SEA-PIECE.

ODE THE FIRST.

THE BRITISH SAILOR'S EXULTATION.

I

I.

N lofty founds let those delight,

Who brave the foe, but fear the fight; And bold in word, of arms decline the ftroke:

'Tis mean to boaft; but great to lend

To foes the counsel of a friend,

And warn them of the vengeance they provoke.

II.

From whence arise these loud alarms?

Why gleams the fouth with brandish'd arms? War, bath'd in blood, from curst ambition springs: Ambition, mean! ignoble pride!

Perhaps their ardors may subfide,

When weigh'd the wonders Britain's failor fings.

3

III. Hear,

III.

Hear, and revere.-At Britain's nod, From each enchanted grove and wood, Haftes the huge oak, or fhadeless forest leaves; The mountain pines affume new forms,

Spread canvas-wings, and fly through storms, And ride o'er, rocks, and dance on foaming waves.

IV.

She nods again: The labouring earth
Discloses a tremendous birth;

In smoaking rivers runs her molten ore;
Thence, monsters of enormous fize,

And hideous afpect, threat'ning rise,
Flame from the deck, from trembling bastions roar.

V.

These minifters of fate fulfil,

On empires wide, an island's will,

When thrones unjust wake vengeance: Know, ye pow'rs!
In fudden night, and ponderous balls,
And floods of flame, the tempeft falls,

When brav'd Britannia's awful fenate low'rs.

VI.

In her grand council fhe furveys,
In patriot picture, what may raise,

Of infolent attempts, a warm disdain;

From hope's triumphant fummit thrown,
Like darted lightning, swiftly down

The wealth of Ind, and confidence of Spain,

VII.

Britannia fheaths her courage keen,

And spares her nitrous magazine;

Her cannon flumber, till the proud aspire,

And leave all law below them; then they blaze!
They thunder from refounding feas,

Touch'd by their injur'd master's foul of fire.

VIII.

Then furies rife! the battle raves!

And rends the fkies! and warms the waves !
And calls a tempeft from the peaceful deep,
In spite of nature, spite of Jove,
While all-ferene, and hush'd above,
Tumultuous winds in azure chambers fleep.

IX.

A thousand deaths the bursting bomb
Hurls from her difembowel'd womb;
Chain'd, glowing globes, in dread alliance, join'd,
Red-wing'd by strong, fulphureous blasts,
Sweep, in black whirlwinds, men and masts ;
And leave fing'd, naked, blood-drown'd, decks behind.

X.

Dwarf laurels rife in tented fields;
The wreath immortal ocean yields;

There war's whole fting is fhot, whole fire is spent,

Whole glory blooms: How pale, how tame,
How lambent, is BELLONA's flame;

How her storms languish on the continent !

XI. From

XI.

From the dread front of antient war Lefs terror frown'd; her scythed car, Her caftled elephant, and batt'ring beam, Stoop to those engines which deny Superior terrors to the sky,

And boaft their clouds, their thunder, and their flame..

XII.

The flame, the thunder, and the cloud,
The night by day, the fea of blood,
Hosts whirl'd in air, the yell of finking throngs,
The graveless dead, an ocean warm'd,
A firmament by mortals storm'd,
To patient Britain's angry brow belongs.

XIII.

Or do I dream? Or do I rave?
Or fee I VULCAN's footy cave,

Where Jove's red bolts the giant brothers frame?
Those swarthy gods of toil and heat,

Loud peals on mountain anvils beat,
And panting tempests rouze the roaring flame.

XIV.

Ye fons of Etna! hear my call 3
Unfinish'd let those baubles fall,

Yon fhield of MARS, MINERVA's helmet blue :

Your ftrokes fufpend, ye brawny throng!
Charm'd by the magic of my song,

Drop the feign'd thunder, and attempt the true.

Begin: And, first, take rapid flight,
Fierce flame, and clouds of thickest night,
And ghaftly terror, paler than the dead;

Then, borrow from the north his roar,
Mix groans, and deaths; one phial pour

Of wrong'd Britannia's wrath; and it is made;
Gaul starts, and trembles, at your dreadful trade.

* Alluding to VIRGIL's defcription of thunder.

ODE