ANALYSIS OF PART I. Introduction.Deluge.Savage stopped by a river.Tree blown across the stream.Tree carried away by an inundation. Raft.Fishing.Carried sea by a stormlands in an islandreturns.Voluntary voyage.Canadians and South Sea Islandersmystery of their origin and language.Tradition.Coasts of the Mediterranean. Tyrians discover Britain.Necus King of Egypt sends a Fleet round Africa.Commerce.Predatory expeditions. Io.Argonauts.Trojan War.War yet confined to the shore.Expedition of Darius.Expedition of Xerxes. Battle of Salamis.Peloponnesian war.Ægos Potamos. Carthage.Rome.Actium.Northern barbarians.
Ye scenes of nature, by the poet's tongue
In every age, and every climate sung,
Mountains, whose sides eternal forests shade,
Vales, in the flowery robe of spring array'd,
Seats, ever bright in warm description's lay,
Far, far from you the venturous Muses stray!
Sublimer objects, and terrific views,
O'er the rough surge their daring flight pursues;
Far from their long lov'd Naiads while they rove,
Far from the Dryads of each haunted grove;
Ye sea-green guardians of old Ocean's reign,
(Who vex with storms, or soothe his wide domain,)
Bid each rude wave in placid silence sleep,
And gently hail these strangers to the deep.
By Heaven's decree, so sacred records tell,
The ponderous bark first brav'd the billowy swell:
And when, for foul offence, the Eternal Mind
Wav'd the dread sword of justice o'er mankind,
O'er earth's wide face the angry waters roar,
A world of waves, unbounded by a shore:
Though in the holy ark one pious race
Escap'd,the favourite sons of heavenly grace;
Their near descendants, long a pastoral train,
Nor spread the sail, nor plough'd the bordering main.
And by conjecture's glimmering light, the Muse,
Through scatter'd hords, the uncertain theme pursues;
From whose blind memory dark oblivion's sway
Each trace of earlier times had wip'd away.
When wildly wandering through the tangled shade,
As fancy led, the houseless Savage stray'd;
The smoothest stream, that deep its current roll'd
With ceaseless lapse, his vagrant course controll'd.
For to the bestial tribes though Nature gave
Instinctive power to cleave the opposing wave,
To man, the brook a hopeless boundary flows,
Till use and toil the swimmer's art disclose.
Though cross the narrow bourn he envious sees
Luxuriant fruitage bend the loaded trees;
Though sweets, from flowers perennial, that exhale
With aromatic fragrance, freight the gale;
He eyes the liquid barrier in despair,
And sighs for wealth he dares not hope to share.
Haply, at length, by winds tempestuous blown,
Across the brook a rifted oak is thrown;
On the rough trunk he passes trembling o'er,
And tastes the plenty of the envied shore.
Speedy his step, and short his stay; the mind
Hanging on scenes domestic left behind.
For, save where false refinement's baneful force,
Poisons of inborn worth the genuine source,
Seats, that remembrance fond of youth impart,
Wind with close tendril round the human heart;
The parting eye reverted drops a tear
On scenes that childhood's playful joys endear:
Where'er the boldest wanderer chance to roam,
The harvest of his care is reap'd at home.
Hence, though his feet the traject often trace,
Yet, mindful of his cave and infant race,
Still to his rock he bears with pleasing toil
The ripe productions of the happier soil.
Swoll'n by the sudden fall of wintry showers,
Lo, from the hills the roaring torrent pours!
From the loose bank the unsteady bridge is torn,
And down the stream by circling eddies borne.
The affrighted Savage saw the ravag'd coast,
And mourn'd the hope of future harvests lost.
Yet as his eyes the floating trunk beheld,
Driven by the wind, or by the wave impell'd,
His imitative mind the image caught,
And hence the rude mis-shapen raft was taught.
With the long pole the cumbrous mass he guides,
Till pushing from the current's sedgy sides,
Down the mid stream he ventures, to the gale
Spreading with timid arm his leafy sail.
