<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538661" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Spirit Of Discovery By Sea - Book The Fifth</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Such are thy views, DISCOVERY! The great world<br>Rolls to thine eye revealed; to thee the Deep<br>Submits its awful empire; Industry<br>Awakes, and Commerce to the echoing marts<br>From east to west unwearied pours her wealth.<br>Man walks sublimer; and Humanity,<br>Matured by social intercourse, more high,<br>More animated, lifts her sovereign mien,<br>And waves her golden sceptre. Yet the heart<br>Asks trembling, is no evil found! Oh, turn, <br>Meek Charity, and drop a human tear<br>For the sad fate of Afric's injured sons,<br>And hide, for ever hide, the sight of chains,<br>Anguish, and bondage! Yes, the heart of man<br>Is sick, and Charity turns pale, to think<br>How soon, for pure religion's holy beam,<br>Dark crimes, that sullied the sweet day, pursued,<br>Like vultures, the Discoverer's ocean tract,<br>Screaming for blood, to fields of rich Peru,<br>Or ravaged Mexico, while Gold more Gold! <br>The caverned mountains echoed, Gold more Gold!<br>Then see the fell-eyed, prowling buccaneer,<br>Grim as a libbard! He his jealous look<br>Turns to the dagger at his belt, his hand<br>By instinct grasps a bloody scymitar,<br>And ghastly is his smile, as o'er the woods<br>He sees the smoke of burning villages<br>Ascend, and thinks ev'n now he counts his spoil.<br>See thousands destined to the lurid mine,<br>Never to see the sun again; all names <br>Of husband, sire, all tender charities<br>Of love, deep buried with them in that grave,<br>Where life is as a thing long passed; and hope<br>No more its sickly ray, to cheer the gloom,<br>Extends.<br>Thou, too, dread Ocean, toss thine arms,<br>Exulting, for the treasures and the gems<br>That thy dark oozy realm emblaze; and call<br>The pale procession of the dead, from caves<br>Where late their bodies weltered, to attend <br>Thy kingly sceptre, and proclaim thy might!<br>Lord of the Hurricane! bid all thy winds<br>Swell, and destruction ride upon the surge,<br>Where, after the red lightning flash that shows<br>The labouring ship, all is at once deep night<br>And long suspense, till the slow dawn of day<br>Gleams on the scattered corses of the dead,<br>That strew the sounding shore!<br>Then think of him,<br>Ye who rejoice with those you love, at eve, <br>When winds of winter shake the window-frame,<br>And more endear your fire, oh, think of him,<br>Who, saved alone from the destroying storm,<br>Is cast on some deserted rock; who sees<br>Sun after sun descend, and hopeless hears;<br>At morn the long surge of the troubled main,<br>That beats without his wretched cave; meantime<br>He fears to wake the echoes with his voice,<br>So dread the solitude!<br>Let Greenland's snows <br>Then shine, and mark the melancholy train<br>There left to perish, whilst the cold pale day<br>Declines along the further ice, that binds<br>The ship, and leaves in night the sinking scene.<br>Sad winter closes on the deep; the smoke<br>Of frost, that late amusive to the eye<br>Rose o'er the coast, is passed, and all is now<br>One torpid blank; the freezing particles<br>Blown blistering, and the white bear seeks her cave.<br>Ill-fated outcasts, when the morn again <br>Shall streak with feeble beam the frozen waste,<br>Your air-bleached and unburied carcases<br>Shall press the ground, and, as the stars fade off,<br>Your stony eyes glare 'mid the desert snows!<br>These triumphs boast, fell Demon of the Deep!