Chaucer to Burns

Meantime the Belgians tack upon our rear, [send And raking chase-guns through our sterns ther Close by, their fire-ships, like jackals, appear, Who on their lions for the prey attend.

Silent, in smoke of cannon they come on:
Such vapors once did fiery Cacus hide:
In these the height of pleas'd revenge is shown,
Who burn contented by another's side.

Sometimes from fighting squadrons of each fleet,
Deceiv'd themselves, or to preserve some frien
Two grappling Etnas on the ocean meet,
And English fires with Belgian flames contend.

Now at each tack our little fleet grows less;

And, like maim'd fowl, swim lagging on the main Their greater loss their numbers scarce confess, While they lose cheaper than the English gain. Have you not seen, when, whistled from the fist, Some falcon stoops at what her eye design'd, And with her eagerness the quarry miss'd, Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind

The dastard crow, that to the wood made wing, And sees the groves no shelter can afford, With her loud kaws her craven kind does bring Who safe in numbers cuff the noble bird.

Among the Dutch thus Albemarle did fare:
He could not conquer, and disdain'd to fly.
Past hope of safety, 'twas his latest care,
Like falling Cæsar, decently to die.

Yet pity did his manly spirit move,

To see those perish who so well had fought. And generously with his despair he strove, Resolv'd to live till he their safety wrought.

Let other Muses write his prosperous fate,

Of conquer'd nations tell, and kings restor❜d: But mine shall sing of his eclips'd estate, Which, like the Sun's, more wonders does affa

He drew his mighty frigates all before,
On which the foe his fruitless force employs
His weak ones deep into his rear he bore
Remote from guns, as sick men from the noise.

His fiery cannon did their passage guide,
And following smoke obscur'd them from the foe
Thus Israel, safe from the Egyptian's pride,
By flaming pillars and by clouds did go.

Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat, But here our courages did theirs subdue: So Xenophon once led that fam'd retreat,

Which first the Asian empire overthrew.

The foe approach'd; and one for his bold sin

Was sunk; as he that touch'd the ark was slam The wild waves master'd him and suck'd him m, And smiling eddies dimpled on the main.

This seen, the rest at awful distance stood : As if they had been there as servants set, To stay, or to go on, as he thought good, And not pursue, but wait on his retreat

So Libyan huntsmen, on some sandy plain,
From shady coverts rous'd, the lion chase:
The kingly beast roars out with loud disdain,
And slowly moves, unknowing to give place.

Eut if some one approach to dare his force,
He swings his tail, and swiftly turns him round:
With one paw seizes on his trembling horse,
And with the other tears him to the ground.

Amidst these toils succeeds the balmy night;

Now hissing waters the quench'd guns restore; And weary waves, withdrawing from the fight, Lie lull'd and panting on the silent shore.

The Moon shone clear on the becalmed flood,
Where, while her beams like glittering silver play,
Upon the deck our careful general stood,

And deeply mus'd on the succeeding day.

That happy Sun," said he, "will rise again,
Who twice victorious did our navy see:
And I alone must view him rise in vain,
Without one ray of all his star for me.

"Yet, like an English general will I die,

And all the ocean make my spacious grave:
Women and cowards on the land may lie;
The sea's a tomb that's proper for the brave."

Restless he pass'd the remnant of the night,
Till the fresh air proclaim'd the morning nigh:
And burning ships, the martyrs of the fight,
With paler fires beheld the eastern sky

But now, his stores of ammunition spent,
His naked valor is his only guard :
Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon sent,
And solitary guns are scarcely heard.

Thus far had Fortune power, he forc'd to stay,
Nor longer durst with Virtue be at strife:
This is a ransom Albemarle did pay,
For all the glories of so great a life.

For now brave Rupert from afar appears,
Whose waving streamers the glad general knows:
With full-spread sails his eager navy steers,
And every ship in swift proportion grows.
The anxious prince had heard the cannon long,
And from that length of time dire omens drew,
Of English overmatch'd, and Dutch too strong,
Who never fought three days, but to pursue.

Then, as an eagle, who with pious care

Was beating widely on the wing for prey,
To her now silent eyry does repair,

And finds her callow infants forc'd away:
Stung with her love, she stoops upon the plain,
The broken air loud whistling as she flies:
She stops and listens, and shoots forth again,
And guides her pinions by her young ones' cries.

