In dull repinings at our wayward fate,

Or quarrels with that world we love and hate;
And while rough Labour sleeps on rocks alone,
To such the downy pillow seems a stone.
Our BASIL beat the lazy Sun next day,
And bright and early had been on his
way,
But that the world he saw e'en yesternight,
Seem'd faded like a vision from his sight.
One endless chaos spread before his eyes,
No vestige left of earth or azure skies,
A boundless nothingness reign'd every where,
Hid the green fields, and silent all the air.
As look'd the trav'ller for the world below,
The lively morning breeze began to blow,
The magic curtain roll'd in mists away,
And a gay landscape laugh'd upon the day.
As light the fleeting vapours upward glide,
Like sheeted spectres on the mountain side,
New objects open to his wondering view
Of various form, and combinations new,
A rocky precipice, a waving wood,
Deep winding dell, and foaming mountain flood,
Each after each, with coy and sweet delay,
Broke on his sight, as at young dawn of day,
Bounded afar by peak aspiring bold,

Like giant capt with helm of burnish'd gold.
So when the wandering grandsire of our race
On Ararat had found a resting place,

At first a shoreless ocean met his eye,
Mingling on every side with one blue sky;
But as the waters, every passing day,
Sunk in the earth, or roll'd in mists away,
Gradual, the lofty hills, like islands peep,
From the rough bosom of the boundless deep,
Then the round hillocks and the meadows green,
Each after each, in freshen'd bloom are seen,
Till, at the last, a fair and finish'd whole

Combin'd to win the gazing patriarch's soul.

Yet oft he look'd, I ween, with anxious eye,

In lingering hope somewhere, perchance, to spy,
Within the silent world, some living thing,
Crawling on earth, or moving on the wing,
Or man, or beast-alas! was neither there,
Nothing that breath'd of life in earth or air;
'Twas a vast silent mansion rich and gay,
Whose occupant was drown'd the other day;
A church-yard, where the gayest flowers oft bloom
Amid the melancholy of the tomb;

A charnel house, where all the human race
Had pil'd their bones in one wide resting place;
Sadly he turn'd from such a sight of wo,
And sadly sought the lifeless world below.

Now down the mountain's rugged western side,
Descending slow, our lowly trav❜llers hied,
Deep in a narrow glen, within whose breast
The rolling fragments of the mountain rest;

Rocks tumbled on each other, by rude chance,

Crown'd with gay fern, and mosses, met the glance,
Through which a brawling river brav'd its way,
Dashing among the rocks in foamy spray.

Here, mid the fragments of a broken world,
In wild and rough confusion idly hurl'd,

Where ne'er was heard the woodman's echoing stroke,
Rose a huge forest of gigantic oak;

With heads that tower'd half up the mountain's side,
And arms extending round them far and wide,
They looked coeval with old mother Earth,
And seem'd to claim with her an equal birth.
There, by a lofty rock's moss-mantled base,
Our tir'd advent'rers found a resting place;
Beneath its dark, o'erhanging sullen brow,
The little bevy nestled snug below,
And with right sturdy appetite, and strong,
Devour'd the rustic meal they brought along.

The squirrel ey'd them from his lofty tree,
And chirp'd as wont, with merry morning glee;
The woodcock crow'd as if alone he were,
Or heeded not the strange intruders there,
Sure sign they little knew of man's proud race
In that sequester'd mountain biding place;
For wheresoe'er his wandering footsteps tend,
Man never makes the rural train his friend;
Acquaintance, that brings other beings near,
Produces nothing but distrust or fear;

Beasts flee from man, the more his heart they know,
And fears, at last, to fix'd aversion grow.
As thus in blithe serenity they sat,
Beguiling resting time with lively chat,

A distant, half heard murmur caught the ear,
Each moment waxing louder, and more near;
A dark obscurity spread all around,

And more than twilight seem'd to veil the ground;
While not a leaf ev'n of the aspen stirr'd,

And not a sound, but that low moan, was heard.
There is a moment when the boldest heart

That would not stoop an inch to 'scape Death's dart,
That never shrunk from certain danger here,
Will quail and shiver with an aguish fear;

'Tis when some unknown mischief hovers nigh, And Heav'n itself seems threat'ning from on high. Brave was our BASIL, as became a man,

Yet still his blood a little cooler ran,

"Twixt fear and wonder, at that murmur drear,
That every moment wax'd more loud and near.
The riddle soon was read-at last it came,
And Nature trembled to her inmost frame;
The forest roar'd, the everlasting oak
In writhing agonies the storm bespoke,
The live leaves scatter'd wildly every where,
Whirl'd round in madd'ning circles in the air,
The stoutest limbs were scatter'd all around,
The stoutest trees a stouter master found,

Crackling and crashing, down they thund'ring go,
And seem to crush the shrinking rocks below:
Then the thick rain in gathering torrents pour'd,
Higher the river rose, and louder roar'd;

And on its dark, quick eddying surface bore
The gather'd spoils of Earth along its shore;
While trees, that not an hour before had stood
The lofty monarchs of the stately wood,

Now whirling round and round with furious force,
Dash 'gainst the rocks that break the torrent's force,
And shiver, like a reed by urchin broke

Through idle mischief, or with heedless stroke;

A hundred cataracts, unknown before,
Rush down the mountain's side with fearful roar;
And as with foaming fury down they go,

Loose the firm rocks and thunder them below,
Blue lightnings from the dark cloud's bosom sprung,
Like serpents menacing with forked tongue,
While many a sturdy oak that stiffly brav'd
The threat'ning hurricane that round it rav'd,
Shiver'd beneath its bright resistless flash,
Came tumbling down amain with fearful crash.
Air, Earth, and Skies, seem'd now to try their pow'r,
And struggle for the mastery of the hour;
Higher the waters rose, and blacker still,
And threaten'd soon the narrow vale to fill.

Where are the little bold wayfarers now,

We left erewhile beneath the rude rock's brow?