Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Ir is perhaps necessary to acquaint the public, that

the author of this poem designed not at first to enlarge the work with so many notes, and, to avoid this, proposed to refer his readers to any one of the modern dictionaries, which should be thought most proper for explaining the technical terms occasionally mentioned in the poem; but after strict examination of them all, including a silly inadequate performance that has lately appeared by a seaofficer', he could by no means recommend their explanations, without forfeiting his claim to the character assumed in the title-page, of which he is much more tenacious than of his reputation as a poet.

Although it is so frequent a practice to take the advantage of public approbation, and raise the price of performances that have been much encouraged, the author chooses to steer in a quite different channel: it being a considerable time since the first edition sold off, (notwithstanding the high price, and the singularity of the subject) he might very justly continue the price; but as it deterred a number of the inferior officers of the sea from purchasing it, at their repeated request it has been printed now in a smaller edition: at the same time,

'Can a sea-officer be so ignorant as to mistake the names of the most common things in a ship?

the author is sorry to observe, that the gentlemen of the sea, for whose entertainment it was chiefly calculated, have hardly made one-tenth of the purchasers.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. DATED FROM SOMERSET HOUSE, OCTOBER 1, 1769, THE YEAR IN WHICH FALCONER SAILED FOR INDIA.

THE favourable reception which this performance has hitherto met with from the public, has encouraged the author to give it a strict and thorough revision; in the course of which, he flatters him

self, it will be found to have received very consi

derable improvements.

INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM.

WHILE jarring interests wake the world to arms,
And fright the peaceful vale with dire alarms,
While Albion bids th' avenging thunders roll
Along her vassal Deep from pole to pole;
Sick of the scene, where War with ruthless hand
Spreads desolation o'er the bleeding land,
Sick of the tumult, where the trumpet's breath
Bids Ruin smile, and drowns the groan of Death;
'Tis mine, retir'd beneath this cavern hoar
That stands all lonely on the sea-beat shore,
Far other themes of deep distress to sing
Than ever trembled from the vocal string;
A scene from dumb Oblivion to restore,
To Fame unknown, and new to Epic lore:
Where hostile elements conflicting rise,
And lawless surges swell against the skies,
Till Hope expires, and Peril and Dismay
Wave their black ensigns on the watry way.

Immortal train! who guide the maze of song,
To whom all science, arts, and arms belong,
Who bid the trumpet of eternal Fame
Exalt the warrior's and the poet's name,

Or in lamenting elegies express
The varied pang of exquisite distress;

If e'er with trembling hope I fondly stray'd
In life's fair morn beneath your hallow'd shade,
To hear the sweetly-mournful lute complain,
And melt the heart with ecstasy of pain,
Or listen to th' enchanting voice of Love
While all Elysium warbled through the grove;
Oh! by the hollow blast that moans around,
That sweeps the wild harp with a plaintive sound;
By the long surge that foams through yonder cave,
Whose vaults remurmur to the roaring wave;
With living colours give my verse to glow,
The sad memorial of a tale of woe!
The fate, in lively sorrow, to deplore
Of wanderers shipwreck'd on a leeward shore.
Alas! neglected by the sacred Nine,
Their suppliant feels no genial ray divine:
Ah! will they leave Pieria's happy shore
To plough the tide where wintry tempests roar?
Or shall a youth approach their hallow'd fane
Stranger to Phoebus, and the tuneful train?
Far from the Muses' academic grove
'Twas his the vast and trackless deep to rove,
Alternate change of climates has he known,
And felt the fierce extremes of either zone:
Where polar skies congeal th' eternal snow,
Or equinoctial suns for ever glow,

Smote by the freezing, or the scorching blast,
"A ship-boy on the high and giddy mast ',”
From regions where Peruvian billows roar,
To the bleak coasts of savage Labrador;
From where Damascus, pride of Asian plains,
Stoops her proud neck beneath tyrannic chains,
To where the Isthmus lav'd by adverse tides
Atlantic and Pacific seas divides:

But while he measur'd o'er the painful race
In Fortune's wild illimitable chase,
Adversity, companion of his way,

Still o'er the victim hung with iron sway,
Bade new distresses every instant grow,
Marking each change of place with change of woe:
In regions where th' Almighty's chast'uing hand
With livid Pestilence afHicts the land,

