Albert and Rodmond, station'd on the rear,
With warning voice direct each timoneer;
High on the prow the guard Arion keeps,
To shun the cruisers wandering o'er the deeps;
Where'er he moves Palemon still attends,

As if on him his only hope depends;

The last foretold the spark of vital fire
The soul's fine essence, never could expire.
Here Solon dwelt, the philosophic sage,
That fled Pisistratus' vindictive rage.
Just Aristides here maintain'd the cause,

Whose sacred precepts shine through Solon's laws

Some scatter'd columns stand, with weeds c'er

grown.

The wandering stranger near the port descries A milk-white lion of stupendous size; Unknown the sculpture; marble is the frame; And hence the adjacent haven drew its name.

Spread, like the foliage which her pillars crown'd, But now, in fatal desolation laid,

Oblivion o'er it draws a dismal.shade.

A while deliver'd from the scorching heat, In gentle tides the feverish pulses beat.

Such visionary joys the crew beguile;

Th' illusive meteors of a lifeless fire;
Too soon they kindle, and too soon expire!
Say, Memory! thou, from whose unerring tongue
Instructive flows the animated song!
What regions now the flying ship surround?
Regions of old through all the world renown'd;
That once the Poet's theme, the Muses' boast,
Now lie in ruins; in oblivion lost!
Did they, whose sad distress these lays deplore,
Unskill'd in Grecian or in Roman lore,
Unconcious pass each famous circling shore?

They did; for blasted in the barren shade,
Here, all too soon, the buds of science fade:
Sad Ocean's genius, in untimely hour,
Withers the bloom of every springing flower:
Here Fancy droops, while sullen cloud and storm
The generous climate of the soul deform.
Then if among the wandering naval train,
One stripling exiled from th' Aonian plain,
Had e'er, entranced in Fancy's soothing dream,
Approach'd to taste the sweet Castalian stream,
(Since those salubrious streams with power di-
vine,

To purer sense th' attemper'd soul refine,)
His heart with liberal commerce here unblest,
Alien to joy! sincerer grief possest.
Yet on the youthful mind, th' impression cast,
Of ancient glory, shall for ever last.
There, all unquench'd by cruel Fortune's ire,
It glows with inextinguishable fire.

Immortal Athens first, in ruin spread,
Contiguous lies at Port Liono's head.

Great source of science! whose immortal name
Stands foremost in the glorious roll of Fame;
Here godlike Socrates and Plato shone,
And, firm to truth, eternal honour won.
The first in Virtue's cause his life resign'd,
By Heaven pronounced the wisest of mankind;

Through all Achaia bade her thunders roar.
He, when imperial Xerxes, from afar,
Advanced with Persia's sumless troops to war,
Till Macedonia shrunk beneath his spear,
And Greece dismay'd beheld the chief draw near
He, at Thermopyla's immortal plain,
His force repell'd with Sparta's glorious train.
Tall Eta saw the tyrant's conquer'd bands,
In gasping millions, bleed on hostile lands.
Thus vanquish'd Asia trembling heard thy name,
And Thebes and Athens sicken'd at thy fame!
Thy state, supported by Lycurgus' laws,
Drew, like thine arms, superlative applause :
E'en great Epaminondas strove in vain
To curb that spirit with a Theban chain.
But ah! how low her free-born spirit now!
Her abject sons to haughty tyrants bow;
A false, degenerate, superstitious race
Infest thy region, and thy name disgrace!

Not distant far, Arcadia's blest domains
Peloponnesus' circling shore contains.
Thrice happy soil! where still serenely gay,
Indulgent Flora breathed perpetual May!
Where buxom Ceres taught th' obsequious field,
Rich without art, spontaneous gifts to yield;
Then with some rural nymph supremely blest,
While transport glow'd in each enamour'd broast
Each faithful shepherd told his tender pain,
And sung of sylvan sports in artless strain.
Now, sad reverse! Oppression's iron hand
Enslaves her natives, and despoils the land.
In lawless rapine bred, a sanguine train
With midnight ravage scour th' uncultured plain
Westward of these, beyond the isthmus lies
The long-lost isle of Ithacus the wise;
Where fair Penelope her absent lord
Full twice ten years with faithful love deplored.

