Amid the lightning's forky flame,

While, driven on high, the billows roll; 'Tis mine to loose the struggling frame,

And mine to soothe the parting soul:
I come, on viewless winds reclin'd,

To cheer the wretch, whom fetters bind,
To crush the oppressor's giant crest,

To hurl destruction on his breast,

Amid the spoils his abject soul adores ;

While trembling earth recoils along her utmost shores.

What form is that, half-hid in air,

Round whose pale brow the torrents roar?

"Tis Freedom! mark her deep despair;

She points to Afric's bleeding shore. Hark! what a groan !—with horror wild, I see the mother clasp her child;

"My son, my son!" she madly cries;Spare, monsters, spare her agonies.

Too late, for, rapid, to the vessel's side

She flies, and, plunging, sinks beneath the billowy tide.

Proceed unmov'd, ye men of blood!

Your course along the waters urge; No winds shall vex the unruffled flood,

Nor toss on high the deaf'ning surge. Now, for your happy homes prepare ; But, curb your joy-I meet you there.

Then, as your friends, your infant race,

Rush wildly to your fond embrace,

Before your eyes a ghastly form shall stand,

And o'er her infant weep, and wave her beck'ning hand.

Fierce thro' the desert's frightful sand,

When Cancer rules the burning day,

The Arab leads his daring band,

Exulting on their perilous way.

"Prepare," he cries, "prepare for war: "Mark yonder sandy cloud afar;

"We share the blood, we share the toil,

"And we shall share the glorious spoil;

"Collect your courage now, the foe is nigh; "Victorious, we return ;-subdued, revenge and die."

But, vengeful, on the rushing wind,

I come to toss the sandy waves;
To whelm the spoilers of their kind,
Inglorious, in untimely graves.

Yon livid flame, that flings on high
Its terrors thro' the redd'ning sky,
Glares on your van, in awful state,
The herald of impending fate;

I speak-the suffocating blast descends

In clouds of fluid fire; and Nature's conflict ends.

Where the wild ocean's heaving waves

Boil round Magellan's stormy coast;
When long and loud the tempest raves,
I mark the straining vessel tost
By night along unfathom'd seas.

I see the living current freeze,

As horror grasps each fainting form,

High mid the fury of the storm;

Till the tall masts in scatter'd fragments lie,

And, plung'd amid the surge, the sufferers sink, and die.

Soft be your bed, and sweet your rest,

Ye luckless tenants of the deep!

And, o'er each cold and shroudless breast,

May spirits of the waters weep!

And still, when awful midnight reigns,
My harp shall join in solemn strains

My voice shall echo to the waves,

That dash above your coral graves;

Blest be the gloom, that wraps each sacred head,

And blest the unbroken sleep, and silence of the dead!

High on yon cloud's cerulean seat,

I ride sublime thro' ether blue,

To fling, while reigns the Power of heat,
On fainting earth the summer dew:

I bid the rose in crimson glow,

And spread the lily's robe of snow;

I waft from heaven the balmy breeze,

That sighs along the sleeping seas;

What time the spirit of the rock is nigh,

To pour upon the night his heav'n-taught melody.