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They

turned to the Earth, but she frowns

on

They

her child;

turned to the Sea, and he smiled as of old: I weeten was the peril of the breakers white and wild, Sweeter than the land, with its bondage and gold!

Bayard Taylor

The star of love now shines above, Cool zephyrs crisp the sea;

Among

the leaves the wind-harp weaves Its serenade for thee.

Go. Morris .

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[Written at Scarborough, in the Summer of 1805.]

ALL hail to the ruins, the rocks, and the shores!
Thou wide-rolling Ocean, all hail !

Now brilliant with sunbeams and dimpled with

oars,

Now dark with the fresh-blowing gale,

But now the fair rivers of Paradise wind
Through countries and kingdoms o'erthrown;
Where the giant of tyranny crushes mankind,
Where he reigns, and will soon reign alone;
For wide and more wide, o'er the sun-beaming

zone

He stretches his hundred-fold arms,

Despoiling, destroying its charms;

Beneath his broad footstep the Ganges is dry, And the mountains recoil from the flash of his eye.

Thus the pestilent Upas, the demon of trees,
Its boughs o'er the wilderness spreads,
And with livid contagion polluting the breeze,
Its mildewing influence sheds;

The birds on the wing, and the flowers in their
beds,

Are slain by its venomous breath,

That darkens the noonday with death,

And pale ghosts of travellers wander around, While their mouldering skeletons whiten the ground.

With the waters divided the land,
Ah! why hath Jehovah, in forming the world,

His ramparts of rocks round the continent
hurled,

And cradled the deep in his hand,

While soft o'er thy bosom the cloud-shadows sail, And leap o'er the bounds of his birth,

If man may transgress his eternal command,

And the silver-winged sea-fowl on high,

Like meteors bespangle the sky,

Or dive in the gulf, or triumphantly ride,

Like foam on the surges, the swans of the tide.

From the tumult and smoke of the city set free,
With eager and awful delight,

From the crest of the mountain I gaze upon thee,

I gaze, and am changed at the sight;

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For mine eye is illumined, my genius takes flight,
My soul, like the sun, with a glance
Embraces the boundless expanse,

And moves on thy waters, wherever they roll,
From the day-darting zone to the night-shadowed
pole.

My spirit descends where the dayspring is born,
Where the billows are rubies on fire,

And the breezes that rock the light cradle of

morn

Are sweet as the Phoenix's pyre.

O regions of beauty, of love and desire!

O gardens of Eden! in vain

Placed far on the fathomless main,

To ravage the uttermost earth,

And violate nations and realms that should be
Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea?

There are, gloomy Ocean, a brotherless clan,
Who traverse thy banishing waves,
The poor disinherited outcasts of man,
Whom Avarice coins into slaves.

From the homes of their kindred, their fore-
fathers' graves,

Love, friendship, and conjugal bliss,
They are dragged on the hoary abyss;
The shark hears their shrieks, and, ascending
to-day,

Demands of the spoiler his share of the prey.

Then joy to the tempest that whelms them beneath,

And makes their destruction its sport;

But woe to the winds that propitiously breathe,
And waft them in safety to port,

Where the vultures and vampires of Mammon
resort;

Where Nature with Innocence dwelt in her Where Europe exultingly drains

youth,

The life-blood from Africa's veins;

When pure was her heart and unbroken her Where man rules o'er man with a merciless rod, And spurns at his footstool the image of God!

truth.

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When the sun o'er the ocean descending in smiles, But firm as our rocks, and as free as our waves, Sinks softly and sweetly to rest?

No!

Father of mercy! befriend the opprest;

At the voice of thy gospel of peace
May the sorrows of Africa cease;
And slave and his master devoutly unite

To walk in thy freedom and dwell in thy light!

As homeward my weary-winged Fancy extends
Her star-lighted course through the skies,
High over the mighty Atlantic ascends,
And turns upon Europe her eyes :

Ah me! what new prospects, new horrors, arise!
I see the war-tempested flood

All foaming, and panting with blood;
The panic-struck Ocean in agony roars,
Rebounds from the battle, and flies to his shores.

For Britannia is wielding the trident to-day,
Consuming her foes in her ire,

And hurling her thunder with absolute sway
From her wave-ruling chariots of fire.

She triumphs; the winds and the waters conspire
To spread her invincible name;
The universe rings with her fame;

But the cries of the fatherless mix with her praise,

And the tears of the widow are shed on her bays.

O Britain, dear Britain! the land of my birth;

O Isle most enchantingly fair!

The spears of the Romans we broke,
We never stooped under their yoke.
In the shipwreck of nations we stood up alone,
The world was great Cæsar's, but Britain our
own."
JAMES MONTGOMERY.

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Thou Pearl of the Ocean! thou Gem of the And bends above our heads the flowering locust

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