Or where pale Famine blasts the hopeful year,
Parent of want and misery severe;
Or where, all-dreadful in th' embattled line,
The hostile ships in flaming combat join,
Where the torn vessel wind and waves assail
Till o'er her crew distress and death prevail-
Such joyless toils in early youth endur'd
Th' expanding dawn of mental day obscur'd,
Each genial passion of the soul opprest
And quench'd the ardour kindling in his breast.
Then censure not severe the native song
Though jarring sounds the measur'd verse prolong,
Though terms uncouth offend the softer ear,
Yet truth and human anguish deign to hear:
No laurel wreaths the lays attempt to claim,
Nor sculptur'd brass to tell the poet's name.

And lo! the Power that wakes th' eventful song
Hastes hither from Lethean banks along,
She sweeps the gloom, and rushing on the sight
Spreads o'er the kindling scene propitious light.
In her right hand an ample roll appears
Fraught with long annals of preceding years,
With every wise and noble art of man
Since first the circling hours their course began;

[blocks in formation]

Her left a silver wand on high display'd,
Whose magic touch dispels Oblivion's shade.
Pensive her look; on radiant wings that glow
Like Juno's birds, or Iris' flaming bow,

She sails; and swifter than the course of light
Directs her rapid intellectual flight.
The fugitive ideas she restores,

And calls the wand'ring thought from Lethe's shores;
To things long past a second date she gives,
And hoary Time from her fresh youth receives;
Congenial sister of immortal Fame,

She shares her pow'r, and Memory is her name.
O first-born daughter of primeval Time!
By whom transmitted down in ev'ry clime
The deeds of ages long elaps'd are known,
And blazon'd glories spread from zone to zone;
Whose magic breath dispels the mental night
And o'er th' obscur'd idea pours the light;
Say on what seas, for thou alone canst tell,
What dire mishap a fated ship befel
Assail'd by tempests, girt with hostile shores?
Arise! approach! unlock thy treasur'd stores!
Full on my soul the dreadful scene display,
And give its latent horrours to the day.

THE SHIPWRECK.

CANTO I.

The scene of which lies near the city of Candia.

TIME, ABOUT FOUR DAYS AND AN HALF.

THE ARGUMENT.

I. Retrospect of the voyage...Arrival at Candia... State of that island...Season of the year described...II. Character of the master, and his officers, Albert, Rodmond, and Arion... Palemon, son to the owner of the ship...Attachment of Palemon to Anna the daughter of Albert...Noon ...III. Palemon's history...IV. Sun set...Midnight...Arion's dream...Unmoor by moonlight... Morning. Sun's azimuth taken... Beautiful appearance of the ship, as seen by the natives from the shore.

I. A SHIP from Egypt, o'er the deep impell'd

By

Of fam winds, her course for Venice held,

Britannia were the gallant crew, And from that isle her name the vessel drew: The wayward steps of Fortune they pursued, And sought in certain ills imagin'd good: Though caution'd oft her slippery path to shun, Hope still with promis'd joys adlur'd them on; And while they listened to her winning lore The softer scenes of Peace could please no more. Long absent they from friends and native home The cheerless Ocean were inur'd to roam; Yet Heaven, in pity to severe distress, Had crown'd each painful voyage with success; Still, to compensate toils and hazards past, Restor'd them to maternal plains at last.

Thrice had the San, to rule the varying year, Across the equator roll'd his flaming sphere,

Since last the vessel spread her ample sail,
From Albion's coast, obsequious to the gale;
She o'er the spacious flood, from shore to shore
Unwearying wafted her commercial store;
The richest ports of Afric she had viewed
Thence to fair Italy her course pursued,
Had left behind Trinacria's burning isle,
And visited the margin of the Nile:

And now, that Winter deepens round the pole,
The circling voyage hastens to its goal:
They, blind to Fate's inevitable law,
No dark event to blast their hope foresaw,
But from gay Venice, soon expect to steer
For Britain's coast, and dread no perils near;
Inflam'd by Hope, their throbbing hearts elate
Ideal pleasures vainly antedate,

Before whose vivid intellectual ray
Distress recedes, and danger melts away.
Already British coasts appear to rise,
The chalky cliffs salute their longing eyes;
Each to his breast, where floods of rapture roll,
Embracing strains the mistress of his soul:
Nor less o'erjoy'd, with sympathetic truth,
Fach faithful maid expects th' approaching youth.
In distant souls congenial passions glow,
And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow:
Such shadowy happiness their thoughts employ,
Illusion all, and visionary joy!

