Again she plunges! hark! a second shock
Bilges the splitting Vessel on the Rock-
Down on the vale of Death, with dismal cries,
The fated Victims shuddering cast their eyes
In wild Despair; while yet another stroke
With strong convulsion rends the solid oak:
Ah Heaven!-behold her crashing ribs divide!
She loosens, parts, and spreads in ruin o'er the Tide.
Oh, were it mine with sacred MARO's art
To wake to sympathy the feeling heart,
Like him, the smooth and mournful verse to dress
In all the pomp of exquisite distress;
Then, too severely taught by cruel Fate,
To share in all the perils I relate,
Then might I, with unrivalled Strains, deplore
Th' impervious horrors of a Leeward Shore.
As o'er the surf the bending Mainmast hung,
Still on the rigging thirty Seamen clung:
Some on a broken Crag were struggling cast,
And there by oozy tangles grappled fast;
Awhile they bore th' o'erwhelming Billows' rage,
Unequal combat with their Fate to wage;