Now bolder grown, when not a whispering breeze
Stirs the calm bosom of the sleeping seas,
With cautious eye, and clinging to the shore,
He dares the borders of the main explore;
With wily arm the rush-form'd net he throws,
And learns the watery legions to inclose.
Harden'd by use, and lur'd by tranquil skies,
The expanded deep the novice seaman tries;
Though ready still the sheltering coast to gain,
If but a ruder breath should curl the main.
But who can safely trust, with prudent mind,
The inconstant changes of the waves and wind?
Soft blows at first the breeze,he plies the oar,
And strives, but vainly strives, to reach the shore.
Full from the land now drives the rising gale,
And swells with freshening blast the uncertain sail.
Toss'd by the foaming surge, unskill'd to steer,
As the wild whirlwinds desultory veer;
The raft ill-shap'd, driven by the flitting breeze,
Wanders unguided through the rolling seas.
And now the distant hills, whose azure height
Seem'd vapoury clouds to his untutor'd sight,
Large and more large, in nearer prospect seen,
Swell to his view, with waving foliage green;
While far receding from his fearful eyes,
His native mountains melt into the skies.
And now the rude winds o'er the labouring surge
Full on the shore the shatter'd vessel urge.
Fir'd by the hope of life, with rising force
He grasps the oar, and tries to guide its course;
Till driven at length against the groaning strand,
Breathless, and faint with fear, he leaps on land.
Elate at first, his roving eyes explore
The varied wonders of the stranger shore;
Through groves of foreign shade he strays alone,
Sees forms uncouth, and feasts on fruits unknown.
Short the delight:soon dread his soul invades,
Cautious he steps, and trembling views the shades
Where hostile tribes may wage unequal strife,
Or lurk in secret ambush for his life.
His head by day he hides in gloomy caves;
And by the moon beam gazing on the waves,
As his strain'd eyeballs anxious try to trace
The distant vestige of his native place,
Now stream his tears, now heave convulsive sighs;
Now wild despair flames in his haggard eyes:
Despair elicits hoperesolv'd again
To brave, with voluntary bark, the main,
Once more he frames the raft, directs once more
His voy'ge adventurous from the hated shore,
While heaves in gentle swell the placid tide,
And favouring gales his course auspicious guide.
The danger past, assembling hords attend
To learn the perils of their wandering friend;
And as his words in no faint tints display
The various dangers of the watery way,
Tell all the wonders of the distant scene,
The fruits how luscious, and the woods how green:
Describe with prejudice the savage train
Who proudly lord it o'er the rich domain.
Ambitious zeal the bold emprize to try
Glows in each breast, and beams from every eye.
All now their strength, their skill now all unite,
And ply the common toil with keen delight.
From the scoop'd gourd their ductile minds acquire
The hollow'd trunk to shape, with smouldering fire,
Or, from the rind on mountain oaks that grew,
To form of buoyant bark the light canoe.
Now, with more sanguine hope, they spread the sail,
Plough the rough wave, and court the rising gale:
Improving skill experience hourly bought,
And frequent danger means of safety taught;
With rudder now the dancing skiff they guide,
Or sweep with dashing oars the whitening tide.
Hence the bold voy'ge Canadian hunters take
O'er the broad bosom of the stormy lake;
Hence, mid the isles that stud the southern deep,
Secure their way the gentler inmates keep;
Their woven sails give to the tepid breeze,
And venture fearless through the placid seas.
Here truths, to light by full experience brought,
Stagger our faith, and mock the powers of thought.
On Britain's bounded coasts, fair freedom's reign,
Shut from the nations by the circling main,
While, in three different dialects, we trace
Distinctive features of a separate race;
Yet from New Zealand's bleak and rugged shore,
Where reeks the impious feast with human gore,
To the soft shade of Otaheité's groves,
Where, in a lovelier Cyprus, Venus roves,
Congenial accents of a kindred speech
Proclaim one common origin to each.
