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 defac'd,
Moss cover'd on the lofty cape are plac'd;
There, rear'd by fair Devotion, to sustain
In elder times Tritonia's sacred fane,
The circling beach in murd'rous form appears,
Decisive goal of all their hopes and fears:
The seamen now in wild amazement see
The scene of ruin rise beneath the lee;
Swift from their minds elaps'd all dangers past,
As dumb with terrour they behold the last :
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 a piteous groan behind,
Touch'd with compassion, gaz'd upon the blind;
And, while around his sad companions crowd,
He guides th' unhappy victim to the shroud:
"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 subdu'd the wild unbridled course;
Quick to th' abandon'd 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 quiv'ring mast; The ship no longer now must stem the land, And, "hard a starboard!" is the last command: While ev'ry suppliant voice to Heav'n 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 Innerges headlong in the wave below, Down prest by wat ry weight the bowsprit bends, And from above the stem deep-crashing rends: Beneath her bow the floating ruins lie; The foremast totters unsustain'd 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'erpower'd they yield to cruel Fate at length; The burying waters close around their bead, They sink for ever, number'd with the dead! Those who remain the weather shrouds embrace, Nor loager mourn their lost companions' case; Transfixt with terrour 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;

E'en they, amid th' unspeakable distress,
In ev'ry look distracting thoughts confess,
In ev'ry vein the refluent blood congeals,
And ev'ry bosom mortal terrour feels;
Begirt with all the horrour of the main
They view'd th' adjacent shore, but view'd 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,
Lash'd furious on by Destiny severe:
The ship bangs hovering on the verge of death,
Hell yawns, rocks rise, and breakers roar beneath!
O yet confirm my heart, ye pow'rs 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:
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
To smile serene amid the pangs of death:
Immortal Zeno's self would trembling see
Inexorable Fate beneath the lee;
And Epictetus at the sight, in vain
Attempt his stoic firmness to retain ;
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue fam'd,
And wisest of the sons of men proclaim'd,
Spectator of such various horrours been,
E'en he had stagger'd at this dreadful scene.

In vain the cords and axes were prepar'd,
For every wave now smites the quivering yard;
High o'er the ship they throw a dreadful shade,
Then on her burst in terrible cascade;
Across the founder'd deck o'erwhelming roar,
And foaming, swelling, bound upon the shore.
Swift up the mounting billow now she flies,
Her shatter'd top half-buried in the skies;
Borne o'er a latent reef the hull impends,
Then thund'ring on the marble crags descends:
Her pond'rous bulk the dire concussion feels,
And o'er upheaving surges wounded reels-
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 shudd'ring cast their eyes
In wild despair; while yet another stroke,
With strong convulsion rends the solid oak:
Ah, Heav'n!-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 unrivall'd strains, deplore
Th' impervious horrours 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; Till all benumb'd, and feeble, they forego Their slipp'ry hold, and sink to shades below: Some, from the main yard-arm 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 pierc'd with anguish hoary Priam gaz'd,
When Troy's imperial domes in ruin blaz'd;
While he, severest sorrow doom'd to feel,
Expir'd beneath the victor's murdering steel-
Thus with his helpless partners to the last,
Sad refuge! Albert grasps the floating mast.
His soul could yet sustain this mortal blow,
But droops, alas! beneath superior woe;
For now strong Nature's sympathetic chain
Tugs at his yearning heart with pow'rful strain:
His faithful wife, for ever doom'd to mourn
For him, alas! who never shall return,
To black Adversity's approach expos'd,
With want and hardships unforeseen enclos'd;
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 their dissolution near,
And strives in vain his fetter'd limbs to clear,
For Death bids ev'ry clinching joint adhere:
All faint, to Heav'n he throws his dying eyes,
And, "Oh protect my wife and child!" he cries-
The gushing streams roll back th' unfinish'd
sound,

He gasps! and sinks amid the vast profound.

Five only left of all the shipwreck'd throng Yet ride the mast which shoreward drives along; With these Arion still his hold secures, And all 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 foundThe demons of destruction hover nigh, And thick their mortal shafts commission'd fly: When 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' elusive weed; Another billow bursts in boundless roar ! Arion sinks! and Memory views no more. Ha! total night and horrour here preside, My stunn'd ear tingles to the whizzing tide; It is their funeral knell! and, gliding near, Methinks the phantoms of the dead appear:

But lo! emerging from the wat'ry grave
Again they float incumbent on the wave,
Again the dismal prospect opens round

} The wreck, the shore, 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 gaze
With horrour pale, and torpid with amaze:
The floods recoil! the ground appears below!
And life's faint embers now rekindling glow;
Awhile they wait th' exhausted waves' retreat,
Then climb slow up the beach with hands and feet--
O Heav'n! deliver'd by whose sov'reign hand
Still on destruction's brink they shudd'ring 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 ev'ry heart dismay with wonder strives,
And hope the sicken'd spark of life revives,
Her magic pow'rs their exil'd health restore
Till horrour and despair are felt no more.

