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
For Britain's coast, and dread no perils near;
Inflam'd by Hope, their throbbing hearts elate
Ideal pleasures vainly antedate,
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,
Embracing strains the mistress of his soul:
Nor less o'erjoy'd, with sympathetic truth,
Each faithful maid expects th' approaching youth.
In distant souls congenial passions glow,
And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow :
Such shadowy happiness their thoughts employ,
Illusion all, and visionary joy!
Thus time elaps'd, while o'er the pathless tide
Their ship through Grecian seas the pilots guide.
Occasion call'd to touch at Candia's shore,
Which, blest with favouring winds, they soon ex-
plore;
The haven enter, borne before the gale,
Dispatch their commerce, and prepare to sail.
Eternal powers! what ruins from afar
Mark the fell track of desolating War:
Here Arts and Commerce with auspicious reign
Once breathed sweet influence on the happy plain;
While o'er the lawn, with dance and festive song,
Young Pleasure led the jocund Hours along.
In gay luxuriance Ceres too was seen
To crown the vallies with eternal green:
For wealth, for valour, courted and revered,
What Albion is, fair Candia then appeared.-
Ahl who the flight of ages can revoke?
The free-born spirit of her sons is broke,
They bow to Ottoman's imperious yoke.
No longer Fame the drooping heart inspires,
For stern Oppression quench'd its genial fires.
Though still her fields, with golden harvests crown'd,
Supply the barren shores of Greece around,
Sharp penury afflicts these wretched isles,
There Hope ne'er dawns, and Pleasure never smiles.
The vassal wretch contented drags his chain,
And hears his famish'd babes lament in vain.
These eyes have seen the dull reluctant soil
A seventh year mock the weary labourer's toil.
No blooming Venus, on the desert shore,
Now views with triumph captive gods adore;
No lovely Helens now with fatal charms
Excite th' avenging chiefs of Greece to arms;
No fair Penelopes enchant the eye,
For whom contending kings were proud to die;
Here sullen Beauty sheds a twilight ray,
While Sorrow bids her vernal bloom decay:
Those charms, so long renown'd in classic strains,
Had dimly shone on Albion's happier plains!
Now in the southern hemisphere, the Sun Through the bright Virgin, and the Scales, had run,
And on th' ecliptic wheel'd his winding way
Till the fierce Scorpion felt his flaming ray.
Four days becalm'd the vessel here remains,
And yet no hopes of aiding wind obtains,
For sickening vapours lull the air to sleep,
And not a breeze awakes the silent deep:
This, when th' autumnal equinox is o'er,
And Phoebus in the north declines no more,
The watchful mariner, whom Heaven informs,
Oft deems the prelude of approaching storms-
No dread of storms the master's soul restrain,
A captive fetter'd to the oar of gain :
His anxious heart impatient of delay
Expects the winds to sail from Candia's bay,
Determin'd, from whatever point they rise,
To trust his fortune to the seas and skies.
Thou living ray of intellectual fire
Whose voluntary gleams my verse inspire;
Ere yet the deepening incidents prevail
Till rous'd attention feel our plaintive tale,
Record whom chief among the gallant crew
Th' unblest pursuit of fortune hither drew:
Can sons of Neptune, generous, brave, and bold,
In pain and hazard toil for sordid gold?
They can! for gold too oft with magic art
Can rule the passions, and corrupt the heart:
This crowns the prosperous villain with applause,
To whom in vain sad Merit pleads her cause;
This strews with roses Life's perplexing road,
And leads the way to Pleasure's soft abode;
This spreads with slaughter'd heaps the bloody plain,
And pours adventurous thousands o'er the main.