<br>Though never more the universal shriek<br>Of all that perish thou shalt hear, as when<br>The deep foundations of the guilty earth<br>Were shaken at the voice of God, and man<br>Ceased in his habitations; yet the sea <br>Thy might tempestuous still, and joyless rule,<br>Confesses. Ah! what bloodless shadows throng<br>Ev'n now, slow rising from their oozy beds,<br>From Mete, and those gates of burial<br>That guard the Erythraean; from the vast<br>Unfathomed caverns of the Western main<br>Or stormy Orcades; whilst the sad shell<br>Of poor Arion, to the hollow blast<br>Slow seems to pour its melancholy tones,<br>And faintly vibrate, as the dead pass by. <br>I see the chiefs, who fell in distant lands,<br>The prey of murderous savages, when yells,<br>And shouts, and conch, resounded through the woods.<br>Magellan and De Solis seem to lead<br>The mournful train. Shade of Perouse! oh, say<br>Where, in the tract of unknown seas, thy bones<br>Th' insulting surge has swept?<br>But who is he,<br>Whose look, though pale and bloody, wears the trace<br>Of pure philanthropy? The pitying sigh <br>Forbid not; he was dear to Britons, dear<br>To every beating heart, far as the world<br>Extends; and my faint faltering touch ev'n now<br>Dies on the strings, when I pronounce thy name,<br>Oh, lost, lamented, generous, hapless Cook!<br>But cease the vain complaint; turn from the shores,<br>Wet with his blood, Remembrance: cast thine eyes<br>Upon the long seas, and the wider world,<br>Displayed from his research. Smile, glowing Health!<br>For now no more the wasted seaman sinks, <br>With haggard eye and feeble frame diseased;<br>No more with tortured longings for the sight<br>Of fields and hillocks green, madly he calls<br>On Nature, when before his swimming eye<br>The liquid long expanse of cheerless seas<br>Seems all one flowery plain. Then frantic dreams<br>Arise; his eye's distemper'd flash is seen<br>From the sunk socket, as a demon there<br>Sat mocking, till he plunges in the flood,<br>And the dark wave goes o'er him. <br>Nor wilt thou,<br>O Science! fail to deck the cold morai<br>Of him who wider o'er earth's hemisphere<br>Thy views extended. On, from deep to deep,<br>Thou shalt retrace the windings of his track;<br>From the high North to where the field-ice binds<br>The still Antarctic. Thence, from isle to isle,<br>Thou shalt pursue his progress; and explore<br>New-Holland's eastern shores, where now the sons<br>Of distant Britain, from her lap cast out, <br>Water the ground with tears of penitence,<br>Perhaps, hereafter, in their destined time,<br>Themselves to rise pre-eminent. Now speed,<br>By Asia's eastern bounds, still to the North,<br>Where the vast continents of either world<br>Approach: Beyond, 'tis silent boundless ice,<br>Impenetrable barrier, where all thought<br>Is lost; where never yet the eagle flew,<br>Nor roamed so far the white bear through the waste.<br>But thou, dread POWER! whose voice from chaos called <br>The earth, who bad'st the Lord of light go forth,<br>Ev'n as a giant, and the sounding seas<br>Roll at thy fiat: may the dark deep clouds,<br>That thy pavilion shroud from mortal sight,<br>So pass away, as now the mystery,<br>Obscure through rolling ages, is disclosed;<br>How man, from one great Father sprung, his race<br>Spread to that severed continent! Ev'n so,<br>FATHER, in thy good time, shall all things stand<br>Revealed to knowledge. <br>As the mind revolves<br>The change of mighty empires, and the fate<br>Of HIM whom Thou hast made, back through the dusk<br>Of ages Contemplation turns her view:<br>We mark, as from its infancy, the world<br>Peopled again, from that mysterious shrine<br>That rested on the top of Ararat,<br>Highest of Asian mountains; spreading on,<br>The Cushites from their mountain caves descend;<br>Then before GOD the sons of Ammon stood <br>In their gigantic might, and first the seas<br>Vanquished: But still from clime to clime the groan<br>Of sacrifice, and Superstition's cry,<br>Was heard; but when the Dayspring rose of heaven,<br>Greece's hoar forests echoed, The great Pan<br>Is dead! From Egypt, and the rugged shores<br>Of Syrian Tyre, the gods of darkness fly;<br>Bel is cast down, and Nebo, horrid king,<br>Bows in imperial Babylon: But, ah!<br>Too soon, the Star of Bethlehem, whose ray <br>The host of heaven hailed jubilant, and sang,<br>Glory to God on high, and on earth peace,<br>With long eclipse is veiled.