[THE BOTANIC GARDEN. PART I. THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.]

[CANTO I.]

Argument of the First Canto.

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

CANTO I.

 "STAY YOUR RUDE STEPS! whose throbbing breasts infold
 The legion-fiends of Glory, or of Gold! 
STAY! whose false lips seductive simpers part,
 While Cunning nestles in the harlot-heart! —
 For you no Dryads dress the roseate bower,
 For you no Nymphs their sparkling vases pour;
 Unmark'd by you, light Graces swim the green,
 And hovering Cupids aim their shafts, unseen. 

 "But THOU! whose mind the well-attemper'd ray
 Of Taste and Virtue lights with purer day;
 Whose finer sense each soft vibration owns
 With sweet responsive sympathy of tones;
 So the fair flower expands it's lucid form
 To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm; —
 For thee my borders nurse the fragrant wreath,
 My fountains murmur, and my zephyrs breathe;
 Slow slides the painted snail, the gilded fly
 Smooths his fine down, to charm thy curious eye;
 On twinkling fins my pearly nations play,
 Or win with sinuous train their trackless way;
 My plumy pairs in gay embroidery dress'd
 Form with ingenious bill the pensile nest,
 To Love's sweet notes attune the listening dell,
 And Echo sounds her soft symphonious shell

 "And, if with Thee some hapless Maid should stray,
 Disasterous Love companion of her way,
 Oh, lead her timid steps to yonder glade,
 Whose arching cliffs depending alders shade;
 There, as meek Evening wakes her temperate breeze,
 And moon-beams glimmer through the trembling trees,
 The rills, that gurgle round, shall soothe her ear,
 The weeping rocks shall number tear for tear;
 There as sad Philomel, alike forlorn,
 Sings to the Night from her accustomed thorn;
 While at sweet intervals each falling note
 Sighs in the gale, and whispers round the grot;
 The sister-woe shall calm her aching breast,
 And softer slumbers steal her cares to rest. —

 "Winds of the North! restrain your icy gales,
 Nor chill the bosom of these happy vales! 
Hence in dark heaps, ye gathering Clouds, revolve! 
Disperse, ye Lightnings! and, ye Mists, dissolve!
 — Hither, emerging from you orient skies,
 BOTANIC GODDESS! bend thy radiant eyes;
 O'er these soft scenes assume thy gentle reign,
 Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train;
 O'er the still dawn thy placid smile effuse,
 And with thy silver sandals print the dews;
 In noon's bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold. 
And wave thy emerald banner star'd with gold." 

Thus spoke the GENIUS, as He stept along,
 And bade these lawns to Peace and Truth belong;
 Down the steep slopes He led with modest skill
 The willing pathway, and the truant rill,
 Stretch'd o'er the marshy vale yon willowy mound,
 Where shines the lake amid the tufted ground,
 Raised the young woodland, smooth'd the wavy green,
 And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene. —

She comes! — the GODDESS! — through the whispering air,
 Bright as the morn, descends her blushing car;
 Each circling wheel a wreath of flowers intwines,
 And gem'd with flowers the silken harness shines;
 The golden bits with flowery studs are deck'd,
 And knots of flowers the crimson reins connect. —
 And now on earth the silver axle rings,
 And the shell sinks upon its slender springs;
 Light from her airy seat the Goddess bounds,
 And steps celestial press the pansied grounds. 

Fair Spring advancing calls her feather'd quire,
 And tunes to softer notes her laughing lyre;
 Bids her gay hours on purple pinions move,
 And arms her Zephyrs with the shafts of Love,
 Pleased GNOMES, ascending from their earthy beds,
 Play round her graceful footsteps, as she treads;
 Gay SYLPHS attendant beat the fragrant air
 On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair;
 Blue NYMPHS emerging leave their sparkling streams,
 And FIERY FORMS alight from orient beams;
 Musk'd in the rose's lap fresh dews they shed,
 Or breathe celestial lustres round her head. 

First the fine Forms her dulcet voice requires,
 Which bathe or bask in elemental fires;
 From each bright gem of Day's refulgent car,
 From the pale sphere of every twinkling star,
 From each nice pore of ocean, earth, and air,
 With eye of flame the sparkling hosts repair,
 Mix their gay hues, in changeful circles play,
 Like motes, that tenant the meridian ray. —
 So the clear Lens collects with magic power
 The countless glories of the midnight hour;
 Stars after stars with quivering lustre fall,
 And twinkling glide along the whiten'd wall. —
 Pleased, as they pass, she counts the glittering bands,
 And stills their murmur with her waving hands;
 Each listening tribe with fond expectance burns,
 And now to these, and now to those, she turns. 

I. "NYMPHS OF PRIMEVAL FIRE! YOUR vestal train
 Hung with gold-tresses o'er the vast inane,
 Pierced with your silver shafts the throne of Night,
 And charm'd young Nature's opening eyes with light;
 When LOVE DIVINE, with brooding wings unfurl'd,
 Call'd from the rude abyss the living world. 
 "— LET THERE BE LIGHT!" proclaim'd the ALMIGHTY LORD,
 Astonish'd Chaos heard the potent word; —
 Through all his realms the kindling Ether runs,
 And the mass starts into a million suns;
 Earths round each sun with quick explosions burst,
 And second planets issue from the first;
 Bend, as they journey with projectile force,
 In bright ellipses their reluctant course;
 Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres centres roll,
 And form, self-balanced, one revolving Whole. 
— Onward they move amid their bright abode,
 Space without bound, THE BOSOM OF THEIR GOD! 

II. ETHEREAL POWERS! YOU chase the shooting stars,
 Or yoke the vollied lightenings to your cars,
 Cling round the aërial bow with prisms bright,
 And pleased untwist the sevenfold threads of light;
 Eve's silken couch with gorgeous tints adorn,
 And fire the arrowy throne of rising Morn. 
— OR, plum'd with flame, in gay battalion's spring
 To brighter regions borne on broader wing;
 Where lighter gases, circumfused on high,
 Form the vast concave of exterior sky;
 With airy lens the scatter'd rays assault,
 And bend the twilight round the dusky vault;
 Ride, with broad eye and scintillating hair,
 The rapid Fire-ball through the midnight air;
 Dart from the North on pale electric streams,
 Fringing Night's sable robe with transient beams. 
— OR rein the Planets in their swift careers,
 Gilding with borrow'd light their twinkling spheres;
 Alarm with comet-blaze the sapphire plain,
 The wan stars glimmering through its silver train;
 Gem the bright Zodiac, stud the glowing pole,
 Or give the Sun's phlogistic orb to roll. 

III. NYMPHS! YOUR fine forms with steps impassive mock
 Earth's vaulted roofs of adamantine rock;
 Round her still centre tread the burning soil,
 And watch the billowy Lavas, as they boil;
 Where, in basaltic caves imprison'd deep,
 Reluctant fires in dread suspension sleep;
 Or sphere on sphere in widening waves expand,
 And glad with genial warmth the incumbent land. 
So when the Mother-bird selects their food
 With curious bill, and feeds her callow brood;
 Warmth from her tender heart eternal springs,
 And pleased she clasps them with extended wings. 

 "You from deep cauldrons and unmeasured caves
 Blow flaming airs, or pour vitrescent waves;
 O'er shining oceans ray volcanic light,
 Or hurl innocuous embers to the night. —
 While with loud shouts to Etna Heccla calls,
 And Andes answers from his beacon'd walls;
 Sea-wilder'd crews the mountain-stars admire,
 And Beauty beams amid tremendous fire. 

 "Thus when of old, as mystic bards presume,
 Huge CYCLOPS dwelt in Etna's rocky womb,
 On thundering anvils rung their loud alarms,
 And leagued with VUCLAN forged immortal arms;
 Descending VENUS sought the dark abode,
 And sooth'd the labours of the grisly God. —
 While frowning Loves the threatening falchion wield,
 And tittering Graces peep behind the shield,
 With jointed mail their fairy limbs o'erwhelm,
 Or nod with pausing step the plumed helm;
 With radiant eye She view'd the boiling ore,
 Heard undismay'd the breathing bellows roar,
 Admired their sinewy arms, and shoulders bare,
 And ponderous hammers lifted high in air,
 With smiles celestial bless'd their dazzled sight,
 And Beauty blazed amid infernal night. 

IV. " EFFULGENT MAIDS! YOU round deciduous day,
 Tressed with soft beams, your glittering bands array;
 On Earth's cold bosom, as the Sun retires,
 Confine with folds of air the lingering fires;
 O'er Eve's pale forms diffuse phosphoric light,
 And deck with lambent flames the shrine of Night. 
So, warm'd and kindled by meridian skies,
 And view'd in darkness with dilated eyes,
 BOLOGNA's chalks with saint ignition blaze,
 BECCARI's shells emit prismatic rays. 
So to the sacred Sun in MEMNON'S fane,
 Spontaneous concords quired the matin strain;
 — Touch'd by his orient beam, responsive rings
 The living lyre, and vibrates all it's strings;
 Accordant ailes the tender tones prolong,
 And holy echoes swell the adoring song. 

 "You with light Gas the lamps nocturnal feed,
 Which dance and glimmer o'er the marshy mead;
 Shine round Calendula at twilight hours,
 And tip with silver all her saffron flowers;
 Warm on her mossy couch the radiant Worm,
 Guard from cold dews her love-illumin'd form,
 From leaf to leaf conduct the virgin light,
 Star of the earth, and diamond of the night. 
You bid in air the tropic Beetle burn,
 And fill with golden flame his winged urn;
 Or gild the surge with infect-sparks, that swarm
 Round the bright oar, the kindling prow alarm;
 Or arm in waves, electric in his ire,
 The dread Gymnotus with ethereal fire, —
 Onward his course with waving tail he helms,
 And mimic lightenings scare the watery realms,
 So, when with bristling plumes the Bird of JOVE
 Vindictive leaves the argent fields above,
 Borne on broad wings the guilty world he awes,
 And grasps the lightening in his shining claws. 

V. 1.  "NYMPHS! YOUR soft smiles uncultur'd man subdued,
 And charm'd the Savage from his native wood;
 You, while amazed his hurrying Hords retire
 From the fell havoc of devouring FIRE,
 Taught, the first Art! with piny rods to raise
 By quick attrition the domestic blaze,
 Fan with soft breath, with kindling leaves provide,
 And list the dread Destroyer on his side. 
So, with bright wreath of serpent-tresses crown'd,
 Severe in beauty, young MEDUSA frown'd;
 Erewhile subdued, round WISDOM'S Aegis roll'd
 Hiss'd the dread snakes, and flam'd in burnish'd gold;
 Flash'd on her brandish'd arm the immortal shield,
 And Terror lighten'd o'er the dazzled field. 

2. NYMPHS! YOU disjoin, unite, condense, expand,
 And give new wonders to the Chemist's hand;
 On tepid clouds of rising steam aspire,
 Or fix in sulphur all it's solid fire;
 With boundless spring elastic airs unfold,
 Or fill the fine vacuities of gold;
 With sudden flash vitrescent sparks reveal,
 By fierce collision from the flint and steel;
 Or mark with shining letters KUNKEL's name
 In the pale Phosphor's self-consuming flame. 
So the chaste heart of some enchanted Maid
 Shines with insidious light, by Love betray'd;
 Round her pale bosom plays the young Desire,
 And slow she wastes by self-consuming fire. 

3.  "You taught mysterious BACON to explore
 Metallic veins, and part the dross from ore;
 With sylvan coal in whirling mills combine
 The crystal'd nitre, and the sulphurous minè;
 Through wiry nets the black diffusion strain,
 And close an airy ocean in a grain. —
 Pent in dark chambers of cylindric brass,
 Slumbers in grim repose the sooty mass;
 Lit by the brilliant spark, from grain to grain
 Runs the quick fire along the kindling train;
 On the pain'd ear-drum bursts the sudden crash,
 Starts the red flame, and Death pursues the flash. —
 Fear's feeble hand directs the fiery darts,
 And Strength and Courage yield to chemic arts;
 Guilt with pale brow the mimic thunder owns,
 And Tyrants tremble on their blood-stain'd thrones. 

VI. NYMPHS! YOU erewhile on simmering cauldrons play'd,
 And call'd delighted SAVERY to your aid;
 Bade round the youth explosive STEAM aspire
 In gathering clouds, and wing'd the wave with fire;
 Bade with cold streams the quick expansion stop,
 And sunk the immense of vapour to a drop. —
 Press'd by the ponderous air the Piston falls
 Resistless, sliding through it's iron walls;
 Quick moves the balanced beam, of giant-birth,
 Wields his large limbs, and nodding shakes the earth. 

 "The Giant-Power from earth's remotest caves
 Lifts with strong arm her dark reluctant waves;
 Each cavern'd rock, and hidden den explores,
 Drags her dark coals, and digs her shining ores. —
 Next, in close cells of ribbed oak confined,
 Gale after gale, He crowds the struggling wind;
 The imprison'd storms through brazen nostrils roar,
 Fan the white flame, and fuse the sparkling ore. 
Here high in air the rising stream He pours
 To clay-built cisterns, or to lead-lined towers;
 Fresh through a thousand pipes the wave distils,
 And thirsty cities drink the exuberant rills. —
 There the vast mill-stone with inebriate whirl
 On trembling floors his forceful fingers twirl. 
Whose flinty teeth the golden harvests grind,
 Feast without blood! and nourish human-kind. 

 "Now his hard hands on Mona's rifted crest,
 Bosom'd in rock, her azure ores arrest;
 With iron lips his rapid rollers seize
 The lengthening bars, in thin expansion squeeze;
 Descending screws with ponderous fly-wheels wound
 The tawny plates, the new medallions round;
 Hard dyes of steel the cupreous circles cramp,
 And with quick fall his massy hammers stamp. 
The Harp, the Lily and the Lion join,
 And GEORGE and BRITAIN guard the sterling coin. 

 "Soon shall thy arm, UNCONQUER'D STEAM! afar
 Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
 Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
 The flying-chariot through the fields of air. 
— Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,
 Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move;
 Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping crowd,
 And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud. 

 "So mighty HERCULES o'er many a clime
 Waved his vast mace in Virtue's cause sublime,
 Unmeasured strength with early art combined,
 Awed, served, protected, and amazed mankind. —
 First two dread Snakes at JUNO's vengeful nod
 Climb'd round the cradle of the sleeping God;
 Waked by the shrilling hiss, and rustling sound,
 And shrieks of fair attendants trembling round,
 Their gasping throats with clenching hands he holds;
 And Death untwists their convoluted folds. 
Next in red torrents from her sevenfold heads
 Fell HYDRA's blood on Lerna's lake he sheds;
 Grasps ACHELOUS with resistless force,
 And drags the roaring River to his course;
 Binds with loud bellowing and with hideous yell
 The monster Bull, and threefold Dog of Hell. 

