The balanc'd ship now forward, now behind,
Still felt th' impression of the waves and wind,
And to the right and left by turns inclin'd;
But Albert from behind the balance drew,
And on the prow its double efforts threw.
The order now was giv'n to bear away!
The order giv'n, the timoneers obey:

[stay,

Both stay-sail sheets to mid-ships were convey'd,
And round the foremast on each side belay'd;
Thus ready, to the halyards they apply,
They hoist! away the flitting ruins fly:
Yet Albert new resources still prepares,
Conceals his grief, and doubles all his cares-
"Away there! lower the mizen-yard on deck,"
He calls," and brace the foremost yards aback!"
His great example ev'ry bosom fires,
New life rekindles and new hope inspires.
While to the helm unfaithful still she lies,
One desperate remedy at last he tries-
"Haste! with your weapons cut the shrouds and
And hew at once the mizen-mast away!"
He said to cut the girding stay they run,
Soon on each side the sever'd shrouds are gone:
Fast by the fated pine bold Rodmond stands,
Th' impatient axe hung gleaming in his hands;
Brandish'd on high, it fell with dreadful sound,
The tall mast groaning felt the deadly wound;
Deep gash'd beneath, the tott'ring structure rings,
And crashing, thund'ring, o'er the quarter swings:
Thus, when some limb, convuls'd with pangs of death,
Imbibes the gangrene's pestilential breath,
Th' experienc'd artist from the blood betrays
The latent venom, or its course delays:
But, if th' infection triumphs o'er his art,
Tainting the vital stream that warms the heart,
To stop the course of death's inflaming tides
Th' infected member from the trunk divides.

the seaman is to reduce the action of the wind on the ship's hind part, and to receive its utmost exertion on her fore part, so that the latter may be pushed to leeward. This effect is either produced by the operation of the sails, or by the impression of the wind on the masts and yards. In the former case the sails on the hind part of the ship are either furled or arranged nearly parallel to the direction of the wind, which then glides ineffectually along their surfaces; at the same time the foremost sails are spread abroad, so as to receive the greatest exertion of the wind. The fore part accordingly yields to this impulse, and is put in motion; and this motion, necessarily conspiring with that of the wind, pushes the ship about as nuch as is requisite to produce the desired effect.

CANTO III.

The scene is extended from that part of the Archipe
lago which lies ten miles to the northward of Fal-
conera, to Cape Colona in Attica.

THE TIME ABOUT SEVEN HOURS; FROM ONE, UNTIL
EIGHT IN THE MORNING.

ARGUMENT.

I. Reflections on the beneficial influence of poetry... Diffidence of the author...II. Wreck of the mizenmast cleared away...Ship veers before the wind... labours hard... Different stations of the officers ...Appearance of the island of Falconera...III. Excursion to the adjacent nations of Greece renowned in antiquity... Athens...Socrates, Plato, Aristides....Solon....Corinth....its architecture.... Sparta... Leonidas... Invasion by Xerxes... Lycurgus ...Epaminondas... Present state of the Spartans... Arcadia... Former happiness and fertility...Its present distress the effect of slavery...Ithaca... Ulysses and Penelope... Argos and Mycane... Agamemnon...Macronisi... Lemnos... Vulcan... Delos... Apollo and Diana... Troy...Sestos... Leander and Hero... Delphos... Temple of Apollo... Parnassus... The Muses...IV. Subject resumed... Address to the spirits of the storm... A tempest accompanied with rain, hail, and meteors...Darkness of the night, lightning and thunder... Day-break...St. George's cliffs open upon them...The ship in great danger passes the island of St. George...V. Land of Athens appears...Helmsman struck blind by lightning...Ship laid broadside to the shore... Bowsprit, foremast, and main-topmast carried away...Albert, Rodmond, Arion, and Palemon

in order to save the ship from destruction. (see line 20 of left hand col. of this page) the mizenmast must be cut away, and even the main-mast, if she still remains incapable of answering the helm by turning her prow to leeward.

Scudding is that movement in navigation by which a ship is carried precipitately before a tempest. See line 56 of right hand col. p. 402.

