"When I mused before, on this rock-bound shore,
The beautiful walked with me,
She hath gone to her rest in the churchyard's breast Since I saw thee last, thou Sea!
Restore! restore! the smile she wore,
When her cheek to mine was pressed, Give back the voice of the fervent soul
That could lighten the darkest breast!"
But the haughty Sea, in its majesty
Swept onward as before,
Though a surge in wrath from its rocky path,
Shrieked out to the sounding shore—
"Thou hast asked of our king a harder thing
Than mortal e'er claimed before,
For never the wealth of a loving heart,
Could Ocean or Earth restore."
THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.
WITH heat o'erlabour'd and the length of way,
On Ethan's beach the bands of Israel lay.
'Twas silence all, the sparkling sands along;
Save where the locust trill'd her feeble song,
Or blended soft in drowsy cadence fell
The wave's low whisper, or the camel's bell.-
'Twas silence all!-the flocks for shelter fly
Where, waving light, the acacia shadows lic;
Or where, from far, the flattering vapours make
The noontide semblance of a misty lake:
While the mute swain, in careless safety spread,
With arms enfolded, and dejected head,
Dreams o'er his wondrous call, his lineage high.
And, late reveal'd, his children's destiny.—
For, not in vain, in thraldom's darkest hour,
Had sped from Amram's sons the word of power;
Nor fail'd the dreadful wand, whose godlike sway
Could lure the locust from her airy way;
With reptile war assail their proud abodes,
And mar the giant pomp of Egypt's gods.
Oh, helpless gods! who nought avail'd to shield
From fiery rain your Zoan's favour'd field!-
Oh, helpless gods! who saw the curdled blood
Taint the pure lotus of your ancient flood,
And four-fold night the wondering earth enchain,
While Memnon's orient harp was heard in vain!-
Such musings held the tribes, till now the west
With milder influence on their temples prest;
And that portentous cloud, which all the day
Hung its dark curtain o'er their weary way,
(A cloud by day, a friendly flame by night,)
Roll'd back its misty veil, and kindled into light!—
Soft fell the eve:-But, ere the day was done,
Tall waving banners streak'd the level sun;
And wide and dark along the horizon red,
In sandy surge the rising desert spread.
"Mark, Israel, mark !"-On that strange sight intent, In breathless terror, every eye was bent;
And busy faction's fast-increasing hum,
And female voices shriek, "They come! they come!"
They come, they come, in scintillating show
O'er the dark mass the brazen lances glow;
And sandy clouds in countless shapes combine,
As deepens or extends the long tumultuous line ;-
And fancy's keener glance e'en now may trace
The threatening aspects of each mingled race:
For many a coal-black tribe and cany spear,
The hireling guards of Misraim's throne, were there.
From distant Cush they troop'd, a warrior train,
Siwah's green isle and Sennaar's marly plain :
On either wing their fiery coursers check
The parch'd and sinewy sons of Amalek:
While close behind, inured to feast on blood,
Deck'd in Behemoth's spoils, the tall Shangalla strode. 'Mid blazing helms and bucklers rough with gold,
Saw ye how swift the scythed chariots roll'd?
Lo, these are they whom, lords of Afric's fates,
Old Thebes hath pour'd through all her hundred gates,
Mother of armies!-How the emeralds glow'd,
Where, flushed with power and vengeance, Pharaoh rode!
And stoled in white, those brazen wheels before,
Osiris' ark his swarthy wizards bore;
And, still responsive to the trumpet's cry,
The priestly sistrum murmur'd-Victory!—
Why swell these shouts that rend the desert's gloom?
Whom come ye forth to combat ?-warriors, whom?
These flocks and herds-this faint and weary train—
Red from the scourge and recent from the chain ?-
God of the poor, the poor and friendless save!
Giver and Lord of freedom, help the slave!—
North, south, and west, the sandy whirlwinds fly,
The circling horns of Egypt's chivalry.
On earth's last margin throng the weeping train:
Their cloudy guide moves on:-" And must we swim the main ?" 'Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood,
Nor bath'd a fetlock in the nauseous flood-
He comes their leader comes!-the man of God
O'er the wide waters lifts his mighty rod,
And onward treads.-The circling waves retreat,
In hoarse deep murmurs, from his holy feet;
And the chased surges, inly roaring, show
The hard wet sand, and coral hills below.
With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell,
Down, down they pass-a steep and slippery dell-
Around them rise, in pristine chaos hurl'd,
The ancient rocks, the secrets of the world;
And flowers that blush beneath the ocean green,
And caves, the sea-calves' low-roof'd haunt, are seen.
Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread;
The beetling waters storm above their head :
While far behind retires the sinking day,
And fades on Edom's hills its latest ray.
Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light, Or dark to them, or cheerless came the night.
Still in their van, along that dreadful road,
Blazed broad and fierce the brandish'd torch of God.
Its meteor glare a ten-fold lustre gave,
On the long mirror of the rosy wave:
While its blest beams a sun-like heat supply,
Warm every cheek, and dance in every eye-
To them alone-for Misraim's wizard train
Invoke for light their monster-gods in vain:
Clouds heap'd on clouds their struggling sight confine,
And ten-fold darkness broods above their line.
Yet on they fare, by reckless vengeance led,
And range unconscious through the ocean's bed:
Till midway now-that strange and fiery form
Show'd his dread visage lightening through the storm;
With withering splendour blasted all their might,
And break their chariot-wheels, and marr'd their coursers' flight. "Fly, Misraim, fly!"-The ravenous floods they see,
And, fiercer than the floods, the Deity.
"Fly, Misraim, fly!"-From Edom's coral strand
Again the prophet stretch'd his dreadful wand :-
With one wild crash the thundering waters sweep,
And all is waves-a dark and lonely deep-
Yet o'er those lonely waves such murmurs past,
As mortal wailing swell'd the nightly blast;
And strange and sad the whispering breezes bore
The groans of Egypt to Arabia's shore.
Oh! welcome came the morn, where Israel stood
In trustless wonder by th' avenging flood!
Oh! welcome came the cheerful morn, to show
The drifted wreck of Zoan's pride below;
The mangled limbs of men-the broken car-
A few sad relics of a nation's war:
Alas, how few!-Then, soft as Elim's well,
The precious tears of new-born freedom fell.
And he, whose harden'd heart alike had borne
The house of bondage and th' oppressor's scorn,
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