Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham. Edmund Waller

And as their trees in our dull region set,

       But faintly grow, and no perfection get,

       So, in this northern tract, our hoarser throats

       Utter unripe and ill-constrained notes,

       While the supporter of the poets' style, 60

       Phoebus, on them eternally does smile.

       Oh! how I long my careless limbs to lay

       Under the plantain's shade, and all the day

       With am'rous airs my fancy entertain,

       Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein!

       No passion there in my free breast should move,

       None but the sweet and best of passions, love.

      There while I sing, if gentle love be by, 68

       That tunes my lute, and winds the string so high,

       With the sweet sound of Saccharissa's name

       I'll make the list'ning savages grow tame.—

       But while I do these pleasing dreams indite,

       I am diverted from the promised fight.

      [1] 'Summer Islands': the Bermudas, which received the name of the Summer Islands, or more properly, Somers' Islands, from Sir George Somers, who was cast away on the coast early in the seventeenth century, and established a colony there.

      [2] 'Bacchus yield': from the palmetto, a species of palm in the West Indies, is extracted an intoxicating drink.

CANTO II.

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      Of their alarm, and how their foes

       Discover'd were, this Canto shows.

      Though rocks so high about this island rise,

       That well they may the num'rous Turk despise,

       Yet is no human fate exempt from fear,

       Which shakes their hearts, while through the isle they hear

       A lasting noise, as horrid and as loud

       As thunder makes before it breaks the cloud.

       Three days they dread this murmur, ere they know 80

       From what blind cause th'unwonted sound may grow.

       At length two monsters of unequal size,

       Hard by the shore, a fisherman espies;

       Two mighty whales! which swelling seas had toss'd,

       And left them pris'ners on the rocky coast.

       One as a mountain vast, and with her came

       A cub, not much inferior to his dam.

       Here in a pool, among the rocks engaged,

       They roar'd like lions caught in toils, and raged.

       The man knew what they were, who heretofore 90

       Had seen the like lie murder'd on the shore;

       By the wild fury of some tempest cast,

       The fate of ships, and shipwreck'd men, to taste.

       As careless dames, whom wine and sleep betray

       To frantic dreams, their infants overlay:

       So there, sometimes, the raging ocean fails,

       And her own brood exposes; when the whales

       Against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels quash'd,

       Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dash'd;

       Along the shore their dreadful limbs lie scatter'd, 100

       Like hills with earthquakes shaken, torn, and shatter'd.

       Hearts, sure, of brass they had, who tempted first

       Rude seas that spare not what themselves have nursed.

       The welcome news through all the nation spread,

       To sudden joy and hope converts their dread;

       What lately was their public terror, they

       Behold with glad eyes as a certain prey;

       Dispose already of th'untaken spoil,

       And as the purchase of their future toil,

       These share the bones, and they divide the oil. 110

       So was the huntsman by the bear oppress'd,

       Whose hide he sold—before he caught the beast!

      They man their boats, and all their young men arm

       With whatsoever may the monsters harm;

       Pikes, halberts, spits, and darts that wound so far,

       The tools of peace, and instruments of war.

       Now was the time for vig'rous lads to show

       What love, or honour, could incite them to;

       A goodly theatre! where rocks are round

       With rev'rend age, and lovely lasses, crown'd. 120

       Such was the lake which held this dreadful pair,

       Within the bounds of noble Warwick's share:[1]

       Warwick's bold Earl! than which no title bears

       A greater sound among our British peers;

       And worthy he the memory to renew,

       The fate and honour to that title due,

       Whose brave adventures have transferr'd his name, 127

       And through the new world spread his growing fame.—

      But how they fought, and what their valour gain'd,

       Shall in another Canto be contain'd.

      [1] 'Warwick's share': Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, possessed a portion of the Bermudas, which bore his name. He was a jolly sailor in his habits, although a Puritan in his profession.

CANTO III.

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      The bloody fight, successless toil,

       And how the fishes sack'd the isle.

      The boat which, on the first assault did go,

       Struck with a harping-iron the younger foe;

       Who, when he felt his side so rudely gored,

       Loud as the sea that nourished him he roar'd.

       As a broad bream, to please some curious taste,

       While yet alive, in boiling water cast,

       Vex'd with unwonted heat he flings about

       The scorching brass, and hurls the liquor out;

       So with the barbed jav'lin stung, he raves,

       And scourges with his tail the suffering waves. 140

       Like Spenser's Talus with his iron flail,

       He threatens ruin with his pond'rous tail;

       Dissolving at one stroke the batter'd boat,

       And down the men fall drenched in the moat;

       With every fierce encounter they are forced

       To quit their boats, and fare like men unhorsed.

      The bigger whale like some huge carrack lay,

       Which wanteth sea-room with her foes to play;

       Slowly she swims; and when, provoked, she would

       Advance her tail, her head salutes the mud;