Thus time elaps'd, while o'er the pathless tide
Their ship through Grecian seas the pilots guide.
Occasion call'd to touch at Candia's shore,
Which, blest with favouring winds, they soon ex-
plore;

The haven enter, borne before the gale,
Dispatch their commerce, and prepare to sail.
Eternal powers! what ruins from afar
Mark the fell track of desolating War:
Here Arts and Commerce with auspicious reign
Once breathed sweet influence on the happy plain;
While o'er the lawn, with dance and festive song,
Young Pleasure led the jocund Hours along.
In gay luxuriance Ceres too was seen
To crown the vallies with eternal green:
For wealth, for valour, courted and revered,
What Albion is, fair Candia then appeared.-
Ah! who the flight of ages can revoke?
The free-born spirit of her sons is broke,
They bow to Ottoman's imperious yoke.
No longer Fame the drooping heart inspires,
For stern Oppression quench'd its genial fires.
Though still her fields, with golden harvests crown'd,
Supply the barren shores of Greece around,
Sharp penury afflicts these wretched isles,
There Hope ne'er dawns, and Pleasure never smiles.
The vassal wretch contented drags his chain,
And hears his famish'd babes lament in vain.
These eyes have seen the dull reluctant soil
A seventh year mock the weary labourer's toil.
No blooming Venus, on the desert shore,
Now views with triumph captive gods adore;
No lovely Helens now with fatal charms
Excite th' avenging chiefs of Greece to arms;
No fair Penelopes enchant the eye,

For whom contending kings were proud to die;
Here sullen Beauty sheds a twilight ray,
While Sorrow bids her vernal bloom decay:
Those charms, so long renown'd in classic strains,
Had dimly shone on Albion's happier plains!
Now in the southern hemisphere, the Sun
Through the bright Virgin, and the Scales, had run,

And on th' ecliptic wheel'd his winding way
Till the fierce Scorpion felt his flaming ray.
Four days becalm'd the vessel here remains,
And yet no hopes of aiding wind obtains,
For sickening vapours lull the air to sleep,
And not a breeze awakes the silent deep:
This, when th' autumnal equinox is o'er,
And Phoebus in the north declines no more.
The watchful mariner, whom Heaven informs,
Oft deems the prelude of approaching storms-
No dread of storms the master's soul restrain,
A captive fetter'd to the oar of gain:
His anxious heart impatient of delay
Expects the winds to sail from Candia's bay,
Determin'd, from whatever point they rise,
To trust his fortune to the seas and skies.
Thou living ray of intellectual fire
Whose voluntary gleams my verse inspire;
Ere yet the deepening incidents prevail
Till rous'd attention feel our plaintive tale,
Record whom chief among the gallant crew
Th' unblest pursuit of fortune hither drew:
Can sons of Neptune, generous, brave, and bold,
In pain and hazard toil for sordid gold?

They can! for gold too oft with magic art
Can rule the passions, and corrupt the heart:
This crowns the prosperous villain with applause,
To whom in vain sad Merit pleads her cause;
This strews with roses Life's perplexing road,
And leads the way to Pleasure's soft abode ;
This spreads with slaughter'd heaps the bloody plain,
And pours adventurous thousands o'er the main.

II. The stately ship with all her daring band
To skilful Albert own'd the chief command:
Though train'd in boisterous elements, his mind
Was yet by soft humanity refin'd;

Each joy of wedded love at home he knew,
Aboard, confest the father of his crew!
Brave, liberal, just! the calm domestic scene
Had o'er his temper breath'd a gay serene.
Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace
The planets wheeling in eternal race;
To mark the ship in floating balance held,
By Earth attracted, and by seas repell'd;
Or point her devious track through climes unknown
That leads to every shore and every zone. [glide,
He saw the Moon through Heaven's blue concave
And into motion charm th' expanding tide,
While Earth impetuous round her axle rolls,
Exalts her wat'ry zone, and sinks the poles;
Light and attraction, from their genial source,
He saw still wandering with diminish'd force;
While on the margin of declining day
Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away.
Inur'd to peril, with unconquer'd soul
The chief beheld tempestuous oceans roll:
O'er the wild surge when dismal shades preside
His equal skill the lonely bark could guide;
His genius, ever for th' event prepared,
Rose with the storm, and all its dangers shared.
Rodmond the next degree to Albert bore,

