INHABITANTS OF THE SEA CREATED.
INHABITANTS OF THE SEA CREATED.
AND God said, Let the waters generate
Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Displayed on the open firmament of heaven.
And God created the great whales, and each
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously
The waters generated by their kinds,
And every bird of wing after his kind;
And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,
And lakes, and running streams the waters fill :
And let the fowl be multiplied on the earth.
Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay,
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
Of fish that with their fins and shining scales
Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft
Bank the mid-sea; part single or with mate
Graze, the seaweed their pasture, and through
groves
Of coral stray, or sporting, with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold,
Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend
Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal
And bended dolphins play: part, huge of bulk,
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.
MILTON'S "Paradise Lost."
THE WONDERS OF THE OCEAN.
The wonders of the ocean? how its shoals
Sprang from the wave, like flashing light, took wing,
And twinkling with a silver glitterance,
Flew through the air and sunshine? yet were these
To sight less wondrous than the tribe who swam,
Following, like fowlers, with uplifted eye,
Their falling quarry:-language cannot paint Their splendid tints; though in blue ocean seen, Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,
In all its rich variety of shades,
Suffused with glowing gold.
RODMOND, unerring, o'er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends;
Unerring aimed, the missile weapon flew,
And, plunging, struck the fated victim through;
Th' upturning points his ponderous bulk sustain,
On deck he struggles with convulsive pain:
But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills,
And flitting life escapes in sanguine rills,
What radiant changes strike th' astonished sight!
What glowing hues of mingled shade and light!
Not equal beauties gild the lucid west,
With parting beams all o'er profusely drest;
Not lovelier colours paint the vernal dawn
When orient dews impearl th' enamelled lawn;
Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow,
That now with gold empyreal seem to glow;
Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view,
And emulate the soft celestial hue;
Now beam a flaming crimson on the eye,
And now assume the purple's deeper dye :
But here description clouds each shining ray;
What terms of art can nature's powers display!
METHOUGHT that I had broken from the Tower,
And was embarked to cross to Burgundy;
And in my company, my brother Glo'ster;
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward England,
And cited up a thousand heavy times,
During the wars of York and Lancaster,
That had befallen us. As we paced along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
Methought that Glo'ster stumbled; and, on falling,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
Into the tumbling billows of the main.
Oh then! methought what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in my ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearls,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea.
Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,
That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
SHAKSPEARE'S "King Richard III.”
THE TREASURES OF THE SEA.
WHAT hid'st thou in thy treasure-caves and cells, Thou hollow-sounding and mysterious Main?
THE TREASURES OF THE SEA.
Pale glistening pearls, and rainbow-coloured shells, Bright things that gleam unrecked of and in vain. Keep, keep thy riches, melancholy Sea!
We ask not such from thee.
Yet more, the depths have more!-What wealth untold,
Far down, and shining through their stillness, lies!
Thou hast the starry gems, the burning gold,
Won from ten thousand royal argosies. Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful Main!
Earth claims not these again!
Yet more, the depths have more!-Thy waves have rolled
Above the cities of a world gone by!
Sand hath filled up the palaces of old,
Seaweed o'ergrown the halls of revelry!
Dash o'er them, Ocean! in thy scornful play-
Man yields them to decay!
Yet more, the billows and the depths have more! High hearts and brave are gathered to thy breast! They hear not now the booming waters roar— The battle-thunders will not break their rest. Keep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy Grave!— Give back the true and brave!
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