Alps frown on Alps; or rufhing hideous down, 910
As if old Chaos was again return'd,
Wide-rend the deep, and shake the folid pole.
Ocean itself no longer can resist
The binding fury; but, in all its rage
Of tempeft taken by the boundless froft,
Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd,
And bid to roar no more: a bleak expanse, Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, chearlefs, and void Of every life, that from the dreary months
Flies confcious fouthward. Miferable they!
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice,
Take their last look of the descending fun;
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost,
The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads,
Falls horrible. Such was the * BRITON's fate, 925
As with first prow, (what have not BRITONS dar'd!)
He for the paffage fought, attempted fince
So much in vain, and seeming to be shut
By jealous Nature with eternal bars.
In these fell regions, in Arzina caught,
And to the ftony deep his idle fhip
Immediate feal'd, he with his hapless crew,
Each full exerted at his feveral task,
Froze into statues; to the cordage glued
The failor, and the pilot to the helmì.
Sir HUGH WILLOUGHBY, fent by QUEEN ELIZABETH
to difcover the north-eaft paffage.
HARD by these shores, where scarce his freezing stream Rolls the wild Oby, live the laft of Men; And half enliven'd by the distant fun, That rears and ripens Man, as well as plants, Here human Nature wears its rudeft form. Deep from the piercing season funk in caves, Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer, They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs, Doze the gross race. Nor fprightly jeft, nor fong, Nor tenderness they know; nor aught of life, Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without. Till morn at length, her roses drooping all, Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er their fields, And calls the quiver'd favage to the chace.
WHAT cannot active government perform,
New-moulding Man? Wide-stretching from these shores A people favage from remoteft time,
A huge neglected empire ONE VAST MIND,
By HEAVEN infpir'd, from Gothic darkness call'd.
Immortal PETER! firft of monarchs! He
His ftubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her feas, her ill-fubmitting fons ;
And while the fierce Barbarian he fubdu'd,
To more exalted foul he raised the Man.
Ye fhades of ancient heroes, ye who toil'd
Thro' long fucceffive ages to build up
A labouring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! behold the matchless prince!
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty fhadow of unreal power;
Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp
And roaming every land, in every port
His scepter laid aside, with glorious hand
Unweary'd plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the feeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wifdom, and of martial skill.
Charg'd with the ftores of Europe home he goes!
Then cities rife amid th' illumin'd waste;
O'er joyless defarts fmiles the rural reign;
Far-diftant flood to flood is focial join'd;
Th' aftonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar;
Proud navies ride on feas that never foam'd
With daring keel before; and armies stretch
Each way their dazzling files, repreffing here
The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there ftern Othman's shrinking sons.
Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice,
Of old dishonour proud: it glows around,
Taught by the ROYAL HAND that rous'd the whole,
One scene of arts, of arms, of rifing trade:
For what his wifdom plann'd, and power enforc'd,
More potent still, his great Example shew'd.
MUTTERING, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow-bluftering from the fouth. Subdu'd, The froft refolves into a trickling thaw.
Spotted the mountains fhine; loose fleet defcends,
And floods the country round. The rivers fwell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills,
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts,
A thousand fnow-fed torrents shoot at once; 995
And, where they rufh, the wide-refounding plain
Is left one flimy wafte. Those fullen feas,
That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will reft no more
Beneath the shackles of the mighty north;
But, roufing all their waves, refiftless heave― 1000
And hark! the lengthening roar continuous runs
Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts,
And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds.
Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd,
That, toft amid the floating fragments, moors 1005
Beneath the shelter of an icy isle,
While night o'erwhelms the fea, and horror looks
More horrible. Can human force endure
Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round?
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness,
The roar of winds and waves, the cruft of ice,
Now ceafing, now renew'd with louder rage,
And in dire echoes bellowing round the main.
More to embroil the deep, Leviathan
And his unwieldy train, in dreadful fport,
1015
Tempeft the loofen'd brine, while thro' the gloom,
Far, from the bleak inhofpitable shore,
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl
Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks.
Yet PROVIDENCE, that ever-waking eye,
Looks down with pity on the feeble toil
Of mortals loft to hope, and lights them safe,
Thro' all his dreary labyrinth of fate.
'Tis done!--dread WINTER fpreads his lateft glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. 1025
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful! horror wide extends
His defolate domain. Behold, fond Man!
See here thy pictur'd life, pafs fome few years,
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
Thy fober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
And fhuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled
Thofe dreams of greatnefs? thofe unfolid hopes
Of happiness? thofe longings after fame?
Those restless cares? those bufy bustling days?
Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts
Loft between good and ill, that fhar'd thy life?
All now are vanish'd! VIRTUE fole furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of Man,
His guide to happiness on high.-And see !
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