OCT. 1,1819.

THE SHIPWRECK.

CANTO I.

I. A SHIP from Egypt, o'er the deep impelled
By guiding winds, her course for Venice held.
Of famed Britannia were the gallant crew,
And from that isle her name the vessel drew;
The wayward steps of Fortune they pursued,
And sought in certain ills imagined good:
Though cautioned oft her slippery path to shun,
Hope still with promised joys allured them on ;
And, while they listened to her winning lore,
The softer scenes of peace could please no more:
Long absent they from friends and native home
The cheerless ocean were inured to roam;
Yet Heaven, in pity to severe distress,

Had crowned each painful voyage with success;

Still to compensate toils and hazards past
Restored them to maternal plains at last.

Thrice had the sun to rule the varying year
Across the equator rolled his flaming sphere,
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 ;
Inflamed 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 cliff's salute their longing eyes;

Each to his breast, where floods of rapture roll,
Embracing strains the mistress of his soul;

Nor less o'erjoyed, 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 elapsed, while o'er the pathless tide
Their ship through Grecian seas the pilots guide.
Occasion called to touch at Candia's shore,
Which, blest with favouring winds, they soon explore;
The haven enter, borne before the gale,
Despatch 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.-

B