II. The stately ship with all her daring band To skilful Albert own'd the chief command: Though train'd in boisterous elements, his mind Was yet by soft humanity refin'd;
Each joy of wedded love at home he knew, Aboard, confest the father of his crew! Brave, liberal, just! the calm domestic scene Had o'er his temper breath'd a gay serene. Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace The planets wheeling in eternal race; To mark the ship in floating balance held, By Earth attracted, and by seas repell'd; Or point her devious track through climes unknown That leads to every shore and every zone. [glide, He saw the Moon through Heaven's blue concave And into motion charm th' expanding tide, While Earth impetuous round her axle rolls, Exalts her watry zone, and sinks the poles; | Light and attraction, from their genial source, He saw still wandering with diminish'd force; While on the margin of declining day Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away. Inur'd to peril, with unconquer'd soul The chief beheld tempestuous oceans roll: O'er the wild surge when dismal shades preside His equal skill the lonely bark could guide; His genius, ever for th' event prepared, Rose with the storm, and all its dangers shared. Rodmond the next degree to Albert bore, A hardy son of England's furthest shore, Where bleak Northumbria pours her savage train In sable squadrons o'er the northern main; That, with her pitchy entrails stor'd, resort, A sooty tribe, to fair Augusta's port: Where'er in ambush lurk the fatal sands They claim the danger, proud of skilful bands; For while with darkling course their vessels sweep The winding shore, or plough the faithless deep,
O'er bar', and shelf, the wat'ry path they sound
With dextrous arm, sagacious of the ground:
Fearless they combat every hostile wind,
Wheeling in mazy tracks, with course inclin'd.
Expert to moor where terrours line the road,
Or win the anchor from its dark abode;'
But drooping, and relax'd, in climes afar,
Tumultuous and undisciplin'd in war.
Such Rodmond was; by learning unrefin'd,
That oft enlightens to corrupt the mind.
Boisterous of manners; train'd in early youth
To scenes that shame the conscious cheek of Truth;
To scenes that Nature's struggling voice control,
And freeze compassion rising in the soul: [shore,
Where the grim hell-hounds, prowling round the
With foul intent the stranded bark explore;
Deaf to the voice of Woe, her decks they board,
While tardy Justice slumbers o'er her sword.
Th' indignant Muse, severely taught to feel,
Shrinks from a theme she blushes to reveal.
Too oft Example, arm'd with poisons fell,
Pollutes the shrine where Mercy loves to dwell:
Thus Rodmond, train'd by this unhallow'd crew,
The sacred social passions never knew.
Unskill'd to argue, in dispute yet loud,
Bold without caution, without honours proud;
In Art unschool'd, each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.
Yet, though full oft to future perils blind,
With skill superior glow'd his daring mind,
Through snares of death the reeling bark to guide,
When midnight shades involve the raging tide.
To Rodmond next in order of command
Succeeds the youngest of our naval band:
But what avails it to record a name
That courts no rank among the sons of Fame;
Whose vital spring had just began to bloom
When o'er it Sorrow spread her sickening gloom?
While yet a stripling, oft with fond alarms
His bosom danc'd to Nature's boundless charms;
On him fair Science dawn'd in happier hour,
Awakening into bloom young Fancy's flower:
But soon Adversity with freezing blast
The blossom wither'd, and the dawn o'ercast.
Forlorn of heart, and by severe decree
Condemn'd reluctant to the faithless sea,
With long farewell he left the laurel grove,
Where Science, and the tuneful Sisters rove.
Hither he wander'd, anxious to explore
Antiquities of nations now no more;
To penetrate each distant realm unknown,
And range excursive o'er th' untravell❜d zone.
In vain-for rude Adversity's command,
Still on the margin of each famous land,
With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
And every gate of hope against him closed.
Permit my verse, ye blest Pierian train!
To call Arion this ill-fated swain;
For, like that bard unhappy, on his head
Malignant stars their hostile influence shed,
Both in lamenting numbers, o'er the deep
With conscious anguish taught the harp to weep;
And both the raging surge in safety bore
Amid destruction, panting to the shore,
This last, our tragic story from the wave
Of dark Oblivion haply yet may save;
With genuine sympathy may yet complain,
While sad Remembrance bleeds at every vein.
These, chief among the ship's conducting train,
Her path explor'd along the deep domain;
Train'd to command, and range the swelling sail
Whose varying force conforms to every gale.
Charg'd with the commerce, hither also came
A gallant youth, Palemon was his name:
A father's stern resentment doom'd to prove,
He came the victim of unhappy love!
His heart for Albert's beauteous daughter bled,
For her a sacred flame his bosom fed:
Nor let the wretched slaves of Folly scorn
This genuine passion, Nature's eldest born!
'Twas his with lasting anguish to complain,
While blooming Anna mourn'd the cause in vain,
Graceful of form, by Nature taught to please,
Of power to melt the female breast with ease;
To her Palemon told his tender tale,
Soft as the voice of Summer's evening gale:
His soul, where moral truth spontaneous grew,
No guilty wish, no cruel passion knew:
Though tremblingly alive to Nature's laws,
Yet ever firm to Honour's sacred cause;
O'erjoy'd he saw her lovely eyes relent,
The blushing maiden smil'd with sweet consent.