As a ship flies with amazing rapidity through the water, whenever this expedient is put in praetice, it is never attempted in a contrary wind, unless when her condition renders her incapable of sustaining the mutual effort of the wind and waves any longer on her side, without being exposed to the most imminent danger.

A ship either scuds with a sail extended on her fore-mast, or, if the storm is excessive, without any sail, which in the sea-phrase is called scudding under bare poles.

But when the tempest is so violent as to preclude the use of sails, the effort of the wind operates almost equally on the opposite ends of the ship, because the masts and yards situated near the The principal hazards incident to scudding are, head and stern serve to counterbalance each other, generally, a sea striking the ship's stem; the dif in receiving its impression. The effect of the helm ficulty of steering, which perpetually exposes her is also considerably diminished, because the head- to the danger of broaching-to; and the want of way, which gives life and vigour to all its opera-sufficient sea-room. A sea which strikes the stern tions, is at this time feeble and ineffectual. Hence violently may shatter it to pieces, by which the it becomes necessary to destroy this equilibriumship must evitably founder. By broach nz-to which subsists between the masts and the yards before and behind, and to throw the balance forward to prepare for veering. If this cannot be effected by the arrangement of the yards on the masts, and it becomes absolutely necessary to veer,

suddenly, she is threatened with losing all her masts and sails, or being immediately overturned; and for want of sea-room, she is exposed to the dangers of being wrecked on a lee-shore.

strive to save themselves on the wreck of the | foremast...The ship parts asunder... Death of Albert and Rodmond...Arion reaches the shore... finds Palemon expiring on the beach...his dying address to Arion, who is led away by the humane natives.

I. WHEN in a barbarous age, with blood defil'd,
The human savage roam'd the gloomy wild;
When sullen Ignorance her flag display'd,
And Rapine and Revenge her voice obey'd;
Sent from the shores of light the Muses came
The dark and solitary race to tame,
The war of lawless passions to control,
To melt in tender sympathy the soul;
The heart's remote recesses to explore,

And touch its springs when prose avail'd no more:
The kindling spirit caught th' empyreal ray,
And glow'd congenial with the swelling lay;
Rous'd from the chaos of primeval night,
At once fair Truth and Reason sprung to light.
When great Mæonides, in rapid song,
The thund'ring tide of battle rolls along,
Each ravish'd bosom feels the high alarms,
And all the burning pulses beat to arms;
Hence, War's terrific glory to display,
Became the theme of ev'ry epic lay:
But when his strings with mournful magic tell
What dire distress Laertes' son befel,
The strains, meand'ring through the maze of woe,
Bid sacred sympathy the heart o'erflow; [springs,
Far through the boundless realms of thought he
From Earth upborne on Pegasean wings,
While distant poets, trembling as they view
His sunward flight, the dazzling track pursue;
His magic voice, that rouses and delights,
Allures and guides to climb Olympian heights:
But I, alas! through scenes bewilder'd stray,
Far from the light of his unerring ray;
While, all unus'd the wayward path to tread,
Darkling I wander with prophetic dread.
To me in vain the bold Mæonian lyre
Awakes the numbers fraught with living fire,
Full oft indeed that mournful harp of yore
Wept the sad wanderer lost upon the shore;
'Tis true he lightly sketch'd the bold design,
But toils more joyless, more severe are mine;
Since o'er that scene his genius swiftly ran,
Subservient only to a nobler plan:
But I, perplex'd in labyrinths of art,
Anatomize and blazon ev'ry part;
Attempt with plaintive numbers to display,
And chain th' events in regular array;
Though hard the task to sing in varied strains,
When still unchang'd the same sad theme remains:
O could it draw compassion's melting tear
For kindred miseries, oft beheld too near!
For kindred wretches, oft in ruin cast
On Albion's strand beneath the wintry blast;
For all the pangs, the complicated woe,
Her bravest sons, her guardian sailors know;
Then ev'ry breast should sigh at our distress-
This were the summit of my hop'd success!
For this, my theme through mazes I pursue,
Which nor Mæonides, nor Maro knew.