Conjecture from the page of wonder shrinks,
And Fancy fears to utter what she thinks.
Could the canoe, by tools imperfect join'd,
Ill fram'd and light, the sport of every wind,
With brittle oar, and sail mis-shapen, brave
The foaming fury of the ocean wave,
Cross the wide waters of the southern main,
Which Europe's fleets have oft essay'd in vain,
And waft, securely, crowding numbers o'er,
To colonize the far divided shore?
Turn from these scenes, by vain conjecture's light
Where Fancy wildly throws her dazzled sight,
Where specious error oft with sanguine hand
Rashly her frail hypothesis has plann'd,
And mark tradition's lore.What though her course
Is stain'd by fable as it quits its source,
And many a flower, sprung from the poet's dream,
Tinctures the surface of her passing stream;
Yet from the copious stores her fount bestows
The purer tide of truth historic flows.
Hail sea, to science sacred! where we find
All that informs and dignifies mankind,
On whose fair borders and surrounding shores,
The eye each source of worth, of fame, explores.
Egypt, by plenty's liberal foison fed
From the rich wave of Nile's redundant bed;
Syria, by freedom first, and commerce trod;
Salem, the hallow'd heritage of God;
And Greece, where every germ of genuine worth,
That shot spontaneous from her genial earth,
Luxuriant harvests of perfection bore,
And pour'd the produce on each neighbouring shore;
Till, sailing down the vast abyss of time,
Her arts still flourish through each various clime;
And as the glorious orb of solar day,
Darting in endless blaze its gorgeous ray,
Through space that mocks imagination's flight,
Glads distant systems with its cheering light:
So wide diffus'd o'er many a barbarous hord,
That Græcia's sages ne'er in thought explor'd,
Her genius, far as earth its limits spreads,
The intellectual beam of science sheds,
Warms the rude tribe mid Thulé's frost that roves,
And cheers the savage of th'Atlantic groves.
On those bless'd seas where many a cluster'd isle
Bids the expanse with varied beauty smile,
And the protection of a bordering shore
Tempted the flitting sail and bending oar
Fearless to venture through the bounded main,
Seek new domains, or wealth by barter gain;
Taught by progressive art, the docile race
Climes yet unknown and distant regions trace;
The improving seaman learns his course to guide
By signs celestial through the pathless tide.
Directed by the load-star's constant ray,
The bold Phnicians plough the watery way,
Plunder on Ophir's coast the precious mine,
To deck the walls of Salem's holy shrine;
Or pass, adventurous, Calpe's rocky steep,
To dare the fury of the Atlantic deep;
By Tagus' mouth their course undaunted urge,
And fearless stem Biscaya's swelling surge,
To seek, on Albion's far divided shore,
The useful produce of a meaner ore.
Perhaps from them her sons congenial taught,
The seeds of commerce and of freedom caught;
And later, as where sandy Libya glows,
Supreme in both their proud descendants rose:
So here, though far beyond where skill can trace
The earliest lineage of Britannia's race,
From Tyre's colonial tribes our fathers came,
Deriv'd from them their fortune and their fame;
Her better Carthage wenot doom'd by fate
The destin'd victim of a tyrant state,
Who spread destruction's banners to the wind,
And call it Freedom, to enslave mankind:
Our boast to curb oppression's headlong course,
Launch the red bolt on pride's gigantic force;
Indignant tread on Slavery's stern decree,
Freemen ourselves, and patrons of the free.
And lo, from fertile Egypt's watery shores,
The Tyrian fleet the southern world explores;
For three long years by desert coasts they roam,
Far from their social hearths and native home;
On fields unknown the fruitful grain they strew,
Then reap the harvest, and the voy'ge renew.
Along Arabia's gulf their course they keep,
And stem the billows of the Erythrian deep.
