IN THE

THE WARS.

While these are on their way, behold!

Then, when at eve, the star of love
Dan Cupid, from his London-fold,

Glows with soft radiance from above,
First seeks and sends his new lord Warden 2 And each companionable guest
Of all the nymphs in Covent-Garden:

Withdraws, replenish'd, not opprest,
Brave as the sword he wears in fight;

Let each, well-pleas'd, at parting saySincere, and briefly in the right;

“My life be such a wedding-day!" Whom never minister or king Saw meauly cringing in their ring.

A second see! of special note, Plump Comus 3 in a colonel's coat;

EPIGRAM: Whom we, this day, expect from far,

WRITTEN AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS, M.DCC. LX. A jolly first-rate man of war; On whom we boldly dare repose,

When Churchill led his legions on, To meet our friends, or meet our foes.

Success still follow'd where be shone. Or coines a brother in his stead?

And are those triumphs, with the dead, Strong-body'd too, and strong of head:

All from his house, for ever fled ? Who, in whatever path he goes,

Not so: by softer surer arms, Still looks right on before his nose;

They yet survive in Beauty's charms; And holds it little less than treason,

For, look on blooming Pembroke's face,
To baulk his stomach or his reason.

Even now he triumphs in his race.
True to his mistress and his meat,
He eats to love, and loves to eat.

Last comes a virgin-pray admire her!
Cupid himself attends, to squire her:

AN ODB
A welcome guest! we much had mist her;
For 'tis our Kitty, or his sister.
But, Cupid, let no knave or fool

MASQUE OF ALFRED:
Snap up this lamb, to shear her wool ;

SUNG BY A SHEPHERDESS WHO HAS LOST HER LOVER IN No Teague of that unblushing band, Just landed, or about to land; Thieves from the womb, and train'd at nurse A

YOUTH, adorn'd with every art, To steal an heiress or a purse,

To warm and win the coldest heart, No scraping, saving, saucy cit,

In secret mine possest. Sworn foe of breeding, worth, and wit;

The morning bud that fairest blows, No half-form'd insect of a peer,

The vernal pak that straightest grows, With neither land nor conscience clear;

His face and shape exprest. Who if he can, 'tis all he can do,

In moving sounds he told his tale, Just spell the motto on his landau.

Soft as the sighings of the gale, From all, from each of these defend her;

That wakes the flowery year. But thou and Hymen both befriend her,

What wonder he could charm with ease, With truth, taste, honour, in a mate,

Whom happy Nature taught to please,
And much good sense, and some estate.

Whom Honour made sincere.
But now, suppose th' assembly met,
And round the table cordial set;

At morn he left me-fonght-and fell !
While in fair order, to their wish,

The fatal evening heard his knell, Plain Neatness sends up every dish,

And saw the tears I sbed: And Pleasure at the side-board stands,

Tears that must ever, ever fall; A nectar'd goblet in his hands,

For ah! no sighs the past recall,
To pour libations, in due measure,

No cries awake the dead!
As Reason wills when join'd with Pleasure-
Let these white moments all be gay,
Without one cloud of diin allay:
In every face let joy be seen,

THE EXCURSION:
As truth sincere, as hope serene :
Let friendship, love, and wit combine,

IN TWO CANTOS.
To flavour both the meat and wine,
With that rich relish to each sense,
Which they, and they alone, dispense;
Let music too their mirth prolong,

CONTENTS
With warbled air and festive song:

CANTO 1. 2 The late general Skelton. He had just then INVOCATION, addressed to Fancy. Subject propurchased a house in Henrietta-street.

posed; a short excursive survey of the Earth and 3 The late col. Caroline Scott; who, though ex. Heavens. The poem opens with a description tremely corpulent, was uncommonly active ; and of the face of Nature in the different scenes of who, to much skill, spirit, and bravery, as an officer, morning, sunrise, noon, with a thunder-storin, joined the greatest gentleness of manners as a com- evening, night, and a particular night-piece, with panion and friend. He died a sacrifice to the pab- the character of a friend deceased. lic, in the service of the East-India Company, at With the return of morning, Fancy continues her Bengal, in the year 1755,

excursion, first northward--A view of the arctic

A POEM.

