Proud navies ride on seas that never foam'd
With daring keel before; and armies stretch Each way their dazzling files, repressing here The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there stern Othman's shrinking sons. Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice, Of old dishonour proud: it glows around, Taught by the ROYAL HAND that rous'd the whole, One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade: For what his wisdom plann'd, and power enforc❜d, More potent still, his great example shew'd.
MUTTERING, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow-blustering from the south. Subdu'd, The frost resolves into a trickling thaw.
Spotted the mountains shine; loose sleet descends, And floods the country round. The rivers swell, Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills, O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts, A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once; And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen seas, That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will rest no more Beneath the shackles of the mighty north; But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. And hark! the lengthening roar continuous runs Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts, And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds.
ILL fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd, That, tost amid the floating fragments, moors 1005 Beneath the shelter of an icy isle,
While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round? Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, Now ceasing, now renew'd with louder rage, And in dire echoes bellowing round the main. More to embroil the deep, Leviathan
And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport,
Tempest the loosened brine; while thro' the gloom, Far, from the bleak inhospitable shore,
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl
Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks. Yet PROVIDENCE, that ever-waking eye!
Looks down with pity on the feeble toil
Of mortals lost to hope; and lights them safe,
Thro' all this dreary labyrinth of fate.
'Tis done! dread WINTER spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. 1025 How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond Man!
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years,
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
Thy sober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled, Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes Of happiness? those longings after fame? Those restless cares? those busy bustling days? Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life? All now are vanish'd; VIRTUE sole-survives, Immortal never-failing friend of Man,
His guide to happiness on high. And see! 'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth Of heaven and earth! awakening Nature hears The new-creating word, and starts to life,
In every heightened form; from pain and death 1045 For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads,
To reason's refin'd clears up apace.
YE vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now, 1050 Confounded in the dust, adore that POWER,
And WISDOM oft arraign'd: see now the cause, Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd,
And dy'd, neglected: why the good Man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul: Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd In starving solitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born truth, And moderation fair, wore the red marks Of superstition's scourge: why licens'd pain, That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe, Imbitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distrest! Ye noble few! who here unbending stand Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while, And what your bounded view, which only saw A little part, deem'd Evil is no more:
The storms of WINTRY TIME will quickly pass, And one unbounded SPRING encircle all.
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