Now by Menuthia's spacious isle they steer;
And now, where Afric's southmost cliffs appear,
As round the stormy Cape their way they urge,
Braving with fragile bark the dangerous surge;
Wondering, they view the radiant orb of day,
Hang high in northern skies his noontide ray.
By rude Caffraria's wild uncultur'd lands,
By Niger's sultry stream and golden sands,
Hesperian isles, in fable long renown'd,
And Cerné's rocks, with giant forests crown'd;
Eastward, through Gades' straits, their skilful oars
Return triumphant to the Egyptian shores.
By love of opulence and science led,
Now Commerce wide her peaceful empire spread,
And seas, obedient to the pilot's art,
But join'd the regions which they seem'd to part;
Free intercourse disarm'd the barbarous mind,
Tam'd savage hate, and humaniz'd mankind.
But such of human things the unhappy state,
On every good attendant evils wait;
Still will the worm the richest fruit devour,
Still lurks the canker in the sweetest flower.
The simple native, who his guest believ'd,
Was oft by selfish artifice deceiv'd;
Oft would rude force the splendid prize obtain,
And rapine seize what barter fail'd to gain.
Hence the Phnician mariner betray'd
By specious gifts of peace, the Argive maid;
Hence Græcia's heroes with vindictive ire,
By Jason led, and rous'd by Orpheus' lyre,
Launch'd their fam'd bark, and from the Phasian shore
The mingled spoils of wealth and beauty bore.
Alternate thus, the rival powers behold
From coast to coast insidious ravage roll'd,
Till Asia saw the bolt, by vengeance sped,
Recoiling dreadful on the spoiler's head;
And Ilion wept the hour in tears of blood,
When, rashly sailing o'er the Ionian flood,
Young Paris bore, with short but fatal joy,
Helen, and ruin, to the towers of Troy.
Ye scenes of glory! borne by fame along
On the strong pinion of Mæonian song,
The same bold bard, that in celestial strain
Painted the chiefs of Ilion's trophied plain,
Leads to the sea-beat shore the willing Muse,
And through the perilous war of waves pursues,
From vanquish'd Phrygia to his native soil,
The mighty man of wisdom and of toil.
Yet still the thunder of the battle falls
On the vex'd plain, or shakes the city's walls;
Nor does the master of the Epic lay,
Whose strains each varied form of fight pourtray,
Picture one bark, whose hardy seamen dare
The uncertain conflict of the naval war.
The fleet, disburthen'd of the invading host,
Spreads its light wings, and quits the hostile coast;
Or drawn ashore, fenc'd by the rampart's shield,
Awaits the issue of the embattled field.
Now Asia's subjugated tribes obey
The common mandate of a tyrant's sway;
Her numerous states, in one vast empire join'd,
Threaten the freedom of the human kind.
Then, as supreme, the Median despot rose,
O'er fair Ionia's sons his glance he throws;
Ionia's sons, who from the Grecian shore
Their arts, their commerce, and their freedom bore.
But as his arms their busy ports invade,
Greece flew attentive to her offspring's aid,
And taught the sons of luxury to feel
The radiant edge of European steel.
The tyrant, stung by anger and disdain,
Resolves to vindicate his proud domain;
The assembled fleet from every region brings,
And awes old Ocean with his watery wings.
Greece shrinks unequal from the unnumber'd band,
Quits the throng'd sea, and seeks her rocky strand.
On Marathon's fam'd field the invaders swarm.
There injur'd Freedom lifts her nervous arm,
And her victorious myriad boldly sweep
The Persian locusts to the whelming deep.
The tyrant died, but not the tyrant's ire,
For Xerxes flam'd with all his father's fire.
Forests that hung o'er Syria's sultry caves,
Woods that o'er-arch'd Pactolus' golden waves,
Torn from the soil by sacrilegious hands,
Were launch'd impetuous from Ionia's sands;
The tangled oars the groaning billows sweep,
The sails wide spreading shade the darken'd deep;
Across the strait the floating causey cast,
In martial pomp the crowding nations pass'd,
While the proud despot bade his minions scourge,
With impotence of rage, the indignant surge.
