Classic Poem

Tho' numberless each tribe and species fair,
Who wing the noon, and brighten in the blaze,
Innumerous as the sands which bend the seas;
These have their organs, arts, and arms, and tools,
And functions exercised by various rules;
The saw, axe, auger, trowel, piercer, drill;
The neat alembick, and nectareous still:
Their peaceful hours the loom and distaff know;
But war, the force and fury of the foe,
The spear, the fauchion, and the martial mail,
And artful stratagem where strength may fail.
Each tribe peculiar occupations claim,
Peculiar beauties deck each varying frame;
Attire and food peculiar are assigned,
And means to propagate their varying kind.

Each as reflecting on their primal state,
Or fraught with scientific craft innate,
With conscious skill their oval embryon shed,
Where native first their infancy was fed:
Or on some vegetating foliage glued;
Or o'er the flood they spread their future brood;
A slender cord the floating jelly binds,
Eludes the wave, and mocks the warring winds;
O'er this their sperm in spiral order lies,
And pearls in living ranges greet our eyes.
In firmest oak they scoop a spacious tomb,
And lay their embryo in the spurious womb:
Some flowers, some fruit, some gems, or blossoms chuse,
And confident their darling hopes infuse;
While some their eggs in ranker carnage lay,
And to their young adapt the future prey.

Mean time the sun his fostering warmth bequeaths,
Each tepid air its motive influence breaths,
Mysterious springs the wavering life supply,
And quickning births unconscious motion try;
Mature their slender fences they disown,
And break at once into a world unknown.

All by their dam's prophetic care receive
Whate'er peculiar indigence can crave:
Profuse at hand the plenteous table's spread,
And various appetites are aptly fed.
Nor less each organ suits each place of birth,
Finn'd in the flood, or reptile o'er the earth;
Each organ, apt to each precarious state,
As for eternity designed complete.
Thus nurs'd, these inconsiderate wretches grow,
Take all as due, still thoughtless that they owe.

When lo! strange tidings prompt each secret breast,
And whisper wonders not to be exprest;
Each owns his error in his later cares,
And for the new unthought of world prepares:
New views, new tastes, new judgments are acquired,
And all now loath delights so late admired.
In confidence the solemn shroud they weave,
Or build the tomb, or dig the deadly grave;
Intrepid there resign their parting breath,
And give their former shape the spoils of death;
But reconceived as in a second womb,
Thro' metamorphoses, new forms assume:
On death their true exalted life depends,
Commencing there, where seemingly it ends.

The fullness now of circling time arrives;
Each from the long, the mortal sleep revives;
The tombs pour forth their renovated dead,
And, like a dream, all former scenes are fled.
But O! what terms expressive may relate
The change, the splendor of their new form'd state?
Their texture nor composed of filmy skin,
Of cumbrous flesh without, or bone within,
But something than corporeal more refined,
And agile as their blithe informing mind.
In every eye ten thousand brilliants blaze,
And living pearls the vast horizon gaze;
Gemm'd o'er their heads the mines of India gleam,
And heaven's own wardrobe has array'd their frame;
Each spangled back bright sprinkling specks adorn,
Each plume imbibes the rosy tinctured morn;
Spread on each wing the florid seasons glow,
Shaded and verg'd with the celestial bow,
Where colours blend an ever varying dye,
And wanton in their gay exchanges vie.

Not all the glitter fops and fair ones prize,
The pride of fools, and pity of the wise;
Not all the shew and mockery of state,
The little, low, fine follies of the great;
Not all the wealth which eastern pageants wore,
What still our idolizing worlds adore;
Can boast the least inimitable grace,
Which decks profusive this illustrious race.

Hence might the song luxuriant range around,
Or plunge the nether ocean's dread profound;
There mete Leviathan's enormous length,
Adorn'd with terrors, and unmatch'd in strength,
The sea his pool of pastime when he bathes,
And tempests issue while his nostril breathes.

See where Behemoth's pillar'd fabric stands!
His shade extensive cools the distant lands;
Encamp'd, an army on his shoulder lies,
And o'er his back proud citadels arise.

But vain those gifts, those graces to relate,