THE CASTAWAY.

1799.

OBSCUREST night involved the sky,

The Atlantic billows roar'd, When such a destined wretch as I,

Wash'd headlong from on board, Of friends, of hope, of all bereft, His floating home for ever left.

No braver chief could Albion boast

Than he with whom we went, Nor eyer ship left Albion's coast

With warmer wishes sent. He loved thein both, but both in vain, Nor him beheld, nor her again.

Not long beneath the whelming brine,

Expert to swim, he lay; Nor soon he felt his strength decline,

Or courage die away; But waged with death a lasting strife, Supported by despair of life.

He shouted; nor his friends had fail'd

To check the vessel's course, But so the furious blast prevail'd,

That, pitiless perforce, They left their outcast mate behind, And scudded still before the wind.

Some succour yet they could afford;

And, such as storms allow,
The cask, the coop, the floated cord,

Delay'd not to bestow :
But he (they knew) nor ship nor shore,
Whate'er they gave, should visit more.

Nor, cruel as it seem'd, could he

Their haste himself condemn,
Aware that flight, in such a sea,

Alone could rescue them;
Yet bitter felt it still to die
Deserted, and his friends so nigh.

He long survives who lives an hour

In ocean, self-upheld ;
And so long he, with unspent power,

His destiny repellid :
And ever as the minutes flew,
Entreated help, or cried—“ Adieu !"

At length, his transient respite pass’d,

His comrades, who before
Had heard his voice in every blast,

Could catch the sound uo more:
For then, by toil subdued, he drank
The stifling wave, and then he sank.

No poet wept him : but the page

Of narrative sincere,
That tells his name, his worth, his age,

Is wet with Anson's tear :
And tears by bards or heroes shed
Alike immortalize the dead.

I therefore purpose not, or dream,

Descanting on his fate,
To give the melancholy theme

A more enduring date :
But misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.

No voice divine the storm allay'd ;

No light propitious shone; When snatch'd from all effectual aid,

We perish'd each alone: But I beneath a rougher sea, And whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he.

COWPER.

JOHN GILPIN,

AND

OTHER POEMS.