Classic Poem

Two posterns gape with deep deceit below,
And o'er the pass fair mantling waters flow;
Evasive whence, they scape the dangerous train,
Or wide expatiate on the yielding plain;
Thro' trading currents sail to distant shores,
Or homeward laden with returning stores.
Laborious here, they hew the sounding wood,
And lift the prize triumphant o'er the flood;
Here, lightly some vimineous burdens bear,
Or jointly here the ponderous rafter share;
Spread o'er their tails, they waft the temper'd clay,
And deep, and broad, their firm foundations lay;
Assign each chamber its commodious size,
Till rooms o'er rooms and trodden ceilings rise;
Their tail the trowel, as adorning train,
Their teeth the saw, the chissel, and the plane.

While ardent Sirius shoots a thirsty ray,
And Autumn yet withholds retreating day,
They range at large, and gambol thro' the stream,
Frisk on the beach, or batten in the beam;
Or Nature's bounteous vegetation taste,
And opportune indulge the transient feast.
But when pale Phosphor points the morning gale,
Curls on the wave and chills along the vale,
Domestick cares their conscious breast employ;
The frolick hours and luscious banquets cloy;
Intent they furnish the prophetick hoard,
And pile the treasures of their homely board,
With friendship's charm beguile the sullen year,
And barter luxury for social cheer.
For them Astrea holds the impartial scale,
Her frugal hands unenvied portions deal;
Health quaffs satiety from Nature's bowl;
Peace gives the constant banquet of the soul;
High in the midst chaste Temperance is crown'd,
And Time leads on the smiling Hours around.

Thou AWFUL Depth OF W ISDOM UNEXPLORED !
Thou H EIGHT , where never human fancy soared!
S UPREME I RRADIANCE ! speed the distant ray,
Far speed the dawn of thy internal day;
And O! if such, inform the favourite line,
And be the praise as inspiration THINE !

Say! when the nest THY little Halcyons form,
Brood on the wave, and mock the threatening storm;
Who quells the rage of thy reluctant main,
Or o'er thy winter throws a lordly rein?
Lulls the rock'd mansion on the slumbering tide,
And bids the care of guardian depths subside?
Till, volatile, the new fledg'd infants rise;
The surge mounts free, and breaks upon the skies.

E TERNAL ! THINE is every round of time,
The circling season, and the varying clime;
T HINE ! every dictate of the conscious breast;
T HINE ! every texture of the genial nest,
The oval embryon, and the fostering ray;
And T HINE the life that struggles into day!

To Thee THY callow importuners cry,
Gracious THY E AR , and bounteous THY S UPPLY ;
Till the flown choirs the revel consort raise,
And hymn to H EAVEN the rhapsody of praise!

Dispers'd thro' every copse, or marshy plain,
Where haunts the woodcock, or the annual crane,
Where else encamp'd the feather'd legions spread,
Or bathe incumbent on their oozy bed,
The brimming lake T HY S MILING P RESENCE fills,
And waves the banners of a thousand hills.
Thou speed'st the summons of T HY W ARNING Voice ;
Wing'd at T HY W ORD , the distant troops rejoice,
From every quarter scour the fields of air,
And to the general rendezvous repair:
Each from the mingled rout disparting turns,
And with the love of kindred plumage burns:
T HY P OTENT W ILL instinctive bosoms feel,
And here arranging semilunar, wheel;
Or marshall'd here the painted rhomb display,
Or point the wedge that cleaves the aerial way:
Uplifted on T HY W AFTING B REATH they rise;
Thou pavest the regions of the pathless skies,
Thro' boundless tracts support'st the journey'd host,
And point'st the voyage to the certain coast;
Thou the sure C OMPASS , and the S EA they sail,
The C HART , the P ORT , the S TEERAGE , and the G ALE !

Thus thro' the maze of T HY E TERNAL R OUND ,
Thro' yon steep heaven, and nether gulphs profound,
The dusky planet, and the lucid sphere,
Earth's ponderous ball, and soft enfolding air,
The fish who glance or tempest thro' the main,
The beasts who trip or thunder o'er the plain,
The reptile wreathing in the wanton ring,
The bird high wafted on the towering wing,
All, all from Thee , S OLE C AUSE E SSENTIAL ! tend,
Thence flow effusive, thither centering end;
The bliss of Providential Vision share,
And the least atom claims peculiar care!

Yet e'er material entity begun,
Or from the Vast this Universe was worr;
While finitude e'erwhile was unconfined,
Nor space grew relative, to form assigned;
Thou didst thy own Eternal Now sustain,
And space was swallow'd in thy boundless main;