Canto II

Now wafted slowly by the indented shore,
With panting heart the needles we explore,
Nor feel the kind digressions on the way,
The beckoning welcome that invite our stay;
From banks from buildings and from smiling groves,
Or gently rising hills that Caeres loves,
No neighbouring charms attract th'impatient sight,
By distant wonders drawn and dread delight;
Forestalling Neptune at each sturdy stroke,
The Wind and Tide with passion we provoke;
Accusing time and straining for yon rock,
From his long pausing pole we tear the lock;
Such throbbing fervours fill'd our hearts the while
To reach this wonder of Medina's Isle:
The breeze at length and Neptune hears our prayer,
And quick recoiling shore our speed declare.
See backward now the Norman forest glide,
See Hurst's strong Castle rooted in the Tide,
And now the Ocean opens to our eyes,
See ships like clouds from out the offing rise;
The Needles now with dawning gleams appear
Like the grey glimpses when the morn is near,
That whiter grows as Boreas mends the breeze,
Their bluish mantle fading by degrees;
Is vanish'd now, the rocks are now express'd,
And beauty stands before us all undress'd,
With tempting Majesty serene yet coy,
That damps at once, at once provokes our joy,
Conceding gradual with a placid mien,
Where grandeur mixt with gentleness is seen;
Where both agree with wide extended arms
To clasp the gazer to their mingled charms;
The verdent velvet robe is cast above,
As needless in the naked task of love,
See! see! how fancy on that bed is caught
With all that Iris in her webb hath wrought;
Where all the tints that in her loom delight
On yonder bank, salute the raptur'd sight;
The rainbow's radiance and commingled ray
In shining strata of refulgent clay,
Seem emulous of that which reigns on high,
Here Earth contends with beauties of the Sky;
Th' inchanting slope with sweet attraction draws,
The eager heart, and yet it's ardour awes,
As conscious of some wondrous scene behind
That with prodigious grandeur damp the mind;
By some prophetic energy imprest
That from this specimen concludes the rest;
And lo! the outguards , fix'd that boldly brave
The storm indignant and the advancing wave;
In hostile wise with sharpen'd spears they stand
Amid the floods, at nature's great command;
In postures changing as we draw more near,
Like watchful warriors, old implanted there,
That face us various as we winding go,
And challenge still, and still arrest the foe:
But see Lot's wife , for fame has call'd her so,
With stately stature and with robes that flow
Majestic, lofty, l[…]ke some sea born Queen,
Adjust her tresses in the mirror green,
Her tresses there assume the noblest forms,
The rocks her toilet, and her comb the storms;
Her fashions are put on by nature's hand,
And curls in characters unchanged stand,
Now swallow'd up with greatness, fear and joy,
Let taste and wonder all the soul employ,
Lo! nature's hand hath here enormous wrought
Beyond the grasp of sense, the reach of thought;
Here awe struck reason must in silence pause,
Lay down her scepter and suspend her laws,
Unable on her gradual steps to climb
The dreadful summit of this vast sublime:
How all impressions of the mind are chang'd!
The heart distended and the head derang'd,
The height above the wave fatigues the eye,
For the strain'd nerve can scarcely reach so high,
Above the proudest pitch of Roman style,
Of Pompey's theatre, or Trajan's pile;
This awful edifice commands the waves,
By nature built, the boisterous billow braves;
The God of ocean here his palace keeps.
And sends his mandates o'er the distant deeps
The voice in eddies through the cliff is tost,
And all the sense in half the space is lost;
In half the space is mingled with the air,
By echo's force annihilated there.
Hark! how the thunders of the exploding gun,
That oft in loud prolific mazes stun
The ear, beget a thousand vollies as they run;
Whilst over head the concave seems alive;
Like bees in millions swarming from the hive;
The sea birds darken all the living space,
That look no larger than the insect race,
That wheel around, disturb'd with clamours call,
Or fall transfix'd, increasing as they fall:
Now whirling nearer to the impatient eye,
They dash upon the wave and dashing die:
The billows bowing with profoundest sweep,
Would pay their homage to the amazing steep,
With grandeur rolling as they lofty climb,
For every incident must be sublime,
Now! now! through Galileo's orb we spy
These startled millions in their ranks on high,
In stories rais'd with agitated breasts
Before the portals of their guarded nests;
Tier above tier consulting in a fright,
As erst the Roman capitol by night;
How sweetly through the tellescope they shew
Their crimson heads erect, and breasts of snow!
In motion much disturb'd, with troubled mind,
Like roses ruffl'd by the invading wind;
Till scar'd again no longer watch they keep,
But sore aloft, or dive into the deep;
Or anxious flutter, flapping feebly spring
From wave to wave, upon the wounded wing.

