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58 A Storm.-Hassan, or, The Camel-Driver.

A STORM.

Now bursts the wave that from the clouds impends,

And swell'd with tempests on the ship descends; White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud

Howl o'er the masts and sing through every

shroud;

Pale, trembling, tir'd, the sailors freeze with

fears,

And instant death on ev'ry wave appears.

DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

HASSAN, OR, THE CAMEL DRIVER.

IN silent horror o'er the boundless waste
The driver Hassan with his camels pass'd;
One cruise of water on his back he bore,
And his light scrip contain'd a scanty store;
A fan of painted feathers in his hand,

To guard his shaded face from scorching sand.

The

Hassan, or, The Camel Driver.

59

The sultry sun had gain'd the middle sky,
And not a tree and not a herb was nigh;
The beasts with pain their dusty way pursue,
Shrill roar'd the winds, and dreary was the view.
With desp'rate sorrow wild, th' affrighted man
Thrice sigh'd, thrice struck his breast, and thus
began:

"Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day, When first from Schiraz' walls I bent my way!

"Ah! little thought I of the blasting wind, The thirst or pinching hunger that I find! Bethink thee, Hassan, where shall thirst assuage, When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage? Soon shall this scrip its precious load resign, Then what but tears and hunger shall be thine? Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear In all my griefs a more than equal share! Here, where no springs in murmurs break away, Or moss-crown'd fountains mitigate the day, In vain ye hope the green delights to know, Which plains more blest or verdant vales bestow. Here

60

Hassan, or, The Camel Driver.

Here rocks alone and tasteless sands are found, And faint and sickly winds for ever howl around. O cease, my fears! all frantic as I go,

While thought creates unnumber'd scenes of

woe,

What if the lion in his rage I meet!
Oft in the dust I view his printed feet :'
And, fearful! oft when day's declining light
Yields her pale empire to the mourner night,
By hunger rous'd he scours the groaning plain,
Gaunt wolves and sullen tigers in his train.
At that dead hour the silent asp shall creep,
If aught of rest I find, upon my sleep;
Or some swoln serpent twist his scales around,
And wake to anguish with a burning wound.
Thrice happy they, the wise contented poor,
From lust of wealth and dread of death secure!
They tempt no deserts, and no griefs they find;
Peace rules the day where reason rules the mind.
Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,
When first from Schiraz' walls I bent my way.'

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THE

The Orange Tree.-The Generations of Man. 61

THE ORANGE TREE.

In the soft bosom of Campania's vale,
When now the wintry tempests all are fled,
And genial summer breathes her gentle gale,
The verdant orange lifts its beauteous head;
From every branch the balmy flow'rets rise,
On every bough the golden fruits are seen;
With odours sweet it fills the smiling skies
But, in the midst of all its blooming pride,
A sudden blast from Apenninus blows,
Cold with perpetual snows;

:

The tender blighted plant shrinks up its leaves, and dies.

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LORD LYTTELTON.

THE GENERATIONS OF MAN.

LIKE leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now with'ring on the ground.

Another

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Another race the following spring supplies,
They fall successive, and successive rise :
So generations in their course decay,

So flourish these, when those are past away.

POPE'S HOMER.

WOLVES.

By wintry famine rous'd, from all the tract
Of horrid mountains which the shining Alps,
And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees,

Branch out stupendous into distant lands;
Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave!
Burning for blood! bony, and gaunt, and grim,
Assembling wolves in raging troops descend;
And, pouring o'er the country, bear along,
Keen as the north wind sweeps the glossy snow.
All is their prize. They fasten on the steed,
Press him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart.
Nor can the bull his awful front defend,
Or shake the murdering savages away.
Rapacious at the mother's throat they fly,
And tear the screaming infant from her breast.

The

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