As in a drought the thirsty creatures cry,

And gape upon the gather'd clouds for rain And first the martlet meets it in the sky,

And with wet wings joys all the feather'd train

With such glad hearts did our despairing men
Salute th' appearance of the prince's fleet;
And each ambitiously would claim the ken,

That with first eyes did distant safety meet.

The Dutch, who came like greedy hinds before,
To reap the harvest their ripe ears did yield,
Now look like those, when rolling thunders roar,
And sheets of lightning blast the standing field.

Full in the prince's passage, hills of snu.

And dangerous flats, in secret ambush lay. Where the false tides skim o'er the cover'd land, And seamen with dissembled depths betray.

The wily Dutch, who like fall'n angels fear'd
This new Messiah's coming, there did wait,
And round the verge their braving vessels steer'd
To tempt his courage with so fair a bait.

But he unmov'd contemns their idle threat,

Secure of fame whene'er he please to fight: His cold experience tempers all his heat,

And inbred worth doth boasting valor slight.

Heroic virtue did his actions guide,

And he the substance, not th' appearance, chose To rescue one such friend, he took more pride, Than to destroy whole thousands of such foes.

But when approach'd, in strict embraces bound,
Rupert and Albemarle together grow:

He joys to have his friend in safety found,
Which he to none but to that friend would owe.

The cheerful soldiers, with new stores supplied,
Now long to execute their spleenful will :
And, in revenge for those three days they tried,
Wish one, like Joshua's, when the Sun stood still

Thus reinforc'd, against the adverse fleet,

Still doubling ours, brave Rupert leads the way.
With the first blushes of the morn they meet,
And bring night back upon the new-born day.

His presence soon blows up the kindling fight,
And his loud guns speak thick like angry men :
It seem'd as slaughter had been breath'd all night,
And Death new-pointed his dull dart again.

The Dutch too well his mighty conduct knew,

And matchless courage, since the former fight; Whose navy like a stiff-stretch'd cord did show Till he bore in and bent them into flight.

The wind he shares, while half their fleet offends
His open side, and high above him shows:
Upon the rest at pleasure he descends,

And doubly harm'd he double harms bestows

With such kind passion hastes the prince to fight, Behind the general mends his weary pace,

And spreads his flying canvas to the sound:

Him, whom no

danger, were he there, could fright,

Now absent every little noise can wound.

And sullenly to his revenge he sails:
So glides some trodden serpent on the grass,
And long behind his wounded volume trails

Th' increasing sound is borne to either shore,
And for their stakes the throwing nations fear:
Their passions double with the cannons' roar,
And with warm wishes each man combats there.

Plied thick and close as when the fight begun.,
Their huge unwieldy navy wastes away:
So sicken waning Moons too near the Sun,
And blunt their crescents on the edge of day.

'And now reduc'd on equal terms to fight,

Their ships like wasted patrimonies show; Where the thin scattering trees admit the light, And shun each other's shadows as they grow.

The warlike prince had sever'd from the rest Two giant ships, the pride of all the main; Which with his one so vigorously he press'd, And flew so home they could not rise again.

Already batter'd, by his lee they lay,

In vain upon the passing winds they call: The passing winds through their torn canvas play, And flagging sails on heartless sailors fall.

Their open'd sides receive a gloomy light,

Dreadful as day let into shades below; Without grim Death rides barefac'd in their sight, And urges entering billows as they flow.

When one dire shot, the last they could supply, Close by the board the prince's main-mast bore: All three now helpless by each other lie

And this offends not, and those fear no more.

So have I seen some fearful hare maintain

A course, till tir'd before the dog she lay : Who stretch'd behind her pants upon the plain, Past power to kill, as she to get away.

With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey; His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies; She, trembling, creeps upon the ground away,

And looks back to him with beseeching eyes.

The prince unjustly does his stars accuse Which hinder'd him to push his fortune on; For what they to his courage did refuse,

By mortal valor never must be done.

This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes,

And warns his tatter'd fleet to follow home: Proud to have so got off with equal stakes, Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome.

The general's force, as kept alive by fight,

Now, not oppos'd, no longer can pursue: Lasting till Heaven had done his courage right; When he had conquer'd he his weakness knew.

He casts a frown on the departing foe,

And sighs to see him quit the watery field: His stern fix'd eyes no satisfaction show,

For all the glories which the fight did yield.

