ARGUMENT. 1 I. Retrospect of the Voyage.... Arrival at Candia.... State of that Island... Season of the Year described.II. Character of the Master, and his Officers, ALBERT, RODMOND and ARION... PALEMON, Son to the Owner of the Ship. . . Attachment of PALEMON to ANNA, the Daughter of ALBERT.-III. Noon... PALEMON's History.-IV. Sun-set. . . Midnight... ARION's Dream... Unmoor by Moonlight... Morning... Sun's Azimuth taken... Beautiful appearance of the Ship, as seen by the Natives from the Shore. I. A SHIP from Egypt, o'er the deep impelled J.Fittler fculp 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, But from gay VENICE SOON expect to steer 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: In distant souls congenial passions glow, Thus time elapsed, while o'er the pathless Tide Their Ship through Grecian Seas the pilots guide. |