That press'd the beach, and, hasty to depart, Look'd to the sea for safety? They are gone! Gone with the refluent wave into the deep! A prince with half his people!
SMOOTH to the shelving brink, a copious flood Rolls fair and placid; where, collected all, In one impetuous torrent, down the steep It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round. At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad; Then whitening by degrees as prone it falls, And from the loud resounding rocks below, Dash'd in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower. Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repose; But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks, Now flashes o'er the scatter'd fragments, now Aslant the hollow channel rapid darts, And falling fast from gradual slope to slope, With wild infracted course, and lessen'd roar, It gains a safer bed, and steals at last Along the mazes of the quiet vale.
'Tis listening fear and dumb amazement all; When to the startl'd eye the sudden glance
Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud, And following slower, in explosion vast, The Thunder raises his tremendous voice. At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven, The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes And rolls its awful burden on the wind, The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds; till overhead a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts And opens wider; shuts and opens, still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth. Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail
Or prone descending rain: Wide rent, the clouds Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquench'd, The unconquerable lightning struggles through, Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. Black from the stroke, above, the smouldering pine, Stands a sad shatter'd trunk; and stretch'd below, A lifeless group, the blasted cattle sleep.
Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look They wore alive; and ruminating still,
In Fancy's eye, there lie the frowning bull
And ox half rais'd. Struck on the castled cliff, The venerable tower and spiry fane
Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods Start at the flash, and from their deep recess
Wide flaming out, their trembling inmates shake.
Amid Caernarvon's mountains rages loud The repercussive roar; with mighty crash, Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky, Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowdon's peak Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far seen, the heights of healthy Cheviot blaze, And Thulé bellows through her utmost isles.
ALONG those lonely regions, where retired From little scenes of art, great nature dwells In awful solitude, and nought is seen,
But the wild herds that own no master's stall, Prodigious rivers roll their fattening seas; On whose luxurious herbage, half conceal'd, Like a fall'n cedar, far diffus'd his train, Cas'd in green scales, the crocodile extends. The flood disparts: behold, in plaited mail Behemoth rears his head. Glanc'd from his side, The darted steel in idle shivers flies.
He, fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills; Where as he crops his varied fare, the herds, In wid'ning circle round forget their food, And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze. Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream, And where the Ganges rolls his sacred wave;
Or 'mid the central depth of black'ning woods, High-rais'd in solemn theatre around, Leans the huge elephant, wisest of brutes! Oh truly wise! with gentle might endow'd; Though powerful not destructive! here he sees Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth, And empires rise and fall. Regardless he, Of what the never-resting race of men Project; thrice happy! could he 'scape their guile, Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;
Or with his towery grandeur swell their state, The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert; And bid him rage amid the mortal fray, Astonish'd at the madness of mankind. Lo! the green serpent, from his dark abode, Which, e'en imagination fears to tread; At noon, forth issuing, gathers up his train In orbs immense, then darting out anew, Seeks the refreshing fount; by which diffus'd, He throws his folds; and while, with threat'ning tongue,
And deathful jaws, erect, the monster curls His flaming crest; all other thirst, appall'd, Or shivering flies, or check'd, at distance stands, Nor dares approach. But still more direful, he, The small close-lurking minister of fate,
Whose high concocted venom through the veins, A rapid light'ning darts, arresting swift The vital current. The tiger darting fierce, Impetuous, on the prey his glance has doom'd.
The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er With many a spot, the beauty of the waste; And, scorning all the taming arts of man, The keen hyena, fellest of the fell.
From all the boundless furnace of the sky, And the wide glittering waste of burning sand, A suffocating wind the pilgrim smites
With instant death. Patient of thirst and toil, Son of the desert! e'en the camel feels, Shot through his withered heart, the fiery blast. Or from the black-red ether, bursting broad, Sallies the sudden whirlwind. Straight the sands, Commov'd around, in gathering eddies play, Nearer and nearer still they darkling come, Till with the general all-involving storm Swept up, the whole continuous wilds arise. Beneath descending hills, the caravan Is buried deep. In Cairo's crowded streets, The impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vain, And Mecca saddens at the long delay.
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