And high Olympus,* pouring many a stream.
O from the sounding summits of the north,
The Dofrine hills, through Scandinavia roll'd
To farthest Lapland and the frozen main ;
From lofty Caucasus, far seen by those
Who in the Caspian and black Euxine toil;
From cold Riphean rocks, which the wild Russ
Believes the stony girdle † of the world;
And all the dreadful mountains, wrapp'd in storm,
Whence wide Siberia draws her lonely floods —
O sweep the eternal snows; hung o'er the deep,
That ever works beneath his sounding base,
Bid Atlas, propping heaven, as poets feign,
His subterranean wonders spread; unveil
The miny caverns, blazing on the day,
Of Abyssinia's cloud-compelling cliffs,
And of the bending Mountains ‡ of the Moon;
O'ertopping all these giant sons of earth.
Let the dire Andes, from the radiant line
Stretch'd to the stormy seas that thunder round
The southern pole, their hideous deeps unfold!
Amazing scene! Behold! the glooms disclose;
I see the Rivers in their infant beds;
Deep, deep I hear them, labouring to get free.
I see the leaning Strata, artful ranged;
* The mountain called by that name in the lesser Asia.
†The Moscovites call the Riphean Mountains Weliki Camenypoys, that is, the great stony girdle: because they suppose them to encompass the whole earth.
A range of mountains in Africa, that surround all Monomotapa. -T.
The gaping Fissures to receive the rains,
The melting snows, and ever dripping fogs.
Strow'd bibulous above I see the Sands,
The pebbly Gravel next, the Layers then
Of mingled moulds, of more retentive earths, 815
The gutter'd Rocks and mazy-running Clefts;
That, while the stealing moisture they transmit,
Retard its motion, and forbid its waste.
Beneath the incessant weeping of these drains,
I see the rocky Siphons stretch'd immense,
The mighty Reservoirs, of harden'd chalk,
Or stiff compacted clay, capacious form'd:
O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores,
The crystal treasures of the liquid world,
Through the stirr'd sands a bubbling passage burst;
And welling out, around the middle steep,
Or from the bottoms of the bosom'd hills,
pure effusion flow. United, thus,
The exhaling Sun, the vapour-burden'd air,
The gelid mountains, that, to rain condensed, 830
These vapours in continual current draw,
-And send them, o'er the fair-divided earth,
In bounteous Rivers to the deep again,
A social commerce hold, and, firm, support
The full-adjusted harmony of things.
When Autumn scatters his departing gleams, Warn'd of approaching Winter, gather'd, play The Swallow-people; and, toss'd wide around, O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift,
The feather'd eddy floats: rejoicing once, 810
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire;
In clusters clung, beneath the mouldering bank,
And where, unpierced by frost, the cavern sweats.
Or rather into warmer climes convey'd,
With other kindred birds of season, there
They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months Invite them welcome back: for, thronging, now Innumerous wings are in commotion all.
Where the Rhine loses his majestic force
In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep, 850
By diligence amazing, and the strong
Unconquerable hand of Liberty,
The Stork-assembly meets; for many a day
Consulting deep and various, ere they take
Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky: 855
And now, their route design'd, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings,
And many a circle, many a short essay,
Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full
The figured flight ascends; and, riding high 860
The aërial billows, mixes with the clouds.
Or where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,
Boils round the naked melancholy isles
Of farthest Thule, and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides;
Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arise,
Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude resounding shore are one wild cry? 870
Here the plain harmless Native his small flock, And herd diminutive of many hues,
Tends on the little island's verdant swell,
The shepherd's sea-girt reign; or, to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food;
Or sweeps the fishy shore; or treasures up
The plumage, rising full, to form the bed
Of luxury. And here awhile the Muse,
High hovering o'er the broad cerulean scene,
Sees Caledonia, in romantic view:
Her airy Mountains, from the waving main,
Invested with a keen diffusive sky,
Breathing the soul acute; her Forests huge,
Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old; her azure Lakes between,
Pour'd out extensive, and of watery wealth
Full; winding, deep and green, her fertile Vales,
With many a cool translucent brimming Flood
Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent-stream,
Whose pastoral banks first heard my Doric reed,
With, silvan Jed, thy tributary brook)
To where the north-inflated tempest foams
O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak:
Nurse of a People in Misfortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds; soon visited
By Learning, when before the Gothic rage
She took her western flight. A manly Race,
Of unsubmitting spirit, wise, and brave;
Who still through bleeding ages struggled hard
(As well unhappy Wallace can attest.
Great patriot-hero! ill requited chief!)
To hold a generous, undiminish'd state ;
Too much in vain! Hence of unequal bounds
Impatient, and by tempting glory borne
O'er every land, for every land their life
Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plann'd,
And swell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil:
As from their own clear north, in radiant streams,
Bright over Europe bursts the boreal Morn.
Oh! is there not some Patriot, in whose power That best, that godlike luxury is placed, Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn, Through late posterity? some, large of soul, To cheer dejected industry, to give
A double harvest to the pining swain,
And teach the labouring hand the sweets of toil? How, by the finest art, the native robe
To weave; how, white as hyperborean snow,
To form the lucid lawn; with venturous oar
How to dash wide the billow; nor look on,
Shamefully passive, while Batavian fleets
Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms,
That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores ;
How all-enlivening trade to rouse, and wing
The prosperous sail, from every growing port, 925
Uninjured, round the sea-encircled globe;
And thus, in soul united as in name,
Bid Britain reign the Mistress of the deep? `-
Yes, there are such. And full on thee, Argyle,
Her hope, her stay, her darling, and her boast, 930
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