Rous'd by the blust'ring tempest of the night,
A troop of Grecians mount Colouna's height;
When, gazing down with horrour on the flood,
Full to their view the scene of ruin stood-
The surf with mangled bodies strew'd around,
And those yet breathing on the sea-wash'd ground:
Though lost to science and the nobler arts,
Yet Nature's lore inform'd their feeling hearts;
Straight down the vale with hast'ning steps they hied,
Th' unhappy sufferers to assist, and guide.

Meanwhile those three escap'd beneath, explore
The first advent'rous youth who reach'd the shore:
Panting, with eyes averted from the day,
Prone, helpless, on the tangly beach he lay-
It is Palemon! oh, what tumults roll
With hope and terrour in Arion's soul;
"If yet unhurt he lives again to view
His friend, and this sole remnant of our crew,
With us to travel through this foreign zone,
And share the future good or ill unknown?”
Arion thus; but ah, sad doom of Fate!
That bleeding Memory sorrows to relate;
While yet afloat, on some resisting rock
His ribs were dash'd, and fractur'd with the shock:
Heart-piercing sight! those cheeks so late array'd
In beauty's bloom, are pale with mortal shade;
Distilling blood his lovely breast o'erspread,
And clogg'd the golden tresses of his head:
Nor yet the lungs by this pernicious stroke
Were wounded, or the vocal organs broke.
Down from his neck, with blazing gems array'd,
Thy image, lovely Anna! hung portray'd;
Th' unconscious figure, smiling all serene,
Suspended in a golden chain was seen:
Hadst thou, soft maiden! in this hour of woe
Beheld him writhing from the deadly biow,
What force of art, what language could expres
Thine agony, thine exquisite distress?

But thou, alas! art doom'd to weep in vain
For him thine eyes shall never see again.
With dumb amazement pale, Arion gaz'd,
And cautiously the wounded youth uprais'd;
Palemon then, with equal pangs opprest,
In faltering accents thus his friend addrest:

"O, rescu'd from destruction late so nigh,
Beneath whose fatal influence doom'd I lie;
Are we then, exil'd to this last retreat
Of life, unhappy! thus decreed to meet?
Ah! how unlike what yester-morn enjoy'd,
Enchanting hopes! for ever now destroy'd;
For wounded, far beyond all healing pow'r,
Palemon dies, and this his final hour:

By those fell breakers, where in vain I strove,
At once cut off from fortune, life, and love!
Far other scenes must soon present my sight,
That lie deep-buried yet in tenfold night-
Ah! wretched father of a wretched son,
Whom thy paternal prudence has undone ;
How will remembrance of this blinded care
Bend down thy head with anguish and despair:
Such dire effects from avarice arise;
That deaf to Nature's voice, and vainly wise,
With force severe endeavours to control
The noblest passions that inspire the soul:
But O THOU SACRED POWER! whose law connects
Th' eternal chain of causes and effects,
Let not thy chast'ning ministers of rage
Aflict with sharp remorse his feeble age:
And you, Arion! who with these the last
Of all our crew survive the SHIPWRECK past-
Ah! cease to mourn, those friendly tears restrain,
Nor give my dying moments keener pain!
Since Heav'n may soon thy wand'ring steps restore,
When parted hence, to England's distant shore;
Shouldst thou, th' unwilling messenger of Fate,
To him the tragic story first relate;

Oh! friendship's generous ardour then suppress,
Nor hint the fatal cause of my distress;
Nor let each horrid incident sustain
The lengthen'd tale to aggravate his pain:
Ah! then remember well my last request
For her who reigns for ever in my breast;
Yet let him prove a father and a friend,
The helpless maid to succour and defend―
Say, I this suit implor'd with parting breath,
So Heav'n befriend him at his hour of death!
But, oh! to lovely Anna shouldst thou tell
What dire untimely end thy friend befel;
Draw o'er the dismal scene soft Pity's veil,
And lightly touch the lamentable tale:
Say that my love, inviolably true,
No change, no diminution ever knew;
Lo! her bright image, pendent on my neck,
Is all Palemon rescu'd from the wreck;
Take it! and say, when panting in the wave,
I struggled, life and this alone to save.