<br>Red Papacy<br>Usurped the meek dominion of the Lord<br>Of love and charity: vast as a fiend<br>She rose, Heaven's light was darkened with her frown,<br>And the earth murmured back her hymns of blood,<br>As the meek martyr at the burning stake<br>Stood, his last look uplifted to his GOD! <br>But she is now cast down, her empire reft.<br>They who in darkness walked, and in the shade<br>Of death, have seen a new and holy light,<br>As in th' umbrageous forest, through whose boughs,<br>Mossy and damp, for many a league, the morn<br>With languid beam scarce pierces, here and there<br>Touching some solitary trunk, the rest<br>Dark waving in the noxious atmosphere:<br>Through the thick-matted leaves the serpent winds<br>His way, to find a spot of casual sun; <br>The gaunt hyaena through the thicket glides<br>At eve: then, too, the couched tiger's eye<br>Flames in the dusk, and oft the gnashing jaws<br>Of the fell crocodile are heard. At length,<br>By man's superior energy and toil,<br>The sunless brakes are cleared; the joyous morn<br>Shines through the opening leaves; rich culture smiles<br>Around; and howling to their distant wilds<br>The savage inmates of the wood retire.<br>Such is the scene of human life, till want <br>Bids man his strength put forth; then slowly spreads<br>The cultured stream of mild humanity,<br>And gentler virtues, and more noble aims<br>Employ the active mind, till beauty beams<br>Around, and Nature wears her richest robe,<br>Adorned with lovelier graces. Then the charms<br>Of woman, fairest of the works of Heaven,<br>Whom the cold savage, in his sullen pride,<br>Scorned as unworthy of his equal love,<br>With more attractive influence wins the heart <br>Of her protector. Then the names of sire,<br>Of home, of brother, and of children, grow<br>More sacred, more endearing; whilst the eye,<br>Lifted beyond this earthly scene, beholds<br>A Father who looks down from heaven on all!<br>O Britain, my loved country! dost thou rise<br>Most high among the nations! Do thy fleets<br>Ride o'er the surge of ocean, that subdued<br>Rolls in long sweep beneath them! Dost thou wear<br>Thy garb of gentler morals gracefully! <br>Is widest science thine, and the fair train<br>Of lovelier arts! While commerce throngs thy ports<br>With her ten thousand streamers, is the tract<br>Of the undeviating ploughshare white<br>That rips the reeking furrow, followed soon<br>By plenty, bidding all the scene rejoice,<br>Even like a cultured garden! Do the streams<br>That steal along thy peaceful vales, reflect<br>Temples, and Attic domes, and village towers!<br>Is beauty thine, fairest of earthly things, <br>Woman; and doth she gain that liberal love<br>And homage, which the meekness of her voice,<br>The rapture of her smile, commanding most<br>When she seems weakest, must demand from him,<br>Her master; whose stern strength at once submits<br>In manly, but endearing, confidence,<br>Unlike his selfish tyranny who sits<br>The sultan of his harem!<br>Oh, then, think<br>How great the blessing, and how high thy rank <br>Amid the civilised and social world!<br>But hast thou no deep failings, that may turn<br>Thy thoughts within thyself! Ask, for the sun<br>That shines in heaven hath seen it, hath thy power<br>Ne'er scattered sorrow over distant lands!<br>Ask of the East, have never thy proud sails<br>Borne plunder from dismembered provinces,<br>Leaving the groans of miserable men<br>Behind! And free thyself, and lifting high<br>The charter of thy freedom, bought with blood, <br>Hast thou not stood, in patient apathy,<br>A witness of the tortures and the chains<br>That Afric's injured sons have known! Stand up;<br>Yes, thou hast visited the caves, and cheered<br>The gloomy haunts of sorrow; thou hast shed<br>A beam of comfort and of righteousness<br>On isles remote; hast bid the bread-fruit shade<br>Th' Hesperian regions, and has softened