 "Then, where Nemea's howling forests wave,
 He drives the Lion to his dusky cave;
 Seized by the throat the growling fiend disarms,
 And tears his gaping jaws with sinewy arms;
 Lifts proud ANTEUS from his mother-plains,
 And with strong grasp the struggling Giant strains;
 Back falls his fainting head, and clammy hair,
 Writhe his weak limbs, and flits his life in air; —
 By steps reverted o'er the blood-dropp'd fen
 He tracks huge CACUS to his murderous den;
 Where breathing flames through brazen lips he fled,
 And shakes the rock-roof'd cavern o'er his head. 

 "Last with wide arms the solid earth He tears,
 Piles rock on rock, on mountain mountain rears;
 Heaves up huge ABYLA on Afric's sand,
 Crowns with high CALPE Europe's saliant strand,
 Crests with opposing towers the splendid scene,
 And pours from urns immense the sea between. —
 — Loud o'er her whirling flood Charybdis roars,
 Affrighted Scylla bellows round his shores,
 Vesuvio groans through all his echoing caves,
 And Etna thunders o'er the insurgent waves. 

VII. 1. NYMPHS! YOUR fine hands ethereal floods amass
 From the warm cushion, and the whirling glass;
 Beard the bright cylinder with golden wire,
 And circumfuse the gravitating fire. 
Cold from each point cerulean lustres gleam,
 Or shoot in air the scintillating stream. 
So, borne on brazen talons, watch'd of old
 The sleepless dragon o'er his fruits of gold;
 Bright beam'd his scales, his eye-balls blazed with ire,
 And his wide nostrils breath'd inchanted fire. 
You bid gold-leaves, in crystal lantherns held,
 Approach attracted, and recede repel'd;
 While paper-nymphs instinct with motion rise,
 And dancing fauns the admiring Sage surprize. 
OR, if on wax some fearless Beauty stand,
 And touch the sparkling rod with graceful hand;
 Through her fine limbs the mimic lightnings dart,
 And flames innocuous eddy round her heart;
 O'er her fair brow the kindling lustres glare,
 Blue rays diverging from her bristling hair;
 While some fond Youth the kiss ethereal sips. 
And soft fires issue from their meeting lips. 
So round the virgin Saint in silver streams
 The holy Halo shoots it's arrowy beams. 

 "You crowd in coated jars the denser fire,
 Pierce the thin glass, and fuse the blazing wire;
 Or dart the red flash through the circling band
 Of youths and timorous damsels, hand in hand. 
— Starts the quick Ether through the fibre-trains
 Of dancing arteries, and of tingling veins,
 Goads each fine nerve, with new sensation thrill'd,
 Bends the reluctant limbs with power unwill'd;
 Palsy's cold hands the fierce concussion own,
 And Life clings trembling on her tottering throne. —
 So from dark clouds the playful lightning springs,
 Rives the firm oak, or prints the Fairy-rings. 

2. NYMPHS! on that day YE shed from lucid eyes. 
Celestial tears, and breathed ethereal sighs! 
When RICHMAN rear'd, by fearless haste betray'd,
 The wiry rod in Nieva's fatal shade; —
 Clouds o'er the Sage, with fringed skirts succeed,
 Flash follows flash, the warning corks recede;
 Near and more near He ey'd with fond amaze
 The silver streams, and watch'd the saphire blaze;
 Then burst the steel, the dart electric sped,
 And the bold Sage lay number'd with the dead! —
 NYMPHS! on that day YE shed from lucid eyes
 Celestial tears, and breathed ethereal sighs! 

3.  "You led your FRANKLIN to your glazed retreats,
 Your air-built castles, and your silken seats;
 Bade his bold arm invade the lowering sky,
 And seize the tiptoe lightnings, ere they fly;
 O'er the young Sage your mystic mantle spread,
 And wreath'd the crown electric round his head. —
 Thus when on wanton wing intrepid LOVE
 Snatch'd the raised lightning from the arm of JOVE;
 Quick o'er his knee the triple bolt He bent,
 The cluster'd darts and forky arrows rent,
 Snapp'd with illumin'd hands each flaming shaft,
 His tingling fingers shook, and stamp'd, and laugh'd;
 Bright o'er the floor the scatter'd fragments blaz'd,
 And Gods retreating trembled as they gaz'd;
 The immortal Sire, indulgent to his child,
 Bow'd his ambrosial locks, and Heaven relenting smiled. 

VIII.  "When Air's pure essence joins the vital flood,
 And with phosphoric Acid dyes the blood,
 YOUR VIRGIN TRAINS the transient HEAT dispart,
 And lead the soft combustion round the heart;
 Life's holy lamp with fires successive feed,
 From the crown'd forehead to the prostrate weed,
 From Earth's proud realms to all that swim or sweep
 The yielding ether or tumultuous deep. 
You swell the bulb beneath the heaving lawn,
 Brood the live seed, unfold the bursting spawn;
 Nurse with soft lap, and warm with fragrant breath
 The embryon panting in the arms of Death;
 Youth's vivid eye with living light adorn,
 And fire the rising blush of Beauty's golden morn. 

 "Thus when the Egg of Night, on Chaos hurl'd,
 Burst, and disclosed the cradle of the world;
 First from the gaping shell refulgent sprung
 IMMORTAL LOVE, his bow celestial strung; —
 O'er the wide waste his gaudy wings unfold,
 Beam his soft smiles, and wave his curls of gold; —
 With silver darts He pierced the kindling frame,
 And lit with torch divine the ever-living flame. " 

IX. THE GODDESS paused, admired with conscious pride
 The effulgent legions marshal'd by her side,
 Forms sphered in fire with trembling light array'd,
 Ens without weight, and substance without shade;
 And, while tumultuous joy her bosom warms,
 Waves her white hand, and calls her hosts to arms,

 "Unite, ILLUSTRIOUS NYMPHS! your radiant powers,
 Call from their long repose the VERNAL HOURS. 
Wake with soft touch, with rosy hands unbind
 The struggling pinions of the WESTERN WIND;
 Chafe his wan cheeks, his ruffled plumes repair,
 And wring the rain-drops from his tangled hair. 
Blaze round each frosted rill, or stagnant wave,
 And charm the NAIAD from her silent cave;
 Where, shrined in ice, like NIOBE she mourns,
 And clasps with hoary arms her empty urns. 
Call your bright myriads, trooping from afar,
 With beamy helms, and glittering shafts of war;
 In phalanx firm the FIEND OF FROST assail,
 Break his white towers, and pierce his crystal mail;
 To Zembla's moon-bright coasts the Tyrant bear,
 And chain him howling to the Northern Bear. 

 "So when enormous GRAMPUS, issuing forth
 From the pale regions of the icy North;
 Waves his broad tail, and opes his ribbed mouth,
 And seeks on winnowing fin the breezy South;
 From towns deserted rush the breathless hosts,
 Swarm round the hills, and darken all the coasts;
 Boats follow boats along the shouting tides,
 And spears and javelins pierce his blubbery sides;
 Now the bold Sailor, raised on pointed toe,
 Whirls the wing'd harpoon on the slimy foe;
 Quick sinks the monster in his oozy bed,
 The blood-stain'd surges circling o'er his head,
 Steers to the frozen pole his wonted track,
 And bears the iron tempest on his back. 

X. "On wings of flame, ETHEREAL VIRGINS! sweep
 O'er Earth's fair bosom, and complacent deep;
 Where dwell my vegetative realms benumb'd,
 In buds imprison'd, or in bulbs intomb'd,
 Pervade, PELLUCID FORMS! their cold retreat,
 Ray from bright urns your viewless floods of heat;
 From earth's deep wastes electric torrents pour,
 Or shed from heaven the scintillating shower;
 Pierce the dull root, relax its fibre-trains,
 Thaw the thick blood, which lingers in its veins;
 Melt with warm breath the fragrant gums, that bind
 The expanding foliage in its scaly rind;
 And as in air the laughing leaflets play,
 And turn their shining bosoms to the ray,
 NYMPHS! with sweet smile each opening flower invite,
 And on its damask eyelids pour the light. 

 "So shall my pines, Canadian wilds that shade,
 Where no bold step has pierc'd the tangled glade,
 High-towering palms, that part the Southern flood
 With shadowy isles and continents of wood,
 Oaks, whose broad antlers crest Britannia's plain,
 Or bear her thunders o'er the conquer'd main,
 Shout, as you pass, inhale the genial skies,
 And bask and brighten in your beamy eyes;
 Bow their white heads, admire the changing clime,
 Shake from their candied trunks the tinkling rime;
 With bursting buds their wrinkled barks adorn,
 And wed the timorous floret to her thorn;
 Deep strike their roots, their lengthening tops revive,
 And all my world of foliage wave, alive. 

 "Thus with Hermetic art the ADEPT combines
 The royal acid with cobaltic mines;
 Marks with quick pen, in lines unseen portrayed,
 The blushing mead, green dell, and dusky glade;
 Shades with pellucid clouds the tintless field,
 And all the future Group exists conceal'd;
 Till waked by fire the dawning tablet glows,
 Green springs the herb, the purple floret blows,
 Hills vales and woods in bright succession rise,
 And all the living landscape charms his eyes. 

IX.  "With crest of gold should sultry SIRIUS glare,
 And with his kindling tresses scorch the air;
 With points of flame the shafts of Summer arm,
 And burn the beauties he designs to warm; —
 — So erst when JOVE his oath extorted mourn'd,
 And clad in glory to the Fair return'd;
 While Loves at forky bolts their torches light,
 And resting lightnings gild the car of Night;
 His blazing form the dazzled Maid admir'd,
 Met with fond lips, and in his arms expir'd; —
 NYMPHS! on light pinion lead your banner'd hosts
 High o'er the cliffs of ORKNEY's gulphy coasts;
 Leave on your left the red volcanic light,
 Which HECCLA lifts amid the dusky night;
 Mark on the right the DOFRINE's snow-capt brow,
 Where whirling MAELSTROME roars and foams below;
 Watch with unmoving eye, where CEPHEUS bends
 His triple crown, his scepter'd hand extends;
 Where studs CASSIOPE with stars unknown
 Her golden chair, and gems her sapphire zone;
 Where with vast convolution DRACO holds
 The ecliptic axis in his scaly folds,
 O'er half the skies his neck enormous rears,
 And with immense meanders parts the BEARS;
 Onward, the kindred BEARS with footstep rude
 Dance round the Pole, pursuing and pursued. 

 "There in her azure coif and starry stole,
 Grey TWILIGHT sits, and rules the slumbering Pole;
 Bends the pale moon-beams round the sparkling coast,
 And strews with livid hands eternal frost. 
There, NYMPHS! alight, array your dazzling powers,
 With sudden march alarm the torpid Hours;
 On ice-built isles expand a thousand sails,
 Hinge the strong helms, and catch the frozen gales;
 The winged rocks to feverish climates guide,
 Where fainting Zephyrs pant upon the tide;
 Pass, where to CEUTA CALPE's thunder roars,
 And answering echoes shake the kindred shores;
 Pass, where with palmy plumes CANARY smiles,
 And in her silver girdle binds her isles;
 Onward, where NIGER's dusky Naiad laves
 A thousand kingdoms with prolific waves,
 Or leads o'er golden sands her threefold train
 In steamy channels to the fervid main,
 While swarthy nations croud the sultry coast,
 Drink the fresh breeze, and hail the floating Frost,
 NYMPHS! veil'd in mist, the melting treasures steer,
 And cool with arctic snows the tropic year. 
So from the burning Line by Monsoons driven
 Clouds sail in squadrons o'er the darken'd heaven;
 Wide wastes of sand the gelid gales pervade,
 And ocean cools beneath the moving shade. 

XII. Should SOLSTICE, stalking through the sickening bowers,
 Suck the warm dew-drops, lap the falling showers;
 Kneel with parch'd lip, and bending from it's brink
 From dripping palm the scanty river drink;
 NYMPHS! o'er the soil ten thousand points erect,
 And high in air the electric flame collect. 
Soon shall dark mists with self-attraction shroud
 The blazing day, and sail in wilds of cloud;
 Each silvery Flower the streams aerial quaff,
 Bow her sweet head, and infant Harvest laugh. 

 "Thus when ELIJA mark'd from Carmel's brow
 In bright expanse the briny flood below;
 Roll'd his red eyes amid the scorching air,
 Smote his firm breast, and breathed his ardent prayer;
 High in the midst a massy altar stood,
 And slaughter'd offerings press'd the piles of wood;
 While ISRAEL's chiefs the sacred hill surround,
 And famish'd armies crowd the dusty ground;
 While proud Idolatry was leagued with dearth,
 And wither'd famine swept the desert earth. —
"OH, MIGHTY LORD! thy woe-worn servant hear,
 "Who calls thy name in agony of prayer;
"Thy fanes dishonour'd, and thy prophets slain,
 "Lo! I alone survive of all thy train! —
"Oh send from heaven thy sacred fire, — and pour
 "O'er the parch'd land the salutary shower, —
"So shall thy Priest thy erring flock recal, —
 "And speak in thunder," THOU ART LORD OF ALL. — "
He cried, and kneeling on the mountain-sands,
 Stretch'd high in air his supplicating hands. 
— Descending flames the dusky shrine illume;
 Fire the wet wood, the sacred bull consume;
 Wing'd from the sea the gathering mists arise,
 And floating waters darken all the skies;
 The King with shifted reins his chariot bends,
 And wide o'er earth the airy flood descends;
 With mingling cries dispersing hosts applaud,
 And shouting nations own THE LIVING GOD." 
The GODDESS ceased, — the exulting tribes obey,
 Start from the soil, and win their airy way;
 The vaulted skies with streams of transient rays
 Shine, as they pass, and earth and ocean blaze. 
So from fierce wars when lawless Monarch's cease,
 Or Liberty returns with laurel'd Peace;
 Bright fly the sparks, the colour'd lustres burn,
 Flash follows flash, and flame-wing'd circles turn;
 Blue serpents sweep along the dusky air,
 Imp'd by long trains of scintillating hair;
 Red rockets rise, loud cracks are heard on high,
 And showers of stars rush headlong from the sky,
 Burst, as in silver lines they hiss along,
 And the quick flash unfolds the gazing throng. 

[CANTO II.]

Argument of the Second Canto.

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

CANTO II.

