Northern Regions.

860

A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens,
And vivid moons, and stars that keener play
With doubled lustre from the glossy waste;
Ev'n in the depth of Polar Night, they find
A wond'rous day: enough to light the chase,
Or guide their daring steps to Finland-fairs.
Wish'd Spring returns; and from the hazy south,

While dim Aurora slowly moves before,

The welcome sun, just verging up at first,

By small degrees extends the swelling curve;

Till seen at last for gay rejoicing months,

Still round and round, his spiral course he winds;
And as he nearly dips his flaming orb,

Wheels up again, and reascends the sky.

In that glad season, from the lakes and floods,
Where pure Niemi's fairy mountains rise, i
And fring'd with roses Tenglio rolls his stream,
They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve,
They cheerful-loaded to their tents repair;
Where, all day long in useful cares employ'd,
Their kind unblemish'd wives the fire prepare.
Thrice happy race! by poverty secur'd
From legal plunder and rapacious power:

$65

Northern Regions.

In whom fell interest never yet has sown

The seeds of vice: whose spotless swains ne'er knew Injurious deed; nor, blasted by the breath

Of faithless love, their blooming daughters woe.

Still pressing on, beyond Tornêa's lake, And Hecla flaming through a waste of snow, And farthest Greenland, to the pole itself,

885

Where, failing gradual, life at length goes out,
The Muse expands her solitary flight;

890

And, hovering o'er the wild stupendous scene,
Beholds new seas beneath another sky.

Thron'd in his palace of cerulean ice,
Here WINTER holds his unrejoicing court;
And through his airy hall the loud misrule

895

Of driving tempest is for ever heard:

Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath;

Here arms his winds with all-subduing frost;

Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows, 900 With which he now oppresses half the globe.

Thence winding eastward to the Tartar's coast, She sweeps the howling margin of the main; Where undissolving, from the first of time, Snows swell on snows amazing to the sky;

Mountains of Ice.

And icy mountains high on mountains pil'd,
Seem to the shivering sailor from afar,

Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds."
Projected huge, and horrid, o'er the surge,

Alps frown on Alps; or rushing hideous down,
As if old Chaos was again return'd,

910

Wide-rend the deep, and shake the solid pole.
Ocean itself no longer can resist

The binding fury; but, in all its rage

Of tempest taken by the boundless frost,`

915

Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd,

And bid to roar no more: a bleak expanse,
Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, cheerless, and void
Of every life, that from the dreary months
Flies conscious southward. Miserable they!

920

Who, here entangled in the gathering ice,

Take their last look of the descending sun;
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost,
The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads,
Falls horrible. Such was the BRITON's fate,

As with first prow, (what have not BRITON's dar'd!)

925

He for the passage sought, attempted since
So much in vain, and seeming to be shut

T

The sailor, and the pilot to the helm.

935

Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezing stream Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of Men;

And half enlivened by the distant sun,
That rears and ripens Man, as well as plants,
Here human Nature wears its rudest form.
Deep from the piercing season sunk in caves,
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer,
They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs,
Doze the gross race. Nor sprightly jest, nor song,
Nor tenderness they know; nor aught of life,
Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without,
Till morn at length, her roses drooping all,

Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er their fields,
And calls the quiver'd savage to the chase.

940

945

What cannot active government perform,

950

New-moulding Man? Wide-stretching from these shores,

Peter the Great of Russia.

A people savage from remotest time,

A huge neglected empire, ONE vast Mind,
By HEAVEN inspir'd, from Gothic darkness call'd.
Immortal PETER! first of monarchs! He

His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons;
And while the fierce Barbarian he subdu'd,
To more exalted soul he rais'd the Man.

Ye shades of ancient heroes! ye who toil'd
Through long successive ages to build up
A labouring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! behold the matchless prince!
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty shadow of unreal power;

Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp of courts;
And roaming every land, in every port

His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand

955

960

965

Unwearied plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the seeds of trade, of useful arts,

Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.

Charg'd with the stores of Europe home he goes!
Then cities rise amid th' illumin'd waste;

O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign;

970