Oft in the mazes of a neighbouring grove,
Unheard, they breathed alternate vows of love:
By fond society their passion grew,
Like the young blossom fed with vernal dew;
While their chaste souls possess'd the pleasing pains
That Truth improves, and Virtue ne'er restrains.
In evil hour th' officious tongue of Fame
Betray'd the secret of their mutual flame.
With grief and anger struggling in his breast
Palemon's father heard the tale confest ;
Long had he listen'd with Suspicion's ear,
And learnt, sagacious, this event to fear.
Too well, fair youth! thy liberal heart he knew,
A heart to Nature's warm impressions true:
Full oft his wisdom strove, with fruitless toil,
With avarice to pollute that generous soil;
That soil, impregnated with nobler seed,
Refus'd the culture of so rank a weed.
Elate with wealth in active commerce won,
And basking in the smile of Fortune's sun;
For many freighted ships from shore to shore,
Their wealthy charge by his appointment borez
With scorn the parent ey'd the lowly shade
That veil'd the beauties of this charming maid.
He, by the lust of riches only mov'd,
Such mean connections haughtily reprov'd;
Indignant he rebuk'd th' enamour'd boy,
The flattering promise of his future joy;
He sooth'd and menac'd, anxious to reclaim
This hopeless passion, or divert its aim:
Oft led the youth where circling joys delight
The ravish'd sense, or beauty charms the sight.
With all her powers enchanting Music failed,
And Pleasure's syren voice no more prevailed:
Long with unequal art, in vain he strove
To quench th' ethereal flame of ardent love.
The merchant, kindling then with proud disdain,
In look, and voice, assum'd an harsher strain.
In absence now his only hope remained;
And such the stern decree his will ordained:
A bar is known, in hydrography, to be a mass of earth or sand collected by the surge of the sea, at the entrance of a river or haven; so as to render the navigation difficult, and often dan-Deep anguish, while Palemon heard his doom, gerous.
Drew o'er his lovely face a saddening gloom;
High beat his heart, fast flow'd th' unbidden tear,
His bosom heaved with agony severe;
In vain with bitter sorrow he repin'd,
No tender pity touch'd that sordid mind-
To thee, brave Albert! was the charge consign'd.
The stately ship, forsaking England's shore,,
To regions far remote Palemon bore.
Incapable of change, th' unhappy youth
Still lov'd fair Anna with eternal truth;
Still Anna's image swims before his sight
In fleeting vision through the restless night;
From clime to clime an exile doom'd to roam,
His heart still panted for its secret home.
The Moon had circled twice her wayward zone,
To him since young Arion first was known;
Who, wandering here through many a scene re-
In Alexandria's port the vessel found; [nown'd,
Where, anxious to review his native shore,
He on the roaring wave embark'd once more.
Oft by pale Cynthia's melancholy light
With him Palemon kept the watch of night,
In whose sad bosom many a sigh supprest
Some painful secret of the soul confest :
Perhaps Arion soon the cause divin'd,
Though shunning still to probe a wounded mind;
He felt the chastity of silent woe,
Though glad the balm of comfort to bestow.
He, with Palemon, oft recounted o'er
The tales of hapless love in ancient lore,
Recall'd to memory by th' adjacent shore:
The scene thus present, and its story known,
The lover sigh'd for sorrows not his own.
Thus, though a recent date their friendship bore,.
Soon the ripe metal own'd the quick'ning ore;
For in one tide their passions seem'd to roll,
By kindred age and sympathy of soul.
These o'er th' inferior naval train preside,
The course determine, or the commerce guide:
O'er all the rest, an undistinguish'd crew,
Her wing of deepest shade Oblivion drew.
A sullen languor still the skies opprest, And held th' unwilling ship in strong arrest: High in his chariot glow'd the lamp of day, O'er Ida flaming with meridian ray, Relax'd from toil, the sailors range the shore Where famine, war, and storm are felt no more; The hour to social pleasure they resign, And black remembrance drown in generous wine. On deck, beneath the shading canvass spread, Rodmond, a rueful tale of wonders read Of dragons roaring on th' enchanted coast The hideous goblin, and the yelling ghost: But with Arion, from the sultry heat Of noon, Palemon sought a cool retreatAnd lo! the shore with mournful prospects crown'd, The rampart torn with many a fatal wound, The ruin'd bulwark tott'ring o'er the strand, Bewail the stroke of War's tremendous hand: What scenes of woe this hapless isle o'erspread! Where late thrice fifty thousand warriors bled. Full twice twelve summers were yon tow'rs assail'd, Till barbarous Ottoman at last prevail'd;
Olive, and cedar, form'd a grateful shade,
Where light with gay romantic errour stray'd.
