'Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood, Nor bath'd a fetlock in the nauseous flood He comes their leader comes !-the man of God O'er the wide waters lifts his mighty rod, And onward treads-The circling waves retreat, In hoarse deep murmurs, from his holy feet ; And the chas'd surges, inly roaring, show The hard wet sand and coral hills below. With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell, Down, down they pass a steep and slippery dell Around them rise, in pristine chaos hurl'd, The ancient rocks, the secrets of the world; And flowers that blush beneath the ocean green, And caves, the sea-calves' low-roof'd haunt, are seen. Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread; Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light, Blaz'd broad and fierce the brandish'd torch of Its meteor glare a tenfold lustre gave And tenfold darkness broods above their line. storm; With withering splendour blasted all their might, And brake their chariot-wheels, and marr'd their coursers' flight. 66 Fly, Misraim, fly!"-The ravenous floods they see, And, fiercer than the floods, the Deity. 66 Fly, Misraim, fly !"-From Edom's coral strand Again the prophet stretch'd his dreadful wand:With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep, And all is waves-a dark and lonely deep Yet o'er those lonely waves such murmurs past, Oh! welcome came the morn, where Israel stood In trustless wonder by th' avenging flood! Alas, how few!-Then, soft as Elim's well, Pour'd on the winds of heaven her wild sweet harmony. "Where now," she sang, "the tall Egyptian spear? "On's sunlike shield, and Zoan's chariot, where? "Above their ranks the whelming waters spread. "Shout, Israel, for the Lord has triumphed!"And every pause between, as Miriam sang, From tribe to tribe the martial thunder rang, And loud and far their stormy chorus spread,"Shout, Israel, for the Lord hath triumphed !" LINES SPOKEN IN THE THEATRE, OXFORD, ON LORD GRENVILLE'S INSTALLATION AS CHANCELLOR. YE viewless guardians of these sacred shades, Through the long toils of not ingrateful night,) |