"My soul, that flutt'ring hastens to be free,
Would yet a train of thoughts impart to thee,
But strives in vain; the chilling ice of death
Congeals my blood, and choaks the stream of breath;
Resign'd, she quits her comfortless abode,
To course that long, unknown, eternal road-
O sacred Source of ever-living Light!
Conduct the weary wand'rer in her flight;
Direct her onward to that peaceful shore,
Where peril, pain, and death prevail no more.
"When thou some tale of hapless love shalt hear,
That steals from Pity's eye the melting tear;
Of two chaste hearts, by mutual passion join'd,
To absence, sorrow, and despair consign'd;
On! then, to swell the tides of social woe,
That heal th' afflicted bosom they o'erflow,
While Memory dictates, this sad Shipwreck te'',
And what distress thy wretched friend befel:

Then, while in streams of soft compassion drown'd,
The swains lament, and maidens weep around;
While lisping children, touch'd with infant fear,
With wonder gaze, and drop th' unconscious tear;
Oh! then this moral bid their souls retain,
ALL THOUGHTS of happiness on Earth ARE VAIN!"
The last faint accents trembled on his tongue
That now inactive to the palate clung;
His bosom heaves a mortal groan he dies!
And shades eternal sink upon his eyes.

As thus defac'd in death Palemon lay,
Arion gaz'd upon the lifeless clay;
Transfix'd he stood; with awful terrour fill'd,
While down his cheek the silent drops distill'd:
"O ill-starr'd votary of unspotted truth!
Untimely perish'd in the bloom of youth;
Should e'er thy friend arrive on Albion's land,
He will obey, though painful, thy command;
His tongue the dreadful story shall display,
And all the horrours of this dismal day:
Disastrous day! what ruin hast thou bred,
What anguish to the living and the dead!
How hast thou left the widow all forlorn;
And ever doom'd the orphan child to mourn,
Through life's sad journey hopeless to complain:
Can sacred Justice these events ordain?
But, O my soul! avoid that wondrous maze
Where Reason, lost in endless errour, strays;
As through this thorny vale of life we run,
Great CAUSE of all effects, THY WILL BE DONE!"

Now had the Grecians on the beach arriv'd, To aid the helpless few who yet surviv'd: While passing, they behold the waves o'erspread With shatter'd rafts and corses of the dead; Three still alive, benumb'd and faint they find, In mournful silence on a rock reclin'd: The gen'rous natives, mov'd with social pain, The feeble strangers in their arms sustain; With pitying sighs their hapless lot deplore, And lead them trembling from the fatal shore.

OCCASIONAL ELEGY,

IN WHICH THE PRECEDING NARRATIVE IS CONCLUDED.

THE scene of death is clos'd! the mournful strains
Dissolve in dying languor on the ear;

Yet Pity weeps, yet Sympathy complains,
And dump Suspense awaits o'erwhelm'd with fear:
But the sad Muses with prophetic eye

At once the future and the past explore;
Their harps Oblivion's influence can defy,
And waft the spirit to th' eternal shore-

Then, O Palemon! if thy shade can hear
The voice of Friendship still lament thy doom,
Yet to the sad oblations bend thine ear,
That rise in vocal incense o'er thy tomb:

From young Arion first the news receiv'd
With terrour, pale unhappy Anna read;
With inconsolable distress she griev'd,
And from her cheek the rose of beauty fled:

In vain, alas! the gentle virgin wept,

Corrosive anguish nipt her vital bloom; O'er her soft frame diseases sternly crept, Aud gave the lovely victim to the tomb:

A longer date of woe, the widow'd wife

Her lamentable lot afflicted bore; Yet both were rescu'd from the chains of life Before Arion reach'd his native shore:

The father unrelenting phrenzy stung,

Untaught in Virtue's school distress to bear; Severe Remorse his tortur'd bosom wrung, He languish'd, groan'd, and perish'd in despair.

