"Can I forget that sweetly-painful hour "When from those eyes, with lovely lightning fraught,

"My fluttering spirits first th' infection caught?

"When, as I gazed, my faltering tongue betray'd "The heart's quick tumults, or refused its aid; "While the dim light my ravished eyes forsook, "And every limb unstrung with terror shook. "With all her powers, dissenting Reason strove "To tame at first the kindling flame of Love: "She strove in vain; subdued by charms divine "My soul a victim fell at beauty's shrine. "Oft from the din of bustling life I strayed, "In happier scenes to see my lovely Maid; "Full oft,whereThames his wandering current leads, "We roved at evening hour through flowery meads; "There, while my heart's soft anguish I revealed, "To her with tender sighs my hope appealed: "While the sweet Nymph my faithful tale believed, "Her snowy breast with secret tumult heaved; "For trained in rural scenes from earliest youth "Nature was her's, and Innocence, and Truth. "She never knew the city damsel's art,

"Whose frothy pertness charms the vacant heart

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My suit prevailed! for Love informed my tongue, "And on his votary's lips persuasion hung.

"Her eyes with conscious sympathy withdrew, "And o'er her cheek the rosy current flew. "Thrice happy hours! where with no dark allay "Life's fairest sunshine gilds the vernal day: "For here the sigh that soft affection heaves, "From stings of sharper woe the soul relieves. "Elysian scenes! too happy long to last, "Too soon a storm the smiling dawn o'ercast; "Too soon some demon to my Father bore

"The tidings, that his heart with anguish tore.

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My pride to kindle, with dissuasive voice

"Awhile he laboured to degrade my choice; "Then, in the whirling wave of Pleasure, sought

"From its loved object to divert my thought. "With equal hope he might attempt to bind "In chains of adamant the lawless Wind;

"For Love had aimed the fatal shaft too sure,

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Hope fed the wound, and Absence knew no cure. "With alienated look, each art he saw

"Still baffled by superior Nature's law.

"His anxious mind on various schemes revolved,

"At last on cruel Exile he resolved:

"The rigorous doom was fixed; alas! how vain "To him of tender anguish to complain.

"His soul, that never Love's sweet influence felt, "By social sympathy could never melt;

"With stern command to ALBERT's charge he gave "To waft PALEMON o'er the distant wave.

"The Ship was laden and prepared to sail, "And only waited now the leading gale: " "Twas ours, in that sad period, first to prove "The poignant torments of despairing Love; "Th' impatient Wish that never feels repose, "Desire that with perpetual current flows, "The fluctuating pangs of Hope and Fear, "Joy distant still, and Sorrow ever near. "Thus, while the pangs of thought severer grew, "The western Breezes inauspicious blew, "Hastening the moment of our last adieu.

"The Vessel parted on the falling tide,
"Yet time one sacred hour to Love supplied:

"The Night was silent, and advancing fast,

"The Moon o'er Thames her silver mantle cast;

Impatient Hope the midnight path explored,

"And led me to the Nymph my soul adored.