continent and the deserts of Tartary – From From off the mountain's brow, roll blue away thence southward: a general prospect of the In curling spires; and open all his woods, globe, followed by another of the midland part High waving in the sky: th' uncolour'd stream, of Europe, suppose Italy. A city there upon the Beneath her glowing ray, translucent shines. point of being swallowed up by an earthquake: Glad Nature feels her through her boundless realms signs that usher it in: described in its causes and of life and sense: and calls forth all her sweets, effects at length-Eruption of a burning moun- Fragrance and song. From each unfolding flower tain, happening at the same time and from the Transpires the balm of life, that Zephyr wafts, same causes, likewise described.

Delicious, on his rosy wing: each bird,

Or high in air, or secret in the shade,
CANTO II.

Rejoicing, warbles wild his mattin hymn. Contains, on the same plan, a survey of the solar While beasts of chase, by secret instinct mov'd, system, and of the fixed stars.

Scud o'er the lawns, and, plunging into night,
In brake, or cavern, slumber out the day.

Invited by the cheerful Morn abroad,

See, from his humble roof, the good man comes THE EXCURSIONI.

To taste 'her freshness, and improve her rise

In holy musing. Rapture in his eye,
CANTO I.

And kneeling wonder speak his silent soul,
COMPANION of the Muse, creative power,

With gratitude o'erflowing, and with praise ! Imagination! at whose great command

Now Industry is up. The village pours Arise unnumber'd images of things,

Her useful sons abroad to various toil: • Thy hourly offspring : thou, who can'st at will The labourer here, with every instrument People with air-born shapes the silent wood, Of future plenty arm'd; and there the swain, And solitary vale, thy own domain,

A rural king amid his subject-flocks, Where Contemplation haunts; oh come, invok'd, Whose bleatings wake the vocal hills afar. To waft me on thy many-tinctur'd wing,

The traveller, too, pursues h's early road, O'er Earth's extended space: and thence, on high, Among the dews of morn. Aurora calls : Spread to superior worlds thy bolder flight,

And all the living landscape moves around. Excursive, unconfin'd. Hence from the haunts But see, the flush'd horizon flames intense Of vice and folly, vanity and man

With vivid red, in rich profusion stream'd To yon expanse of plains, where Truth delights,

O'er Heaven's pure arch. At once the clouds assume Simple of heart; and, hand in hand with her, Their gayest liveries; these with silvery beams Where blameless Virtue walks. Now parting Spring, Fring lovely, splendid those in liquid gold: Parent of beauty and of song, has left

And speak their sovereign's state. He comes, behold! His mantle, flower-embroider'd, on the ground. Fountain of light and colour, warmth and life! While Summer laughing comes, and bids the months | The king of glory! round his head divine, Crown his prime season with their choicest stores; Diffusive showers of radiance circling flow, Fresh roses opening to the solar ray,

As o'er the Indian wave uprising fair And fruits slow-swelling on the loaded bough. He looks abroad on Nature, and invests, Here let me frequent roam, preventing morn,

Where'er his universal eye surveys, Attentive to the cock, whose early throat,

Her ample bosom, earth, air, sea, and sky, Heard from the distant village in the vale, In one bright robe, with heavenly tinctures gay. Crows cheerly out, far-sounding through the gloom. From this hoar hill, that climbs above the plain, Night hears from where, wide-hovering in mid-sky, Half-way up Heaven ambitious, brown with woods She rules the sable hour : and calls her train Of broadest shade, and terrass'd round with walks, Of visionary fears; the shrouded ghost,

Winding and wild, that deep embowering rise, The dream distressful, and th' incumbent hag, Maze above maze, through all its shelter'd height; That rise to Fancy's eye in horrid forms,

From hence, th' aërial concave without cloud, While Reason slumbering lies. At once they fly, Translucent, and in purest azure drest; As shadows pass, nor is their path beheld.