Old Ocean view'd the attempt with angry eyes:
Vengeance be mine! the god insulted cries;
Tyrant, o'er Asian realms thy power extend,
There to thy frown bid servile millions bend!
O'er my dominions freedom's ensigns fly,
Mine the abode of peace and liberty.
No purple despot, or his crouching slaves,
Shall ever chain my independent waves.
My billows yet have roll'd a peaceful flood,
My sea-green wreaths are yet unstain'd by blood.
But rouse, my generous sons! my cause avow,
Shake from your decks the spear, and point the prow!
Greece heardfrom each steep isle and rocky coast
Flames on the gleamy deep the naval host.
With fleet on fleet, thick swarming o'er the tide,
While Persia's crowded barks the ocean hide.
As when the aquatic tribes behold afar
The ravening vultures threat destructive war,
On active wing their sedgy haunts they leave,
And the wide flood with oary pinion cleave:
From their devoted towers so Athens' train
Seek certain safety on the friendly main,
And view with sullen eye the foe assuage
On the deserted walls his baffled rage.
Short is his triumphglory spreads the sail,
Loud swells her cheering pæan in the gale:
And Salamis beheld each adverse fleet
In the rude shock of martial conflict meet.
Exulting Freedom fix'd her future reign,
Rais'd her first trophies o'er her new domain,
And rode, by conquest crown'd, sole empress of the main.
Soon rash ambition warp'd each patriot aim,
Kindling the fatal sparks of discord's flame,
And Athens' sons by skill superior bless'd,
Aspir'd to shameful empire o'er the rest;
Till Greece uniting, with repeated blow
Shook the proud purpose of the kindred foe,
And all her hopes of boundless sway were o'er,
For ever shipwreck'd on the Thracian shore.
But ah, too sure! with Athens' skilful train,
The glory sunk of Græcia's naval reign;
And on the northern bounds of Libya's land,
(Where now barbaric hords infest the strand,
And with ferocious insolence invade,
Her naval force defying, Europe's trade,)
Carthage beheld her sons their sails unfold,
Free as their Tyrian ancestors of old.
Sicilia's fertile vales their chiefs obey,
And proud Hesperia dreads their rising sway.
Their fleets awhile to Rome's proud shores give law,
And keep the mistress of the world in awe.
On vigorous pinion though her eagles soar
O'er Spain's dark heights, and far Illyria's shore,
Her trembling matrons view with tearful eye
On Sabine hills the Punic banners fly,
Till in their turn upon the swelling tide,
By victory fann'd, the Roman gallies ride,
And chase their rivals from their native main,
To meet disgrace on Zama's burning plain.
This potent foe subdued, no foreign force
Remains to awe their power, or check their course;
Peaceful they plough the billowy realms afar,
Or wage with piracy unnoticed war;
Till Civil Discord, arm'd by frantic pride,
Calls forth contending squadrons on the tide.
Now Ocean look'd for Freedom's sons in vain,
To take the empire of his blue domain.
Yet from the conflict of the tyrant foes,
With prescient eye the least oppressive chose,
And Cæsar's conquering fleet from Actium's shore
The prize of glory and dominion bore.
While Rome's stern despots to their iron yoke,
By strong oppression's arm, the nations broke;
Free Commerce fled, and the degraded wave
Wafted alone the tribute of the slave.
But when the avenging warriors of the North
Burst from their icy barriers dreadful forth,
And pouring o'er the South with forceful sway,
Swept every charm of polish'd life away,
The fierce barbarian tribes, inur'd to brave
The storms that swell the Hyperborean wave,
By hope of plunder lur'd, from coast to coast,
Uncheck'd and fearless, sped the naval host.
Hence Britain saw, through many a circling year,
Contending plunderers on her shores appear;
While foes to foes in endless train succeed,
Alternate conquer, and alternate bleed.