AND NOW THE GODDESS with attention sweet
 Turns to the GNOMES, that circle round her feet;
 Orb within orb approach the marshal'd trains,
 And pigmy legions darken all the plains;
 Thrice shout with silver tones the applauding bands,
 Bow, ere She speaks, and clap their fairy hands. 
So the tall grass, when noon-tide zephyr blows,
 Bends it's green blades in undulating rows;
 Wide o'er the fields the billowy tumult spreads,
 And rustling harvests bow their golden heads. 

I. "GNOMES! YOUR bright forms, presiding at her birth,
 Clung in fond squadrons round the new-born EARTH;
 When high in ether, with explosion dire,
 From the deep craters of his realms of fire,
 The whirling Sun this ponderous planet hurl'd,
 And gave the astonish'd void another world. 
When from it's vaporous air, condensed by cold,
 Descending torrents into oceans roll'd;
 And fierce attraction with relentless force
 Bent the reluctant wanderer to it's course. 

 "Where yet the Bull with diamond-eye adorns
 The Spring's fair forehead, and with golden horns;
 Where yet the Lion climbs the ethereal plain,
 And shakes the Summer from his radiant mane;
 Where Libra lifts her airy arm, and weighs,
 Poised in her silver ballance, nights and days;
 With paler lustres where Aquarius burns,
 And showers the still snow from his hoary urns;
 YOUR ardent troops pursued the flying sphere,
 Circling the starry girdle of the year;
 While sweet vicissitudes of day and clime
 Mark'd the new annals of enascent Time. 

II.  "YOU trod with printless step Earth's tender globe,
 While Ocean wrap'd it in his azure robe;
 Beneath his waves her hardening strata spread,
 Raised her Primeval Islands from his bed,
 Stretch'd her wide lawns, and sunk her winding dells,
 And deck'd her shores with corals, pearls, and shells. 

 "O'er those blest isles no ice-crown'd mountains tower'd,
 No lightning darted, and no tempests lower'd;
 Soft fell the vesper-drops, condensed below,
 Or bent in air the rain-refracted bow;
 Sweet breathed the zephyrs, just perceiv'd and lost;
 And brineless billows only kiss'd the coast;
 Round the bright zodiac danced the vernal hours,
 And Peace, the Cherub, dwelt in mortal bowers! 
So young DIONE, nursed beneath the waves,
 And rock'd by Nereids in their coral caves,
 Charm'd the blue sisterhood with playful wiles,
 Lisp'd her sweet tones, and tried her tender smiles. 
Then, on her beryl throne by Triton's borne,
 Bright rose the Goddess like the Star of morn;
 When with soft fires the milky dawn He leads,
 And wakes to life and love the laughing meads; —
 With rosy fingers, as uncurl'd they hung
 Round her fair brow, her golden locks she wrung;
 O'er the smooth surge on silver sandals stood,
 And look'd enchantment on the dazzled flood. —
 The bright drops, rolling from her lifted arms,
 In slow meanders wander o'er her charms,
 Seek round her snowy neck their lucid track,
 Pearl her white shoulders, gem her ivory back,
 Round her fine waist and swelling bosom swim,
 And star with glittering brine each crystal limb. —
 — The immortal form enamour'd Nature hail'd,
 And Beauty blazed to heaven and earth, unvail'd. 

III.  "You! who then, kindling after many an age,
 Saw with new fires the first Volcano rage,
 O'er smouldering heaps of livid sulphur swell
 At Earth's firm centre, and distend her shell,
 Saw at each opening cleft the furnace glow,
 And seas rush headlong on the gulphs below. —
 GNOMES! how you shriek'd! when through the troubled air
 Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war;
 When rose the continents, and sunk the main,
 And Earth's huge sphere exploding burst in twain. —
 GNOMES! how you gazed! when from her wounded side
 Where now the South-Sea heaves its waste of tide,
 Rose on swift wheels the MOON's refulgent car,
 Circling the solar orb, a sister-star,
 Dimpled with vales, with shining hills emboss'd,
 And roll'd round Earth her airless realms of frost. 

 "GNOMES! how you trembled! with the dreadful force
 When Earth recoiling stagger'd from her course;
 When, as her Line in slower circles spun,
 And her shock'd axis nodded from the sun,
 With dreadful march the accumulated main
 Swept her vast wrecks of mountain, vale, and plain;
 And, while new tides their shouting floods unite,
 And hail their Queen, fair Regent of the night;
 Chain'd to one centre whirl'd the kindred spheres,
 And mark'd with lunar cycles solar years. 

IV.  "GNOMES! YOU then bade dissolving SHELLS distil
 From the loose summits of each shatter'd hill,
 To each fine pore and dark interstice flow,
 And fill with liquid chalk the mass below. 
Whence sparry forms in dusky caverns gleam
 With borrow'd light, and twice refract the beam;
 While in white beds congealing rocks beneath
 Court the nice chissel, and desire to breathe. —

 "Hence wearied HERCULES in marble rears
 His languid limbs, and rests a thousand years;
 Still, as he leans, shall young ANTINOUS please
 With careless grace, and unaffected ease;
 Onward with loftier step APOLLO spring,
 And launch the unerring arrow from the string;
 In Beauty's bashful form, the veil unfurl'd,
 Ideal VENUS win the gazing world. 
Hence on ROUBILIAC's tomb shall Fame sublime
 Wave her triumphant wings, and conquer Time;
 Long with soft touch shall DAMER's chissel charm,
 With grace delight us, and with beauty warm;

FOSTER's fine form shall hearts unborn engage,
 And MELBOURN's smile enchant another age. 

V. GNOMES! YOU then taught transuding dews to pass
 Through time-fall'n woods, and root-inwove morass
 Age after age; and with filtration fine
 Dispart, from earths and sulphurs, the saline. 

1.  "HENCE with diffusive SALT old Ocean steeps
 His emerald shallows, and his sapphire deeps. 
Oft in wide lakes, around their warmer brim
 In hollow pyramids the crystals swim;
 Or, fused by earth-born fires, in cubic blocks
 Shoot their white forms, and harden into rocks. 

 "Thus, cavern'd round in CRACOW's mighty mines,
 With crystal walls a gorgeous city shines;
 Scoop'd in the briny rock long streets extend
 Their hoary course, and glittering domes ascend;
 Down the bright steeps, emerging into day,
 Impetuous fountains burst their headlong way,
 O'er milk-white vales in ivory channels spread,
 And wondering seek their subterraneous bed. 
Form'd in pellucid salt with chissel nice,
 The pale lamp glimmering through the sculptured ice,
 With wild reverted eyes fair LOTTA stands,
 And spreads to Heaven, in vain, her glassy hands;
 Cold dews condense upon her pearly breast,
 And the big tear rolls lucid down her vest. 
Far gleaming o'er the town transparent fanes
 Rear their white towers, and wave their golden vanes;
 Long lines of lustres pour their trembling rays,
 And the bright vault returns the mingled blaze. 

2.  "HENCE orient NITRE owes it's sparkling birth,
 And with prismatic crystals gems the earth,
 O'er tottering domes in filmy foliage crawls,
 Or frosts with branching plumes the mouldering walls. 
As woos Azotic Gas the virgin Air,
 And veils in crimson clouds the yielding Fair,
 Indignant Fire the treacherous courtship flies,
 Waves his light wing, and mingles with the skies. 

 "So Beauty's GODDESS, warm with new desire,
 Left, on her silver wheels, the GOD of Fire;
 Her faithless charms to fiercer MARS resign'd,
 Met with fond lips, with wanton arms intwin'd. 
— Indignant VULCAN eyed the parting Fair,
 And watch'd with jealous step the guilty pair;
 O'er his broad neck a wiry net he flung,
 Quick as he strode, the tinkling meshes rung;
 Fine as the spider's flimsy thread He wove
 The immortal toil to lime illicit love;
 Steel were the knots, and steel the twisted thong,
 Ring link'd in ring, indissolubly strong;
 On viewless hooks along the fretted roof
 He hung, unseen, the inextricable woof. —
 — Quick start the springs, the webs pellucid spread,
 And lock the embracing Lovers on their bed;
 Fierce with loud taunts vindictive VULCAN springs,
 Tries all the bolts, and tightens all the strings,
 Shakes with incessant shouts the bright abodes,
 Claps his rude hands, and calls the festive Gods. —
 — With spreading palms the alarmed Goddess tries
 To veil her beauties from celestial eyes,
 Writhes her fair limbs, the slender ringlets strains,
 And bids her Loves untie the obdurate chains;
 Soft swells her panting bosom, as she turns,
 And her flush'd cheek with brighter blushes burns. 
Majestic grief the Queen of Heaven avows,
 And chaste Minerva hides her helmed brows;
 Attendant Nymphs with bashful eyes askance
 Steal of intangled MARS a transient glance;
 Surrounding Gods the circling nectar quaff,
 Gaze on the Fair, and envy as they laugh. 

3.  "HENCE dusky IRON sleeps in dark abodes,
 And ferny foliage nestles in the nodes;
 Till with wide lungs the panting bellows blow,
 And waked by fire the glittering torrents flow;
 — Quick whirls the wheel, the ponderous hammer falls,
 Loud anvils ring amid the trembling walls,
 Strokes follow strokes, the sparkling ingot shines,
 Flows the red slag, the lengthening bar refines;
 Cold waves, immersed, the glowing mass congeal,
 And turn to adamant the hissing Steel. 

 "Last MICHELL's hands with touch of potent charm
 The polish'd rods with powers magnetic arm;
 With points directed to the polar stars
 In one long line extend the temper'd bars;
 Then thrice and thrice with steady eye he guides,
 And o'er the adhesive train the magnet slides;
 The obedient Steel with living instinct moves,
 And veers for ever to the pole it loves. 

 "Hail, adamantine STEEL! magnetic Lord! 
King of the prow, the plowshare, and the sword! 
True to the pole, by thee the pilot guides
 His steady helm amid the struggling tides,
 Braves with broad sail the immeasurable sea,
 Cleaves the dark air, and asks no star but Thee. —
 By thee the plowshare rends the matted plain,
 Inhumes in level rows the living grain;
 Intrusive forests quit the cultured ground,
 And Ceres laughs with golden fillets crown'd. —
 O'er restless realms when scowling Discord flings
 Her snakes, and loud the din of battle rings;
 Expiring Strength, and vanquish'd Courage feel
 Thy arm resistless, adamantine STEEL! 

4.  "HENCE in fine streams diffusive ACIDS flow,
 Or wing'd with fire o'er Earth's fair bosom blow;
 Transmute to glittering Flints her chalky lands,
 Or sink on Ocean's bed in countless Sands. 
Hence silvery Selenite her chrystal moulds,
 And soft Asbestus smooths his silky folds;
 His cubic forms phosphoric Fluor prints,
 Or rays in spheres his amethystine tints. 
Soft cobweb clouds transparent Onyx spreads,
 And playful Agates weave their colour'd threads;

Gay pictured Mochoes glow with landscape-dyes,
 And changeful Opals roll their lucid eyes;
 Blue lambent light around the Sapphire plays,
 Bright Rubies blush, and living Diamonds blaze. 

 "Thus, for attractive earth, inconstant JOVE
 Mask'd in new shapes forsook his realms above. —
 First her sweet eyes his Eagle-form beguiles,
 And HEBE feeds him with ambrosial smiles;
 Next the chang'd God a Cygnet's down assumes,
 And playful LEDA smooths his glossy plumes;
 Then glides a silver Serpent, treacherous guest! 
And fair OLYMPIA folds him in her breast;
 Now lows a milk-white Bull on Afric's strand,
 And crops with dancing head the daisy'd land. —
 With rosy wreathes EUROPA's hand adorns
 His fringed forehead, and his pearly horns;
 Light on his back the sportive Damsel bounds,
 And pleased he moves along the flowery grounds;
 Bears with slow step his beauteous prize aloof,
 Dips in the lucid flood his ivory hoof;
 Then wets his velvet knees, and wading laves
 His silky sides amid the dimpling waves. 
While her fond train with beckoning hands deplore,
 Strain their blue eyes, and shriek along the shore;
 Beneath her robe she draws her snowy feet,
 And, half-reclining on her ermine seat,
 Round his raised neck her radiant arms she throws,
 And rests her fair cheek on his curled brows;
 Her yellow tresses wave on wanton gales,
 And high in air her azure mantle sails. 
— Onward He moves, applauding Cupids guide,
 And skim on shooting wing the shining tide;
 Emerging Triton's leave their coral caves,
 Sound their loud conchs, and smooth the circling waves,
 Surround the timorous Beauty, as she swims,
 And gaze enamour'd on her silver limbs. 
— Now Europe's shadowy shores with loud acclaim
 Hail the fair fugitive, and shout her name;
 Soft echoes warble, whispering forests nod,
 And conscious Nature owns the present God. 
— Changed from the Bull, the rapturous God assumes
 Immortal youth, with glow celestial blooms,
 With lenient words her virgin fears disarms,
 And clasps the yielding Beauty in his arms;
 Whence Kings and Heroes own illustrious birth,
 Guards of mankind, and demigods on earth. 

VI.  "GNOMES! as you pass'd beneath the labouring soil,
 The guards and guides of Nature's chemic toil,
 YOU saw, deep-sepulchred in dusky realms,
 Which Earth's rock-ribbed ponderous vault o'erwhelms,
 With self-born fires the mass fermenting glow,
 And flame-wing'd sulphurs quit the earths below. 

I. "HENCE ductile CLAYS in wide expansion spread,
 Soft as the Cygnet's down, their snow-white bed;
 With yielding flakes successive forms reveal,
 And change obedient to the whirling wheel. 
— First CHINA's sons, with early art elate,
 Form'd the gay tea-pot, and the pictured plate;
 Saw with illumin'd brow and dazzled eyes
 In the red stove vitrescent colours rise;
 Speck'd her tall beakers with enamel'd stars,
 Her monster-josses, and gigantic jars;
 Smear'd her huge dragons with metallic hues,
 With golden purples, and cobaltic blues;
 Bade on wide hills her porcelain castles glare,
 And glazed Pagodas tremble in the air. 

 "ETRURIA! next beneath thy magic hands
 Glides the quick wheel, the plaistic clay expands,
 Nerved with fine touch, thy fingers (as it turns)
 Mark the nice bounds of vases, ewers, and urns;
 Round each fair form in lines immortal trace
 Uncopied Beauty, and ideal Grace. 

 "GNOMES! as you now dissect with hammers fine
 The granite-rock, the nodul'd flint calcine;
 Grind with strong arm, the circling chertz betwixt,
 Your pure Ka-o-lins and Pe-tun-tses mixt;
 O'er each red saggars burning cave preside,
 The keen-eyed Fire-Nymphs blazing by your side;
 And pleased on WEDGWOOD ray your partial smile,
 A new Etruria decks Britannia's isle. —
 Charm'd by your touch, the flint liquescent pours
 Through finer sieves, and falls in whiter showers;
 Charm'd by your touch, the kneaded clay refines,
 The biscuit hardens, the enamel shines;
 Each nicer mould a softer feature drinks,
 The bold Cameo speaks, the soft Intaglio thinks. 