Though, as when fiends did miracles avow,
He stands confess'd ev'n by the boastful Dutch:
He only does his conquest disavow

And thinks too little what they found too much.

Return'd, he with the fleet resolv'd to stay;

No tender thoughts of home his heart divide; Domestic joys and cares he puts away; [guide For realms are households which the great must

As t: ose who unripe veins in mines explore, On the rich bed again the warm turf lay Till time digests the yet imperfect ore,

And know it will be gold another day

So looks our monarch on this early fight,
Th' essay and rudiments of great success
Which all-maturing Time must bring to light,
While he like Heaven does each day's labor bless

Heaven ended not the first or second day,

Yet each was perfect to the work design'd: God and kings work, when they their work survey A passive aptness in all subjects find.

In burthen'd vessels first, with speedy care,

His plenteous stores do season'd timber send : Thither the brawny carpenters repair,

And as the surgeons of maim'd ships attend.

With cord and canvas, from rich Hamburgh sent,
His navy's moulted wings he imps once more:
Tall Norway fir, their masts in battle spent,
And English oak, sprung leaks and planks, restore
All hands employ'd, the royal work grows warm:
Like laboring bees on a long summer's day,
Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm,
And some on bells of tasted lilies play.

With glewy wax some new foundations lay
Of virgin-combs, which from the roof are hung
Some arm'd within doors upon duty stay,

Or tend the sick, or educate the young.

So here some pick out bullets from the sides,
Some drive old oakum through each seam and rift
Their left hand does the calking iron guide,

The rattling mallet with the right they lift.

With boiling pitch another near at hand,

From friendly Sweden brought, the seams instops Which, well paid o'er, the salt sea waves withstand And shakes them from the rising beak in drops.

Some the gall'd ropes with dauby marline bind,
Or sear-cloth masts with strong tarpawling coats
To try new shrouds one mounts into the wind,
And one below their ease or stiffness notes.

Our careful monarch stands in person by,

His new-cast cannons' firmness to explore: The strength of big-corn'd powder loves to try, And ball and cartridge sorts for every bore.

Each day brings fresh supplies of arms and men,
And ships which all last winter were abroad,
And such as fitted since the fight had been,
Or new from stocks, were fall'n into the road.

The goodly London in her gallant trim,
The Phenix, daughter of the vanish'd old,
Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim,
And on her shadow rides in floating gold.

Her flag aloft spread ruffling to the wind,
And sanguine streamers seem the flood to fire:
The weaver, charm'd with what his loom design'd,
Goes on to sea, and knows not to retire.

With roomy decks, her guns of mighty strength, Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves:

Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length,
She seems a sea-wasp flying on the waves.

This martial present, piously design'd,

The loyal city give their best-lov'd king: And with a bounty ample as the wind,

Built fitted, and maintain'd, to aid him bring.

By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid, Art,
Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow:
Thus fishes first to shipping did impart,

Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.

Some log perhaps upon the waters swam,

An useless drift, which, rudely cut within, And hollow'd first, a floating trough became, And cross some rivulet passage did begin.

In shipping such as this, the Irish kern

And untaught Indian on the stream did glide: Ere sharp-keel'd boats to stem the flood did learn, Or fin-like oars did spread from either side.

Add but a sail, and Saturn so appear'd,
When from lost empire he to exile went,
And with the golden age to Tyber steer'd,
Where coin and commerce first he did invent.

Rude as their ships was navigation then;
No useful compass or meridian known;
Coasting, they kept the land within their ken,
And knew no north but when the Pole-star shone.

Of all who since have us'd the open sea,

Than the bold English none more fame have won: Beyond the year, and out of Heaven's high way, They make discoveries where they see no Sun.

But what so long in vain, and yet unknown,
By poor mankind's benighted wit is sought,
Shall in this age to Britain first be shown,

And hence be to admiring nations taught.

The ebbs of tides and their mysterious flow,
We, as Art's elements, shall understand,
And as by line upon the ocean go,
Whose paths shall be familiar as the land.

Instructed ships shall sail to quick commerce,
By which remotest regions are allied;
Which makes one city of the universe,
Where some may gain, and ali may be supplied.

Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go,
And view the ocean leaning on the sky:
From thence our rolling neighbors we shall know,
And on the lunar world securely pry.

This I foretell from your auspicious care,

Who great in search of God and Nature grow;

Who best your wise Creator's praise declare,
Since best to praise his works is best to know.

« Edellinen Jatka »

-kirjat