120

And make the idiot drops start from their eyes;
Of churchyards belching flames at dead of night,
Of walking statues, ghosts unaffable
Haunting the dark waste tow'r or airless dungeon,
Then of the elves that deftly trip the green,
Drinking the summer's moonlight from the flow'rs,
And all the toys that Phantasy pranks up
T'amuse her fools withal.-Thus they lash on 125
The snail-pac'd Hyperborean nights till heav'n
Hangs with a juster poize, when the murk clouds
Roll'd up in heavy wreathes low-bellying seem
To kiss the ground, and all the waste of snow [dropsy
Looks blue beneath 'em, till plump'd with bloating
Beyond the bounds and stretch of continence 131
They burst at once; down pours the hoarded rain,
Washing the slipp'ry winter from the hills,
And floating all the vallies. The fading scene
Melts like a lost enchantment or vain phantasm
That can no more abuse; Nature resumes
Her old substantial shape, while from the waste
Of undistinguishing calamity
Forests, and by their sides wide-skirted plains,
Houses and trees arise, and waters flow,

136

140
That from their dark confinements bursting spurn
Their brittle chains, huge sheets of loosen'd ice
Float on their bosoms to the deep, and jar
And clatter as they pass; th'o'erjutting banks,
As long unpractis❜d to so steep a view,
Seem to look dizzy on the moving pomp.

145

R

I

Now ev'ry petty brook that crawl'd along Railing its pebbles mocks the river's rage Like the proud frog i' the fable. The huge Danube, While melting mountains rush into its tide, 150 Rolls with such headstrong and unreined course As it would choke the Euxine's gulfy maw, Bursting his crystal cerements. The breathing time Of peace expir'd that hush'd the deaf'ning scenes Of clam'rous indignation, ruffian War Rebels, and Nature stands at odds again : When the rous'd Furies of the fighting winds Torment the main, that swells its angry sides And churns the foam betwixt its flinty jaws, While thro' the savage dungeon of the night 160 The horrid thunder growls: th' ambitious waves Assault the skies, and from the bursting clouds Drink the glib lightning, as if the seas

155

Would quench the ever-burning fires of heav'n:
Straight from their slipp'ry pomp they madly plunge
And kiss the lowest pebbles. Wretched they 166
That 'midst such rude vexation of the deep
Guide a frail vessel! better ice-bound still,
Than mock'd with liberty thus be resign'd
To the rough fortune of the froward time,
When Navigation all a-tip-toe stands
On such unsteady footing. Now they mount
On the tall billow's top, and seem to jowl
Against the stars, whence (dreadful eminence!)

170

setaswimmingeves (enough to hurryround halassernigy he dizzy brain)

swallows vision with wide mouth aving a cave them; down they duck age Juttain of the main, and view Adres of vaulted hell;

170

189

Danas stane planet tow'rs, and shake ruments of ancient Time

wn a ser fine asss, that engage

185

Ane Zusi Yk ligi hay is with their woody heads,

Jing me stutuks tow.-But I forget 191

Ar nursing brocks within their channels play.

PROGNE'S DREAM.

Darkly expressive of some past Events that were soon to be revealed to her.

---Last night I dream'd,

(Whate'er it may forebode it moves me strangely)
That I was rapt into the raving deep :
An old and rev'rend sire conducted me;
He plung'd into the bosom of the main,
And bade me not to fear but follow him.
I follow'd; with impetuous speed we div'd,
And heard the dashing thunder o'er our heads.
Many a slipp'ry fathom down we sunk,
Beneath all plummets' sound,and reach'd the bottom.
When there I ask'd my venerable guide
If he could tell me where my sister was?
He told me that she lay not far from thence,
Within the bosom of a flinty rock,
Where Neptune kept her for his paramour
Hid from the jealous Amphitrite's sight,
And said he could conduct me to the place.
I begg'd he would. Thro' dreadful ways we pass'd,
'Twixt rocks that frightfully lower'd'on either side,
Whence here and there the branching coral sprung.
O'er dead men's bones we walk'd,o'er heaps of gold
Into a hideous kind of wilderness, [and gems,
Where stood a stern and prison-looking rock,
Daub'd with a mossy verdure all around,

15

The mockery of paint. As we drew near
Out sprung a hydra from a den below,
A speckled Fury; fearfully it hiss'd,
And roll'd its sea-green eyes so angrily
As it would kill with looking. My old guide
Against its sharp head hurl'd a rugged stone-30
The curling monster rais'd a brazen shriek,
Wallow'd, and dy’d in fitful agonies.
We gain'd the cave. Thro' woven adamant
I look'd, and saw my sister all alone:
Employ'd she seem'd in writing something sad, 35
So sad she look'd. Her cheek was wondrous wan;
Her mournful locks like weary sedges hung.
I call’d—she turning started when she saw me,
And threw her head aside as if asham'd.
She wept, but would not speak—I call'd again: 40
Still she was mute—Then madly I addrest,
With all the lion-sinews of despair,

To break the flinty ribs that held me out,
And with the struggling wak'd.—

A STORM,

44

Raised to account for the late return of a Messenger.
-The sun went down in wrath,

The skies foam'd brass, and soon th'unchained winds
Burst from the howling dungeon of the north,
And rais'd such high delirium on the main,
Such angry clamour, while such boiling waves