The myrtles here with fond caresses twine,
There, rich with nectar, melts the pregnant vine:
And lo! the stream renown'd in classic song,
Sad Lethe, glides the silent vale along.
On mossy banks, beneath the citron grove,
The youthful wand'rers found a wild alcove;
Soft o'er the fairy region Languor stole,
And with sweet Melancholy charm'd the soul.
Here first Palemon, while his pensive mind
For consolation on his friend reclin'd,
In Pity's bleeding bosom, pour'd the stream
Of Love's soft anguish, and of grief supreme-
"Too true thy words! by sweet remembrance taught,
My heart in secret bleeds with tender thought;
In vain it courts the solitary shade,
By ev'ry action, ev'ry look betray'd.
The pride of gen'rous woe disdains appeal
To hearts that unrelenting frosts congeal:
Yet sure, if right Palemon can divine,
The sense of gentle pity dwells in thine.
Yes! all his cares thy sympathy shall know,
And prove the kind companion of his woe."
"Albert thou know'st with skill, and science
In humble station though by Fortune plac'd,
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 flow'ry 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 apply'd;
Her spotless soul, to soft affection train'd,
No vice untun'd, no sick'ning folly stain'd:
Not fairer grows the lily of the vale
Whose bosom opens to the vernal gale:
Her eyes, unconscious of their fatal charms,
Thrill'd ev'ry 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,
Breath'd o'er her cheek the softest blush of May:
Still in her look Complacence smil'd serene;
She mov'd the charmer of the rural scene!
"'Twas at that season, when the fields resume Their loveliest hues array'd 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 charg'd, he sent To Albert's humble mansion-soon I went! Too soon, alas! unconscious of th' event.
While thund'ring mines the lovely plains o'erturn'd,There, struck with sweet surprise and silent awe,
While heroes fell, and domes, and temples burn'd.
III. But now before them happier scenes arise,
Elysian vales salute their ravish'd eyes;
The gentle mistress of my hopes I saw ;
There, wounded first by Love's resistless arms,
My glowing bosom throbb'd with strange alarms:
2 The intelligent reader will readily discover,tians by the Turks in 1669; being then considered that these remarks allude to the ever-memorable sjege of Candia, which was taken from the Vene
as impregnable, and esteemed the most formidable fortress in the universe.
My ever-charming Anna! who alone
Can all the frowns of cruel Fate atone;
Oh! while all-conscious Mem'ry holds her pow'r,
Can I forget that sweetly-painful hour
When from those eyes, with lovely lightning fraught,
My flutt'ring spirits first th' infection caught?
When, as I gaz'd, my faltering tongue betray'd
The heart's quick tumults, or refus'd its aid;
While the dim light my ravish'd eyes forsook,
And ev'ry limb unstrung with terrour shook.
With all her pow'rs, dissenting Reason strove
To tame at first the kindling flame of love:
She strove in vain; subdu'd by charms divine
My soul a victim fell at Beauty's shrine.
Oft from the din of bustling life I stray'd,
In happier scenes to see my lovely maid;
Full oft, where Thames his wand'ring current leads,
We rov'd at evening hour through flow'ry meads;
There, while my heart's soft anguish I reveal'd,
To her with tender sighs my hope appeal'd:
While the sweet nymph my faithful tale believ'd,
Her snowy breast with secret tumult heav'd;
For, train'd 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-
My suit prevail'd! for Love inform'd 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.
My pride to kindle, with dissuasive voice
Awhile he labour'd to degrade my choice;
Then, in the whirling wave of pleasure, sought
From its lov'd object to divert my thought.
With equal hope he might attempt to bind
In chains of adamant the lawless wind;
For Love had aim'd the fatal shaft too sure,
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 revolv'd,
At last on cruel exile he resolv'd:
The rigorous doom was fix'd; 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 prepar'd to sail,
And only waited now the leading gale:
Twas our's, 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 explor'd,
And led me to the nymph my soul ador'd.
Soon her quick footsteps struck my list'ning ear,
She came confest! the lovely maid drew near !
