Of livid flame discloses wide And opens wider; shuts and opens Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosen'd aggravated
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 lie:
Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look They wore alive, and ruminating still
In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull, And ox half raised. 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 Carnarvon's mountains rages loud The repercussive roar: with mighty crush Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky,
Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak, I Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, And Thulè bellows through her utmost isles. Guilt hears appall'd, with deeply troubled thought. And yet not always on the guilty head Descends the fated flash. Young Celadon And his Amelia were a matchless pair; With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace, The same, distinguish'd by their sex alone: Hers, the mild lustre of the blooming morn, And his the radiance of the risen day.
They loved; but such the guileless passion was, As in the dawn of time inform'd the heart Of innocence and undissembling truth. 'Twas friendship, heighten'd by the mutual wish, The enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow, Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all To love, each was to each a dearer self; Supremely happy in the' awaken'd power Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades, Still in harmonious intercourse they lived The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart, Or sigh'd and look'd unutterable things.
So pass'd their life, a clear united stream, By care unruffled; till, in evil hour,..
The tempest caught them on the tender walk, t Heedless how far and where its s mazes stray'd,
While, with each other bless'd, creative love Still bade eternal Eden smile around. Presaging instant fate her bosom heaved Unwonted sighs, and stealing oft a look Of the big gloom, on Celadon her eye Fell tearful, wetting her disorder'd cheek. In vain assuring love and confidence
In Heaven repress'd her fear; it grew, and shook Her frame near dissolution. He perceived The' unequal conflict; and as angels look On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed, With love illumined high. "Fear not," he said, "Sweet innocence! thou stranger to offence, And inward storm! He, who yon skies involves In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft That wastes at midnight, or the' undreaded hour Of noon, flies harmless: and that very voice, Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine. 'Tis safety to be near thee sure, and thus To clasp perfection!" From his void embrace, (Mysterious Heaven!) that moment, to the ground, A blacken'd corse, was struck the beauteous maid. But who can paint the lover, as he stood, Pierced by severe amazement, hating life, Speechless, and fix'd in all the death of woe! So, faint resemblance! on the marble tomb,
The well dissembled mourner stooping stands, W For ever silent and for ever sad.
As from the face of heaven the shatter'd clouds I Tumultuous rove, the interminable sky
Sublimer swells, and o'er the world expands ~; -** A purer azure. Through the lighten'd air
A higher lustre and a clearer calm, Diffusive, tremble; while, as if in sign Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, Set off abundant by the yellow ray, Invests the fields; and nature smiles revived. 'Tis beauty all, and grateful song around, Join'd to the low of kine, and numerous bleat of flocks thick-nibbling through the clover'd vale. And shall the hymn be marr'd by thankless Man, Most favour'd! who with voice articulate Should lead the chorus of this lower world; Shall he, so soon forgetful of the Hand That hush'd the thunder, and serenes the sky, Extinguish'd feel that spark the tempest waked, That sense of powers exceeding far his own, Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears?
Cheer'd by the milder beam, the sprightly youth Speeds to the well known pool, whose crystal depth A sandy bottom shows. A while he stands
Gazing the' inverted landscape, half afraidd u To meditate the blue profound below;s
Then plunges headlong down the circling flood..
His ebon tresses and his rosy cheek-suyos lutrzed 1 Instant emerge; and through the obedient wave, At each short breathing by his lip repell❜d, With arms and legs according well, he makes, As humour leads, an easy winding path; While, from his polish'd sides, a dewy light Effuses on the pleased spectators round. And This is the purest exercise of health, The kind refresher of the summer heats;
Nor when cold Winter keens the brightening flood, Would I weak shivering linger on the brink. Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserved on 130 By the bold swimmer, in the swift elapse Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs Knit into force; and the same Roman arm, That rose victorious o'er the conquer'd earth, First learn'd, while tender, to subdue the wave. Even from the body's purity, the mind Receives a secret sympathetic aid.
Close in the covert of a hazel copse,
Where winded into pleasing solitudes advo Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon sat, Pensive, and pierced with love's delightful pangs. There to the stream that down the distant rocks Hoarse murmuring fell, and plaintive breeze that play'd Among the bending willows, falsely he
Of Musidora's cruelty complain'd.
She felt his flame; but deep within her breast,
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