 "To call the pearly drops from Pity's eye,
 Or stay Despair's disanimating sigh,
 Whether, O Friend of art! the gem you mould
 Rich with new taste, with antient virtue bold;
 Form the poor fetter'd SLAVE on bended knee
 From Britain's sons imploring to be free;
 Or with fair HOPE the brightening scenes improve,
 And cheer the dreary wastes at Sydney-cove;
 Or bid Mortality rejoice and mourn
 O'er the fine forms on PORTLAND's mystic urn. —

 "Here by fall'n columns and disjoin'd arcades,
 On mouldering stones, beneath deciduous shades,
 Sits HUMANKIND in hieroglyphic state,
 Serious, and pondering on their changeful state;
 While with inverted torch, and swimming eyes,
 Sinks the fair shade of MORTAL LIFE, and dies. 
There the pale GHOST through Death's wide portal bends
 His timid feet, the dusky steep descends;
 With smiles assuasive LOVE DIVINE invites,
 Guides on broad wing, with torch uplifted lights;
 IMMORTAL LIFE, her hand extending, courts
 The lingering form, his tottering step supports;
 Leads on to Pluto's realms the dreary way,
 And gives him trembling to Elysian day. 
Beneath, in sacred robes the PRIESTESS dress'd,
 The coif close-hooded, and the fluttering vest,
 With pointing finger guides the initiate youth,
 Unweaves the many-colour'd veil of Truth,
 Drives the profane from Mystery's bolted door,
 And Silence guards the Eleusinian lore. —

 "Whether, O Friend of Art! your gems derive
 Fine forms from Greece, and fabled Gods revive;
 Or bid from modern life the Portrait breathe,
 And bind round Honour's brow the laurel wreath;
 Buoyant shall sail, with Fame's historic page,
 Each fair medallion o'er the wrecks of age;
 Nor Time shall mar; nor steel, nor fire, nor fire, nor rust
 Touch the hard polish of the immortal bust. 

2.  "HENCE sable COAL his massy couch extends,
 And stars of gold the sparkling Pyrite blends;
 Hence dull-eyed Naphtha pours his pitchy streams,
 And Jet uncolour'd drinks the solar beams,
 Bright Amber shines on his electric throne,
 And adds ethereal lustres to his own. 
— Led by the phosphor-light, with daring tread
 Immortal FRANKLIN sought the fiery bed;
 Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds
 The seeds of Thunder in circumfluent clouds,
 Besieged with iron points his airy cell,
 And pierced the monster slumbering in the shell. 

 "So, born on sounding pinions to the WEST,
 When Tyrant-Power had built his eagle nest;
 While from his eyry shriek'd the famish'd brood,
 Clenched their sharp claws, and champ'd their beaks for blood,
 Immortal FRANKLIN watch'd the callow crew,
 And stabb'd the struggling Vampires, ere they flew. 
— The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran,
 Hill lighted hill, and man electrised man;
 Her heroes slain awhile COLUMBIA mourn'd,
 And crown'd with laurels LIBERTY return'd. 

 "The Warrior, LIBERTY, with bending sails
 Helm'd his bold course to fair HIBERNIA's vales; —
 Firm as he steps, along the shouting lands,
 Lo! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands;
 Sad Superstition wails her empire torn,
 Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn. 

 "Long had the Giant-form on GALLIA's plains
 Inglorious slept, unconscious of his chains;
 Round his large limbs were wound a thousand strings
 By the weak hands of Confessors and Kings;
 O're his closed eyes a triple veil was bound,
 And steely rivets lock'd him to the ground;
 While stern Bastile with iron cage inthralls
 His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls. 
— Touch'd by the patriot-flame, he rent amazed
 The flimsy bonds, and round and round him gazed;
 Starts up from earth, above the admiring throng
 Lifts his Colossal form, and towers along;
 High o'er his foes his hundred arms He rears,
 Plowshares his swords, and pruning hooks his spears;
 Calls to the Good and Brave with voice, that rolls
 Like Heaven's own thunder round the echoing poles;
 Gives to the winds his banner broad unfurl'd,
 And gathers in its shade the living world! 

VII.  "GNOMES! YOU then taught volcanic airs to force
 Through bubbling Lavas their resistless course,
 O'er the broad walls of rifted Granite climb,
 And pierce the rent roof of incumbent Lime,
 Round sparry caves metallic lustres fling,
 And bear phlogiston on their tepid wing. 

 "HENCE glows, refulgent Tin! thy chrystal grains,
 And tawny Copper shoots her azure veins;
 Zinc lines his fretted vault with sable ore,
 And dull Galena tessellates the floor;
 On vermil beds in Idria's mighty caves
 The living Silver rolls its ponderous waves;
 With gay refractions bright Platina shines,
 And studs with squander'd stars his dusky mines;
 Long threads of netted gold, and silvery darts,
 Inlay the Lazuli, and pierce the Quartz; —
 — Whence roof'd with silver beam'd PERU, of old,
 And hapless MEXICO was paved with gold. 

 "Heavens! on my sight what sanguine colours blaze! 
Spain's deathless shame! the crimes of modern days! 
When Avarice, shrouded in Religion's robe,
 Sail'd to the West, and slaughter'd half the globe;
 While Superstition, stalking by his side,
 Mock'd the loud groans, and lap'd the bloody tide;
 For sacred truths announced her frenzied dreams,
 And turn'd to night the sun's meridian beams. —
 Hear, oh, BRITANNIA! potent Queen of isles,
 On whom fair Art, and meek Religion smiles,
 Now AFRIC's coasts thy craftier sons invade
 With murder, rapine, theft, — and call it Trade!
 — The SLAVE, in chains, on supplicating knee,
 Spreads his wide arms, and lifts his eyes to Thee;
 With hunger pale, with wounds and toil oppress'd,
"ARE WE NOT BRETHREN? "sorrow choaks the rest; —
 — AIR! bear to heaven upon thy azure flood
 Their innocent cries! — EARTH! cover not their blood! 

VIII.  "When Heaven's dread justice smites in crimes o'ergrown
 The blood-nursed Tyrant on his purple throne,
 GNOMES! YOUR bold forms unnumber'd arms outstretch,
 And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch. —
 Thus when CAMBYSES led his barbarous hosts
 From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts,
 Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood,
 And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood;
 Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states,
 And pour'd destruction through her hundred gates;
 In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands,
 And swarming armies blacken'd all the lands,
 By Memphis these to ETHIOP's sultry plains,
 And those to HAMMON's sand-incircled fanes. —
 Slow as they pass'd, the indignant temples frown'd,
 Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground;
 Long ailes of Cypress waved their deepen'd glooms,
 And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs;
 Prophetic whispers breathed from SPHINX's tongue,
 And MEMNON's lyre with hollow murmurs rung;
 Burst from each pyramid expiring groans,
 And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones. —
 Day after day their deathful rout They steer,
 Lust in the van, and rapine in the rear. 

 "GNOMES! as they march'd, You hid the gather'd fruits,
 The bladed grass, sweet grains, and mealy roots;
 Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads,
 Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds;
 Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil,
 Stay'd with vindictive hands the scanty rill. —
 Loud o'er the camp the Fiend of Famine shrieks,
 Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks;
 O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand,
 And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand;
 Perch'd on her crest the Griffin Discord clings,
 And Giant Murder rides between her wings;
 Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill,
 And showers of tears in blended streams distil;
 High-poised in air her spiry neck she bends,
 Rolls her keen eye, her Dragon-claws extends,
 Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop
 With iron fangs the decimated troop. 

 "Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe,
 And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath;
 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise
 Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies,
 In red arcades the billowy plain surround,
 And stalking turrets dance upon the ground. 
— Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend,
 To Demon-Gods their knees unhallow'd bend,
 Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square,
 And now they front, and now they fly the war,
 Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries,
 Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot eyes. 
— GNOMES! o'er the waste YOU led your myriad powers,
 Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers! —
 Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,
 Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;
 Wave over wave the driving desert swims,
 Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs;
 Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,
 Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush, —
 Wheeling in air the winged islands fall,
 And one great earthy Ocean covers all! —
 Then ceased the storm, — NIGHT bow'd his Ethiop brow
 To earth, and listen'd to the groans below, —
 Grim HORROR shook, — awhile the living hill
 Heaved with convulsive throes, — and all was still! 

IX.  "GNOMES! whose fine forms, impassive as the air,
 Shrink with soft sympathy for human care;
 Who glide unseen, on printless slippers borne,
 Beneath the waving grass, and nodding corn;
 Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms,
 Where shadowy cowslips stretch their golden arms, —
 So mark'd on orreries in lucid signs,
 Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac shines;
 Borne on fine wires amid the pictured skies
 With ivory orbs the planets set and rise;
 Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd,
 And the sun twinkling whirls his rays of gold. —
 Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hosts,
 With spears and helmets glittering round the coasts;
 Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane,
 Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train;
 Watch, where proud Surges break their treacherous mounds,
 And sweep resistless o'er the cultured grounds;
 Such as erewhile, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain,
 Roll'd her rich ruins to the insatiate main;
 With piles and piers the ruffian waves engage,
 And bid indignant Ocean stay his rage. 

 "Where, girt with clouds, the rifted mountain yawns,
 And chills with length of shade the gelid lawns,
 Climb the rude steeps, the granite-cliffs surround,
 Pierce with steel points, with wooden wedges wound;
 Break into clays the soft volcanic slaggs,
 Or melt with acid airs the marble craggs;
 Crown the green summits with adventurous flocks,
 And charm with novel flowers the wondering rocks. 
— So when proud Rome the Afric Warrior braved,
 And high on Alps his crimson banner waved;
 While rocks on rocks their beetling brows oppose
 With piny forests, and unfathomed snows;
 Onward he march'd, to Latium's velvet ground
 With fires and acids burst the obdurate bound,
 Wide o'er her weeping vales destruction hurl'd,
 And shook the rising empire of the world. 

X. "Go, gentle GNOMES! resume your vernal toil,
 Seek my chill tribes, which sleep beneath the soil;
 On grey-moss banks, green meads, or furrow'd lands
 Spread the dark mould, white lime, and crumbling sands;
 Each bursting bud with healthier juices feed,
 Emerging scion, or awaken'd seed. 
So, in descending streams, the silver Chyle
 Streaks with white clouds the golden floods of bile;
 Through each nice valve the mingling currents glide,
 Join their fine rills, and swell the sanguine tide;
 Each countless cell, and viewless fibre seek,
 Nerve the strong arm, and tinge the blushing cheek. 

 "Oh, watch, where bosom'd in the teeming earth,
 Green swells the germ, impatient for its birth;
 Guard from rapacious worms its tender shoots,
 And drive the mining beetle from its roots;
 With ceaseless efforts rend the obdurate clay,
 And give my vegetable babes to day!
 — Thus when an Angel-form, in light array'd,
 Like HOWARD pierced the prison's noisome shade;
 Where chain'd to earth, with eyes to heaven upturn'd,
 The kneeling Saint in holy anguish mourn'd; —
 Ray'd from his lucid vest, and halo'd brow
 O'er the dark roof celestial lustres glow,
"PETER, arise! "with cheering voice He calls,
 And sounds seraphic echo round the walls;
 Locks, bolts, and chains his potent touch obey,
 And pleased he leads the dazzled Sage to day. 

XI.  "YOU! whose fine fingers fill the organic cells,
 With virgin earth, of woods and bones and shells;
 Mould with retractile glue their spongy beds,
 And stretch and strengthen all their fibre-threads. —
 Late when the mass obeys its changeful doom,
 And sinks to earth, its cradle and its tomb,
 GNOMES! with nice eye the slow solution watch,
 With fostering hand the parting atoms catch,
 Join in new forms, combine with life and sense,
 And guide and guard the transmigrating Ens. 

 "So when on Lebanon's sequester'd hight
 The fair ADONIS left the realms of light,
 Bow'd his bright locks, and, fated from his birth
 To change eternal, mingled with the earth; —
 With darker horror shook the conscious wood,
 Groan'd the sad gales, and rivers blush'd with blood;
 On cypress-boughs the Loves their quivers hung,
 Their arrows scatter'd, and their bows unstrung;
 And BEAUTY's GODDESS, bending o'er his bier,
 Breathed the soft sigh, and pour'd the tender tear. —
 Admiring PROSERPINE through dusky glades
 Led the fair phantom to Elysian shades,
 Clad with new form, with finer sense combined,
 And lit with purer flame the ethereal mind. 
— Erewhile, emerging from infernal night,
 The bright Assurgent rises into light,
 Leaves the drear chambers of the insatiate tomb,
 And shines and charms with renovated bloom. —
 While wondering Loves the bursting grave surround,
 And edge with meeting wings the yawning ground,
 Stretch their fair necks, and leaning o'er the brink
 View the pale regions of the dead, and shrink;
 Long with broad eyes ecstatic BEAUTY stands,
 Heaves her white bosom, spreads her waxen hands;
 Then with loud shriek the panting Youth alarms,
 "My Life! my Love! and springs into his arms." 

The GODDESS ceased, — the delegated throng
 O'er the wide plains delighted rush along;
 In dusky squadrons, and in shining groups,
 Hosts follow hosts, and troops succeed to troops;
 Scarce bears the bending grass the moving freight,
 And nodding florets bow beneath their weight. 
So when light clouds on airy pinions sail,
 Flit the soft shadows o'er the waving vale;
 Shade follows shade, as laughing Zephyrs drive,
 And all the chequer'd landscape seems alive. 

[CANTO III.]

Argument of the Third Canto.

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

CANTO III.

AGAIN the GODDESS speaks! — glad Echo swells
 The tuneful tones along her shadowy dells,
 Her wrinkling founts with soft vibration shakes,
 Curls her deep wells, and rimples all her lakes,
 Thrills each wide stream, Britannia's isle that laves,
 Her headlong cataracts, and circumfluent waves. 
— Thick as the dews, which deck the morning flowers,
 Or rain-drops twinkling in the sun-bright showers,
 Fair Nymphs, emerging in pellucid bands,
 Rise, as she turns, and whiten all the lands. 