The boundless scene beneath, hill, dale, and plain; And now, pale-glimmering on the verge of Hea- The precipice abrupt; the distant deep, From east to north in doubtful twilight seen, (ven, Whose shores remurmur to the sounding surge; A whitening lustre shoots its tender beam;

The nearest forest in wide circuit spread, While shade and silence yet involve the ball. Solemn recess, whose solitary walks, Now sacred Morn, ascending, smiles serene Fair Truth and Wisdom love; the bordering lawn, A dewy radiance, brightening o'er the world. With flocks and herds enrich’d; the daisy'd vale; Gay daughter of the air, for ever young,

The river's crystal, and the meadows greenFor ever pleasing ! lo, she onward comes,

Grateful diversity ! allure the eye Jo fluid gold and azure loose array'd,

Abroad, to rove amid ten thousand charms. Sun-tinctur'd, changeful hues. At her approach, These scenes, where every Virtue, every Muse The western grey of yonder breaking clouds Delighted range, serene the soul, and lift, Slow-reddens into flame: the rising mists, Borne on Devotion's wing, beyond the pole,

To highest Heaven her thought; to Nature's God, * This poem is among the author's earliest per- First source of all things lovely, all things good, formances. Whether the writing may, in some de- Eternal, infinite! before whose throne gree, atone for the irregularity of the composition, Sits sovereign Bounty, and through Heaven and which he confesses, and does not even attempt to Earth excuse, is submitted entirely to the candour of the Careless diffuses plenitude of bliss. reader.

Him all things own: he speaks, and it is day. VOL. XIV.

с

:

18

MALLET'S POEMS. Obedient to bis nod, alternate pight

Hark! through th' aërial vault, the storm inflam'd Obscures the world. The seasons at his call ('omes nearer, hoarsely loud, abrupt and fierce, Succeed in train, and lead the year around. Peal hurl'd on peal incessant, barst on burst:

While reason thus and rapture fill the heart; Torn from its base, as if the general frame Friends of mankind, good angels, bovering near, Were tumbling into chaos—There it fell, Their holy influence, deep-infusing, lend;

With whirlwind-wing, in red diffusion flash'd. And in still whispers, soft as Zephyr's breath Destruction marks its path. Yon riven oak When scarce the green leaf trembles, through her Is bid in smouldering fires : surpris'd beneath, powers

The traveller ill-omeu'd prostrate falls, Inspire new vigour, purer light supply,

A livid corse.

Yon cottage flames to Heaven : And kindle every virtue into flame.

And in its furthest cell, to which the hour, Celestial intercourse! superior bliss,

All-horrible, had sped their steps, behold! Which vice ne'er knew! health of th' enlirend soul, The parent breathless lies; her orphan-babes And Heaven on Earth begun! Thus ever fix'd Sbuddering and speechless round_O Power divine ! In solitude, may I, obscurely safe,

Whose will, unerring, points the bolt of fate! Deceive mankind, and steal through life along, Thy band, though terrible, shall man decide As slides the foot of Time, unmark’d, unknown! If punishment, or mercy, dealt the blow? Exalted to his noon the fervent Sun,

Appeas'd at last, the tumult of the skies Full-blazing o'er the blue immense, burns out Subsides, the thunder's falling roar is hush'd : With fierce effulgence. Now th' embowering maze At once the clouds fly scattering, and the Sun Of vale sequester'd, or the fir-crown'd side

Breaks out with boundless splendour o'er the world. Of airy mountain, whence with lucid lapse Parent of light and joy! to all things he Falls many a dew-fed stream, invites the step New life restores, and from each drooping field Of musing poet, and secures repose,

Draws the redundant rain, in climbing mists To weary pilgrim. In the flood of day,

Fast-rising to his ray; till every flower
Oppressive brightness deluging the world,

Lift up its head, and Nature smiles reviv'd.
Sick Nature pants: and from the cleaving earth At first 'tis awful silence over all,
Light vapours, undulating through the air, From sense of late-felt danger; till confirm'd,
Contagious fly, engendering dire disease,

In grateful chorus mixing, beast and bird
Red plague, and fever; or, in fugs aloft

Rejoice aloud to Heaven: on either hand,
Condensing, show a rufting tempest nigh.