II. Awhile the mast, in ruins dragg'd behind,
Balane'd th' impression of the helm and wind;
The wounded serpent, agoniz'd with pain,
Thus trails his mangled volume on the plain:

But now, the wreck dissever'd from the rear,
The long reluctant prow began to veer:
While round before th' enlarging wind it falls,
"Square fore and aft the yards '," the master calls,
You, timoneers, her motion still attend,
For on your steerage all our lives depend :
So, steady! meet her! watch the curving prow,
And from the gale directly let her go."
"Starboard again!" the watchful pilot cries,
"Starboard!" th' obedient timoneer replies:
Then back to port, revolving at command,
The wheel 3 rolls swiftly through each glowing hand.
The ship no longer, found'ring by the lee,
Bears on her side th' invasions of the sea;
All lonely o'er the desert waste she flies,
Scourg'd on by surges, storms, and bursting skies:
As when enclosing harponeers assail
In Hyberborean seas the slumb'ring whale,
Soon as their javelins pierce his scaly side,
He groans, he darts impetuous down the tide;
And rack'd all o'er with lacerating pain,
He flies remote beneath the flood in vain-
So with resistless baste the wounded ship
Scuds from the chasing waves along the deep;
While, dash'd apart by her dividing prow,
Like burning adamant the waters glow;
Her joints forget their firm elastic tone,
Her long keel trembles, and her timbers groan:
Upheav'd behind her in tremendous height
The billows frown, with fearful radiance bright;
Now quiv'ring o'er the topmost wave she rides,
While deep beneath th' enormous gulf divides;
Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,
Becalm'd, she hears no more the howling gale;
Till up the dreadful height again she flies,
Trembling beneath the current of the skies:
As that rebellious angel, who from Heav'n
To regions of eternal pain was driv'n,
When dreadless he forsook the Stygian shore
The distant realms of Eden to explore;
Here, on sulphureous clouds sublime upheav'd,
With daring wing th' infernal air he cleav'd;
There, in some hideous gulf descending prone,
Far in the void abrupt of night was thrown-
F'en so she climbs the briny mountain's height,
Then down the black abyss precipitates her flight:
The masts, about whose tops the whirlwinds sing,
With long vibration round her axle swing.

To guide the wayward course amid the gloom
The watchful pilots different posts assume:
Albert and Rodmond on the poop appear,
There to direct each guiding timoneer;
While at the bow the watch Arion keeps,
To shun what cruisers wander o'er the deeps:
Where'er he moves Palemon still attends,
As if on him his only hope depends ;
While Rodmond, fearful of some neighb'ring shore,
Cries, ever and anon, Look out afore!"
Thus o'er the flood four hours she scudding flew,
When Falconera's rugged cliffs they view
Faintly along the larboard bow descried,
As o'er its mountain tops the lightnings glide;

High o'er its summit, through the gloom of night,
The glimm'ring watch-tower cast a mournful light:
In dire amazement rivetted they stand,
And hear the breakers lash the rugged strand-
But scarce perceiv'd, when past the beam it flies,
Swift as the rapid eagle cleaves the skies:
That danger past reflects a feeble joy,
But soon returning fears their hope destroy:
As in th' Atlantic ocean, when we find
Some Alp of ice driv'n southward by the wind,
The sultry air all sick'ning pants around,
In deluges of torrid ether drown'd;
Till when the floating isle approaches nigh,
In cooling tides th' aerial billows fly:
Awhile deliver'd from the scorching heat,
In gentler tides our feverish pulses beat!
Such transient pleasure, as they pass'd this strand,
A moment bade their throbbing hearts expand;
Th' illusive meteors of a lifeless fire,

Too soon they kindle, and too soon expire.