I. "YOUR buoyant troops on dimpling ocean tread,
 Wafting the moist air from his oozy bed,
 AQUATIC NYMPHS! — YOU lead with viewless march
 The winged vapours up the aerial arch,
 On each broad cloud a thousand sails expand,
 And steer the shadowy treasure o'er the land,
 Through vernal skies the gathering drops diffuse,
 Plunge in soft rains, or sink in silver dews. —
 YOUR lucid bands condense with fingers chill
 The blue mist hovering round the gelid hill;
 In clay-form'd beds the trickling streams collect,
 Strain through white sands, through pebbly veins direct;
 Or point in rifted rocks their dubious way,
 And in each bubbling fountain rise to day. 

 "NYMPHS! YOU then guide, attendant from their source,
 The associate rills along their sinuous course;
 Float in bright squadrons by the willowy brink,
 Or circling slow in limpid eddies sink;
 Call from her crystal cave the Naiad-Nymph,
 Who hides her fine form in the passing lymph,
 And, as below she braids her hyaline hair,
 Eyes her soft smiles reflected in the air;
 Or sport in groups with River-Boys, that lave
 Their silken limbs amid the dashing wave;
 Pluck the pale primrose bending from its edge,
 Or tittering dance amid the whispering sedge. —

 "Onward you pass, the pine-capt hills divide,
 Or feed the golden harvests on their side;
 The wide-ribb'd arch with hurrying torrents fill,
 Shove the slow barge, or whirl the foaming mill. 
OR lead with beckoning hand the sparkling train
 Of refluent water to its parent main,
 And pleased revisit in their sea-moss vales
 Blue Nereid-forms array'd in shining scales,
 Shapes, whose broad oar the torpid wave impels,
 And Tritons bellowing through their twisted shells. 

 "So from the heart the sanguine stream distils,
 O'er Beauty's radiant shrine in vermil rills,
 Feeds each fine nerve, each slender hair pervades,
 The skins bright snow with living purple shades,
 Each dimpling cheek with warmer blushes dyes,
 Laughs on the lips, and lightens in the eyes. 
— Erewhile absorb'd, the vagrant globules swim
 From each fair feature, and proportion'd limb,
 Join'd in one trunk with deeper tint return
 To the warm concave of the vital urn. 

II. I. "AQUATIC MAIDS! YOU sway the mighty realms
 Of scale and shell, which Ocean overwhelms;
 As Night's pale Queen her rising orb reveals,
 And climbs the zenith with refulgent wheels,
 Car'd on the foam your glimmering legion rides,
 Your little tridents heave the dashing tides,
 Urge on the sounding shores their crystal course,
 Restrain their fury, or direct their force. 

2.  "NYMPHS! YOU Adorn, in glossy volumes roll'd,
 The gaudy conch with azure, green, and gold. 
YOU round Echinus ray his arrowy mail,
 Give the keel'd Nautilus his oar and sail;
 Firm to his rock with silver cords suspend
 The anchor'd Pinna, and his Cancer-friend;
 With worm-like beard his toothless lips array,
 And teach the unwieldy Sturgeon to betray. —
 Ambush'd in weeds, or sepulcher'd in sands,
 In dread repose He waits the scaly bands,
 Waves in red spires the living lures, and draws
 The unwary plunderers to his circling jaws,
 Eyes with grim joy the twinkling shoals beset,
 And clasps the quick inextricable net. 
YOU chase the warrior Shark, and cumberous Whale,
 And guard the Mermaid in her briny vale;
 Feed the live petals of her insect-flowers,
 Her shell-wrack gardens, and her sea-fan bowers;
 With ores and gems adorn her coral cell,
 And drop a pearl in every gaping shell. 

3.  "YOUR myriad trains o'er stagnant ocean's tow,
 Harness'd with gossamer, the loitering prow;
 Or with fine films, suspended o'er the deep,
 Of oil effusive lull the waves to sleep. 
YOU stay the flying bark, conceal'd beneath,
 Where living rocks of worm-built coral breathe;
 Meet fell TEREDO, as he mines the keel
 With beaked head, and break his lips of steel;
 Turn the broad helm, the fluttering canvas urge
 From MAELSTROME's fierce innavigable surge. 
— 'Mid the lorn isles of Norway's stormy main,
 As sweeps o'er many a league his eddying train,
 Vast watery walls in rapid circles spin,
 And deep-ingulph'd the Demon dwells within;
 Springs o'er the fear-froze crew with Harpy-claws,
 Down his deep den the whirling vessel draws;
 Churns with his bloody mouth the dread repast,
 The booming waters murmuring o'er the mast. 

III.  "Where with chill frown enormous ALPS alarms
 A thousand realms, horizon'd in his arms;
 While cloudless suns meridian glories shed
 From skies of silver round his hoary head,
 Tall rocks of ice refract the coloured rays,
 And Frost sits throned amid the lambent blaze;
 NYMPHS! YOUR thin forms pervade his glittering piles,
 His roofs of chrystal, and his glassy ailes;
 Where in cold caves imprisoned Naiads sleep,
 Or chain'd on mossy couches wake and weep;
 Where round dark crags indignant waters bend
 Through rifted ice, in ivory veins descend,
 Seek through unfathom'd snows their devious track,
 Heave the vast spars, the ribbed granites crack,
 Rush into day, in foamy torrents shine,
 And swell the imperial Danube or the Rhine. —
 — Or feed the murmuring TIBER, as he laves
 His realms inglorious with diminish'd waves,
 Hears his lorn Forum sound with Eunuch-strains,
 Sees dancing slaves insult his martial plains;
 Parts with chill stream the dim religious bower,
 Time-mouldered bastion, and dismantled tower;
 By alter'd fanes and nameless villas glides,
 And classic domes, that tremble on his sides;
 Sighs o'er each broken urn, and yawning tomb,
 And mourns the fall of LIBERTY and ROME. 

IV.  "Sailing in air, when dark MONSOON inshrouds
 His tropic mountains in a night of clouds;
 Or drawn by whirlwinds from the Line returns,
 And showers o'er Afric all his thousand urns;
 High o'er his head the beams of SIRIUS glow,
 And, Dog of Nile, ANUBIS barks below. 
NYMPHS! YOU from cliff to cliff attendant guide
 In headlong cataracts the impetuous tide;
 Or lead o'er wastes of Abyssinian sands
 The bright expanse to EGYPT's shower-less lands. 
— Her long canals the sacred waters fill,
 And edge with silver every peopled hill;
 Gigantic SPHINX in circling waves admire,
 And MEMNON bending o'er his broken lyre;
 O'er furrow'd glebes and green savannas sweep,
 And towns and temples laugh amid the deep. 

V. I. "High in the frozen North where HECCLA glows,
 And melts in torrents his coeval snows;
 O'er isles and oceans sheds a sanguine light,
 Or shoots red stars amid the ebon night;
 When, at his base intomb'd, with bellowing sound
 Fell GIESAR roar'd, and struggling shook the ground;
 Pour'd from red nostrils, with her scalding breath,
 A boiling deluge o'er the blasted heath;
 And, wide in air, in misty volumes hurl'd
 Contagious atoms o'er the alarmed world;
 NYMPHS! YOUR bold myriads broke the infernal spell,
 And crush'd the Sorceress in her flinty cell. 

2.  "Where with soft fires in unextinguish'd urns,
 Cauldron'd in rock, innocuous Lava burns;
 On the bright lake YOUR gelid hands distil
 In pearly showers the parsimonious rill;
 And, as aloft the curling vapours rise
 Through the cleft roof, ambitious for the skies,
 In vaulted hills condense the tepid steams,
 And pour to HEALTH the medicated streams. 
— So in green vales amid her mountains bleak
 BUXTONIA smiles, the Goddess-Nymyh of Peak;
 Deep in warm waves, and pebbly baths she dwells,
 And calls HYGEIA to her sainted wells. 

 "Hither in sportive bands bright DEVON leads
 Graces and Loves from Chatsworth's flowery meads. —
 Charm'd round the NYMPH, they climb the rifted rocks;
 And steep in mountain-mist their golden locks;
 On venturous step her sparry caves explore,
 And light with radiant eyes her realms of ore;
 — Oft by her bubbling founts, and shadowy domes,
 In gay undress the fairy legion roams,
 Their dripping palms in playful malice fill,
 Or taste with ruby lip the sparkling rill;
 Croud round her baths, and, bending o'er the side,
 Unclasp'd their sandals, and their zones untied,
 Dip with gay fear the shuddering foot undress'd,
 And quick retract it to the fringed vest;
 Or cleave with brandish'd arms the lucid stream,
 And sob, their blue eyes twinkling in the steam. 
— High o'er the chequer'd vault with transient glow
 Bright lustres dart, as dash the waves below;
 And Echo's sweet responsive voice prolongs
 The dulcet tumult of their silver tongues. —
 O'er their flush'd cheeks uncurling tresses flow,
 And dew-drops glitter on their necks of snow;
 Round each fair Nymph her dropping mantle clings,
 And Loves emerging shake their showery wings. 
Here oft her LORD surveys the rude domain,
 Fair arts of Greece triumphant in his train;
 Lo! as he steps, the column'd pile ascends,
 The blue roof closes, or the crescent bends;
 New woods aspiring clothe their hills with green,
 Smooth slope the lawns, the grey rock peeps between;
 Relenting Nature gives her hand to Taste,
 And Health and Beauty crown the laughing waste. 

VI.  "NYMPHS! YOUR bright squadrons watch with chemic eyes
 The cold-elastic vapours, as they rise;
 With playful force arrest them as they pass,
 And to pure AIR betroth the flaming GAS. 
Round their translucent forms at once they fling
 Their rapturous arms, with silver bosoms cling;
 In fleecy clouds their fluttering wings extend,
 Or from the skies in lucid showers descend;
 Whence rills and rivers owe their secret birth,
 And Ocean's hundred arms infold the earth. 

 "So, robed by Beauty's Queen, with softer charms
 SATURNIA woo'd the Thunderer to her arms;
 O'er her fair limbs a veil of light she spread,
 And bound a starry diadem on her head;
 Long braids of pearl her golden tresses grac'd,
 And the charm'd CESTUS sparkled round her waist. 
— Raised o'er the woof, by Beauty's hand inwrought,
 Breathes the soft Sigh, and glows the enamour'd Thought;
 Vows on light wings succeed, and quiver'd Wiles,
 Assuasive Accents, and seductive Smiles. 
— Slow rolls the Cyprian car in purple pride,
 And, steer'd by LOVE, ascends admiring Ide;
 Climbs the green slopes, the nodding woods pervades,
 Burns round the rocks, or gleams amid the shades. —
 Glad ZEPHYR leads the train, and waves above
 The barbed darts, and blazing torch of Love;
 Reverts his smiling face, and pausing flings
 Soft showers of roses from aurelian wings. 
Delighted Fawns, in wreathes of flowers array'd,
 With tiptoe Wood-Boys beat the chequer'd glade;
 Alarmed Naiads, rising into air,
 Lift o'er their silver urns their leafy hair;
 Each to her oak the bashful Dryads shrink,
 And azure eyes are seen through every chink. 
— LOVE culls a flaming shaft of broadest wing,
 And rests the fork upon the quivering string;
 Points his arch eye aloft, with fingers strong
 Draws to his curled ear the silken thong;
 Loud twangs the steel, the golden arrow flies,
 Trails a long line of lustre through the skies;
 "Tis done!" he shouts, "the mighty Monarch feels!" 
And with loud laughter shakes the silver wheels;
 Bends o'er the car, and whirling, as it moves,
 His loosen'd bowstring, drives the rising doves. 
— Pierced on his throne the starting Thunderer turns,
 Melts with soft sighs, with kindling rapture burns;
 Clasps her fair hand, and eyes in fond amaze
 The bright Intruder with enamour'd gaze. 
 "And leaves my Goddess, like a blooming bride,
"The fanes of Argos for the rocks of Ide? 
 "Her gorgeous palaces, and amaranth bowers,
"For cliff-top'd mountains, and aerial towers? 
He said; and, leading from her ivory seat
 The blushing Beauty to his lone retreat,
 Curtain'd with night the couch imperial shrouds,
 And rests the crimson cushions upon clouds. —
 Earth feels the grateful influence from above,
 Sighs the soft Air, and Ocean murmurs love;
 Etherial Warmth expands his brooding wing,
 And in still showers descends the genial Spring. 

VII.  "NYMPHS OF AQUATIC TASTE! whose placid smile
 Breathes sweet enchantment o'er BRITANNIA's isle;
 Whose sportive touch in showers resplendent flings
 Her lucid cataracts, and her bubbling springs;
 Through peopled vales the liquid silver guides,
 And swells in bright expanse her freighted tides. 
YOU with nice ear, in tiptoe trains, pervade
 Dim walks of morn or evening's silent shade;
 Join the lone Nightingale, her woods among,
 And roll your rills symphonious to her song;
 Through fount-full dells, and wave-worn valleys move,
 And tune their echoing waterfalls to love;
 Or catch, attentive to the distant roar,
 The pausing murmurs of the dashing shore;
 Or, as aloud she pours her liquid strain,
 Pursue the NEREID on the twilight main. 
— Her playful Sea-horse woos her soft commands,
 Turns his quick ears, his webbed claws expands,
 His watery way with waving volutes wins,
 Or listening librates on unmoving fins. 
The Nymph emerging mounts her scaly seat,
 Hangs o'er his glossy sides her silver feet,
 With snow-white hands her arching veil detains,
 Gives to his slimy lips the slacken'd reins,
 Lifts to the star of Eve her eye serene,
 And chaunts the birth of Beauty's radiant Queen. —
 O'er her fair brow her pearly comb unfurls
 Her beryl locks, and parts the waving curls,
 Each tangled braid with glistening teeth unbinds
 And with the floating treasure musks the winds. —
 Thrill'd by the dulcet accents, as she sings,
 The rippling wave in widening circles rings;
 Night's shadowy forms along the margin gleam
 With pointed ears, or dance upon the stream;
 The Moon transported stays her bright career,
 And maddening Stars shoot headlong from the sphere. 

VIII.  "NYMPHS! whose fair eyes with vivid lustres glow
 For human weal, and melt at human woe;
 Late as YOU floated on your silver shells,
 Sorrowing and slow by DERWENT's willowy dells;
 Where by tall groves his foamy flood he steers
 Through ponderous arches o'er impetuous wears,
 By DERBY's shadowy towers reflective sweeps,
 And gothic grandeur chills his dusky deeps;
 You pearl'd with Pity's drops his velvet sides,
 Sigh'd in his gales, and murmur'd in his tides,
 Waved o'er his fringed brink a deeper gloom,
 And bow'd his alders o'er MILCENA's tomb. 