But, ah! what force of language can impart
Th' impetuous joy that glow'd in either heart?
O ye! whose melting hearts are form'd to prove
The trembling ecstasies of genuine love;
When, with delicious agony, the thought
Is to the verge of high delirium wrought;
Your secret sympathy alone can tell
What raptures then the throbbing bosom swell;
O'er all the nerves what tender tumults roll,
While love with sweet enchantment melts the soul.
"In transport lost, by trembling hope imprest,
The blushing virgin sunk upon my breast,
While her's congenial beat with fond alarms;
Dissolving softness! Paradise of charms!
Flash'd from our eyes, in warm transfusion flew
Our blending spirits that each other drew!
O bliss supreme! where Virtue's self can melt
With joys, that guilty Pleasure never felt;
Form'd to refine the thought with chaste desire,
And kindle sweet Affect on's purest fire.
"Ah! wherefore should my hopeless love,' she cries,
While sorrow burst with interrupting sighs,
'For ever destin'd to lament in vain,
Such flattering, fond ideas entertain?
My heart through scenes of fair illusion stray'd,
To joys, decreed for some superior maid.
'Tis mine abandon'd to severe distress
Still to complain, and never hope redress-
Go then, dear youth! thy father's rage atone,
And let this tortur'd bosom beat alone.
The hov'ring anger yet thou may'st appease;
Go then, dear youth! nor tempt the faithless seas.
Find out some happier maid, whose equal charms
With Fortune's fairer joys may bless thy arms:
Where smiling o'er thee with indulgent ray,
Prosperity shall hail each new-born day:
Too well thou know'st good Albert's niggard fate
Ill fitted to sustain thy father's hate.
Go, then, I charge thee by thy generous love,
That fatal to my father thus may prove;
On me alone let dark affliction fall,
Whose heart for thee will gladly suffer all.
Then haste thee hence, Palemon, ere too late,
Nor rashly hope to brave opposing Fate.'
"She ceas'd: while anguish in her angel-face
O'er all her beauties shower'd celestial grace:
Not Helen, in her bridal charms array'd,
Was half so lovely as this gentle maid-
'O soul of all my wishes!' I reply'd,
'Can that soft fabric stem affliction's tide?
Canst thou, bright pattern of exalted Truth,
To sorrow doom the summer of thy youth,
And I, ingrateful! all that sweetness see
Consign'd to lasting misery for me?
Sooner this moment may th' eternal doom
Palemon in the silent earth entomb;
Attest, thou Moon, fair regent of the night!
Whose lustre sickens at this mournful sight:
By all the pangs divided lovers feel,
Which sweet possession only knows to heal;
By all the horrours brooding o'er the deep,
Where Fate, and Ruin, sad dominion keep;
Though tyrant Duty o'er me threat'ning stands,
And claims obedience to her stern commands,
Should Fortune cruel or auspicious prove,
Her smile, or frown, shall never change my love;
My heart, that now must ev'ry joy resign,
Incapable of change, is only thine.
"Oh, cease to weep! this storm will yet decay,
And the sad clouds of sorrow melt away;
While through the rugged path of life we go,
All mortals taste the bitter draught of woe.
The fam'd and great, decreed to equal pain,
Full oft in splendid wretchedness complain:
For this, Prosperity, with brighter ray
In smiling contrast gilds our vital day.
His frame the happiest symmetry display'd,
And locks of waving gold his neck array'd;
In ev'ry look the Paphian graces shine,
Soft breathing o'er his cheek their bloom divine:
With lighten'd heart he smil'd serenely gay,
Like young Adonis, or the son of May.
Not Cytherea from a fairer swain
Receiv'd her apple on the Trojan plain.
IV. The Sun's bright orb, declining all serene,
Now glanc'd obliquely o'er the woodland scene.
Creation smiles around; on every spray
The warbling birds exalt their evening lay:
Thou too, sweet maid! ere twice ten months are o'er Blithe skipping o'er yon bill, the fleecy train
Shalt hail Palemon to his native shore,
Where never Interest shall divide us more'-
"Her struggling soul o'erwhelm'd with tender grief,
Now found an interval of short relief:
So melts the surface of the frozen stream
Beneath the wintry Sun's departing beam.
With cruel haste the shades of night withdrew,
And gave the signal of a sad adieu.
As on my neck th' afflicting maiden hung,
A thousand racking doubts her spirit wrung:
She wept the terrours of the fearful wave,
Too oft, alas! the wand'ring lover's grave:
With soft persuasion I dispell'd her fear,
And from her cheek beguil'd the falling tear.
