THE CAPTIVE. FROM THE SAME. FORBEAR! forbear!" Compassion cry'd; "Nor treat with cold insulting pride "Poor trembling insect! easy caught! Written at Scarborough, in the Summer of 1805. FROM POEMS BY JAMES MONTGOMERY. ALL hail to the ruins, the rocks and the shores! Thou wide-rolling ocean, all hail ! Now brilliant with sun-beams, and dimpled with oars, Like meteors bespangle the sky, Or dive in the gulph, or triumphantly ride, From the tumult and smoke of the city set free, * Scarborough Castle. From From the crest of the mountain I gaze upon thee; For mine eye is illumin'd, by genius takes flight, Embraces the boundless expanse, And moves on thy waters, wherever they roll, From the day-darting zone to the night-shadow'd pole. My spirit descends where the day-spring is born, Where the billows are rubies on fire, And the breezes that rock the light cradle of morn O regions of beauty, of love, and desire! O gardens of Eden! in vain Placed far on the fathomless main, Where nature with innocence dwelt in her youth, But now the fair rivers of Paradise wind Despoiling, destroying its charms; Beneath his broad footstep the Ganges is dry, Thus the pestilent Upas, the hydra of trees, Its bough 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 noon-day with death, And pale ghosts of travellers wander around, While their mouldering skeletons whiten the ground. Ah! why hath Jehovah, in forming the world, With the waters divided the land, His ramparts of rocks round the continent hurl'd, If man may transgress his eternal command, To ravage the uttermost earth, And violate nations and realms that should be There There are, gloomy ocean! a brotherless clan, The poor disinherited outcasts of man, Whom avarice coins into slaves! From the homes of their kindred, their forefathers' graves, Love, friendship, and conjugal bliss, They are dragg'd on the hoary abyss ; The shark hears their shrieks, and ascending to day, Then joy to the tempest that whelms them beneath, But woe to the winds that propitiously breathe, Where the vultures and vampires of Mammon resort; The life-blood from Africa's veins ; Where man rules o'er man with a merciless rod, The hour is approaching, a terrible hour! Shall this be the fate of the cane-planted isles, When the sun o'er the ocean descending in smiles NO!-Father of mercy! befriend the opprest; May the sorrows of Africa cease; And the slave and his master devoutly unite As homeward my weary-wing'd fancy extends 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 Alluding to the glorious success of the Moravian Missionaries among the Negroes in the West Indies. 3 The panic-struck ocean in agony roars, For Britannia is wielding her trident to.day, And hurling her thunder with absolute sway -She triumphs ;-the winds and the waters conspire The universe rings with her fame; -But the cries of the fatherless mix with her praise, O Britain! dear Britain! the land of my birth; Thou pearl of the ocean! Thou gem of the earth! For wealth is a phantom, and empire a snare: For reprobate glory and gold : Thy distant dominions like wild graftings shoot, They weigh down thy trunk,-they will tear up thy root :- The root of thine OAK, O my country! that stands Rock-planted, and flourishing free; Its branches are stretch'd over far-distant lands, And its shadow eclipses the sea: The blood of our ancestors nourish'd the tree; Their spirit dwells in it :--and hark! for it spoke; "Ye Britons who dwell where we conquer'd of old, Though poor were your fathers,-gigantic and bold, But firm as our rocks, and as free as our waves, We never stoop'd under their yoke; In the shipwreck of nations we stood up alone,— "For ages sand ages, with barbarous foes, The Saxon, Norwegian, and Gaul, We wrestled, were foil'd, were cast down, but we rose By all we were conquer'd:-WE CONQUER'D THEM ALL! -The -The cruel, the cannibal mind, We soften'd, subdued, and refined; Bears, wolves, and sea-monsters, they rush'd from their den; We taught them, we tamed them, we turn'd them to men. "Love led the wild hordes in his flower-woven bands, The tenderest, the strongest of chains! Love married our hearts, he united our hands, And mingled the blood in our veins ; One race we became :-on the mountains and plains, The unquenchable altar of liberty blazed, "Ark, altar and temple, we left with our breath O guard them, O keep them, in life and in death! And your spirits with ours be in Paradise blest: And avarice, the soul of a slave, No longer seduce your affections to roam |