much<br>With bland amelioration, and with charms<br>Of social sweetness, the hard lot of man. <br>But weighed in truth's firm balance, ask, if all<br>Be even. Do not crimes of ranker growth<br>Batten amid thy cities, whose loud din,<br>From flashing and contending cars, ascends,<br>Till morn! Enchanting, as if aught so sweet<br>Ne'er faded, do thy daughters wear the weeds<br>Of calm domestic peace and wedded love;<br>Or turn, with beautiful disdain, to dash<br>Gay pleasure's poisoned chalice from their lips<br>Untasted! Hath not sullen atheism, <br>Weaving gay flowers of poesy, so sought<br>To hide the darkness of his withered brow<br>With faded and fantastic gallantry<br>Of roses, thus to win the thoughtless smile<br>Of youthful ignorance! Hast thou with awe<br>Looked up to Him whose power is in the clouds,<br>Who bids the storm rush, and it sweeps to earth<br>The nations that offend, and they are gone,<br>Like Tyre and Babylon! Well weigh thyself:<br>Then shalt thou rise undaunted in the might <br>Of thy Protector, and the gathered hate<br>Of hostile bands shall be but as the sand<br>Blown on the everlasting pyramid.<br>Hasten, O Love and Charity! your work,<br>Ev'n now whilst it is day; far as the world<br>Extends may your divinest influence<br>Be felt, and more than felt, to teach mankind<br>They all are brothers, and to drown the cries<br>Of superstition, anarchy, or blood!<br>Not yet the hour is come: on Ganges' banks <br>Still superstition hails the flame of death,<br>Behold, gay dressed, as in her bridal tire,<br>The self-devoted beauteous victim slow<br>Ascend the pile where her dead husband lies:<br>She kisses his cold cheeks, inclines her breast<br>On his, and lights herself the fatal pile<br>That shall consume them both!<br>On Egypt's shore,<br>Where Science rose, now Sloth and Ignorance<br>Sleep like the huge Behemoth in the sun! <br>The turbaned Moor still stains with strangers' blood<br>The inmost sands of Afric. But all these<br>The light shall visit, and that vaster tract<br>From Fuego to the furthest Labrador,<br>Where roam the outcast Esquimaux, shall hear<br>The voice of social fellowship; the chief<br>Whose hatchet flashed amid the forest gloom,<br>Who to his infants bore the bleeding scalp<br>Of his fall'n foe, shall weep unwonted tears!<br>Come, Faith; come, Hope; come, meek-eyed Charity! <br>Complete the lovely prospect: every land<br>Shall lift up one hosannah; every tongue<br>Proclaim thee FATHER, INFINITE, and WISE,<br>And GOOD. The shores of palmy Senegal<br>(Sad Afric's injured sons no more enslaved)<br>Shall answer HALLELUJAH, for the LORD<br>Of truth and mercy reigns;--reigns KING OF KINGS;--<br>HOSANNAH--KING OF KINGS--and LORD OF LORDS!<br>So may His kingdom come, when all the earth,<br>Uniting thus as in one hymn of praise, <br>Shall wait the end of all things. This great globe,<br>His awful plan accomplished, then shall sink<br>In flames, whilst through the clouds, that wrap the place<br>Where it had rolled, and the sun shone, the voice<br>Of the ARCHANGEL, and the TRUMP OF GOD,<br>Amid heaven's darkness rolling fast away,<br>Shall sound!<br>Then shall the sea give up its dead;--<br>But man's immortal mind, all trials past<br>That shook his feverish frame, amidst the scenes <br>Of peril and distemper, shall ascend<br>Exulting to its destined seat of rest,<br>And 'justify His ways' from whom it sprung.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Lisle+Bowles">William Lisle Bowles</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538661" data-title="The Spirit Of Discovery By Sea - Book The Fifth de William Lisle Bowles" data-description="Such are thy views, DISCOVERY! The great world Rolls to thine eye revealed; to thee the Deep Submits its awful empire; Industry Awakes, and Commerce to the echoing marts From east to west unwearied pours her wealth. Man walks sublimer; and Humanit..."></div> </div> </div>

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