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,
Though scarce her length in distance from the land;
Swift as the weapon quits the Seythian 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 their 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 :
SHIP LAID BROADSIDE TO THE SHORE.
"Hie thee aloft, my gallant friend!" he cries;
Thy only succour on the Mast relies.”
The Helm, bereft of half its vital force,
Now scarce subdued the wild unbridled course;
Quick to th' abandoned wheel ARION came,
The Ship's tempestuous sallies to reclaim :
The Vessel, while the dread event draws nigh,
Seems more impatient o'er the waves to fly;
Fate spurs her on!-Thus, issuing from afar,
Advances to the Sun some blazing Star,
And, as it feels Attraction's kindling force,
Springs onward with accelerated course.
The Moment fraught with Fate approaches fast!
While thronging Sailors climb each quivering mast;
The Ship no longer now must stem the Land,
And, hard a starboard! is the last command:
While every suppliant voice to Heaven applies,
The Prow, swift wheeling, to the westward flies;
Twelve Sailors, on the Foremast who depend,
High on the platform of the Top ascend,
Fatal Retreat! for, while the plunging Prow
Immerges headlong in the wave below,
Down prest by watery weight the Bowsprit bends,
And from above the stem deep-crashing rends:
Beneath her Bow the floating ruins lie;
The Foremast totters, unsustained on high;
And now the Ship, forelifted by the Sea,
Hurls the tall Fabric backward o'er her lee;
While, in the general wreck, the faithful Stay
Drags the Main topmast by the Cap away:
Flung from the Mast, the Seamen strive in vain,
Through hostile floods, their Vessel to regain;
Weak Hope, alas! they buffet long the wave,
And grasp at Life though sinking in the Grave;
Till all exhausted, and bereft of strength,
O'erpowered they yield to cruel Fate at length;
The burying Waters close around their head,
They sink! for ever numbered with the dead.
Those who remain the weather Shrouds embrace,
Nor longer mourn their lost Companions' case;
Transfixt with terror at th' approaching doom,
Self pity in their breasts alone has room:
ALBERT, and RODMOND, and PALEMON, near
With young ARION, on the Mast appear;
Een they, amid th' unspeakable distress,
In every look distracting thoughts confess,
every vein the refluent blood congeals,
And every bosom mortal terror feels;
Begirt with all the horrors of the Main
They viewed th' adjacent Shore, but viewed in vain:
Such torments in the drear abodes of Hell,
Where sad Despair laments with rueful yell,
Such torments agonize the damned breast,
That sees remote the mansions of the Blest.
It comes! the dire Catastrophe draws near,
Lashed furious on by Destiny severe :
The Ship hangs hovering on the verge of death,
Hell yawns, Rocks rise, and Breakers roar beneath!
O yet confirm my heart, ye Powers above!
This last tremendous shock of Fate to prove;
The tottering frame of Reason yet sustain,
Nor let this total havoc whirl my Brain:
Since I, all trembling in extreme distress,
Must still the horrible result express.
In vain, alas! the sacred Shades of
yore
Would arm the mind with Philosophic lore;
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