ARGUMENT. I. The beneficial influence of Poetry in the civilization of Man-i kind... Diffidence of the Author... II. Wreck of the MizenMast cleared away... Ship put, before the Wind...labours much... 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 MYCENE... 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 Top-mast carried away... ALBERT, RODMOND, ARION, and PALEMON 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, J.Fittler fculp Sent from the shores of light the MUSES came The dark and solitary race to tame, The war of lawless Passions to controul, To melt in tender sympathy the soul; The heart's remote recesses to explore, And touch its springs when Prose availed no more: 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; Far through the boundless realms of Thought he springs, From earth upborne on Pegasean wings, While distant Poets, trembling as they view While, all unused the wayward path to tread, Anatomize, and blazon every 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 unchanged the same sad Theme remains ; O could it draw Compassion's melting tear For kindred wretches, oft in ruin cast On ALBION's strand beneath the wintery blast; II. Awhile the Mast, in ruins dragged behind, 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." |