The woodlands warble, and the valleys low.
And see, exhaling from th’ Atlantic surge, So pass the songful hours: and now the Sun,
Wild world of waters, distant clouds ascend Declin'd, hangs verging on the western Main,
Io vapoury confluence, deepening cloud on cloud: Whose fluctuating bosom, blushing red
Then rolling dusk along to east and north,

The space of many seas beneath his eye,
As the blast hears them on his humid wing, Heaves in soft swellings murmuring to the shore,
Draw total night and tempest o'er the noon! A circling glory glows around his disk
Lo, bird and beast, impress'd by Nature's hand Of milder beams: part, streaming o'er the sky,
In homeward warnings through each feeling nerve, Infame the distant azure : part below
Haste from the hour of terrour and of storm. In level lines shoot through the waving wood,
The Thunder now, from forth his cloudy shrine, Clad half in light, and half in pleasing shade,
Amid conflicting elements, where Dread

That lengthens o'er the lawn. Yon evening clouds, And Death attend, the servants of his nod,

Lucid or dusk, with flamy purple edg’d,
First, in deaf murmurs, sounds the deep aların, Float in gay pomp the blue horizon round,
Heard from afar, awakening awful thought. Amusive, changeful, shifting into shapes
Dunb sadness fills this nether world: the gloom Of visionary beauty, antique towers
With double blackness lours; the tempest swells, With shadowy domes and pinnacles adorn'd;
And expectation shakes the heart of man.

Or hills of white extent, that rise and sink
Where youder clouds in dusky depth extend As sportful Fancy lists: till late, the Sun
Broad o'er the south; fermenting in their womb, From human eye, behind Earth's shading orb
Pregnant with fate, the fiery tempest swells, Total withdrawn, th' aërial landscape fades.
Sulphureous steam and nitrous, late exlial'd

Distinction fails: and in the darkening west,
From mine or unctuous soil: and lc, at once, The last light, quivering, dimly dies away.
Forth darted in slant stream, the ruddy flash, And now th' illusive flame, oft seen at eve,
Quick-glancing, spreads a moment's horrid day. Up-borne and blazing on the light-wing'd gale,
Again it fames expansive; sheets the sky, Glides o'er the lawn, betokening Night's approach:
Wide and more wide, with mournful light around, Arising awful o'er the eastern sky,
On all sides burning; now the face of things Onward she comes with silent step and slow,
Disclosing ; swallowed now in tenfold night. In her brown mantle wrapt, and brings along
Again the Thunder's voice, with pealing roar, The still, the mild, the melancholy hour,
From cloud to cloud continuous rolla along, And Meditation, with his eye on Heaven.
Amazing bursts! air, sea, and shore resound, Musing, in sober mood, of Time and Life,
Horrour sits shuddering in the felon-breast, That fly with unreturning wing away
And feels the deathful flash before it flies :

To that dark world, untravell’d and unknown,
Each sleeping sin, excited, starts to view;

Eternity! through desert ways I walk;
And all is storm within. The murderer, pale Or to the cypress-grove, at twilight shun'd
With conscious guilt, though hid in deepest shade, By passing swains. The chill breeze murmurs low,
Hears and Alies wild, pursued by all his fears : And the boughs rustle round me wbere I stand,
And sees the bleeding shadow of the slain

With fancy all-arous'd.-Far on the left,
Rise hideous, glaring on him through the gloom! Shoots up a shapeless rock of dusky height,

The raven's haunt: and down its woody steep Their shores contiguous, lies the polar sea,
A dashing flood in headlong torrent hurls

One glittering waste of ice, and on the morn His sounding waters; white on every cliff

('asts cold a cheerless light. Lo, hills of snow, Hangs the light foam, and sparkles through the Hill behind hill, and Alp on Alp, ascend, gloom.