Again we gaze, again the soul we fill,
Here all her faculties are feasted still,
With true magnificence sublime and rare,
And see a thousand guests the banquet share;
A fleet of barks impatient pressing nigh
To view these wonders, and the needles eye,
Till sated with delight through that they sail,
And give their canvass to the unwilling gale.

Now round the island's rocky sides we row,
Those towering rocks that like strong ramparts grow,
That firm against the gallic inroads stand,
These bulwarks rais'd by nature's hostile hand,
That like the line of beauty waving rise
In lofty labyrinths to meet the skies;
That awful frown, with overlooking pride,
Upon the subject beach and guarded tide;
With rustic odours deck'd and high hung bloom,
That all the rocks array, the shores perfume;
Where grandeur swells along the sounding length,
Where fear with joy and beauty blends with strength;
Extatic bliss! now summer crowns the space;
Like melted silver see the ocean's face;
Lo rapture triumphs through the glad expanse,
See glittering sun beams on the surface dance,
Like nature's courtiers on some festal day
When calms consent and Phoebus weds the sea;
The season now with transport charms the eye,
And nature shifts the scene as we sail by,
On every varying rock we fix the sight,
The rock behind affords some new delight;
Thus in some space by genius made alive,
Some gallery where art and nature strive,
Where wonders breathe along the living wall
And figures from the ceiling seem to fall;
Detatch'd by art, the force of shade and light,
That menace from on high th' amazed sight;
In rounded groupes successive still we view
Superior wonders, and these wonders new;
From form to form with wonder we survey
The magic labours of the massy way;
The swelling figures and the shining coast,
Till in the vast variety we're lost;
Now echo empress of the cavern'd space,
Returns our music with a rich increase,
Our hearts beat time, we quaff th' inchanting gales,
We pity LEWIS and we scorn VERSAILLES;
The sleeping surface unperceiv'd we plow,
For time and space have lost their measure now:

Till STEEPHILL'S, bending cliffs their pride display,
And point the paradise at UNDERWAY ;
Attention now begins once more to rise,
And sated raptures yield to new surprise;
Now! now! an aggregate unseen before,
Of new rais'd wonders mantle all the shore;
A miscellania fix'd and firm as fate,
Of all that's beautiful of all that's great;
Where all that nature to her children gives,
Where health with plenty and enjoyment lives;
Where elegance ascends th' enormous steep,
With verdant robe, and shades the distant deep;
Here nature triumphs in her guarded ground,
And fortifies the envy'd shores around;
In angles, bastions, and in platforms cast,
That ape the present and excel the past,
Work above work like theatres they climb,
With mirtle crown'd, with wormwood and wild thyme;
In mingled climax dubious they advance,
That look like order now and now like chance:
The ambitious cliff the crystal vault invades,
Refresh'd by gushing springs and clear cascades,
That murmuring down the craggy falls we hear,
And feast the fancy through the astonish'd ear;
The impatient fancy throbs for new delight,
And now she banquets through the ravish'd sight;
The rivulets see rushing from on high,
That give such pleasure to the ear and eye,
That through the grottos, rocks and gardens glide,
And the glad soul with sweet extreams divide;
Extreams that with such grand confusion shine,
Like chaos now and now a plan divine;
How nature varies through the concave wide!
And riots wanton with enormous pride!
Behold a wall, by nature's potent hand,
Aloft, o'er all th' extended out-works stand!
Like centinels the extended out-works shew,
To watch the motion of the flood below;
In loose light troops the vagrant rocks appear,
On wild excursion scatter'd here and there;
Whilst all around within the intrenched space,
See pleasure, bloom and plenty mixt with grace;
From pendant plots see nodding Caeres send
The pregnant ears that with the breezes bend;
Their pondrous growth amidst the rocks on high,
And with their tawny tinges charm the eye;
There golden plenty on her throne is seen
And all the lawns pay homage to their queen;
In […]ributes array'd by wisdom's hands
Above the prostrate laws of vulgar lands;
With majesty the wheaten groves appear,
That look like prodigies implanted there:
From forth the furrow rich the leveret see,
Come hopping forward with exulting glee;
Fearless of hounds, a stranger to the cry,
In full security he feeds on high;
The pheasants here with happy freedom roam,
From brake to brake amidst their native home;
With peaceful leisure unalarm'd they spring
From tree to tree, and wave the golden wing;
The lark, the thrush, in loves sweet concerts call
Their mates, among the murmuring rills that fall
From rock to rock, whilst echo answers all:
Can British taste the raptur'd scene forego,
Where Pisgah's springs and Eden's fountains flow;
Where nature's noblest growths the rocks adorn
With oaks, with herbage and Sicilian corn;
Where all the marvellous to mankind gives,
With meek simplicity and order lives;
Where health upon the hills the heart regales,
And plenty wantons in the laughing vales;
Where Epic composition seems to climb
Like Homer's Illiads, to the last sublime;
Where native grandeur reigns through every part,
And looks with pity down on labouring art:
What cultivated plans should here arise?
What stately columns glitter in the skies?
What rich rotundas on the rocks should shine!
By Stanhope rais'd, and Stuart's hand divine;
Mecaenas and Vitruvius here should tell
Where taste should flourish and where worth should dwell;
When summer's ardent suns intensely press
To thoughtful coverts, and to cool recess,
Her grand campania, Britain, here should keep,
Here wisdom should awake and faction sleep;
Ambition here from racking dreams should rest,
And envy quell the fury in her breast;
In purest worth the patriot here should pride,
And fling the foibles of the soul aside;
Pure virtue here with nature should remain,
And science o'er the peaceful province reign;
The sons of genius here should hasty throng,
The sons of picture and the sons of song;
Here STUBBS and REYNOLDS should enrich their store,
Here WILSON warm, and BARRETT shine still more;
Historic WEST should here inform the glade,
Here ships and rocks for WRIGHT are ready made;
Here GRAY, that moral nightingale, should sing,
And friendly GOLDSMITH prune the travell'd wing;
Soft MASON here might court the tragic queen
In British strains, and raise the Attic scene;
Nay, AKENSIDE should here didactic glow,
The fairest attitudes of things to shew:
ARMSTRONG to rules of health here sweet perswade,
Dispense his learning and destroy his trade;
Diseases here on art but seldom call,
Unfear'd an agueish Spring, or sickly fall.
But should the fiend in spite of nature's claim,
Dare to approach and shake the human frame;
COWLAM'S or JOLLIFFE'S, or young BASSETT'S care,
Would soon the temporary ill repair,
Here SHARP his native note should raptur'd raise,
In freedom's contest and in Vecta's praise:
His country's charms should all his fancy fire,
Should all his virtue, all his verse inspire;
To truth attach'd, to patriot truth still dear,
In action faithful and in word sincere;
His happy talents at this mark still aim,
On public worth, to build his private fame.

Thrice happy bard, in fortune's arms caress'd,
By virtue shielded and by beauty blest;
Thy finish'd bliss can feel no feign'd alloy,
The chaste Cleora crowns thy perfect joy;
And see the pledges of your rapture rise,
Like tendril vines beneath indulgent skies,
Whose genial dews call forth the branch to grow,
The bloom to brighten, and the blossom blow;
Whilst time in season shall the fruit display,
With ripening blush, and your soft toil repay.