 "Oft with sweet voice She led her infant-train,
 Printing with graceful step his spangled plain,
 Explored his twinkling swarms, that swim or fly,
 And mark'd his florets with botanic eye. —

 "Sweet bud of Spring! how frail thy transient bloom,
"Fine film, she cried, "of Nature's fairest loom! 
Soon Beauty fades upon its damask throne!" —
 — Unconscious of the worm, that mined her own! —
 — Pale are those lips, where soft caresses hung,
 Wan the warm cheek, and mute the tender tongue,
 Cold rests that feeling heart on Derwent's shore,
 And those love-lighted eye-balls roll no more! 

IX.  "YOUR virgin trains on BRINDLEY's cradle smiled,
 And nursed with fairy-love the unletter'd child,
 Spread round his pillow all your secret spells,
 Pierced all your springs, and open'd all your wells. —
 As now on grass, with glossy folds reveal'd,
 Glides the bright serpent, now in flowers conceal'd;
 Far shine the scales, that gild his sinuous back,
 And lucid undulations mark his track;
 So with strong arm immortal BRINDLEY leads
 His long canals, and parts the velvet meads;
 Winding in lucid lines, the watery mass
 Mines the firm rock, or loads the deep morass,
 With rising locks a thousand hills alarms,
 Flings o'er a thousand streams its silver arms,
 Feeds the long vale, the nodding woodland laves,
 And Plenty, Arts, and Commerce freight the waves. 
— NYMPHS! who erewhile round BRINDLEY's early bier
 On snow-white bosoms shower'd the incessant tear,
 Adorn his tomb! — oh, raise the marble bust,
 Proclaim his honours, and protect his dust! 
With urns inverted, round the sacred shrine
 Their ozier wreaths let weeping Naiads twine;
 While on the top MECHANIC GENIUS stands,
 Counts the fleet waves, and balances the lands. 

X. "NYMPHS! YOU first taught to pierce the secret caves
 Of humid earth, and lift her ponderous waves;
 Bade with quick stroke the sliding piston bear
 The viewless columns of incumbent air; —
 Press'd by the incumbent air the floods below,
 Through opening valves in foaming torrents flow,
 Foot after foot with lessen'd impulse move,
 And rising seek the vacancy above. —
 So when the Mother, bending o'er his charms,
 Clasps her fair nurseling in delighted arms;
 Throws the thin kerchief from her neck of snow,
 And half unveils the pearly orbs below;
 With sparkling eye the blameless Plunderer owns
 Her soft embraces, and endearing tones,
 Seeks the salubrious fount with opening lips,
 Spreads his inquiring hands, and smiles, and sips. 

 "CONNUBIAL FAIR! whom no fond transport warms
 To lull your infant in maternal arms;
 Who, bless'd in vain with tumid bosoms, hear
 His tender wailings with unfeeling ear;
 The soothing kiss and milky rill deny
 To the sweet pouting lip, and glistening eye! —
 Ah! what avails the cradle's damask roof,
 The eider bolster, and embroider'd woof! —
 Oft hears the gilded couch unpity'd plains,
 And many a tear the tassel'd cushion stains! 
No voice so sweet attunes his cares to rest,
 So soft no pillow, as his Mother's breast! —
 — Thus charm'd to sweet repose, when twilight hours
 Shed their soft influence on celestial bowers,
 The Cherub, Innocence, with smile divine
 Shuts his white wings, and sleeps on Beauty's shrine. 

XI.  "From dome to dome when flames infuriate climb,
 Sweep the long street, invest the tower sublime;
 Gild the tall vanes amid the astonish'd night,
 And reddening heaven returns the sanguine light;
 While with vast strides and bristling hair aloof
 Pale Danger glides along the falling roof;
 And Giant Terror howling in amaze
 Moves his dark limbs across the lurid blaze. 
NYMPHS! YOU first taught the gelid wave to rise,
 Hurl'd in resplendent arches to the skies;
 In iron cells condensed the airy spring,
 And imp'd the torrent with unfailing wing;
 — On the fierce flames the shower impetuous falls,
 And sudden darkness shrouds the shatter'd walls;
 Steam, smoak, and dust in blended volumes roll,
 And Night and Silence repossess the Pole. —

 "Where were ye, NYMPHS! in those disasterous hours,
 Which wrap'd in flames AUGUSTA's sinking towers? 
Why did ye linger in your wells and groves,
 When sad WOODMASON mourn'd her infant loves? 
When thy fair Daughters with unheeded screams,
 Ill-fated MOLESWORTH! call'd the loitering streams? —
 The trembling Nymph on bloodless fingers hung
 Eyes from the tottering wall the distant throng,
 With ceaseless shrieks her sleeping friends alarms,
 Drops with singed hair into her lover's arms. —
 The illumin'd Mother seeks with footsteps fleet,
 Where hangs the safe balcony o'er the street,
 Wrap'd in her sheet her youngest hope suspends,
 And panting lowers it to her tiptoe friends;
 Again she hurries on affection's wings,
 And now a third, and now a fourth, she brings;
 Safe all her babes, she smooths her horrent brow,
 And bursts through bickering flames, unscorch'd, below. 
So, by her Son arraign'd, with feet unshod
 O'er burning bars indignant Emma trod. 

 "E'en on the day when Youth with Beauty wed,
 The flames surprized them in their nuptial bed; —
 Seen at the opening sash with bosom bare,
 With wringing hands, and dark dishevel'd hair,
 The blushing Beauty with disorder'd charms
 Round her fond lover winds her ivory arms;
 Beat, as they clasp, their throbbing hearts with fear,
 And many a kiss is mix'd with many a tear; —
 Ah me! in vain the labouring engines pour
 Round their pale limbs the ineffectual shower! —
 — Then crash'd the floor, while shrinking crouds retire,
 And Love and Virtue sunk amid the fire! —
 With piercing screams afflicted strangers mourn,
 And their white ashes mingle in their urn. 

XII.  "PELLUCID FORMS! whose crystal bosoms show
 The shine of welfare, or the shade of woe;
 Who with soft lips salute returning Spring,
 And hail the Zephyr quivering on his wing;
 Or watch, untired, the wintery clouds, and share
 With streaming eyes my vegetable care;
 Go, shove the dim mist from the mountain's brow,
 Chase the white fog, which floods the vale below;
 Melt the thick snows, that linger on the lands,
 And catch the hailstones in your little hands;
 Guard the coy blossom from the pelting shower,
 And dash the rimy spangles from the bower;
 From each chill leaf the silvery drops repel,
 And close the timorous floret's golden bell. 

 "So should young SYMPATHY, in female form,
 Climb the tall rock, spectatress of the storm;
 Life's sinking wrecks with secret sighs deplore,
 And bleed for others' woes, Herself on shore;
 To friendless Virtue, gasping on the strand,
 Bare her warm heart, her virgin arms expand,
 Charm with kind looks, with tender accents cheer,
 And pour the sweet consolatory tear;
 Grief's cureless wounds with lenient balms asswage,
 Or prop with firmer staff the steps of Age;
 The lifted arm of mute Despair arrest,
 And snatch the dagger pointed to his breast;
 Or lull to slumber Envy's haggard mien,
 And rob her quiver'd shafts with hand unseen. 
— Sound, NYMPHS OF HELICON! the trump of Fame,
 And teach Hibernian echoes JONES'S name;
 Bind round her polish'd brow the civic bay,
 And drag the fair Philanthropist to day. —
 So from secluded springs, and secret caves,
 Her Liffy pours his bright meandering waves,
 Cools the parch'd vale, the sultry mead divides,
 And towns and temples star his shadowy sides. 

XIII.  "CALL YOUR light legions, tread the swampy heath,
 Pierce with sharp spades the tremulous peat beneath;
 With colters bright the rushy sward bisect,
 And in new veins the gushing rills direct; —
 So flowers shall rise in purple light array'd,
 And blossom'd orchards stretch their silver shade;
 Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold,
 And Labour sleep amid the waving gold. 

 "Thus when young HERCULES with firm disdain
 Braved the soft smiles of Pleasure's harlot train;
 To valiant toils his forceful limbs assign'd,
 And gave to Virtue all his mighty mind,
 Fierce ACHELOUS rush'd from mountain-caves,
 O'er sad Etolia pour'd his wasteful waves,
 O'er lowing vales and bleating pastures roll'd,
 Swept her red vineyards, and her glebes of gold,
 Mined all her towns, uptore her rooted woods,
 And Famine danced upon the shining floods. 
The youthful Hero seized his curled crest,
 And dash'd with lifted club the watery Pest;
 With waving arm the billowy tumult quell'd,
 And to his course the bellowing Fiend repell'd. 

 "Then to a Snake the finny Demon turn'd
 His lengthen'd form, with scales of silver burn'd;
 Lash'd with resistless sweep his dragon-train,
 And shot meandering o'er the affrighted plain. 
The Hero-God, with giant fingers clasp'd
 Firm round his neck, the hissing monster grasp'd;
 With starting eyes, wide throat, and gaping teeth,
 Curl his redundant folds, and writhe in death. 

 "And now a Bull, amid the flying throng
 The grisly Demon foam'd, and roar'd along;
 With silver hoofs the flowery meadows spurn'd,
 Roll'd his red eye, his threatening antlers turn'd. 
Dragg'd down to earth, the Warrior's victor-hands
 Press'd his deep dewlap on the imprinted sands;
 Then with quick bound his bended knee he fix'd
 High on his neck, the branching horns betwixt,
 Strain'd his strong arms, his sinewy shoulders bent,
 And from his curled brow the twisted terror rent. 
— Pleased Fawns and Nymphs with dancing step applaud,
 And hang their chaplets round the resting God;
 Link their soft hands, and rear with pausing toil
 The golden trophy on the furrow'd soil;
 Fill with ripe fruits, with wreathed flowers adorn,
 And give to PLENTY her prolific horn. 

XIV.  "On Spring's fair lap, CERULEAN SISTERS! pour
 From airy urns the sun-illumined shower,
 Feed with the dulcet drops my tender broods,
 Mellifluous flowers, and aromatic buds;
 Hang from each bending grass and horrent thorn
 The tremulous pearl, that glitters to the morn;
 Or where cold dews their secret channels lave,
 And Earth's dark chambers hide the stagnant wave,
 O, pierce, YE NYMPHS! her marble veins, and lead
 Her gushing fountains to the thirsty mead;
 Wide o'er the shining vales, and trickling hills
 Spread the bright treasure in a thousand rills. 
So shall my peopled realms of Leaf and Flower
 Exult, inebriate with the genial shower;
 Dip their long tresses from the mossy brink,
 With tufted roots the glassy currents drink;
 Shade your cool mansions from meridian beams,
 And view their waving honours in your streams. 

 "Thus where the veins their confluent branches bend,
 And milky eddies with the purple blend;
 The Chyle's white trunk, diverging from its source,
 Seeks through the vital mass its shining course;
 O'er each red cell, and tissued membrane spreads
 In living net-work all its branching threads;
 Maze within maze its tortuous path pursues,
 Winds into glands, inextricable clues;
 Steals through the stomach's velvet sides, and sips
 The silver surges with a thousand lips;
 Fills each fine pore, pervades each slender hair,
 And drinks salubrious dew-drops from the air. 

 "Thus when to kneel in Mecca's awful gloom,
 Or press with pious kiss Medina's tomb,
 League after league, through many a lingering day,
 Steer the swart Caravans their sultry way;
 O'er sandy wastes on gasping camels toil,
 Or print with pilgrim-steps the burning soil;
 If from lone rocks a sparkling rill descend,
 O'er the green brink the kneeling nations bend,
 Bathe the parch'd lip, and cool the feverish tongue,
 And the clear lake reflects the mingled throng." 

THE GODDESS PAUSED, — the listening bands awhile
 Still seem to hear, and dwell upon her smile;
 Then with soft murmur sweep in lucid trains
 Down the green slopes, and o'er the pebbly plains,
 To each bright stream on silver sandals glide,
 Reflective fountain, and tumultuous tide. 

So shoot the Spider-broods at breezy dawn
 Their glittering net-work o'er the autumnal lawn;
 From blade to blade connect with cordage fine
 The unbending grass, and live along the line;
 Or bathe unwet their oily forms, and dwell
 With feet repulsive on the dimpling well. 

So when the North congeals his watery mass,
 Piles high his snows, and floors his seas with glass;
 While many a Month, unknown to warmer rays,
 Marks its slow chronicle by lunar days;
 Stout youths and ruddy damsels, sportive train,
 Leave the white soil, and rush upon the main;
 From isle to isle the moon-bright squadrons stray,
 And win in easy curves their graceful way;
 On step alternate borne, with balance nice
 Hang o'er the gliding steel, and hiss along the ice. 

[CANTO IV.]

Argument of the Fourth Canto.

THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION.

CANTO IV.

AS when at noon in Hybla's fragrant bowers
 CACALIA opens all her honey'd flowers;
 Contending swarms on bending branches cling,
 And nations hover on aurelian wing;
 So round the GODDESS, ere she speaks, on high
 Impatient SYLPHS in gawdy circlets fly;
 Quivering in air their painted plumes expand,
 And coloured shadows dance upon the land. 

I. "SYLPHS! YOUR light troops the tropic Winds confine,
 And guide their streaming arrows to the Line;
 While in warm floods ecliptic breezes rise,
 And sink with wings benumb'd in colder skies. 
You bid Monsoons on Indian seas reside,
 And veer, as moves the sun, their airy tide;
 While southern gales o'er western oceans roll,
 And Eurus steals his ice-winds from the Pole. 
YOUR playful trains, on sultry islands born,
 Turn on fantastic toe at eve and morn;
 With soft susurrant voice alternate sweep
 Earth's green pavilions and encircling deep. 
OR in itinerant cohorts, borne sublime
 On tides of ether, float from clime to clime;
 O'er waving Autumn bend your airy ring,
 Or waft the fragrant bosom of the Spring. 

II.  "When Morn, escorted by the dancing Hours,
 O'er the bright plains her dewy lustre showers;
 Till from her sable chariot Eve serene
 Drops the dark curtain o'er the brilliant scene;
 YOU form with chemic hands the airy surge,
 Mix with broad vans, with shadowy tridents urge. 
SYLPHS! from each sun-bright leaf, that twinkling shakes
 O'er Earth's green lap, or shoots amid her lakes,
 Your playful bands with simpering lips invite,
 And wed the enamour'd OXYGENE to LIGHT. —
 Round their white necks with fingers interwove,
 Cling the fond Pair with unabating love;
 Hand link'd in hand on buoyant step they rise,
 And soar and glisten in unclouded skies. 
Whence in bright floods the VITAL AIR expands,
 And with concentric spheres involves the lands;
 Pervades the swarming seas, and heaving earths,
 Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births;
 Fills the fine lungs of all that breathe or bud,
 Warms the new heart, and dyes the gushing blood;
 With Life's first spark inspires the organic frame,
 And, as it wastes, renews the subtile flame. 

