| |
| IN vain the cords and axes were prepared, | |
| For now the audacious seas insult the yard; | |
| High o’er the ship they throw a horrid shade, | |
| And o’er her burst in terrible cascade. | |
| Uplifted on the surge, to heaven she flies, | 5 |
| Her shattered top half buried in the skies, | |
| Then headlong plunging thunders on the ground; | |
| Earth groans! air trembles! and the deeps resound! | |
| Her giant-bulk the dread concussion feels, | |
| And quivering with the wound in torment reels. | 10 |
| So reels, convulsed with agonizing throes, | |
| The bleeding bull beneath the murderer’s blows. | |
| Again she plunges! hark! a second shock | |
| Tears her strong bottom on the marble rock: | |
| Down on the vale of death, with dismal cries, | 15 |
| The fated victims, shuddering, roll their eyes | |
| In wild despair; while yet another stroke, | |
| With deep convulsion, rends the solid oak; | |
| Till like the mine, in whose infernal cell | |
| The lurking demons of destruction dwell, | 20 |
| At length asunder torn her frame divides, | |
| And, crashing, spreads in ruin o’er the tides. | |
| O, were it mine with tuneful Maro’s art | |
| To wake to sympathy the feeling heart; | |
| Like him the smooth and mournful verse to dress | 25 |
| In all the pomp of exquisite distress, | |
| Then too severely taught by cruel fate, | |
| To share in all the perils I relate, | |
| Then might I with unrivalled strains deplore | |
| The impervious horrors of a leeward shore! | 30 |
| As o’er the surge the stooping mainmast hung, | |
| Still on the rigging thirty seamen clung; | |
| Some, struggling, on a broken crag were cast, | |
| And there by oozy tangles grappled fast. | |
| Awhile they bore the o’erwhelming billows’ rage, | 35 |
| Unequal combat with their fate to wage; | |
| Till, all benumbed and feeble, they forego | |
| Their slippery hold, and sink to shades below. | |
| Some, from the main-yard-arm impetuous thrown | |
| On marble ridges, die without a groan. | 40 |
| Three with Palemon on their skill depend, | |
| And from the wreck on oars and rafts descend. | |
| Now on the mountain wave on high they ride, | |
| Then downward plunge beneath the involving tide, | |
| Till one, who seems in agony to strive, | 45 |
| The whirling breakers heave on shore alive; | |
| The rest a speedier end of anguish knew, | |
| And pressed the stony beach, a lifeless crew! | |
| |