Architecture.

Though many a princely heart her beauty won,
She, guarded only by a stripling son,
Each bold attempt of suitor-kings repell'd,
And undefiled the nuptial contract held.
With various arts to win her love they toil'd,
But all their wiles by virtuous fraud she foil'd.
True to her vows, and resolutely chaste,
The beauteous princess triumph'd at the last.
Argos, in Greece forgotten and unknown,
Still seems her cruel fortune to bemoan;
Argos, whose monarch led the Grecian hosts
Far o'er the Ægean main to Dardan coasts.
Unhappy prince! who on a hostile shore,
Toil, peril, anguish, ten long winters bore.
And when to native realms restored at last,
To reap the harvest of thy labours past,
A perjured friend, alas! and faithless wife,
There sacrificed to impious lust thy life;—
Fast by Arcadia, stretch these desert plains;
And o'er the land a gloomy tyrant reigns.

Next the fair isle of Helena* is seen,
Where adverse winds detain'd the Spartan queen;
For whom, in arms combined, the Grecian host,
With vengeance fired, invaded Phrygia's coast;
For whom so long they labour'd to destroy
The sacred turrets of imperial Troy.
Here, driven by Juno's rage, the hapless dame,
Forlorn of heart, from ruin'd Ilion came.
The port an image bears of Parian stone,
Of ancient fabric, but of date unknown.
Due east from this appears th' immortal shore
That sacred Phoebus and Diana bore.
Delos, through all th' Egean seas renown'd:
(Whose coast the rocky Cyclades surround)
By Phoebus honour'd and by Greece revered!
Her hallow'd groves e'en distant Persia fear'd:
But now, a silent unfrequented land!
No human footstep marks the trackless sand.

Thence to the north, by Asia's western bound Fair Lemnos stands, with rising marble crown'd; Where, in her rage, avenging Juno hurl'd Ill-fated Vulcan from th' ethereal world. There his eternal anvils first he rear'd; Then, forged by Cyclopean art, appear'd Thunders, that shook the skies with dire alarms, And, form'd by skill divine, Vulcanian arms. There, with this crippled wretch, the foul disgrace And living scandal of th' empyreal race, The beauteous queen of Love in wedlock dwelt. In fires profane, can heavenly bosoms melt?

Eastward of this appears the Dardan shore,
That once th' imperial towers of Ilium bore.
Illustrious Troy! renown'd in every clime,
Through the long annals of unfolding time!
How oft, thy royal bulwarks to defend,
Thou saw'st thy tutelar gods in vain descend!
Though chiefs unnumber'd in her cause were
slain,

Though nations perish'd on her bloody plain;
That refuge of perfidious Helen's shame
Was doom'd at length to sink in Grecian flame.
And now, by Time's deep ploughshare harrow'd
o'er,

The seat of sacred Troy is found no more:
No trace of all her glories now remains!
But corn and vines enrich her cultured plains.

• Now known by the name of Micronisi.

Silver Scamander laves the verdant shore; Scamander oft o'erflow'd with hostile gore!

Not far removed from Ilion's famous land, In counter view, appears the Thracian strand; Where beauteous Hero, from the turret's height, Display'd her cresset each revolving night; Whose gleam directed loved Leander o'er The rolling Hellespont to Asia's shore, Till, in a fated hour, on Thracia's coast, She saw her lover's lifeless body tost; Then felt her bosom agony severe; Her eyes, sad gazing, pour'd th' incessant tear! O'erwhelm'd with anguish, frantic with despair, She beat her beauteous breast and tore her hairOn dear Leander's name in vain she cried; Then headlong plunged into the parting tide: The parting tide received the lovely weight, And proudly flow'd, exulting in its freight!