On yon tall cliff, whose brows o'erlook the deep,
True taste shall soon her polish'd mansion keep;
Thither shall connoisseurs in crowds repair,
Another TUSCULUM shall flourish there;
There British TULLYS, BACONS shall arise;
At once be happy and at once be wise;
There awful nature, civiliz'd by art,
Shall win at once the head and charm the heart;
There Greece and Rome shall deck the ample space,
With HOMER'S grandeur and with VIRGIL'S grace;
The chizel and the pencil there shall strive
To make the cieling and the walls alive;
The peopled canvass shall the sight surprize,
And the rough rocks in human shapes shall rise.
The beauteous savage shall with social air
Another Athens on the hills appear,
That to the clouds her comely head shall raise,
And on her image in the ocean gaze;
The ocean at her feet shall silent sleep,
And boast the picture in the polish'd deep;
The sun unheeded in his prone decline,
We feast abstracted on the scene divine;
And turning oft with pausing fond delay,
We bid a sweet farewell to Underway;
Whilst deep engrav'd reflection long shall find,
The groupe immense within th' expanded mind,
Impress'd in images sublime and fair,
Which mimic fancy oft retraces there;
O'er hills o'er vallies we alternate go,
Like basons fill'd with gems the vallies shew;
With gardens rich, replete with Sylvan domes,
Where health and pleasure keep their happy homes.
Again we climb the rich inviting hill,
Again the same glad scenes salute us still;
That still new tribute from our wonder claim,
Another paradise and yet the same;
Tho' still enrich'd with something grand and new,
Some rock in prospect o'er the ocean blue;
Some stately steeple in it's ivy vest,
By frolic time in different mantles drest
That like some gothic king by turrets crown'd,
Reigns o'er the farms and villages around;
Through farms and villages we joyful ride,
Where British Ceres in her Indian pride,
With ripening plenty loads the shelving field;
The reaper here can scarce his sickle wield,
Incumber'd by the blessings thick at hand,
Of heaven's indulgence' and the fruitful land;
The farmer views the oppressive crops with pride,
And bids his garners and his heart grow wide:
There Neptune's throne attracts the ambitious eye,
That bears upon it's breast the incumbent sky,
That all the greedy soul with transport fills
The boundless ocean and the sky kiss'd hills;
By turns sollicit the divided sight,
By turns amaze us, and by turns delight;
With arduous steps impatient now we climb,
With panting hearts we view the scene sublime;
Where pleasure meets with health, where both combine
To quaff the gale and view the amazing chine.

The monarch of the main from his high car,
Beheld this proud phaenomenon from far;
Whose swelling cliffs their dubious heads advance,
Where nature seems to steal the sketch from chance;
And art to mingle both with plastic hand,
So regularly wild these wonders stand,
In heterogeneous piles, that strong impart
The grand coincidence of chance and art;
The God of ocean saw this scene with pride,
And rushing hasty on a high spring tide;
The waves at once their monarch's voice obey,
The surge assaults the cliff, the cliff gives way;
His lifted trident with one stroke divine,
Cleaves the vast rock and forms the wond'rous chine:
A dread abrupt deep rends the groaning hill,
With yawn terrific, at great Neptune's will;
A thousand stately forms their pride disclose,
And groves and grottos in an instant rose,
With copious caverns and with sounding rills,
That all the echoing space responsive fills:
The waves rush in, the winds exulting roar,
The ocean triumphs on the alter'd shore:
Then spoke the God who rules th' alternate tide,
Let all my vital virtues here preside;
My healing essence in each wave abound,
Breathe in the air and brood upon the ground;
Let here disease within my bosom find,
Strength to the nerve and vigour to the mind;
Let thousands here in thankful throngs resort,
With votive offerings to my sacred court:
Here, here high fix the tablet of their vows,
As at my other sacred […]ane at Cowes;
For here my court shall all the main command,
My trident here, and here my car shall stand;
My throne I'll raise on you celestial down,
There wield my scepter and there fix my crown;