SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH" POETRY
Far different there from all that charmed before, 345
The various terrors of that horrid shore;
Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,
And fiercely shed intolerable day;
Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling; 35°
Those pois'nous fields with rank luxuriance crowned,
Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;
Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;
Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey, 355
And savage men more murd'rous still than they;
While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.
Far different these from every former scene,
The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green, 36°
The breezy covert of the warbling grove,
That only sheltered thefts of harmless love.
Good heaven 1 what sorrows gloomed that parting
day,
That called them from their native walks away;
When the poor exiles, every pleasure passed, 365
Hung round their bowers, and fondly looked their last,
And took a long farewell, and wished in vain
For seats like these beyond the western main;
And shudd'ring still to face the distant deep,
Returned and wept, and still returned to weep. 370
The good old sire, the first prepared to go
To new-found worlds, and wept for others' woe;
But fo? himself, in conscious virtue brave,
He only wished for worlds b^oi^the^grave,' ?£
his lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears, 375
The fond companion of his helpless years,