Far west of Thrace, beyond th' Ægean main,
Remote from ocean, lies the Delphic plain.
The sacred oracle of Phoebus there
High o'er the mount arose, divinely fair!
Achaian marble form'd the gorgeous pile;
August the fabric! elegant its style!

On brazen hinges turn'd the silver doors;
And checker'd marble paved the polish'd floors.
The roofs, where storied tablature appear'd,
On columns of Corinthian mould were rear'd:
Of shining porphyry the shafts were framed,
And round the hollow dome bright jewels flamed
Apollo's suppliant priests, a blameless train!
Framed their oblation on the holy fane:
To front the sun's declining ray 'twas placed;
With golden harps and living laurels graced.
The sciences and arts around the shrine
Conspicuous shone, engraved by hands divine!
Here Esculapius' snake display'd his crest,
And burning glories sparkled on his breast;
While, from his eye's insufferable light,
Disease and Death recoil'd, in headlong flight.
Of this great temple, through all time renown'c
Sunk in oblivion, no remains are found.

Contiguous here, with hallow'd woods o'

spread,

Parnassus lifts to heaven its honour'd head; Where from the deluge saved, by Heaven's con mand,

Deucalion leading Pyrrha, hand in hand.
Repeopled all the desolated land.

Around the scene unfading laurels grow,
And aromatic flowers for ever blow.
The winged choirs, on every tree above,
Carol sweet numbers through the vocal grove;
While o'er th' eternal spring that smiles bencath
Young zephyrs borne on rosy pinions breathe.
Fair daughters of the Sun! the sacred Nine,
Here wake to ecstasy their songs divine;
Or crown'd with myrtle in some sweet alcove,
Attune the tender strings to bleeding love;
All sadly sweet the balmy currents roll,
Soothing to softest peace the tortured soul,
While hill and vale with choral voice around
The music of immortal harps resound,
Fair Pleasure leads in dance the happy hours,
Still scattering where she moves Elysian flowers.
Even now, the strains, with sweet contagion
fraught,

Shed a delicious languor o'er the thought

c 2

While in the west, with hideous yawn disclosed,
His onward path Charybdis' gulf opposed.
The double danger as by turns he view'd,
His wheeling bark her arduous track pursued.
Thus while to right and left destruction lies,
Between the extremes the daring vessel flies.
With boundless involution, bursting o'er
The marble cliffs, loud dashing surges roar ;
Hoarse through each winding creek the tempest

raves,

And hollow rocks repeat the groan of waves;
Destruction round th' insatiate coast prepares,
To crush the trembling ship, unnumber'd snares.
But haply now she 'scapes the fatal strand,
Though scarce ten fathoms distant from the land;
Swift as the weapon issuing from the bow,
She cleaves the burning waters with her prow;
And forward leaping, with tumultuous haste,
As on the tempest's wing 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 confined,
Lost to the cheerful commerce of mankind,
The groaning captive wastes his life away,
For ever exiled from the realms of day;
No equal pangs his bosom agonize,
When far above the sacred light he eyes,
While, all forlorn, the victim pines in vain,
For scenes he never shall possess again.

But now Athenian mountains they descry,
And o'er the surge Colonna frowns on high:
Beside the cape's projecting verge are placed
A range of columns, long by time defaced;
First planted by devotion to sustain,
In elder times, Tritonia's sacred fane.
Foams the wild beach below, with maddening
rage,

Where waves and rocks a dreadful combat wage.
The sickly heaven, fermenting with its freight,
Still vomits o'er the main the feverish weight:
And now, while wing'd 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 the piteous groan behind,
Touch'd with compassion gazed upon the blind :
And, while around his sad companions crowd,
He guides the unhappy victim to the shroud.

64

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' abandon'd wheel Arion came, The ship's tempestuous sallies to reclaim. Amazed he saw her, o'er the sounding foam Upborne, to right and left distracted roam. So gazed young Phaeton, with pale dismay, When, mounted in the flaming car of day, With rash and impious hand the stripling tried The immortal coursers of the sun to guide.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 th' attraction's kindling force, Springs onward with accelerated course.