Ye lost companions of distress, adieu !
Your toils, and pains, and dangers are no more;
The tempest now shall howl unheard by you,
While ocean smites in vain the trembling shore;

On you the blast, surcharg'd with rain and snow,
In winter's dismal nights no more shall beat;
Unfelt by you the vertic Sun may glow,
And scorch the panting Earth with baneful heat:

No more the joyful maid, with sprightly strain,
Shall wake the dance to give you welcome home;
Nor hopeless love impart undying pain,

When far from scenes of social joy you roam;

No more on yon wide wat'ry waste you stray,
While hunger and disease your life consume,
While parching thirst, that burns without allay,
Forbids the blasted rose of health to bloom;

No more you feel Contagion's mortal breath,
That taints the realms with misery severe,
No more behold pale Famine, scatt'ring death,
With cruel ravage desolate the year:

The thund'ring drum, the trumpet's swelling strain
Unheard, shall form the long embattled line:
Unheard, the deep foundations of the main
Shall tremble, when the hostile squadrons join:

Since grief, fatigue, and hazards still molest
The wand'ring vassals of the faithless deep;
Oh! happier now escap'd to endless rest,

Than we, who still survive to wake and weep:

What though no funeral pomp, no borrow'd tear,
Your hour of death to gazing crowds shall tell;
Nor weeping friends attend your sable bier,
Who sadly listen to the passing bell;

The tutor'd sigh, the vain parade of woe,
No real anguish to the soul impart;
And oft, alas! the tear that friends bestow,
Belies the latent feelings of the heart:

What though no sculptur'd pile your name displays,
Like those who perish in their country's cause;
What though no epic Muse in living lays

Records your dreadful daring with applause;

Full oft the flatt'ring marble bids renown
With blazon'd trophies deck the spotted name;
And oft, too oft, the venal Muses crown

The slaves of Vice with never-dying fame

Yet shall Remembrance from Oblivion's veil
Relieve your scene, and sigh with grief sincere;
And soft Compassion at your tragic tale
In silent tribute pay her kindred tear.

A POEM,

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF HIS ROYAL HIGH-
NESS FREDERIC PRINCE OF WALES.

FROM the big horrour of war's hoarse alarms,
And the tremendous clang of clashing arms,
Descend, my Muse! a deeper scene to draw
(A scene will hold the list'ning world in awe1)
Is my intent: Melpomene inspire,
While, with sad notes, I strike the trembling lyre!
And may my lines with easy motion flow,
Melt as they move, and fill each heart with woe:
Big with the sorrow it describes, my song,
In solemn pomp, majestic, move along.

Oh! bear me to some awful silent glade
Where cedars form an unremitting shade;
Where never track of human feet was known;
Where never cheerful light of Phoebus shone;
Where chirping linnets warble tales of love,
And hoarserwinds howl murm'ring through the grove;
Where some unhappy wretch aye mourns his doom,
Deep melancholy wand ring through the gloom;
Where solitude and meditation roam,

And where no dawning glimpse of hope can come;
Place me in such an unfrequented shade,
To speak to none but with the mighty dead:
T'assist the pouring rains with britnful eyes,
And aid hoarse howling Boreas with my sighs

When Winter's horrours left Britannia's isle,
And Spring in blooming verdure 'gan to smile;
When rills, unbound, began to puri along,
And warbling larks renew'd the vernal song;
When sprouting roses, deck'd in crimson dye,
Began to bloom,....

Hard fate! theu, noble Fred'ric, didst thou die:
Doom'd by inexorable Fate's decree,
Th' approaching Summer ne'er on Earth to see;
In thy parch'd vitals burning fevers rage,
Whose flame the virtue of no herbs asswage;
No cooling med'cine can its heat allay,
Relentless Destiny cries, "No delay."
Ye pow'rs! and must a prince so noble die?
(Whose equal breathes not under th' ambient sky:)
Ah! must he die, then, in youth's full-blown prime,
Cut by the scythe of all-devouring Time?
Yes, Fate has doom'd! his soul now leaves its weight,
And all are under the decree of Fate;
Th' irrevocable doom of Destiny

Pronoune'd, “All mortals must submissive die."
The princes wait around with weeping eyes,
And the dome echoes all with piercing cries:
With doleful noise the matrons scream around,
With female shrieks the vaulted roofs rebound:
A dismal noise! Now one promiscuous roar
Cries, "Ah! the noble Fred'ric is no more!”
The chief reluctant yields his latest breath;
His eye-lids settle in the shades of death:
Dark sable shades present before each eye,
And the deep vast abyss, eternity!

Through perpetuity's expanse he springs;
And o'er the vast profound he shoots on wings:
The soul to distant regions steers her flight,
And sails incumbent on inferior night:
With vast celerity she shoots away,
And meets the regions of eternal day,
To shine for ever in the heav'nly birth,
And leave the body here to rot on Earth.

By awe, here, is meant attention.