A hardy son of England's furthest shore,
Where bleak Northumbria pours her savage train
In sable squadrons o'er the northern main;
That, with her pitchy entrails stor'd, resort,
A 300ty tribe, to fair Augusta's port:
Where'er in ambush lurk the fatal sands
They claim the danger, proud of skilful bands;
For while with darkling course their vessels sweep
The winding shore, or plough the faithless deep,

O'er bar', and shelf, the wat'ry path they sound
With dextrous arm, sagacious of the ground:
Fearless they combat every hostile wind,
Wheeling in mazy tracks, with course inclin'd.
Expert to moor where terrours line the road,
Or win the anchor from its dark abode;
But drooping, and relax'd, in climes afar,
Tumultuous and undisciplin'd in war.
Such Rodmond was; by learning unrefin'd,
That oft enlightens to corrupt the mind.
{Boisterous of manners; train'd in early youth
To scenes that shame the conscious cheek of Truth;
To scenes that Nature's struggling voice control,
And freeze compassion rising in the soul: [shore,
Where the grim hell-hounds, prowling round the
With foul intent the stranded bark explore;
Deaf to the voice of Woe, her decks they board,
While tardy Justice slumbers o'er her sword.
Th' indignant Muse, severely taught to feel,
Shrinks from a theme she blushes to reveal.
Too oft Example, arm'd with poisons fell,
Pollutes the shrine where Mercy loves to dwell:
Thus Rodmond, train'd by this unhallow'd crew,
The sacred social passions never knew.
Unskill'd to argue, in dispute yet loud,
Bold without caution, without honours proud;
In Art unschool'd, each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.
Yet, though full oft to future perils blind,
With skill superior glow'd his daring mind,
Through snares of death the reeling bark to guide,
When midnight shades involve the raging tide.
To Rodmond next in order of command
Succeeds the youngest of our naval band:
But what avails it to record a name
That courts no rank among the sons of Fame;
Whose vital spring had just began to bloom
When o'er it Sorrow spread her sickening gloom?
While yet a stripling, oft with fond alarms
His bosom danc'd to Nature's boundless charms;
On him fair Science dawn'd in happier hour,
Awakening into bloom young Fancy's flower:
But soon Adversity with freezing blast
The blossom wither'd, and the dawn o'ercast.
Forlorn of heart, and by severe decree
Condemn'd reluctant to the faithless sea,
With long farewell he left the laurel grove,
Where Science, and the tuncful Sisters rove.
Hither he wander'd, anxious to explore
Antiquities of nations now no more;
To penetrate each distant realm unknown,
And range excursive o'er th' untravell'd zone.
In vain-for rude Adversity's command,
Still on the margin of each fainous land,
With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
And every gate of hope against him closed.
Permit my verse, ye blest Pierian train !
To call Arion this ill-fated swain;
For, like that bard unhappy, on his head
Malignant stars their hostile influence shed,
Both in lamenting numbers, o'er the deep
With conscious anguish taught the harp to weep;
And both the raging surge in safety bore
Amid destruction, panting to the shore.

A bar is known, in hydrography, to be a mass of earth or sand collected by the surge of the sea, at the entrance of a river or haven; so as to render the navigation difficult, and often dangerous.

This last, our tragic story from the wave
Of dark Oblivion haply yet may save;
With genuine sympathy may yet complain,
While sad Remembrance bleeds at every vein.

