And beckons to the willing dame,
Preferr'd to quench his present flame,
Behold as many gallants here,
With modest guise and silent fear,
All to one female idol bend,

While her high pride does scarce descend
To mark their follies, he would swear
That these her guard of eunuchs were,
And that a more majestic queen,
Or humbler slaves, he had not seen.
All this with indignation spoke,
In vain I struggled with the yoke
Of mighty Love: that conquering look,
When next beheld, like lightning strook
My blasted soul, and made me bow
Lower than those I pitied now.

So the tall stag, upon the brink
Oer me smooth stream about to drink,
Surveying there his armed head,
With shame remembers that he fled
The scorned dogs, resolves to try
The combat next; but if their cry
Invades again his trembling ear,
He straight resumes his wonted care,
Leaves the untasted spring behind,
And, wing'd with fear, outflies the wind.

THE BATTLE OF THE SUMMER-ISLANDS.

A

CANTO I.

What fruits they have, and how Heav'n smiles
Upon those late-discover'd isles!

ID me, Bellona! while the dreadful fight Betwixt a nation and two whales I write. Seas stain'd with gore I sing, adventrous toil! And how these monsters did disarm an isle.

Bermuda, wall'd with rocks, who does not know? That happy island where huge lemons grow, And orange trees, which golden fruit do bear, The' Hesperian garden boasts of none so fair; Where shining pearl, and coral, many a pound, On the rich shore, of ambergris is found. The lofty cedar, which to Heav'n aspires, The prince of trees! is fuel for their fires : The smoke by which their loaded spits do turn, For incense might on sacred altars burn: Their private roofs on odorous timber borne, Such as might palaces for kings adorn. The sweet palmettos a new Bacchus yield, With leaves as ample as the broadest shield, Under the shadow of whose friendly boughs They sit, carousing where their liquor grows. Figs there unplanted through the fields do gra Such as fierce Cato did the Romans show, With the rare fruit inviting them to spoil Carthage, the mistress of so rich a soil. The naked rocks are not unfruitful there, But at some constant seasons, every year Their barren tops with luscious food abound, And with the eggs of various fowls are crown'd. Tobacco is the worst of things, which they To English landlords, as their tribute, pay. Such is the mold that the blest tenant feeds On precious fruits, and pays his rent in weeds. With candied plantains and the juicy pine, On choicest melons and sweet grapes they dine, And with potatoes fat their wanton swine. Nature these cates with such a lavish hand Pours out among them, that our coarser land Tastes of that bounty, and does cloth return, Which not for warmth, but ornament, is worn: For the kind Spring, which but salutes us here, Inhabits there, and courts them all the year. Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live ; At once they promise, what at once they give. So sweet the air, so moderate the clime, None sickly lives, or dies before his time.

}

Heav'n sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst,
To show how all things were created first.
The tardy plants in our cold orchards plac'd,
Reserve their fruit for the next age's taste:
There a small grain in some few months will be
A firm, a lofty, and a spacious tree.
The palma-christi, and the fair papà,
Now but a seed, (preventing Nature's law)
In half the circle of the hasty year

Project a shade, and lovely fruits do wear.
And as their trees, in our dull region set,
But faintly grow, and no perfection get,
So in this northern tract our hoarser throats,
Utter unripe and ill-constrained notes,
While the supporter of the poets' style,
Phœbus, on them eternally does smile.
Oh how I long my careless limbs to lay
Under the plantain's shade, and all the day
With amorous airs, my fancy entertain,
Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein!
No passion there in my free breast should move,
None but the sweet and best of passions, love.
There while I sing, if gentle Love be by,

That tunes my lute, and winds the string so high,
With the sweet sound of Sacharissa's name

I'll make the listening savages grow tame.→→
But while I do these pleasing dreams indite,
I am diverted from the promis'd fight.

CANTO II.

Of their alarm, and how their foes
Discover'd were, this Canto shows.

THOUGH rocks so high about this island rise, That well they may the numerous Turk despise, Yet is no human fate exempt from fear,

Which shakes their hearts, while through the isle they hear

A lasting noise, as horrid and as loud

As thunder makes before it breaks the cloud. Three days they dread this murmur ere they know From what blind cause the' unwonted sound may

grow:

At length two monsters of unequal size,

Hard by the shore, a fisherman espies;

Two mighty whales! which swelling seas had tost,
And left them prisoners on the rocky coast:
One as a mountain vast, and with her came
A cub, not much inferior to his dam.

Here in a pool, among the rocks engag'd,
They roar'd, like lions caught in toils, and rag'd.
The man knew what they were, who heretofore
Had seen the like lie murther'd on the shore;
By the wild fury of some tempest cast,
The fate of ships, and shipwreck'd men, to taste.
As careless dames, whom wine and sleep betray
To frantic dreams, their infants overlay ;
So there, sometimes, the raging ocean fails,
And her own brood exposes; when the whale;
Against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels quash'd,
Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dash'd;
Along the shore their dreadful limbs lie scatter'd,
Like hills with earthquakes shaken, torn, and shat-
ter'd.

Hearts sure of brass they had who tempted first
Rude seas, that spare not what themselves have

nurst.

The welcome news through all the nation spread,
To sudden joy and hope converts their dread:
What lately was their public terror, they
Behold with glad eyes as a certain prey;
Dispose already of the' untaken spoil,
And, as the purchase of their future toil,
These share the bones, and they divide the oil.
So was the huntsman by the bear opprest,
Whose hide he sold-before he caught the beast!
They man their boats, and all their young men arm
With whatsoever may the monsters harm;

Pikes, halberts, spits, and darts that wound so far,
The tools of peace, and instruments of war.
Now was the time for vigorous lads to show
What love and honour could invite them to:
A goodly theatre! where rocks are round
With reverend age and lovely lasses crown'd.
Such was the lake which held this dreadful pair
Within the bounds of noble Warwick's share :
Warwick's bold Earl! than which no title bears
A greater sound among our British peers;
And worthy he the memory to renew,
The fate and honour to that title due,

Whose brave adventures have transferr'd his name, And through the new world spread his growing fame.

But how they fought, and what their valour gain'd, Shall in another Canto be contain❜d.

THE

CANTO III.

The bloody fight, successless toil,
And how the fishes suck'd the isle.

boat which on the first assault did go, Strook with a harping-iron the younger foe; Who, when he felt his side so rudely gor'd, Loud as the sea that nourish'd him he roar'd. As a broad bream, to please some curious taste, While yet alive, in boiling water cast, Vex'd with unwonted heat, he flings about The scorching brass, and hurls the liquor out; So with the barbed javelin stung, he raves, And scourges with his tail the suffering waves. Like Spenser's Talus with his iron flail, He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail; Dissolving at one stroke the batter'd boat, And down the men fall drenched in the moat; Vol. I.

K