A fcene fo folemn, and the tender woe
Of parting friends, conftrained my tears to flow.
To weigh our anchors from our native fhore-
To dare new oceans never dared before-
Perhaps to fee my native coaft no more
Forgive, O king, if as a man I feel,
I bear no bofom of obdurate fteel.
(The godlike hero here fuppreft the figh,
And wiped the tear-drop from his manly eye;
Then thus refuming-) All the peopled fhore,
An awful, filent look of anguifh wore;
Affection, friendship, all the kindred ties
Of spouse and parent languish'd in their eyes:
As men they never fhould again behold,
Self-offer'd victims to destruction fold,
On us they fixt the eager look of woe,
While tears o'er every cheek began to flow;
When thus aloud, Alas! my fon, my fon,
An hoary Sire exclaims, oh! whither run,
My heart's fole joy, my trembling age's fay,
To yield thy limbs the dread fea-monster's prey!
To feek thy burial in the raging wave,
And leave me cheerlefs finking to the grave!
Was it for this I watch'd thy tender years,
And bore each fever of a father's fears!
Alas! my boy!-His voice is heard no more,
The female fhriek refounds along the shore:
With hair dishevell'd, through the yielding crowd
A lovely bride fprings on, and fcreams aloud;
Oh! where, my husband, where to feas unknown,
Where would't thou fly me, and my love difown!
And wilt thou, cruel, to the deep confign
That valued life, the joy, the foul of mine:
And muft our loves, and all our kindred train
Of rapt endearments, all expire in vain!
All the dear tranfports of the warm embrace,
When mutual love infpired each raptured face!
Muft all, alas! be scatter'd in the wind,
Nor thou bestow one lingering look behind!
Such the lorn parents' and the spouses' woes,
Such o'er the ftrand the voice of wailing rofe;
From breast to breast the soft contagion crept,
Moved by the woeful found the children wept;
The mountain ecchoes catch the big-fwoln fighs,
And through the dales prolong the matron's cries;
The yellow fands with tears are filver'd o'er,
Our fate the mountains and the beach deplore.
Yet firm we march, nor turn one glance afide
On hoary parent, or on lovely bride.
Though glory fired our hearts, too well we knew
What foft affection and what love could do.
The laft embrace the braveft worst can bear:
The bitter yearnings of the parting tear
Sullen we fhun, unable to fuflain
The melting paffion of fuch tender pain.'
In the fifth book the defcription of the fpirit of the Cape of Tempefts, now called the Cape of Good Hope, is dreadfully fublime, and, perhaps, unequalled:
Now profp'rous gales the bending canvas fwell'd;
. From thefe rude fhores our fearlefs course we held:
Beneath the glistening wave the God of day
Had now five times withdrawn the parting ray,
When o'er the prow a fudden darkness spread,
And flowly floating o'er the mafl's tall head
A black cloud hover'd: nor appear'd from far
The moon's pale glimpfe, nor faintly twinkling ftar;
So deep a gloom the lcuring vapour caft,
Transfixt with awe the bravest stood aghaft.
Meanwhile a hollow bursting roar refounds,
As when hoarfe furges lafh their rocky mounds;
Nor had the blackening wave, nor frowning heaven
The wonted figns of gathering tempeft given.
Amazed we flood-Othou, our fortune's guide,
Avert this Omen, mighty God,-1 cried;
Or through forbidden climes adventrous flray'd,
Have we the fecrets of the deep furvey'd,
Which thefe wide folitudes of feas and fky
Were doom'd to hide from man's unhallow'd eye?
Whate'er this prodigy, it threatens more
Than midnight tempefts and the mingled roar,
When fea and fky combine to rock the marble fhore.
I fpoke, when rifing through the darken'd air,
Appall'd we faw an hideous Phantom glare;
High and enormous o'er the flood he tower'd,
And thwart our way with fullen afpect lour'd:
An earthy palenefs o'er his cheeks was fpread,
Erect uprofe his hairs of wither'd red;
Writhing to speak his fable lips difclose,
Sharp and disjoin'd, his gnafhing teeth's blue rows;
His haggard beard flow'd quivering on the wind,
Revenge and horror in his mien combined';
His clouded front, by withering lightnings feared,
The inward anguifh of his foul declared.
His red eyes glowing from their dusky caves
Shot livid fires: Far ecchoing o'er the waves
His voice refounded, as the cavern'd fhore
With hollow groan repeats the tempeft's roar.
Cold gliding horrors thrill'd each hero's breaft,
Our brifling hairs and tottering knees cónfeft
Wild dread, the while with vilage ghaftly wan,
His black lips trembling, thus the fiend began."
After predicting fome dreadful evils that should befal the
He paus'd, in act still farther to disclose
A long, a dreary prophecy of woes :
When fpringing onward, loud my voice refounds,
And midft his rage the threatening Shade confounds,
What art thou, Horrid Form, that rideft the air?
By heaven's eternal light, ftern Fiend, declare.
His lips he writhes, his eyes far round he throws,
And from his breaft deep hollow groans arofe,
Sternly afkaánce he flood: with wounded pride
And anguish torn, In me, behold, he cried,
While dark-red fparkles from his eyeballs roll'd,
In me the Spirit of the Cape behold,
That rock by you the Cape of Tempefts named,
By Neptune's rage in horrid earthquakes framed,
When Jove's red bolts o'er Titan's offspring flamed.
With wide stretch'd piles I guard the pathlefs ftrand,
-And Afric's fouthern mound unmoved I ftand":
Nor Roman prow, nor daring Tyrian oar
Ere dash'd the white wave foaming to my fhore;
Nor Greece nor Carthage ever fpread the fail
On these my feas to catch the trading gale.
You, you alone have dared to plough my main,
And with the human voice disturb my lonefome reign.'
