Deep gash'd beneath, the tottering structure rings,
And crashing, thundering, o'er the quarter swings.
Thus, when some limb, convulsed with pangs of
death,

Imbibes the gangrene's pestilential breath,
The experienced artist from the blood betrays
The latent venom, or its course delays;
But if the infection triumphs o'er his art,
Tainting the vital stream that warms the heart,
To stop the course of death's inflaming tides,
The infected member from the trunk divides.

THIRD CANTO:

THE SCENE IS EXTENDED FROM THAT PART OF

THE ARCHIPELAGO WHICH LIES

TEN MILES TO THE NORTHWARD OF FALCONERA,

TO CAPE COLONNA IN ATTICA.

THE TIME ABOUT SEVEN HOURS; FROM ONE, UNTIL EIGHT IN

THE MORNING.

ARGUMENT.

I. The beneficial influence of poetry in the civilization of man kind. Diffidence of the author. II. Wreck of the mizzenmast cleared away. Ship put before the wind-labours much. Different stations of the officers. Appearance of the island of Falconera. III. Excursion to the adjacent nations of Greece renowned in antiquity. Athens. Socrates, Plato, Aristides. Solon. Corinth- its architecture. Sparta. Leonidas. Invasion by Xerxes. Lycurgus. Epaminondas. Present state of the Spartans. Arcadia. Former happiness, and fertility. Its present distress the effect of slavery. Ithaca, Ulysses, and Penelope. Argos and Mycæne. Agamemnon. Macronisi. Lemnos. Vulcan. Delos. Apollo and Diana. Troy. Sestos. Leander and Hero. Delphos. Temple of Apollo. Parnassus. The Muses. IV. Subject resumed. Address to the Spirits of the Storm. A tempest, accompanied with rain, hail, and meteors. Darkness of the night, lightning and thunder. Daybreak. St. George's cliffs open upon them. The ship, in great danger, passes the island of St. George. V. Land of Athens appears. Helmsman struck blind by lightning. Ship laid broadside to the shore. Bowsprit, foremast, and main top-mast carried away. Albert, Rodmond, Arion, and Palemon strive to save themselves on the wreck of the foremast. The ship parts asunder. Death of Albert and Rodmond. Arion reaches the shore. Finds Palemon expiring on the beach. His dying address to Arion, who is led away by the humane natives.

THE SHIPWRECK.

CANTO III.

I. WHEN in a barbarous age, with blood defiled,
The human savage roam'd the gloomy wild;
When sullen ignorance her flag display'd,

And rapine and revenge her voice obey'd;
Sent from the shores of light, the Muses came,
The dark and solitary race to tame,

The war of lawless passions to control,

To melt in tender sympathy the soul;

The heart's remote recesses to explore,

And touch its springs when prose avail'd no more.
The kindling spirit caught the empyreal ray,
And glow'd congenial with the swelling lay:
Roused from the chaos of primeval night,
At once fair truth and reason sprung to light.
When great Mæonides, in rapid song,
The thundering tide of battle rolls along,