III. Say, Memory! thou from whose unerring tongue

Instructive flows the animated song,

What regions now the scudding 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,
Unconscious pass along each famous shore?
They did: for in this desert, joyless soil,
No flow'rs of genial science deign to smile;
Sad Ocean's genius, in untimely hour,
Withers the bloom of ev'ry springing flow'r;
For native tempests here, with blasting breach,
Despoil, and doom the vernal buds to death;
Here Fancy droops, while sullen clouds and storm
The gen'rous temper of the soul deform:
Then, if among the wand'ring naval train,
One stripling, exil'd from th' Aonian plain,
Had e'er, entranc'd in Fancy's soothing dream,
Approach'd to taste the sweet Castalian streami;
(Since those salubrious streams, with pow'r divine,
To purer sense the soften'd soul refine)
Sure he, amid unsocial mates immur'd,
To learning lost, severer grief cudur'd;
In vain might Phoebus' ray his mind inspire,
Since Fate with torrents quench'd the kindling fire:
If one this pain of living death possest,
It dwelt supreme, Ariou! in thy breast;
When, with Palemon watching, in the night
Beneath pale Cynthia's melancholy light,
You oft recounted those surrounding states,
Whose glory Fame with brazen tongue relates.
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 Heav'n pronoune'd the wisest of mankind;
The last proclaim'd the spark of vital fire,
The soul's fine essence, never could expire;
Here Solon dwelt, the philosophie sage
That fled Pisistratus' vindictive rage;
Just Aristides here maintain'd the cause,
Whose sacred precepts shine through Solon's laws:
Of all her tow'ring structures, now alon
Some column's stand, with mantling weeds o'ergrown:

The wand'ring stranger near the port descries
A milk-white lion of stupendous size,
Of antique marble; hence the haven's name,
Unknown to modern natives whence it came.
Next, in the gulf of Engia, Corinth lies,
Whose gorgeous fabrics seem'd to strike the skies;
Whom, though by tyrant victors oft subdu'd,
Greece, Egypt, Rome, with admiration view'd:
Her name, for architecture long renown'd,
Spread like the foliage which her pillars crown'd;
But now,
in fatal desolation faid,
Oblivion o'er it draws a dismal shade.

Then further westward, on Morea's land,
Fair Misitra! thy modern turrets stand:
Ah! who, unmov'd with secret woe, can tell
That here great Lacedæmon's glory fell;
Here once she flourish'd, at whose trumpet's sound
War burst his chains, and nations shook around;
Here brave Leonidas from shore to shore
Through all Achaia bade her thunders roar:
He, when imperial Xerxes from afar
Advanc'd with Persia's sumless hosts to war,
Till Macedonia shrank beneath his spear,
And Greece all shudder'd as the chief drew near;
He, at Thermopyla's decisive plain,
Their force oppos'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, haughty Asia heard thy name,
And Thebes and Athens sicken'd at thy fame;
Thy state, supported by Lycurgus' laws,
Gain'd, like thine arms, superlative applause;
L'en great Epaminondas strove in vain
To curb thy spirit with a Thebau chain:
But ah! how low that free-born spirit now!
Thy abject sons to haughty tyrants bow;
A false, degenerate, superstitious race
Invest thy region, and its name disgrace.

Not distant far, Arcadia's blest domains
Peloponnesus' circling shore contains:
Thrice happy soil! where, still screnely gay,
Indulgent Flora breath'd perpetual May;
Where buxom Ceres bade each fortile field
Spontaneous gifts in rich profusion yield;
Then, with some rural nymph supremely blest,
While transport glow'd in each enamour'd breast,
Fach faithful shepherd told his tender pain,
And sung of sylvan sports in artless strain;
Soft as the happy swain's enchanting lay
That pipes among the shade, of Endermay:
Now, sad reverse! Oppression's iron hand
Enslaves her natives, and despoil's her land;
In lawless rapine bred, a sanguine train
With midnight ravage scour th' uncultur'd plair.
Westward of these, beyond the Isthmus, lies
The long-sought isle of Ithacus the wise;
Where fair Penelope, of him depriv'd,

To guard her honour endless schemes contriv'd;
She, only shielded by a stripling son,
Her lord Ulysses long to lion gone,
Each bold attempt of suitor-kings repell'd,
And magical'd her nuptial contract held;
True to her vows, and resolutely chaste,
Marts with art, and triumph'd at the last.
Argos, in Greece forgotten and unknown,
Soli scems her cruel fortune to bemoan;
Arg, whose monarch led the Grecian hosts
Across th' Egan main to Dardan coasts:
Tolay prince! who on a hostile shore
Fatigue and danger ten long winters bore ;