With mournful look the seamen eyed the strar d Where Death's inexorable jaws expand: Swift from their minds elapsed all dangers past, As, dumb with terror they beheld the last. Now, on the trembling shrouds, before, behind, In mute suspense they mount into the wind.The genius of the deep, on rapid wing, The black eventful moment seem'd to bring, The fatal sisters on the surge before, Yoked their Lifernal horses to the prore.The steersmen now received their last command, To wheel the vessel sidelong to the strand. 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-crushing rends. Beneath her beak the floating ruins lie; The foremast totters, unsustain'd on high: And now the ship, fore-lifted by the sea, Hurls the tall fabric backward o'er the lee; While, in the general wreck, the faithful stay Drags the main topmast from its post away. Flung from the mast, the seamen strive in vain Through hostile floods their vessels to regain; The waves they buffet, till bereft of strength, O'erpower'd they yield to cruel fate at length. The hostile waters close around their head, They sink, for ever, number'd with the dead!

Those who remain, their fearful doom await, Nor longer mourn their lost companions' fate; The heart, that bleeds with sorrows all its own, Forgets the pangs of friendship to bemoan.Albert and Rodmond, and Palemon here, With young Arion, on the mast appear; E'en they, amid th' unspeakable distress, In every look distracting thoughts confess; In every vein the refluent blood congeals; And every bosom fatal terror feels. Enclosed with all the demons of the main, They view'd th' adjacent shore, but view'd r

vain.

Such torments in the drear abodes of hell,
Where sad despair laments with rueful yell,
Such torments agonize the damned breast,
While Fancy views the mansions of the blest.
For Heaven's sweet help, their suppliant cries
implore;

But Heaven relentless deigns to help no more.
And now, lash'd on by destiny severe,
With horror fraught, the dreadful scene drew near
The ship hangs hovering on the verge of death,
Hell yawns, rocks rise, and breakers roar beneath
In vain, alas! the sacred shades of yore
Would arm the mind with philosophic lore;
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
To smile serene amid the pangs of death.
E'en Zeno's self, and Epictetus old,
This fell abyss had shudder'd to behold.
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue famed,
And wisest of the sons of men proclaim'd,
Beheld this scene of frenzy and distress,
His soul had trembled to its last recess !
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 ruin whirl my brain!

In vain the cords and axes were prepared, For now th' audacious seas insult the yard; High o'er the ship they throw a horrid shade, And o'er her burst in terrible cascade. Uplifted on the surge, to heaven she flies, Her shatter'd top half-buried in the skies, Then headlong plunging thunders on the ground, Earth groans! air trembles! and the deeps resound: Her giant bulk the dread concussion feels, And quivering with the wound, in torment reels: So reels, convulsed with agonizing throes, The bleeding bull beneath the murderer's blows. Again she plunges: hark! a second shock Tears her strong bottom on the marble rock: Down on the vale of Death, with dismal cries, The fated victims shuddering roll their eyes, In wild despair; while yet another stroke, With deep convulsion, rends the solid oak; Till like the mine, in whose infernal cell The lurking demons of destruction dwell, At length asunder torn, her frame divides: And crashing spreads in ruin o'er the tides. O were it mine with tuneful 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 unrivall'd strains, deplore Th' impervious horrors of a leeward shore.

As o'er the surge, the stooping mainmast hung,
Still on the rigging thirty seamen clung;
Some, struggling, on a broken crag were cast,
And there by oozy tangles grappled fast:
Awile they bore th' o'erwhelming billow's rage,
Unequal combat with their fate to wage;
Till all benumb'd and feeble they forego
Their slippery hold, and sink to shades below.
Some, from the main-yardarm impetuous thrown,
On marble ridges die without a groan.
Three, with Palemon, on their skill depend,
And from the wreck on oars and rafts descend.
Now on the mountain-wave on high they ride,
Then downward plunge beneath th' involving tide;
Till one, who seems in agony to strive,

The whirling breakers heave on shore alive :
The rest a speedier end of anguish knew,
And prest the stony beach a lifeless crew.

