Emigration of Birds.

Beneath th' incessant weeping of these drains,
I see the rocky syphons stretch'd immense;
The mighty reservoirs of harden'd chalk,
Or stiff compacted clay, capacious form'd.
O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores,

820

The crystal treasures of the liquid world,
Through the stirr'd sands a bubbling passage burst,
And welling out, around the middle steep,

Or from the bottoms of the bosom'd hills,
pure effusion flow. United, thus,

In

Th' exhaling sun, the vapour-burden'd air,
The gelid mountains, that to rain condens'd
These vapours in continual current draw,
And send them, o'er the fair-divided earth,
In bounteous rivers to the deep again;
A social commerce hold, and firm support
The full-adjusted harmony of things.

When Autumn scatters his departing gleams,
Warn'd of approaching Winter, gather'd, play
The swallow-people; and toss'd wide around,
O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift,
The feathered eddy floats: rejoicing once,
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire;

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Emigration of Birds.

In clusters clung, beneath the mouldering bank, 840 And where, unpierc'd by frost, the cavern sweats.

Or rather into warner climes convey'd,

With other kindred birds of season, there

They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months

Invite them welcome back: for, thronging, now 845 Innumerous wings are in commotion all.

Where the Rhine loses his majestic force In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep, By diligence amazing, and the strong Unconquerable hand of Liberty,

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The stork-assembly meets; for many a day,
Consulting deep, and various, ere they take
Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky.
And now their route design'd, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings; 855
And many a circle, many a short essay,

Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full
The figur'd flights ascend; and, riding high

Th' aërial billows, mixes with the clouds.

Or where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls, 860

Boils round the naked melancholy isles

Of farthest Thule, and th' Atlantic surge

Caledonia described.

Pours in among the stormy Hebrides;

Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arise?
Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude resounding shore, are one wild cry.

Here the plain harmless native, his small flock,
And herd diminutive of many hues,

Tends on the little island's verdant swell,

The shepherd's sea-girt reign; or, to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food;
Or sweeps the fishy shore; or treasures up

The plumage, rising full, to form the bed
Of luxury. And here a while the Muse,
High-hovering o'er the broad cerulean scene,
Sees CALEDONIA, in romantic view;

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Her airy mountains, from the waving main,
Invested with a keen diffusive sky,

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Breathing the soul acute; her forests huge,
Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old; her azure lakes between,
Pour'd out extensive, and of watery wealth

Full; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales; 885

Caledonia described.

With many a cool, translucent, brimming flood
Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent stream,
Whose past'ral banks first heard my Doric reed,
With, silvan Jed, thy tributary brook)

To where the north-inflated tempest foams
O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak:
Nurse of a people, in misfortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds; soon visited
By Learning, when before the Gothic rage
She took her western flight. A manly race,

Of unsubmitting spirit, wise and brave;

Who still through bleeding ages struggled hard,

(As well unhappy WALLACE can attest,

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Great patriot hero! ill-requited chief!)

To hold a generous undiminish'd state;

Too much in vain! Hence of unequal bounds
Impatient, and by tempting glory borne

O'er every land;

for every

land their life

900

Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plann'd,

And swell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil, 905 As from their own clear north, in radiant streams,

Bright over Europe bursts the Boreal Morn.

Oh is there not some patriot, in whose power

Character of the Duke of Argyle.

That best, that godlike Luxury is plac'd,
Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn,

Through late posterity? some, large of soul,
To cheer dejected industry? to give

A double harvest to the pining swain?
And teach the lab'ring hand the sweets of toil?
How, by the finest art, the native robe

To weave; how, white as hyperborean snow,
To form the lucid lawn; with vent'rous oar
How to dash wide the billow; nor look on,
Shamefully passive, while Batavian fleets
Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms,

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That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores?

How all-enlivening trade to rouse, and wing

The prosperous sail, from every growing port,
Uninjur'd, round the sea-encircled globe;
And thus, in soul united as in name,

Bid BRITAIN reign the mistress of the deep?

Yes, there are such. And full on thee, ARGyle,
Her hope, her stay, her darling, and her boast,
From her first patriots and her heroes sprung,
Thy fond imploring Country turns her eye;
In thee, with all a mother's triumph, sees

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