These, chief among the ship's conducting train,
Her path explor'd along the deep domain;
Train'd to command, and range the swelling sail
Whose varying force conforms to every gale.
Charg'd with the commerce, hither also came
A gallant youth, Palemon was his name:
A father's stern resentment doom'd to prove,
He came the victim of unhappy love!
His heart for Albert's beauteous daughter bled,
For her a sacred flame his bosom fed:
Nor let the wretched slaves of Folly scorn
This genuine passion, Nature's eldest born!
'Twas his with lasting anguish to complain,
While blooming Anna mourn'd the cause in vain.
Graceful of form, by Nature taught to please,
Of power to melt the female breast with ease;
To her Palemon told his tender tale,

Soft as the voice of Summer's evening gale:
His soul, where moral truth spontaneous grew,
No guilty wish, no cruel passion knew:
Though tremblingly alive to Nature's laws,
Yet ever firm to Honour's sacred cause;
O'erjoy'd he saw her lovely eyes relent,
The blushing maiden smil'd with sweet consent.
Oft in the mazes of a neighbouring grove,
Unheard, they breathed alternate vows of love:
By fond society their passion grew,

Like the young blossom fed with vernal dew;
While their chaste souls possess'd the pleasing pains
That Truth improves, and Virtue ne'er restrains.
In eyil hour th' officious tongue of Fame
Betray'd the secret of their mutual flaine.
With grief and anger struggling in his breast
Palemon's father heard the tale confest ;
Long had he listen'd with Suspicion's ear,
And learnt, sagacious, this event to fear.
Too well, fair youth thy liberal heart he knew,
A heart to Nature's warm impressions true:
Full oft his wisdom strove, with fruitless toil,
With avarice to pollute that generous soil;
That soil, impregnated with nobler seed,
Refus'd the culture of so rank a weed.
Elate with wealth in active commerce won,
And basking in the smile of Fortune's sun;
For many freighted ships from shore to shore,
Their wealthy charge by his appointment bore;
With scorn the parent ey'd the lowly shade
That veil'd the beauties of this charming maid.
He, by the lust of riches only mov'd,
Such mean connections haughtily reprov'd;
Indignant he rebuk'd th' enamour'd boy,
The flattering promise of his future joy;
He sooth'd and menac'd, anxious to reclaim
This hopeless passion, or divert its aim:
Oft led the youth where circling joys delight
The ravish'd sense, or beauty charms the sight.
With all her powers enchanting Music failed,
And Pleasure's syren voice no more prevailed:
Long with unequal art, in vain he strove
To quench th' ethereal flame of ardent love.
The merchant, kindling then with proud disdain,
In look, and voice, assum'd an harsher strain.
In absence now his only hope remained;
And such the stern decree his will ordained:
Deep anguish, while Palemon heard his doom,
Drew o'er his lovely face a saddening gloom;

High beat his heart, fast flow'd th' unbidden tear,
His bosom heaved with agony severe;
In vain with bitter sorrow he repin'd,
No tender pity touch'd that sordid mind-

To thee, brave Albert! was the charge consign'd.
The stately ship, forsaking England's shore,
To regions far remote Palemon bore.
Incapable of change, th' unhappy youth
Stili lov'd fair Anna with eternal truth;
Still Anna's image swiths before his sight
In fleeting vision through the restless night;
From clime to clime an exile doom'd to roam,
His heart still panted for its secret home.

The Moon had circled twice her wayward zone,
To him since young Arion first was known;
Who, wandering here through many a scene re-
In Alexandria's port the vessel found; [nown'd,
Where, anxious to review his native shore,
He on the roaring wave embark'd once more.
Oft by pale Cynthia's melancholy light
With him Palemon kept the watch of night,
In whose sad bosom many a sigh supprest
Some painful secret of the soul confest:
Perhaps Arion soon the cause divin'd,
Though shunning still to probe a wounded mind;
He felt the chastity of silent woe,
Though glad the balm of comfort to bestow.
He, with Palemon, oft recounted o'er
The tales of hapless love in ancient lore,
Recall'd to memory by th' adjacent shore:
The scene thus present, and its story known,
The lover sigh'd for sorrows not his own.
Thus, though a recent date their friendship bore,
Soon the ripe metal own'd the quick'ning ore;
For in one tide their passions seem'd to roll,
By kindred age and sympathy of soul.

These o'er th' inferior naval train preside,
The course determine, or the commerce guide:
O'er all the rest, an undistinguish'd crew,
Her wing of deepest shade Oblivion drew.

