Into the worst of desarts sudden turn'd

The chearful haunt of Men: unless escap'd

From the doom'd house, where matchless horror reigns; Shut up by barbarous fear, the smitten wretch,

With frenzy wild, breaks loose; and, loud to Heaven

Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns,

Inhuman, and unwise. The sullen door,

Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge
Fearing to turn, abhors society:

1076

Dependants, friends, relations, Love himself,

1080

Savag'd by woe, forget the tender tie,

The sweet engagement of the feeling heart.

BUT vain their selfish care: the circling sky,

The wide enlivening air is full of fate;

1085

And, struck by turns, in solitary pangs

They fall, unblest, untended, and unmourn'd.
Thus o'er the prostrate city black Despair
Extends her raven wing; while, to complete
The scene of desolation, stretch'd around,
The grim guards stand, denying all retreat,
And give the flying wretch a better death.
MUCH yet remains
unsung: the

rage intense

Of brazen-vaulted skies, of iron fields,

1090

Where drought and famine starve the blasted year:

Fir'd by the torch of noon to ten-fold rage,
Th' infuriate hill that shoots the pillar'd flame;

1095

And, rous'd within the subterranean world,

Th' expanding earthquake, that resistless shakes
Aspiring cities from their solid base,

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And buries mountains in the flaming gulph.
But 'tis enough; return, my vagrant Muse:
A nearer scene of horror calls thee home.
BEHOLD, slow-settling o'er the lurid grove,
Unusual darkness broods and growing gains
The full posseffion of the sky; surcharg'd
With wrathful vapour, from the secret beds
Where sleep the mineral generations, drawn.
Thence Nitre, Sulphur, and the fiery spume
Of fat Bitumen, steaming on the day,
With various-tinctur'd trains of latent flame,
Pollute the sky; and in yon baleful cloud,
A reddening gloom, a magazine of fate,
Ferment; till, by the touch ethereal rous'd,
The dash of clouds, or irritating war
Of fighting winds, while all is calm below,
They furious spring. A boding silence reigns,
Dread thro' the dun expanse; save the dull sound
That from the mountain, previous to the storm,
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood,
And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath.

Prone, to the lowest vale, the aërial tribes
Descend: the tempest-loving raven scarce
Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze
The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens

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Cast a deploring eye; by Man forsook,
Who to the crouded cottage hies him fast,
Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave.
'Tis listening fear, and dumb amazement all:
When to the startled eye the sudden glance
Appears far south, eruptive thro' the cloud;
And following slower, in explosion vast,
The thunder raises his tremendous voice.
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes
And rolls its aweful burden on the wind,
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds: till over head a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts,
And opens wider; shuts and opens still
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.

Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar,
Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal
Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.

Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail,

1125

1130

1135

1140

Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds, 1145
Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquench'd,
Th' unconquerable lightning struggles through,
Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls;
And fires the mountains with redoubled rage.

Black from the stroke, above, the smouldring pine

1149

Stands a sad shatter'd trunk; and, stretch'd below,

A lifeless groupe the blasted cattle lie:

Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look
They wore alive, and ruminating still

In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull

And ox half-rais'd. Struck on the castled cliff,

The venerable tower and spiry fane

Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods
Start at the flash, and from their deep recess,
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake.
Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud
The repercussive roar: with mighty crush,
Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks

Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky,

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1161

Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak, 1165 Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load.

Far-seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze,

And Thulè bellows thro' her utmost isles.

GUILT hears appall'd, with deeply troubled thought.

And yet not always on the guilty head

1170

Descends the fated flash. Young CELADON

And his AMELIA were a matchless pair;

With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace,
The same, distinguish'd by their sex alone:

Her's the mild lustre of the blooming morn,

1175

And his the radiance of the risen day.

THEY lov'd: But such their guileless passion was, As in the dawn of time inform'd the heart

Of innocence, and undissembling truth.

'Twas friendship heightened by the mutual wish; 1180
Th' enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow,
Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all
To love, each was to each a dearer self;
Supremely happy in th' awakened power
Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades,
Still in harmonious intercourse they liv'd
The rural day; and talk'd the flowing heart,
Or sigh'd and look'd unutterable things.

So pass'd their life, a clear united stream,
By care unruffled; till, in evil hour,
The tempest caught them on the tender walk,
Heedless how far, and where its mazes stray'd;
While, with each other blest, creative love
Still bade eternal Eden smile around.
Presaging instant fate, her bosom heav'd

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1195

Unwonted sighs; and stealing oft a look
Of the big gloom on CELADON, her eye

Fell tearful, wetting her disordered cheek.

In vain assuring love, and confidence

1199

In HEAVEN repress'd her fear; it grew, and shook

Her frame near dissolution. He perceiv'd

Th' unequal conflict, and as angels look

On dying saints, his eyes compaffion shed,

With love illumin'd high. "Fear not," he said, "Sweet innocence! thou stranger to offence,

1205

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