Pil'd up from eldest age, and to the Sun Behind me rises huge a reverend pile

Impenetrable; rising from afar Sole on his hlasted heath, a place of tombs, In misty prospect dim, as if on air Waste, desolate, where Ruin dreary dwells. Each floating hill, an azure range of clouds. Brooding o'er sightless sculls, and crumbling bones, Yet here, ev'n here, in this disastrous clime, Ghastful be sits, and eyes with stedfast glare. Horrid and harbourless, where all life dies, (Sad trophies of his power, where ivy twines Adventurous mortals, urg'd by thirst of gain, Its fatal green around) the falling roof,

Through floating isles of ice and fighting storms, The time-shook arch, the column grey with moss, Roam the wild waves, in search of doubtful shores, The leaning wall, the sculptur'd stone defac'd, By west or east; a path yet unexplor'd. Whole monumental flattery, mix'd with dust, Hence eastward to the Tartar's cruel coast, Now hides the name it vainly meant to raise. By utmost ocean wash'd, on whose last wave All is dread silence here, and undisturb'd,

The blue Sky leans her breast, diffus'd'immense Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl In solitary length the Desert lies, Screams solitary to the mournful Moon,

Where Desolation keeps his empty court. Glimmering her western ray through yonder isle, No bloom of spring, o'er all the thirsty vast, Where the sad spirit walks with shadowy foot Nor spiry grass is found; but sands instead His wonted round, or lingers o'er his grave. In steril hills, and rough rocks rising grey.

Hail, midnight-sbades ! hail, venerable dome! A land of fears! where visionary forms, By age more venerable; sacred shore,

Of griesly spectres from air, food, and fire, Beyond Time's troubled sea, where never wave, Swarın: and before them speechless Horrour stalks ! Where never wind of passion, or of guilt,

Here, night by night, beneath the starless dusk, Of suffering or of sorrow, shall invade

The secret hag and sorcerer unblest The calm sound night of those who rest below. Their sabbath hold, and potent spells compose, The weary are at peace: the small and great, Spoils of the violated grave: and now, Life's voyage ended, meet and mingle here. Late, at the hour that severs night from morn, Here sleeps the prisoner safe, nor feels his chain, When sleep has silenc'd every thought of man, Nor hears th'oppressor's voice. The poor and old, They to their revels fall, infernal throng: With all the sons of mourning, fearless now And as they mix in circling dance, or turn Of want or woe, find unalarm'd repose.

To the four winds of Heaven with haggard gaze; Proud greatness, too, the tyranny of power, Shot streaming from the bosom of the north, The grace of beauty, and the force of youth, Opening the hollow gloom, red meteors blaze, And name and place, are here—for ver lost! To lead them light, and distant thunders roll,

But, at near distance, on the mouldering wall Heard in low murmurs through the lowering sky. Behold a monument, with emblem grac'd,

From these sad scenes, the waste abodes of Death, And fair inscription : where with head declind, With devious wing, to fairer climes remote And folded arms, the Virtues weeping round Southward I stray; where Caucasus in view, Lean o'er a beauteous youth who dies below. Bulwark of nations, in broad eminence Thyrsistis he! the wisest and the best!