 "So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone
 Fair PSYCHE, kneeling at the ethereal throne;
 Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove,
 And warm'd the bosom of unconquer'd LOVE. —
 Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers
 Onward they march to HYMEN's sacred bowers;
 With lifted torch he lights the festive train,
 Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain;
 Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows,
 And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows. 
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,
 Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing. —
 — Hence plastic Nature, as Oblivion whelms
 Her fading forms, repeoples all her realms;
 Soft Joys disport on purple plumes unfurl'd,
 And Love and Beauty rule the willing world. 

III. 1.  "SYLPHS! YOUR bold myriads on the witheringheath
 Stay the fell SYROC's suffocative breath;
 Arrest SIMOOM in his realms of sand,
 The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand; —
 Fierce on blue streams he rides the tainted air,
 Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair;
 While, as he turns, the undulating soil
 Rolls in red waves, and billowy deserts boil. 
You seize TORNADO by his locks of mist,
 Burst his dense clouds, his wheeling spires untwist;
 Wide o'er the West when borne on headlong gales,
 Dark as meridian night, the Monster sails,
 Howls high in air, and shakes his curled brow,
 Lashing with serpent-train the waves below,
 Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings,
 And showers a deluge from his demon-wings. 

2.  "SYLPHS! with light shafts YOU pierce the drowsy FOG,
 That lingering slumbers on the sedge-wove bog,
 With webbed feet o'er midnight meadows creeps,
 Or flings his hairy limbs on stagnant deeps. 
YOU meet CONTAGION issuing from afar,
 And dash the baleful conqueror from his car;
 When, Guest of DEATH! from charnel vaults he steals,
 And bathes in human gore his armed wheels. 

 "Thus when the PLAGUE, upborne on Belgian air,
 Look'd through the mist and shook his clotted hair,
 O'er shrinking nations steer'd malignant clouds,
 And rain'd destruction on the gasping crouds. 
The beauteous Aegle felt the venom'd dart,
 Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart;
 Each fervid sigh seem'd shorter than the last,
 And starting Friendship shunn'd her, as she pass'd. 
— With weak unsteady step the fainting Maid
 Seeks the cold garden's solitary shade,
 Sinks on the pillowy moss her drooping head,
 And prints with lifeless limbs her leafy bed. 
— On wings of Love her plighted Swain pursues,
 Shades her from winds, and shelters her from dews,
 Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof,
 Spreads o'er the straw-wove matt the flaxen woof,
 Sweet buds and blossoms on her bolster strows,
 And binds his kerchief round her aching brows;
 Sooths with soft kiss, with tender accents charms,
 And clasps the bright Infection in his arms. —
 With pale and languid smiles the grateful Fair
 Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care;
 Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled
 On timorous step, or number'd with the dead;
 Calls to its bosom all its scatter'd rays,
 And pours on THYRSIS the collected blaze;
 Braves the chill night, caressing and caress'd,
 And folds her Hero-lover to her breast. —
 Less bold, LEANDER at the dusky hour
 Eyed, as he swam, the far love-lighted tower;
 Breasted with struggling arms the tossing wave,
 And sunk benighted in the watery grave. 
Less bold, TOBIAS claim'd the nuptial bed,
 Where seven fond Lovers by a Fiend had bled;
 And drove, instructed by his Angel-Guide,
 The enamour'd Demon from the fatal bride. —
 — SYLPHS! while your winnowing pinions fan'd the air,
 And shed gay visions o'er the sleeping pair;
 LOVE round their couch effused his rosy breath,
 And with his keener arrows conquer'd DEATH. 

IV. 1.  "You charm'd, indulgent SYLPHS! their learnedtoil,
 And crown'd with fame your TORRICELL, and BOYLE;
 Taught with sweet smiles, responsive to their prayer,
 The spring and pressure of the viewless air. 
— How up exhausted tubes bright currents flow
 Of liquid silver from the lake below,
 Weigh the long column of the incumbent skies,
 And with the changeful moment fall and rise. 
— How, as in brazen pumps the pistons move,
 The membrane-valve sustains the weight above;
 Stroke follows stroke, the gelid vapour falls,
 And misty dew-drops dim the crystal walls;
 Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin,
 And Silence dwells with Vacancy within. —
 So in the mighty Void with grim delight
 Primeval Silence reign'd with ancient Night. 

2.  "SYLPHS! your soft voices, whispering from the skies,
 Bade from low earth the bold MONGULFIER rise;
 Outstretch'd his buoyant ball with airy spring,
 And bore the Sage on levity of wing; —
 Where were ye, SYLPHS! when on the ethereal main
 Young ROSIERE launch'd, and call'd your aid in vain? 
Fair mounts the light balloon, by Zephyr driven,
 Parts the thin clouds, and sails along the heaven;
 Higher and yet higher the expanding bubble flies,
 Lights with quick flash, and bursts amid the skies. —
 Headlong He rushes through the affrighted air
 With limbs distorted, and dishevel'd hair,
 Whirls round and round, the flying croud alarms,
 And DEATH receives him in his sable arms! —
 So erst with melting wax and loosen'd strings
 Sunk hapless ICARUS on unfaithful wings;
 His scatter'd plumage danced upon the wave,
 And sorrowing Mermaids deck'd his watery grave;
 O'er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,
 And strew'd with crimson moss his marble bed;
 Struck in their coral towers the pausing bell,
 And wide in ocean toll'd his echoing knell. 

V. "SYLPHS! YOU, retiring to sequester'd bowers,
 Where oft your PRIESTLEY WOOS your airy powers,
 On noiseless step or quivering pinion glide,
 As sits the Sage with Science by his side;
 To his charm'd eye in gay undress appear,
 Or pour your secrets on his raptured ear. 
How nitrous Gas from iron ingots driven
 Drinks with red lips the purest breath of heaven;
 How, while Conferva from its tender hair
 Gives in bright bubbles empyrean air;
 The crystal floods phlogistic ores calcine,
 And the pure ETHER marries with the MINE. 

 "So in Sicilia's ever-blooming shade
 When playful PROSERPINE from CERES stray'd,
 Led with unwary step her virgin trains
 O'er Etna's steeps, and Enna's golden plains;
 Pluck'd with fair hand the silver-blossom'd bower,
 And purpled mead, — herself a fairer flower;
 Sudden, unseen amid the twilight glade,
 Rush'd gloomy DIS, and seized the trembling maid. —
 Her starting damsels sprung from mossy feats,
 Dropp'd from their gauzy laps the gather'd sweets,
 Clung round the struggling Nymph, with piercing cries,
 Pursued the chariot, and invoked the skies; —
 Pleased as he grasps her in his iron arms,
 Frights with soft sighs, with tender words alarms,
 The wheels descending roll'd in smoky rings,
 Infernal Cupids flapp'd their demon wings;
 Earth with deep yawn received the Fair, amaz'd,
 And far in Night celestial Beauty blaz'd. 

VI.  "Led by the Sage, Lo! Britain's sons shall guide
 Huge SEA-BALLOONS beneath the tossing tide;
 The diving castles, roof'd with spheric glass,
 Ribb'd with strong oak, and barr'd with bolts of brass,
 Buoy'd with pure air shall endless tracks pursue,
 And PRIESTLEY's hand the vital flood renew. —
 Then shall BRITANNIA rule the wealthy realms,
 Which Ocean's wide insatiate wave o'erwhelms;
 Confine in netted bowers his scaly flocks,
 Part his blue plains, and people all his rocks. 
Deep, in warm waves beneath the Line that roll,
 Beneath the shadowy ice-isles of the Pole,
 Onward, through bright meandering vales, afar,
 Obedient Sharks shall trail her sceptred car,
 With harness'd necks the pearly flood disturb,
 Stretch the silk rein, and champ the silver curb;
 Pleased round her triumph wondering Tritons play,
 And Seamaids hail her on the watery way. 
— Oft shall she weep beneath the crystal waves
 O'er shipwreck'd lovers weltering in their graves;
 Mingling in death the Brave and Good behold
 With slaves to glory, and with slaves to gold;
 Shrin'd in the deep shall DAY and SPALDING mourn,
 Each in his treacherous bell, sepulchral urn! —
 Oft o'er thy lovely daughters, hapless PIERCE! 
Her sighs shall breathe, her sorrows dew their hearse. —
 With brow upturn'd to Heaven, "WE WILL NOT PART!" 
He cried, and clasp'd them to his aching heart. —
 — Dash'd in dread conflict on the rocky grounds,
 Crash the shock'd masts, the staggering wreck rebounds;
 Through gaping seams the rushing deluge swims,
 Chills their pale bosoms, bathes their shuddering limbs,
 Climbs their white shoulders, buoys their streaming hair,
 And the last sea-shriek bellows in the air. —
 Each with loud sobs her tender sire caress'd,
 And gasping strain'd him closer to her breast! —
 — Stretch'd on one bier they sleep beneath the brine,
 And their white bones with ivory arms intwine! 

VII.  "SYLPHS OF NICE EAR! with beating wings YOU guide
 The fine vibrations of the aerial tide;
 Join in sweet cadences the measured words,
 Or stretch and modulate the trembling cords. 
You strung to melody the Grecian lyre,
 Breathed the rapt song, and fan'd the thought of fire,
 Or brought in combinations, deep and clear,
 Immortal harmony to HANDEL's ear. —
 You with soft breath attune the vernal gale,
 When breezy evening broods the listening vale;
 Or wake the loud tumultuous sounds, that dwell
 In Echo's many-toned diurnal shell. 
You melt in dulcet chords, when Zephyr rings
 The Eolian Harp, and mingle all its strings;
 Or trill in air the soft symphonious chime,
 When rapt CECILIA lifts her eye sublime,
 Swell, as she breathes, her bosoms rising snow,
 O'er her white teeth in tuneful accents flow,
 Through her fair lips on whispering pinions move,
 And form the tender sighs, that kindle love! 

 "So playful LOVE on Ida's flowery sides
 With ribbon-rein the indignant Lion guides;
 Pleased on his brinded back the lyre he rings,
 And shakes delirious rapture from the strings;
 Slow as the pausing Monarch stalks along,
 Sheaths his retractile claws, and drinks the song;
 Soft Nymphs on timid step the triumph view,
 And listening Fawns with beating hoofs pursue;
 With pointed ears the alarmed forest starts,
 And Love and Music soften savage hearts. 

VIII.  "SYLPHS! YOUR bold hosts, when Heaven with justice dread
 Calls the red tempest round the guilty head,
 Fierce at his nod assume vindictive forms,
 And launch from airy cars the vollied storms. —
 From Ashur's vales when proud SENACHERIB trod,
 Pour'd his swoln heart, defied the living GOD,
 Urged with incessant shouts his glittering powers;
 And JUDAH shook through all her massy towers;
 Round her sad altars press'd the prostrate crowd,
 Hosts beat their breasts, and suppliant chieftains bow'd;
 Loud shrieks of matrons thrill'd the troubled air,
 And trembling virgins rent their scatter'd hair;
 High in the midst the kneeling King adored,
 Spread the blaspheming scroll before the Lord,
 Raised his pale hands, and breathed his pausing sighs,
 And fixed on Heaven his dim imploring eyes, —
"Oh! MIGHTY GOD! amidst thy Seraph-throng
 "Who sit'st sublime, the Judge of Right and Wrong;
"Thine the wide earth, bright sun, and starry zone,
 "That twinkling journey round thy golden throne;
"Thine is the crystal source of life and light,
 "And thine the realms of Death's eternal night. 
"Oh, bend thine ear, thy gracious eye incline,
 "Lo! Ashur's King blasphemes thy holy shrine,
"Insults our offerings, and derides our vows, —
 "Oh! strike the diadem from his impious brows,
"Tear from his murderous hand the bloody rod,
 "And teach the trembling nations," THOU ART GOD! — "
— SYLPHS! in what dread array with pennons broad
 Onward ye floated o'er the ethereal road,
 Call'd each dank steam the reeking marsh exhales,
 Contagious vapours, and volcanic gales,
 Gave the soft South with poisonous breath to blow,
 And rolled the dreadful whirlwind on the foe! —
 Hark! o'er the camp the venom'd tempest sings,
 Man falls on Man, on buckler buckler rings;
 Groan answers groan, to anguish anguish yields,
 And DEATH's loud accents shake the tented fields!
 — High rears the Fiend his grinning jaws, and wide
 Spans the pale nations with colossal stride,
 Waves his broad falchion with uplifted hand,
 And his vast shadow darkens all the land. 

IX. 1.  "Ethereal cohorts! Essences of Air! 
Make the green children of the Spring your care! 
Oh, SYLPHS! disclose in this inquiring age
 One GOLDEN SECRET to some favour'd sage;
 Grant the charm'd talisman, the chain, that binds,
 Or guides the changeful pinions of the winds!
 — No more shall hoary Boreas, issuing forth
 With Eurus, lead the tempests of the North;
 Rime the pale Dawn, or veil'd in flaky showers
 Chill the sweet bosoms of the smiling Hours. 
By whispering Auster waked shall Zephyr rise,
 Meet with soft kiss, and mingle in the skies,
 Fan the gay floret, bend the yellow ear,
 And rock the uncurtain'd cradle of the year;
 Autumn and Spring in lively union blend,
 And from the skies the Golden Age descend. 

2.  "Castled on ice, beneath the circling Bear,
 A vast CAMELION spits and swallows air;
 O'er twelve degrees his ribs gigantic bend,
 And many a league his leathern jaws extend;
 Half-fish, beneath, his scaly volutes spread,
 And vegetable plumage crests his head;
 Huge fields of air his wrinkled skin receives,
 From panting gills, wide lungs, and waving leaves;
 Then with dread throes subsides his bloated form,
 His shriek the thunder, and his sigh the storm. 
Oft high in heaven the hissing Demon wins
 His towering course, upborne on winnowing fins;
 Steers with expanded eye and gaping mouth,
 His mass enormous to the affrighted South;
 Spreads o'er the shuddering Line his shadowy limbs,
 And Frost and Famine follow as he swims. —
 SYLPHS! round his cloud-built couch your bands array,
 And mould the Monster to your gentle sway;
 Charm with soft tones, with tender touches check,
 Bend to your golden yoke his willing neck,
 With silver curb his yielding teeth restrain,
 And give to KIRWAN's hand the silken rein. 
— Pleased shall the Sage, the dragon-wings between,
 Bend o'er discordant climes his eye serene,
 With Lapland breezes cool Arabian vales,
 And call to Hindostan antarctic gales,
 Adorn with wreathed ears Kampschatca's brows,
 And scatter roses on Zealandic snows,
 Earth's wondering Zones the genial seasons share,
 And nations hail him "MONARCH OF THE AIR." 

