The Poetical Works of Edward Young | Page 3

divine;?Beg flames to wrap, or whelming seas to sweep,?Or rocks to yawn, compassionately deep;?Seas cast the monster forth to meet his doom,?And rocks but prison up for wrath to come.?So fares a traitor to an earthly crown;?While death sits threat'ning in his prince's frown?His heart's dismay'd; and now his fears command,?To change his native for a distant land:?Swift orders fly, the king's severe decree?Stands in the channel, and locks up the sea;?The port he seeks, obedient to her lord,?Hurls back the rebel to his lifted sword.?But why this idle toil to paint that day??This time elaborately thrown away??Words all in vain pant after the distress,?The height of eloquence would make it less;?Heavens! how the good man trembles!--?And is there a last day? and must there come?A sure, a fix'd, inexorable doom??Ambition swell, and, thy proud sails to show,?Take all the winds that vanity can blow;?Wealth on a golden mountain blazing stand,?And reach an India forth in either hand;?Spread all thy purple clusters, tempting vine,?And thou, more dreaded foe, bright beauty, shine;?Shine all; in all your charms together rise;?That all, in all your charms, I may despise;?While I mount upward on a strong desire,?Borne, like Elijah, in a car of fire.?In hopes of glory to be quite involv'd!?To smile at death! to long to be dissolv'd!?From our decays a pleasure to receive!?And kindle into transport at a grave!?What equals this? And shall the victor now?Boast the proud laurels on his loaded brow??Religion! Oh, thou cherub, heavenly bright!?Oh, joys unmix'd, and fathomless delight!?Thou, thou art all; nor find I in the whole?Creation aught, but God and my own soul.?For ever, then, my soul, thy God adore,?Nor let the brute creation praise him more.?Shall things inanimate my conduct blame,?And flush my conscious cheek with spreading shame??They all for him pursue, or quit, their end?The mountain flames their burning power suspend;?In solid heaps th' unfrozen billows stand,?To rest and silence aw'd by his command:?Nay, the dire monsters that infest the flood,?By nature dreadful, and athirst for blood,?His will can calm, their savage tempers bind,?And turn to mild protectors of mankind.?Did not the prophet this great truth maintain?In the deep chambers of the gloomy main;?When darkness round him all her horrors spread,?And the loud ocean bellow'd o'er his head??When now the thunder roars, the lightning flies,?And all the warring winds tumultuous rise;?When now the foaming surges, tost on high,?Disclose the sands beneath, and touch the sky;?When death draws near, the mariners aghast,?Look back with terror on their actions past;?Their courage sickens into deep dismay,?Their hearts, thro' fear and anguish, melt away;?Nor tears, nor prayers, the tempest can appease;?Now they devote their treasure to the seas;?Unload their shatter'd barque, tho' richly fraught,?And think the hopes of life are cheaply bought?With gems and gold; but oh, the storm so high!?Nor gems nor gold the hopes of life can buy.?The trembling prophet then, themselves to save,?They headlong plunge into the briny wave;?Down he descends, and, booming o'er his head,?The billows close; he's number'd with the dead.?(Hear, O ye just! attend, ye virtuous few!?And the bright paths of piety pursue)?Lo! the great Ruler of the world, from high,?Looks smiling down with a propitious eye,?Covers his servant with his gracious hand,?And bids tempestuous nature silent stand;?Commands the peaceful waters to give place,?Or kindly fold him in a soft embrace:?He bridles in the monsters of the deep:?The bridled monsters awful distance keep:?Forget their hunger, while they view their prey;?And guiltless gaze, and round the stranger play.?But still arise new wonders; nature's Lord?Sends forth into the deep his powerful word,?And calls the great leviathan: the great?Leviathan attends in all his state;?Exults for joy, and, with a mighty bound,?Makes the sea shake, and heaven and earth resound;?Blackens the waters with the rising sand.?And drives vast billows to the distant land.?As yawns an earthquake, when imprison'd air?Struggles for vent, and lays the centre bare,?The whale expands his jaws' enormous size;?The prophet views the cavern with surprise;?Measures his monstrous teeth, afar descried,?And rolls his wond'ring eyes from side to side:?Then takes possession of the spacious seat,?And sails secure within the dark retreat.?Now is he pleas'd the northern blast to hear,?And hangs on liquid mountains, void of fear;?Or falls immers'd into the depths below,?Where the dead silent waters never flow;?To the foundation of the hills convey'd,?Dwells in the shelving mountain's dreadful shade:?Where plummet never reach'd, he draws his breath,?And glides serenely thro' the paths of death.?Two wondrous days and nights thro' coral groves,?Thro' labyrinths of rocks and sands, he roves:?When the third morning with its level rays?The mountains gilds, and on the billows plays,?It sees the king of waters rise and pour?His sacred guest uninjur'd on the shore:?A type of that great blessing, which the muse?In her next labour ardently pursues.
Book II.
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