Upheaves from realm to realm a hundred hills, Lamented shade! whom every gift of Heaven On from the Caspian to the Euxine stretch'd, Profusely blest: all learning was his own. Pale-glittering with eternal snows to Heaven. Pleasing his speech, by Nature taught to flow, From this chill, steep, which midnight's highest Persuasive sense and strong, sincere and clear.

shades

[woods,
His manners greatly plain; a noble grace, Scarce climb to darken, rough with murmuring
Self-taught, beyond the reach of mimic Art, Imagination travels with quick eye
Adorn'd him: his calm temper winning mild; Unbounded o'er the globe, and wondering views
Nor Pity softer, nor was Truth more bright, Her rolling seas and intermingled isles;
Constant in doing well, he neither sought

Her mighty continents out-stretch'd immense,
Nor shunn'd applause. No bashful merit sigh'd Where Europe, Asia, Afric, of old fame,
Near bim neglected: sympathizing he

Their regions numberless extend: and where
Wip'd off the tear from Sorrow's clouded eye To furthest point of west, Columbus late,
With kindly hand, and taught her heart to smile. Through untry'd oceans borne to shores unknown,

'Tis morning: and the Sun, his welcome light, Moor'd his first keel adventurous, and beheld
Swift, from beyond dark Ocean's orient stream, A new, a fair, a fertile world arise !
Casts through the air, renewing Nature's face But nearer scenes of happy rural view,
With heaven-born beauty. O'er her ample breast, Green dale, and level down, and bloomy hill,
O'er sea and shore, light Fancy speeds along,

The Muse's walk, on which the Sun's bright eye Quick as the darted beam, from pole to pole, Propitious looks, invite her willing step. Excursive traveller. Now beneath the north, Here see, around me smiling, myrtle groves, Alone with Winter in his inmost realm,

And mountains crown'd with aromatic woods Region of horrours! Here, amid the roar

Of vegetable gold, with vales amidst, Of winds and waves, the drifted turbulence Lavish of flowers and fragrance; where soft Spring, Of hail-mix'd snows, resides th' ungenial power,

Lord of the year, indulges to each field For ever silent, shivering, and forlorn !

The fanning breeze, live spring, and sheltering grove. From Zembla's cliffs on to the straits surmis'd In these blest plains, a spacious city spreads Of Anian eastward, where both worlds oppose Its round extent magnificent, and seems

White age

20

The seat of empire. Dazzling in the sky, Of this fair city, down her buildings sink!
With far-seen blaze her towery structures shine, Sinks the full pride her ample walls enclos'd,
Elaborate works of art! each opening gate

In one wild havoc crash'd, with burst beyond
Sends forth its thousands : Peace and Plenty round Heaven's londest thunder! Uproar unconceiv'd!
Environ her. In each frequented school

Image of Nature's general frame destroy'd ! Learning exalts his head : and Commerce pours How greatly terrible, how dark and deep Into her arms a thousand foreign realms.

The purposes of Heaven! At once o'erthrown, How fair and fortunate! how worthy all

and youth, the guilty and the just, Of lasting bliss secure! Yet all must fail,

0, seemingly severe ! promiscuous fall. O'erturn'd and lost--nor shall their place be found. Reason, whose daring eye in vain explores A sollen calm unusual, dark and dead,

The fearful providence, confus’d, subdued
Arises inauspicious o'er the heavens.,

To silence and amazement, with due praise
The beamless Sun looks wan; a sigbing cold Acknowledges th’Almighty, and adores
Winters the shadow'd air; the birds on high, His will umerring, wisest, justest, best!
Shrieking, give sign of fearful change at hand : The conntry mourns around with alter'd look.
And now, within the bosom of the globe,

Fields, where but late the many-colour'd Spring
Where sulphur stor'd, and nitre peaceful slept, Sat gaily drest, amid the vernal breath
For ages, in their subterranean bed, [streams, Of roses, and the song of nightingales,
Ferments th' approaching tempest. Vapoury Soft-warbled, silent languish now and die.
Inflammable, perhaps by winds sublim'd,

Rivers ingulf'd their ample channels leave
Their deadly breath apply. Th’enkindled mass, A sandy tract; and goodly mountains, burld
Mine fir'd by mine in train, with boundless rage, In whirlwind from their seat, obstruct the plain
With horrour unconceiv'd, disploded bursts With rough encumbrance; or through depths of earth
Its central prison-Shook from shore to shore, Fall ruinous, with all their woods immers'd.
Reels the broad continent with all its load,