Next, O unhappy chief! th' eternal doom
Of Heaven decreed thee to the briny tomb!
What scenes of misery torment thy view!
What painful struggles of thy dying crew!
Thy perish'd hopes all buried in the flood,
O'erspread with corses! red with human blood!
So, pierced with anguish, hoary Priam gazed,
When Troy's imperial domes in ruin blazed ;
While he, severest sorrow doom'd to feel,
Expired beneath the victor's murdering steel.
Thus with his helpless partners to the last,
Sad refuge! Albert hugs the floating mast;
His soul could yet sustain this mortal blow,
But droops, alas! beneath superior wo!
For now soft nature's sympathetic chain
Tugs at his yearning heart with powerful strain;
His faithful wife for ever doom'd to mourn
For him, alas! who never shall return;
To black Adversity's approach exposed,
With want and hardships unforeseen enclosed:

His lovely daughter left without a friend,
Her innocence to succour and defend;
By youth and indigence set forth a prey
To lawless guilt, that flatters to betray.—
While these reflections rack his feeling mind,
Rodmond, who hung beside, his grasp resign'd;
And, as the tumbling waters o'er him roll'd,
His outstretch'd arms the master's legs enfold-
Sad Albert feels the dissolution near,
And strives in vain his fetter'd limbs to clear;
For Death bids every clenching joint adhere.
All faint, to heaven he throws his dying eyes.
And "O protect my wife and child!" he cries.
The gushing stream rolls back th' unfinish'd
sound!

He gasps! he dies! and tumbles to the ground!
Five only left of all the perish'd throng,
Yet ride the pine which shoreward drives along ;
With these Arion still his hold secures,

And all th' assaults of hostile waves endures.
O'er the dire prospect as for life he strives,
He looks if poor Palemon yet survives.
"Ah, wherefore, trusting to unequal art,
Didst thou incautious! from the wreck depart?
Alas! these rocks all human skill defy,
Who strikes them once beyond relief must die;
And, now, sore wounded, thou perhaps art tost
On these, or in some oozy cavern lost!"
Thus thought Arion, anxious gazing round,
In vain, his eyes no more Palemon found.
The demons of destruction hover nigh,
And thick their mortal shafts commission d fly:
And now a breaking surge, with forceful sway,
Two next Arion furious tears away;

Hurl'd on the crags, behold, they gasp! they bleed!

And groaning, cling upon th' illusive weed;-
Another billow burst in boundless roar !
Arion sinks! and Memory views no more!

Ah, total night and horror here preside!
My stunn'd ear tingles to the whizzing tide!
It is the funeral knell; and gliding near,
Methinks the phantoms of the dead appear!

But lo! emerging from the watery grave, Again they float incumbent on the wave! Again the dismal prospect opens round, The wreck, the shores, the dying, and the drown'd. And see! enfeebled by repeated shocks, Those two who scramble on th' adjacent rocks, Their faithless hold no longer can retain, They sink o'erwhelm'd, and never rise again!

Two, with Arion, yet the mast upbore,
That now above the ridges reach'd the shore:
Still trembling to descend, they downward gazo
With horror pale, and torpid with amaze :
The floods recoil! the ground appears below!
And life's faint embers now rekindling glow;
A while they wait th' exhausted waves' retreat,
Then climb slow up the beach with hands and
feet.

O Heaven! deliver'd by whose sovereign hand,
Still on the brink of hell they shuddering stand,
Receive the languid incense they bestow,
That damp with death appears not yet to glow
To Thee each soul the warm oblation pays,
With trembling ardour of unequal praise.
In every heart dismay with wonder strives,
And hope the sicken'd spark of life revives;