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Gnomes! as they march'd, you hid the gather'd

fruits,

The bladed grass, sweet grains, and mealy roots;
Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads,
Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds;

Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil,
Stay'd with vindictive hands the scanty rill.-
Loud o'er the camp the fiend of Famine shrieks,
Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks;
O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand,
And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand;
Perch'd on her crest the griffin Discord clings,
And giant Murder rides between her wings;
Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill,
And showers of tears in blended streams distil;
High poised in air her spiry neck she bends,
Rolls her keen eyé, her dragon claws extends,
Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop
With iron fangs the decimated troop.

Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds
breathe,

And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath;
Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise
Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies,
In red arcades the billowy plain surround,
And whirling turrets stalk along the ground.
-Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend,
To demon-gods their knees unhallow'd bend.
Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square,
And now they front, and now they fly the war,

Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries,

Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot

eyes.

Gnomes! o'er the waste you led your myriad powers, Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers! Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,

Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge; Wave over wave the driving desert swims,

Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs ;

Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,
Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush,—
Wheeling in air the winged islands fall,

And one great earthy ocean covers all !—

Then ceased the storm,-Night bow'd his Ethiop brow

To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,—
Grim Horror shook,-awhile the living hill

Heaved with convulsive throes,—and all was still!

PERSUASION TO MOTHERS TO SUCKLE THEIR OWN

CHILDREN.

FROM CANTO III.

CONNUBIAL FAIR! whom no fond transport warms

To lull your infant in maternal arms;

Who, bless'd in vain with tumid bosoms, hear

His tender wailings with unfeeling ear;

The soothing kiss and milky rill deny,
To the sweet pouting lip, and glistening eye!-
Ah! what avails the cradle's damask roof,
The eider bolster, and embroider'd woof!
Oft hears the gilded couch unpity'd plains,
And many a tear the tassel'd cushion stains!
No voice so sweet attunes his cares to rest,
So soft no pillow, as his mother's breast!—
Thus charm'd to sweet repose, when twilight hours
Shed their soft influence on celestial bowers,
The cherub, Innocence, with smile divine
Shuts his white wings, and sleeps on Beauty's shrine.

MIDNIGHT CONFLAGRATION, CATASTROPHE OF THE FAMILIES OF WOODMASON AND MOLESWORTH.

FROM THE SAME.

FROM dome to dome when flames infuriate climb,
Sweep the long street, invest the tower sublime;
Gild the tall vanes amid the astonish'd night,
And reddening heaven returns the sanguine light;
While with vast strides and bristling hair aloof
Pale Danger glides along the falling roof;
And giant Terror howling in amaze

Moves his dark limbs across the lurid blaze.
Nymphs! you first taught the gelid wave to rise,
Hurl'd in resplendent arches to the skies;
In iron cells condensed the airy spring,
And imp'd the torrent with unfailing wing;

-On the fierce flames the shower impetuous falls, And sudden darkness shrouds the shatter'd walls; Steam, smoke, and dust, in blended volumes roll, And night and silence repossess the pole.

Where were ye, Nymphs! in those disastrous hours,

Which wrap'd in flames Augusta's sinking towers?
Why did ye linger in your wells and groves,
When sad Woodmason mourn'd her infant loves?
When thy fair daughters with unheeded screams,
Ill-fated Molesworth! call'd the loitering streams ?—
The trembling nymph, on bloodless fingers hung,
Eyes from the tottering wall the distant throng,
With ceaseless shrieks her sleeping friends alarms,
Drops with singed hair into her lover's arms,-
The illumin'd mother seeks with footsteps fleet,
Where hangs the safe balcony o'er the street,
Wrap'd in her sheet her youngest hope suspends,
And panting lowers it to her tiptoe friends;
Again she hurries on affection's wings,

And now a third, and now a fourth, she brings;
Safe all her babes, she smooths her horrent brow,
And bursts through bickering flames, unscorch'd
below:

So, by her son arraigned, with feet unshod

O'er burning bars indignant Emma trod.

E'en on the day when Youth with Beauty wed, The flames surprised them in their nuptial bed;Seen at the opening sash with bosom bare, With wringing hands, and dark dishevel❜d hair,

The blushing bride with wild disorder'd charms
Round her fond lover winds her ivory arms;
Beat, as they clasp, their throbbing hearts with fear,
And many a kiss is mixed with many a tear ;-
Ah me! in vain the labouring engines pour
Round their pale limbs the ineffectual shower!—
-Then crash'd the floor, while shrinking crowds
retire,

And Love and Virtue sunk amid the fire!-
With piercing screams afflicted strangers mourn,
And their white ashes mingle in their urn.

THE HEROIC ATTACHMENT OF THE YOUTH IN HOLLAND, WHO ATTENDED HIS MISTRESS IN THE PLAGUE.

FROM CANTO IV.

THUS when the Plague, upborne on Belgian air,
Look'd through the mist and shook his clotted hair;
O'er shrinking nations steer'd malignant clouds,
And rain'd destruction on the gasping crowds;
The beauteous Ægle felt the venom'd dart',
Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart;

When the plague raged in Holland, in 1636, a young girl. was seized with it, had three carbuncles, and was removed to a garden, where her lover, who was betrothed to her, attended her as a nurse, and slept with her as his wife. He remained uninfected, and she recovered, and was married to him. The story is related by Vinc, Fabricius, in the Misc. Cur. Ann. II. Obs. 188.

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