Sulphureous damps of dark and deadly power, Hills, forests, cities. The lone desert quakes : Steam'd from th' abyss, fly secret over-head, Her savage sons howl to the thunder's groan, Wounding the healthful air; whence foul disease, And lightning's ruddy glare: while from beneath, Murrain and rot, in tainted herds and flocks : Deaf distant roarings, through the wide profound, In man sore sickness, and the lamp of life Rreful are heard, as when Despair complains. Dimm'd and dininish'd ; or more fatal ill

Gather'd in air, o'er that proud capital, Of mind, unsettling reason overturn'd. Frowns an involving cloud of gloomy depth, Here into madness work'd, and boiling o'er Casting dun night and terrour o'er the heads Outrageous fancies, like the troubled sea Of her inhabitants. Aghast they stand,

Foaming out mud and filth: here downward sunk Sad-cazing on the mournful skies around;

To folly, and in idle musing wrapt;
A moment's dreadful silence! Then loud screams Now chasing with fond aim the flying cloud;
And eager supplications rend the skies.

Now numberier up the drops of falling rain.
Lo, crowds on crowds, in hurry'd stream along, A while the fiery spirit in its cell
From street to street, from gate to gate rollid on, Insidious slumbers, till some chance unknown,
This, that way burst in waves, by horrour wing'd Perhaps some rocky fragment from the roof
To distant bill or cave: while half the globe, Detach'd, and roll'd with rough collusion down
Her frame convulsive rocking to and fro,

Its echoing vault, strikes out the fatal spark Trembles with second agony. Uphcav'd

That blows it into rage.

Shakes Earth again, In surges, her vext surface rolls a sea.

Wide through her entrails torn. To all sides flash'd, Ruin ensues: towers, temples, palaces,

The flames bear downward on the central deep, Flung from their deep foundations, roof on rcof Immeasurable source, whence Ocean fills Crush'd horrible, and pile on pile o'erturn'd, His numerous seas, and pours them round the globe. Fall total-In that universal groan,

The liquid orb, through all its dark expanse, Sounding to Heaven, expir'd a thousand lives, In dire commotion boils, and, bursting way O'erwhelmd at once, one und ist nguish'd wreck! Up through th' unsounded bottoms of the main,

Sight full of fate! up from the centre torn, Where never tempest ruffled, lifts the deeps, The ground yawos horrible a hundred mouths, At once, in billowy mountains to the sky, Flashing pale tiames-down through the gulfs pro- | With raving violence. And now their shores, found,

Rebellowing to the surge, they swallow fierce,
Screaming, whole crowds of every age and rank, O’erswelling mound and cliff: now swift and strange,
With hands to Heaven ra'sd high imploring aid, With refluent wave retreating, leave the beach
Prone to th' abyss descend; and o'er their beads A naked waste of sands-Meantime, behold !
Earth shuts ber ponderous jaws. Part lost in night Yon neighbouring Mountain, rising bleak and bare,
Return no more: part on the wafting wave, Its double top in steril ashes hid,
Borne through the darkness of th' infernal world, But green around its base with oil and wine,
Far distant rise, emerging with the flood;

Gives sign of storm and desolation near:
Pale as ascending ghosts cast back to day,

Storehouse of fate! from whose internal womb,
A shuddering band! Distraction in each eye With fiery minerals and metallic ore
Stares wildly motionless: thev pant, they catch Pernicious franght, ascends eternal smoke:
A gulp of air, aul rasp with dying aim

Now wavering loose in air; now borne on high,
The wreck that drives along, to gain from Fate, A dusky column heightening to the Sun!
Short interval! a moment's doubtful lite.

Imagination's eye looks down dismay'd
For now Earth's solid sphere asunder rent

The steepy gull, pale-facing and profound,
With final dissolution, the huge mass

With hourly tumult vext, but now incens'd Fails undermin'd-down, down th extensive seat To seventold fury. First, discordant sounds,