We proposed to conclude the Article before us in this Review, but we were, not then fo fully apprized of the merit of the work. We should be wanting in respect to the taste and entertainment of our Readers, in the attention due to the very ingenious Tranflator, and even in regard to our own gratification, should we not introduce Mr. Mickle and his Lufiad to the public eye once more.
ART. VI. Amwell, a Defcriptive Poem. By John Scott, Eq. 4to. 2 s. Dilly. 1776.
BOUT fixteen years ago we reviewed fome elegant little poems, characterised by a natural enthufiafm, harmony, and fimplicity, under the title of Elegies, defcriptive and moral*. Not long afterwards we learnt that they were the production of the ingenious Author of the poem before us, a Gentleman of fortune, who lives in a beautiful retirement, embellished by his own taste and genius, at the place he defcribes t. amidst the multiplicity of poetical publications which pafs under our review, we retain a lively and diftinct idea of those Elegies, is, at leaft, fo far as our opinion may be reposed upon, an indubitable proof of their merit.
* See Review, vol. xxiii. p. 68.
Near Ware, Hertfordshire.
Those rural fcenes and images which ftrike upon a young mind impregnated with the feeds of poetry, and, of course, with an ardent love of Nature-which strike with a degree of enthusiasm that seems, like other generous paffions, to have its empire, indeed, in youth, but can never be divorced from memory-thofe fcenes and images are the objects of this easy and melodious poem.
Purfues its pleafing courfe o'er neighb'ring hills,
Where frequent hedge-rows interfect rich fields
Of many a different form and different hue,
Bright with ripe corn, or green with grafs, or dark
With clover's purple bloom; o'er WIDBURY's mount
With that fair crefcent crown'd of lofty elms,
Its own peculiar boast; and o'er the woods
That round immure the deep fequefter'd dale
Of LANGLEY, down whofe flow'r-embroider'd meads
Swift ASH through pebbly fhores meandering rolls.
Elyfian fcene! as from the living world
Secluded quite; for of that world, to him
Whose wanderings trace thy winding length, appears
No mark, fave one white folitary spire
At distance rifing through the tufted trees-
Elyfian fcene! reclufe as that, fo fam'd
For folitude, by WARWICK's ancient walls,
Where under umbrage of the moffy cliff
Victorious Guy, fo legends fay, reclin'd
His hoary head befide the filver ftream,
In meditation rapt-Elyfian fcene!
At evening often, while the fetting fun
On the green fummit of thy eastern groves
Pour'd full his yellow radiance; while the voice
Of ZEPHYR whispering midft the ruftling leaves,
The found of water murmuring through the fedge,
The turtle's plaintive call, and mufic foft
Of diftant bells, whofe ever varying notes,
In flow fad measure mov'd, combin❜d to footh
The foul to fweet folemnity of thought;
Beneath thy branchy bowers of thickest gloom,
Much on the imperfect ftate of Man I have mus'd;
How Pain o'er half his hours her iron reign
Ruthless extends; how Pleasure from the path
Of Innocence allures his fteps; how Hope
Fixes his eye on future joy, that flies
His fond purfuit; how Fear his fhuddering heart
Alarms with fancy'd ill; how Doubt and Care
Perplex his thought; how foon the tender rofe
Of Beauty fades, the fturdy oak of Strength
Declines to earth, and over all our pride
Stern Time triumphant ftands.'
After lamenting, in the clofe of these melancholy ideas, the death of fome particular friends, the Author refumes his descriptive pencil:
• When melancholy thus has chang'd to grief,
That grief in foft forgetfulness to lofe,
I have left the gloom for gayer fcenes, and fought
Through winding paths of venerable shade,
The airy brow where that tall fpreading beech
O'ertops furrounding groves, up rocky fleeps,
Tree over tree difpos'd; or ftretching far
Their fhadowy coverts down th' indented fide
Of fair corn-fields; or pierc'd with funny glades,
That yield the cafual glimpse of flowery meads
And fhining filver rills; on thefe the eye
Then wont to expatiate pleas'd; or more remote
Survey'd yon vale of LEE, in verdant length
Of level lawn spread out to KENT's blue hills,
And the proud range of glitt'ring fpires that rife
In mifty air on THAMES'S Crouded shores.
'How beautiful, how various is the view
Of these fweet paftoral landscapes! fair, perhaps,
As thofe renown'd of old, from TABOR S height,
Or CARMEL feen; or thofe, the pride of GREECE,
TEMPE OF ARCADY; or thofe that grac'd
The banks of clear ELORUS, or the skirts
Of thymy HYBLA, where SICILIA'S ifle
Smiles on the azure main; there once was heard
The Mufe's lofty lay.How beautiful,
How various is yon view! delicious hills
Bounding smooth vales, fmooth vales by winding streams
Divided, that here glide through graffy banks
In open fun, there wander under fhade
Of afpen tall, or ancient elm, whose boughs
O'erhang grey castles, and romantic farms,
And humble cots of happy fhepherd fwains;
Delightful habitations! with the fong
Of birds melodious charm'd, and bleat of flocks
From upland paftures heard, and low of kine
Grazing the rushy mead, and mingled founds
Of falling waters and of whifp'ring winds;
Delightful habitations! o'er the land
Difpers'd around, from WALTHAM's ofier'd isles
To where bleak NASING's lonely tower o'erlooks
Her verdant fields; from RAYDON's pleasant groves
And HUNSDON's bowers on STORT's irriguous marge,
By RHYE'S old walls, to HODS DON's airy fireet;
From HALY'S Woodland to the flow'ry meads
Of willow-fhaded STANSTED, and the flope
Of AMWELL'S Mount, that crown'd with yellow corn
There from the green flat, foftly fwelling, fhows
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