« Vain all endeavours then to bear away, "Nor Helm, nor Pilot, would she more obey." And o'er their Counsels hung impending Fate: Yet now, the hour, the scene, th' occasion known, Blunt was his Speech, and naked was his Heart; "At random driven, to present death we haste, Deprives the Ship of every ruling sail; "And if before it she directly flies, "New ills enclose us and new dangers rise: "There distant GREECE her rugged Shelves prepares; "Our Hull, if once it strikes that iron Coast, "Asunder bursts, in instant ruin lost; "Nor she alone, but with her all the Crew, Beyond relief, are doomed to perish too: "Such mischiefs follow if we bear away; “O safer that sad refuge---to delay! "Then of our purpose this appears the scope, "To weigh the danger with the doubtful hope: "Though sorely buffetted by every Sea, "Our Hull unbroken long may try a-lee; "The Crew, though harassed much with toils severe, "Still at their pumps, perceive no hazards near: "Shall we, incautious, then the danger tell, "At once their courage and their hope to quell? « Prudence forbids! this southern Tempest soon 66 May change its quarter with the changing Moon; "Its rage, though terrible, may soon subside, "Nor into mountains lash th' unruly Tide: "These leaks shall then decrease---the sails once more "Direct our course to some relieving Shore." Thus while he spoke, around from man to man At either Pump a hollow murmur ran: For, while the Vessel through unnumbered chinks, They with redoubling force their task pursued. ARION's voice, to close the dark debate: Not o'er his vernal life the ripening Sun Had yet progressive twice ten Summers run; Slow to debate, yet eager to excel, In thy sad school, stern NEPTUNE! taught too well: With lasting pain to rend his youthful heart Dire Fate in venom dipt her keenest dart; "Can we, delayed in this tremendous Tide, "Thus water-logged, thus helpless to remain "Amid this hollow, how ill judged! how vain! "Our sea-breach'd Vessel can no longer bear "The floods, that o'er her burst in dread career; "The labouring Hull already seems half-filled "With water through an hundred Leaks distilled; "Thus drenched by every Wave, her riven deck, "Stript, and defenceless, floats a naked wreck; "At every pitch th' o'erwhelming billows bend "Beneath their load the quivering Bowsprit's end; "A fearful warning! since the Masts on high "On that support with trembling hope rely; "At either Pump our Seamen pant for breath, "In dire dismay, anticipating Death; "Still all our powers th' increasing Leaks defy, "We sink at sea, no shore, no haven nigh: "One dawn of hope yet breaks athwart the gloom 66 To light and save us from a watery tomb; "That bids us shun the death impending here, Fly from the following blast, and shoreward steer. " "Tis urged indeed, the fury of the Gale "Precludes the help of every guiding sail; And, driven before it on the watery waste, "To rocky shores and scenes of death we haste; "But haply FALCONERA we may shun, "And long to Grecian coasts is yet the run: "Less harassed then, our scudding Ship may bear "Th' assaulting Surge repelled upon her rear, "And since as soon that Tempest may decay "When steering shoreward---wherefore thus delay? "Should we at last be driven by dire decree "Too near the fatal margin of the Sea, ride "The Hull dismasted there awhile may |