X. 1.  "SYLPHS! as you hover on ethereal wing,
 Brood the green children of parturient Spring! —
 Where in their bursting cells my Embryons rest,
 I charge you guard the vegetable nest;
 Count with nice eye the myriad SEEDS, that swell
 Each vaulted womb of husk, or pod, or shell;
 Feed with sweet juices, clothe with downy hair,
 Or hang, inshrined, their little orbs in air. 

 "So, late descry'd by HERSCHEL's piercing sight,
 Hang the bright squadrons of the twinkling Night;
 Ten thousand marshall'd stars, a silver zone,
 Effuse their blended lustres round her throne;
 Suns call to suns, in lucid clouds conspire,
 And light exterior skies with golden fire;
 Resistless rolls the illimitable sphere,
 And one great circle forms the unmeasured year. 
— Roll on, YE STARS! exult in youthful prime,
 Mark with bright curves the printless steps of Time;
 Near and more near your beamy cars approach,
 And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach; —
 Flowers of the sky! ye too to age must yield,
 Frail as your silken sisters of the field! 
Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush,
 Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush,
 Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall,
 And Death and Night and Chaos mingle all!
 — Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,
 Immortal NATURE lifts her changeful form,
 Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
 And soars and shines, another and the same. 

2.  "Lo! on each SEED within its slender rind
 Life's golden threads in endless circles wind;
 Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd
 And, as they burst, the living flame unfold. 
The pulpy acorn, ere it swells, contains
 The Oak's vast branches in its milky veins;
 Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line
 Traced with nice pencil on the small design. 
The young Narcissus, in it's bulb compress'd,
 Cradles a second nestling on its breast;
 In whose fine arms a younger embryon lies,
 Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;
 Grain within grain successive harvests dwell,
 And boundless forests slumber in a shell. 
— So yon grey precipice, and ivy'd towers,
 Long winding meads, and intermingled bowers,
 Green files of poplars, o'er the lake that bow,
 And glimmering wheel, which rolls and foams below,
 In one bright point with nice distinction lie
 Plan'd on the moving tablet of the eye. 
— So, fold on fold, Earth's wavy plains extend,
 And, sphere in sphere, its hidden strata bend; —
 Incumbent Spring her beamy plumes expands
 O'er restless oceans, and impatient lands,
 With genial lustres warms the mighty ball,
 And the GREAT SEED evolves, disclosing ALL;
 LIFE buds or breathes from Indus to the Poles,
 And the vast surface kindles, as it rolls! 

3.  "Come, YE SOFT SYLPHS! who sport on Latian land,
 Come, sweet-lip'd Zephyr, and Favonius bland! 
Teach the fine SEED, instinct with life, to shoot
 On Earth's cold bosom its descending root;
 With Pith elastic stretch its rising stem,
 Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem;
 Clasp in your airy arms the aspiring Plume,
 Fan with your balmy breath its kindling bloom,
 Each widening scale and bursting film unfold,
 Swell the green cup, and tint the flower with gold;
 While in bright veins the silvery Sap ascends,
 And refluent blood in milky eddies bends;
 While, spread in air, the leaves respiring play,
 Or drink the golden quintessence of day. 
— So from his shell on Delta's shower-less isle
 Bursts into life the Monster of the Nile;
 First in translucent lymph with cobweb-threads
 The Brain's fine floating tissue swells, and spreads;
 Nerve after nerve the glistening spine descends,
 The red Heart dances, the Aorta bends;
 Through each new gland the purple current glides,
 New veins meandering drink the refluent tides;
 Edge over edge expands the hardening scale,
 And sheaths his slimy skin in silver mail. 
— Erewhile, emerging from the brooding sand,
 With Tyger-paw He prints the brineless strand,
 High on the flood with speckled bosom swims,
 Helm'd with broad tail, and oar'd with giant limbs;
 Rolls his fierce eye-balls, clasps his iron claws,
 And champs with gnashing teeth his massy jaws;
 Old Nilus sighs along his cane-crown'd shores,
 And swarthy Memphis trembles and adores. 

XI.  "Come, YE SOFT SYLPHS! who fan the Paphian groves,
 And bear on sportive wings the callow Loves;
 Call with sweet whisper, in each gale that blows,
 The slumbering Snow-drop from her long repose;
 Charm the pale Primrose from her clay-cold bed,
 Unveil the bashful Violet's tremulous head;
 While from her bud the playful Tulip breaks,
 And young Carnations peep with blushing cheeks;
 Bid the closed Petals from nocturnal cold
 The virgin Style in silken curtains fold,
 Shake into viewless air the morning dews,
 And wave in light their iridescent hues;
 While from on high the bursting Anthers trust
 To the mild breezes their prolific dust;
 Or bend in rapture o'er the central Fair,
 Love out their hour, and leave their lives in air. 
So in his silken sepulchre the Worm,
 Warm'd with new life, unfolds his larva-form;
 Erewhile aloft in wanton circles moves,
 And woos on Hymen-wings his velvet loves. 

XII. 1.  "If prouder branches with exuberance rude
 Point their green gems, their barren shoots protrude;
 Wound them, ye SYLPHS! with little knives, or bind
 A wiry ringlet round the swelling rind;
 Bisect with chissel fine the root below,
 Or bend to earth the inhospitable bough. 
So shall each germ with new prolific power
 Delay the leaf-bud, and expand the flower;
 Closed in the Style the tender pith shall end,
 The lengthening Wood in circling Stamens bend;
 The smoother Rind its soft embroidery spread
 In vaulted Petals o'er their fertile bed;
 While the rough Bark, in circling mazes roll'd,
 Forms the green Cup with many a wrinkled fold;
 And each small bud-scale spreads its foliage hard,
 Firm round the callow germ, a Floral Guard. 

2.  "Where cruder juices swell the leafy vein,
 Stint the young germ, the tender blossom stain;
 On each lop'd shoot a foster scion bind,
 Pith press'd to pith, and rind applied to rind,
 So shall the trunk with loftier crest ascend,
 And wide in air its happier arms extend;
 Nurse the new buds, admire the leaves unknown,
 And blushing bend with fruitage not its own. 

 "Thus when in holy triumph Aaron trod,
 And offer'd on the shrine his mystic rod;
 First a new bark its silken tissue weaves,
 New buds emerging widen into leaves;
 Fair fruits protrude, enascent flowers expand,
 And blush and tremble round the living wand. 

XIII. 1.  "SYLPHS! on each Oak-bud wound the wormy galls,
 With pigmy spears, or crush the venom'd balls;
 Fright the green Locust from his foamy bed,
 Unweave the Caterpillar's gluey thread;
 Chase the fierce Earwig, scare the bloated Toad,
 Arrest the snail upon his slimy road;
 Arm with sharp thorns the Sweet-brier's tender wood,
 And dash the Cynips from her damask bud;
 Steep in ambrosial dews the Woodbine's bells,
 And drive the Night-moth from her honey'd cells. 
So where the Humming-bird in Chili's bowers
 On murmuring pinions robs ths pendent flowers;
 Seeks, where fine pores their dulcet balm distill,
 And sucks the treasure with proboscis-bill;
 Fair CYPREPEDIA with succesfful guile
 Knits her smooth brow, extinguishes her smile;
 A Spiders bloated paunch and jointed arms
 Hide her fine form, and mask her blushing charms;
 In ambush sly the mimic warrior lies,
 And on quick wing the panting plunderer flies. 

2 "Shield the young Harvest from devouring blight,
 The Smut's dark poison, and the Mildew white;
 Deep-rooted Mould, and Ergot's horn uncouth,
 And break the Canker's desolating tooth. 
First in one point the festering wound confin'd
 Mines unperceived beneath the shrivel'd rin'd;
 Then climbs the branches with increasing strength,
 Spreads as they spread, and lengthens with their length;
 — Thus the slight wound ingraved on glass unneal'd
 Runs in white lines along the lucid field;
 Crack follows crack, to laws elastic just,
 And the frail fabric shivers into dust. 

XIV. 1.  "SYLPHS! if with morn destructive Eurus springs,
 O, clasp the Harebel with your velvet wings;
 Screen with thick leaves the Jasmine as it blows,
 And shake the white rime from the shuddering Rose;
 Whilst Amaryllis turns with graceful ease
 Her blushing beauties, and eludes the breeze. —
 SYLPHS! if at noon the Fritillary droops,
 With drops nectareous hang her nodding cups;
 Thin clouds of Gossamer in air display,
 And hide the vale's chaste Lily from the ray;
 Whilst Erythrina o'er her tender flower
 Bends all her leaves, and braves the sultry hour; —
 Shield, when cold Hesper sheds his dewy light,
 Mimosa's soft sensations from the night;
 Fold her thin foilage, close her timid flowers,
 And with ambrosial slumbers guard her bowers;
 O'er each warm wall while Cerea flings her arms,
 And wastes on night's dull eye a blaze of charms. 

2. Round her tall Elm with dewy fingers twine
 The gadding tendrils of the adventurous Vine;
 From arm to arm in gay festoons suspend
 Her fragrant flowers, her graceful foliage bend;
 Swell with sweet juice her vermil orbs, and feed
 Shrined in transparent pulp her pearly seed;
 Hang round the Orange all her silver bells,
 And guard her fragrance with Hesperian spells;
 Bud after bud her polish'd leaves unfold,
 And load her branches with successive gold. 
So the learn'd Alchemist exulting sees
 Rise in his bright matrass DIANA's trees;
 Drop after drop, with just delay he pours
 The red-fumed acid on Potosi's ores;
 With sudden flash the fierce bullitions rise,
 And wide in air the gas phlogistic flies;
 Slow shoot, at length, in many a brilliant mass
 Metallic roots across the netted glass;
 Branch after branch extend their silver stems,
 Bud into gold, and blossoms into gems. 

So sits enthron'd in vegetable pride
 Imperial KEW by Thames's glittering side;
 Obedient sails from realms unfurrow'd bring
 For her the unnam'd progeny of spring;
 Attendant Nymphs her dulcet mandates hear,
 And nurse in fostering arms the tender year,
 Plant the young bulb, inhume the living seed,
 Prop the weak stem, the erring tendril lead;
 Or fan in glass-built fanes the stranger flowers
 With milder gales, and steep with warmer showers. 
Delighted Thames through tropic umbrage glides,
 And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides;
 Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales,
 And calls the sons of science to his vales. 
In one bright point admiring Nature eyes
 The fruits and foliage of discordant skies,
 Twines the gay floret with the fragrant bough,
 And bends the wreath round GEORGE'S royal brow. 
— Sometimes retiring, from the public weal
 One tranquil hour the ROYAL PARTNERS steal;
 Through glades exotic pass with step sublime,
 Or mark the growths of Britain's happier clime;
 With beauty blossom'd, and with virtue blaz'd,
 Mark the fair Scions, that themselves have rais'd;
 Sweet blooms the Rose, the towering Oak expands,
 The Grace and Guard of Britain's golden lands. 

XV. SYLPHS! who, round earth on purple pinions borne,
 Attend the radiant chariot of the morn;
 Lead the gay hours along the ethereal hight,
 And on each dun meridian shower the light;
 SYLPHS! who from realms of equatorial day
 To climes, that shudder in the polar ray,
 From zone to zone pursue on shifting wing,
 The bright perennial journey of the spring;
 Bring my rich Balms from Mecca's hallow'd glades,
 Sweet flowers, that glitter in Arabia's shades;
 Fruits, whose fair forms in bright succession glow
 Gilding the Banks of Arno, or of Po;
 Each leaf, whose fragrant steam with ruby lip
 Gay China's nymphs from pictur'd vases sip;
 Each spicy rind, which sultry India boasts,
 Scenting the night-air round her breezy coasts;
 Roots whose bold stems in bleak Siberia blow,
 And gem with many a tint the eternal snow;
 Barks, whose broad umbrage high in ether waves
 O'er Ande's steeps, and hides his golden caves;
 — And, where yon oak extends his dusky shoots
 Wide o'er the rill, that bubbles from his roots;
 Beneath whose arms, protected from the storm
 A turf-built altar rears it's rustic form;
 SYLPHS! with religious hands fresh garlands twine,
 And deck with lavish pomp HYGEIA's shrine. 

 "Call with loud voice the Sisterhood, that dwell
 On floating-cloud, wide wave, or bubbling well;
 Stamp with charm'd foot, convoke the alarmed Gnomes
 From golden beds, and adamantine domes;
 Each from her sphere with beckoning arm invite,
 Curl'd with red flame, the Vestal Forms of light. 
Close all your spotted wings, in lucid ranks
 Press with your bending knees the crowded banks,
 Cross your meek arms, incline your wreathed brows,
 And win the Goddess with unwearied vows. 

 "Oh, wave, HYGEIA! o'er BRITANNIA's throne
 Thy serpent-wand, and mark it for thy own;
 Lead round her breezy coasts thy guardian trains,
 Her nodding forests, and her waving plains;
 Shed o'er her peopled realms thy beamy smile,
 And with thy airy temple crown her isle!" 

The GODDESS ceased, — and calling from afar
 The wandering Zephyrs, joins them to her car;
 Mounts with light bound, and graceful, as she bends,
 Whirls the long lash, the flexile rein extends;
 On whispering wheels the silver axle slides,
 Climbs into air, and cleaves the crystal tides;
 Burst from its pearly chains, her amber hair
 Streams o'er her ivory shoulders, buoy'd in air;
 Swells her white veil, with ruby clasp confined
 Round her fair brow, and undulates behind;
 The lessening coursers rise in spiral rings,
 Pierce the slow-sailing clouds, and stretch their shadowy wings. 

Verses omitted by mistake, to be inserted after line 320. Canto III. page 140.

— HERE her sad Consort, stealing through the gloom
 Of murmuring cloysters, gazes on her tomb;
 Hangs in mute anguish o'er the scutcheon'd hearse,
 Or graves with trembling style the votive verse. 

 "Sexton! oh, lay beneath this sacred shrine,
 When Time's cold hand shall close my aching eyes,
 Oh, gently lay this wearied earth of mine,
 Where wrap'd in night my loved MILCENA lies. 

 "So shall with purer joy my spirit move,
 When the last trumpet thrills the caves of Death,
 Catch the first whispers of my waking love,
 And drink with holy kiss her kindling breath. 

 "The spotless Fair, with blush ethereal warm,
 Shall hail with sweeter smile returning day,
 Rise from her marble bed a brighter form,
 And win on buoyant step her airy way. 

 "Shall bend approved, where beckoning hosts invite,
 On clouds of silver her adoring knee,
 Approach with Seraphim the throne of light,
 — And BEAUTY plead with angel-tongue for Me!"