In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars, To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 This is the place, as well as I may guess, Of calling shapes and beck'ning shadows dire, or mouths of rivers there (bocce). There are many like allusions hereafter. (197) This and the following lines, relate to the brothers having the same prototypes as the constellation of stars called Gemini. (208) The east end of the Isle of Cuba, which therefore first meets the constant-blowing tradewind (airy) has the shape of a tongue, the tongue's end being at Cape Maisy; and on the south side On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. I see ye visibly, and now believe 215 That He, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, Would send a glist'ring guardian, if need were, 220 To keep my life and honour unassail'd. Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night? I did not err; there does a sable cloud 225 of the same district is situate the famous town of St. Jago, a common christian name. Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest Song. Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen (230) This Song of the Lady I apprehend to be addressed to the Gulf of the West Indies. If the reader will observe the map of it with the north east side uppermost, he will perceive it to form the letters of the word echo; the e, made by the Gulph of Mexico; the c, in part by the Isle of Cuba, and the remainder by the Bay of Honduras; the h, that part of the gulf which lies above the Spanish Main, as bounded by St. Domingo and the neighbouring islands on the north, and top of South America on the south; and the o, by the large circular Lake of Maracaybo, immediately adjoining to and connected with the West India Gulf itself. Perhaps also the reader, considering the subject of the poem, may not be disinclined to think with me that the ague (with Within thy aery shell, By slow meanders margent green, 231 its attendant fever) so prevalent in those regions, is, by a pun upon echo, an ulterior subject of the song. (231) Aery; this epithet alludes to the West India Gulf lying under the constant action of the trade-winds; and the shell alludes to that gulf's resemblance to a shell with its two valves laid open. (234) The nightingale is referable to the likeness of a bird with its wings outspread, exhibited by the same gulf and drawn in Fig. 186. The bird's being a nightingale has regard to the Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; 235 Canst thou not tell me of a gentler pair That likest thy Narcissus are? O if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave, Tell me but where 240 Sweet queen of Parley, daughter of the sphere, western position of the gulf, as implied by its name, a position where the sun sets, and night consequently begins. The sad song regards the lamentable effects of the ague and fever prevalent there. The violets may allude to the numerous clusters of islands that border the West India Gulph, like flowers. (236) The first part of this line contains some proof that the explanations contained in the three last notes are not without foundation; and the end of it points to the constellation Gemini. (239) Flowery. This term regards the Gulf of Florida, part of that of the great West India Gulf, in the former of which one of the Gemini has his prototype. |