A sullen languor still the skies opprest,
And held th' unwilling ship in strong arrest:
High in his chariot glow'd the lamp of day,
O'er Ida flaming with meridian ray,
Relax'd from toil, the sailors range the shore
Where famine, war, and storm are felt no more;
The hour to social pleasure they resign,
And black remembrance drown in generous wine.
On deck, beneath the shading canvass spread,
Rodmond, a rueful tale of wonders read

Of dragons roaring on th' enchanted coast;
The hideous goblin, and the yelling ghost:
But with Arion, from the sultry heat
Of noon, Palemon sought a cool retreat-

Olive, and cedar, form'd a grateful shade,
Where light with gay romantic errour stray'd.
The myrtles here with fond caresses twine,
There, rich with nectar, melts the pregnant vine:
And lo! the stream renown'd in classic song,
Sad Lethe, glides the silent vale along.
On mossy banks, beneath the citron grove,
The youthful wand'rers found a wild alcove
Soft o'er the fairy region Languor stole,
And with sweet Melancholy charm'd the soul.
Here first Palemon, while his pensive mind
For consolation on his friend reclin'd,

In Pity's bleeding bosom, pour'd the stream
Of Love's soft anguish, and of grief supreme-
"Too true thy words! by sweet remembrance taught,
My heart in secret bleeds with tender thought;
In vain it courts the solitary shade,
By ev'ry action, ev'ry look betray'd.
The pride of gen'rous woe disdains appeal
To hearts that unrelenting frosts congeal:
Yet sure, if right Palemon can divine,
The sense of gentle pity dwells in thine.
Yes! all his cares thy sympathy shall know,
And prove the kind companion of his woe."
"Albert thou know'st with skill, and science

grac'd;

In humble station though by Fortune plac'd,
Yet never seaman more serenely brave
Led Britain's conquering squadrons o'er the wave.
Where full in view Augusta's spires are seen
With flow'ry lawns, and waving woods between,
An humble habitation rose, beside

Where Thames meandring rolls his ample tide:
There live the hope and pleasure of his life,
A pious daughter, and a faithful wife.
For his return, with fond officious care,
Still every grateful object these prepare;
Whatever can allure the smell or sight,
Or wake the drooping spirits to delight.

"This blooming maid in Virtue's path to guide
Th' admiring parents all their care apply'd;
Her spotless soul, to soft affection train'd,
No vice untun'd, no sick'ning folly stain'd:
Not fairer grows the lily of the vale
Whose bosom opens to the vernal gale:
Her eyes, unconscious of their fatal charms,
Thrill'd ev'ry heart with exquisite alarms;
Her face, in Beauty's sweet attraction drest,
The smile of maiden innocence exprest;
While Health, that rises with the new-born day,
Breath'd o'er her cheek the softest blush of May:
Still in her look Complacence smil'd serene;
She mov'd the charmer of the rural scene!

"'Twas at that season, when the fields resume

And lo! the shore with mournful prospects crown'd 2, Their loveliest hues array'd in vernal bloom;

The rampart torn with many a fatal wound,
The ruin'd bulwark tott'ring o'er the strand,
Bewail the stroke of War's tremendous hand:
What scenes of woe this hapless isle o'erspread!
Where late thrice fifty thousand warriors bled.
Full twice twelve summers were yon tow'rs assail'd,
Till barbarous Ottoman at last prevail'd;
While thund'ring mines the lovely plains o'erturn'd,
While heroes fell, and domes, and temples burn'd.
III. But now before them happier scenes arise,
Elysian vales salute their ravish'd eyes;

Yon ship, rich freighted from th' Italian shore,
To Thames' fair banks her costly tribute bore:
While thus my father saw his ample hoard,
From this return, with recent treasures stor'd;
Me, with affairs of commerce charg'd, he sent
To Albert's humble mansion-soon I went!
Too soon, alas! unconscious of th' event.
There, struck with sweet surprise and silent awe,
The gentle mistress of my hopes I saw ;
There, wounded first by Love's resistless arms,
My glowing bosom throbb'd with strange alarms:

tiaus by the Turks in 1669; being then considered is impregnable, and esteemed the most formidable

2 The intelligent reader will readily discover, that these remarks allude to the ever-memorable siege of Candia, which was taken from the Vene-fortress in the universe.

« PředchozíPokračovat »