On Reading Bryant's Poem of "The Winds"

Ye Winds, whose various voices in his lay
That bard interpreted — your utterance mild,
Nor less your ministration fierce and wild,
Of those resistless laws which ye obey
In your apparent lawlessness — oh say!
Is not your will-less agency reviled
When it is liken'd unto what is styled
By such unwise the Spirit of the Day?
Not all the islands by tornadoes swept,
E'er knew such ruin as befalls a state
When not the winds of God, but mortal breath,
With threatening sweetness of melodious hate,
Assaults the fabrics reverent ages kept
To shelter ancient loyalty and faith.