While dying fondness languish'd in her eyes
She pour'd her soul to Heaven in suppliant sighs:
Look down with pity, O ye pow'rs above!
Who hear the sad complaint of bleeding Love;
Ye, who the secret laws of Fate explore,
Alone can tell if he returns no more;
Or if the hour of future joy remain,
Long-wish'd atonement of long-suffer'd pain,
Bid ev'ry guardian minister attend,
And from all ill the much-lov'd youth defend.'
With grief o'erwhelm'd we parted twice in vain
And, urg'd by strong attraction, met again.
At last, by cruel Fortune torn apart,
While tender passion beat in either heart,
Our eyes transfix'd with agonizing look,
One sad farewell, one last embrace we took.
Forlorn of hope the lovely maid I left,
Pensive and pale, of every joy bereft:
She to her silent couch retir'd to weep,
Whilst I embark'd, in sadness, on the deep."
His tale thus clos'd, from sympathy of grief
Palemon's bosom felt a sweet relief:
To mutual friendship thus sincerely true,
No secret wish, or fear, their bosoms knew;
In mutual hazards oft severely tried,
Nor Hope, nor Danger, could theix love divide.
Ye tender maids! in whose path. ic souls
Compassion's sacred stream impetuous rolls,
Whose warm affections exquisitely feel
The secret wound you tremble to reveal;
Ah! may no wand'rer of the stormy main
Join the deep chorus of the lowing plain;
The golden lime and orange there were seen
On fragrant branches of perpetual green;
The crystal streams, that velvet meadows lave,
To the green ocean roll with chiding wave.
The glassy ocean hush'd forgets to roar,
But trembling murmurs on the sandy shore:
And lo! his surface, lovely to behold,
Glows in the west, a sea of living gold!
While, all above, a thousand liveries gay
The skies with pomp ineffable array.
Arabian sweets perfume the happy plains;
Above, beneath, around, enchantment reigns!
While glowing Vesper leads the starry train,
And Night slow draws her veil o'er land and main,
Emerging clouds the azure East invade,
And wrap the lucid spheres in gradual shade:
While yet the songsters of the vocal grove,
With dying numbers tune the soul to love,
With joyful eyes th' attentive master sees
Th' auspicious omens of an eastern breeze.
Round the charg'd bowl the sailors form a ring;
By turns recount the wondrous tale, or sing,
As love, or battle, hardships of the main,
Or genial wine, awake the humble strain:
Then some the watch of night alternate keep,
The rest lie buried in oblivious sleep.
Deep midnight now involves the livid skies,
When eastern breezes, yet enervate, rise:
The waning Moon behind a wat❜ry shroud
Pale glimmer'd o'er the long protracted cloud;
A mighty halo round her silver throne,
With parting meteors cross'd, portentous shone:
This in the troubled sky full oft prevails,
Oft deem'd a signal of tempestuous gales.
While young Arion sleeps, before his sight Tumultuous swim the visions of the night: Now blooming Anna with her happy swain Approach'd the sacred Hymeneal fane; Anon, tremendous lightnings flash between, And funeral pomp, and weeping loves are seen: Now with Palemon, up a rocky steep, Whose summit trembles o'er the roaring deep, With painful step he climb'd, while far above Sweet Anna charm'd them with the voice of love; Then sudden from the slipp'ry height they fell,
Pour through your breasts the soft delicious bane; While dreadful yawn'd beneath the jaws of HellMay never fatal tenderness approve
The fond effusions of their ardent love:
Ob! warn'd, avoid the path that leads to woe,
Where thorns, and baneful weeds, alternate grow:
Let them severer stoic nymphs possess,
Whose stubborn passions feel no soft distress.
Now as the youths returning o'er the plain
Approach'd the lonely margin of the main,
First, with attention rous'd, Arion ey'd
The graceful lover, form'd in Nature's pride:
Amid this fearful trance, a thund'ring sound
He hears, and thrice the hollow decks rebound;
Upstarting from his couch on deck he sprung,
Thrice with shrill note the boatswain's whistle rung:
All hands unmoor! proclaims a boist'rous cry,
All hands unmoor! the cavern'd rocks reply.
Rous'd from repose, aloft the sailors swarm,
And with their levers soon the windlass arm 3:
3 The windlass is a sort of large roller, used to
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