Now Salmala's peak Shines high in air, and Ceylon's dark green woods Beneath are spread; while, as the strangers wind Along the curving shores, sounds of delight Are heard; and birds of richest plumage, red And yellow, glance along the shades; or fly With morning twitter, circling o'er the mast, 140 As singing welcome to the weary crew.
Here rest, till westering gales again invite.
Then o'er the line of level seas glide on, As the green deities of ocean guide, Till Ophir's distant hills spring from the main, And their long labours cease.
Hence Asia slow Her length unwinds; and Siam and Ceylon Through wider channels pour their gems and gold To swell the pomp of Egypt's kings, or deck 150 With new magnificence the rising dome[168] Of Palestine's imperial lord.
His wants To satisfy; "with comelier draperies" To clothe his shivering form; to bid his arm Burst, like the Patagonian's,[169] the vain cords That bound his untried strength; to nurse the flame Of wider heart-ennobling sympathies;-- For this young Commerce roused the energies Of man; else rolling back, stagnant and foul, 160 Like the GREAT ELEMENT on which his ships Go forth, without the currents, winds, and tides That swell it, as with awful life, and keep From rank putrescence the long-moving mass: And He, the sovereign Maker of the world, So to excite man's high activities, Bad various climes their various produce pour.
On Asia's plain mark where the cotton-tree Hangs elegant its golden gems; the date Sits purpling the soft lucid haze, that lights 170 The still, pale, sultry landscape; breathing sweet Along old Ocean's billowy marge, the eve Bears spicy fragrance far; the bread-fruit shades The southern isles; and gems, and richest ore, Lurk in the caverned mountains of the west.
With ampler shade the northern oak uplifts His strength, itself a forest, and descends Proud to the world of waves, to bear afar The wealth collected, on the swelling tides, To every land:--Where nature seems to mourn 180 Her rugged outcast rocks, there Enterprise Leaps up; he gazes, like a god, around; He sees on other plains rich harvests wave; He marks far off the diamond blaze; he burns To reach the glittering prize; he looks; he speaks; The pines of Lebanon fall at his voice; He rears the towering mast: o'er the long main He wanders, and becomes, himself though poor, The sovereign of the globe! So Sidon rose; 190 And Tyre, yet prouder o'er the subject waves,-- When in his manlier might the Ammonian spread Beyond Philistia to the Syrian sands,-- Crowned on her rocky citadel, beheld The treasures of all lands poured at her feet.
Her daring prows the inland main disclosed; Freedom and Glory, Eloquence, and Arts, Follow their track, upspringing where they passed; Till, lo! another Thebes, an ATHENS springs, From the AEgean shores, and airs are heard, 200 As of no mortal melody, from isles That strew the deep around! On to the STRAITS Where tower the brazen pillars[170] to the clouds, Her vessels ride.

But what a shivering dread Quelled their bold hopes, when on their watch by night The mariners first saw the distant flames Of AEtna, and its red portentous glare Streaking the midnight waste! 'Tis not thy lamp, Astarte, hung in the dun vault of night, To guide the wanderers of the main! Aghast 210 They eye the fiery cope, and wait the dawn.
Huge pitchy clouds upshoot, and bursting fires Flash through the horrid volume as it mounts; Voices are heard, and thunders muttering deep.
Haste, snatch the oars, fly o'er the glimmering surge-- Fly far--already louder thunders roll, And more terrific flames arise! Oh, spare, Dread Power! for sure some deity abides Deep in the central earth, amidst the reek Of sacrifice and blue sulphureous fume 220 Involved.

Perhaps the living Moloch[171] there Rules in his horrid empire, amid flames, Thunders, and blackening volumes, that ascend And wrap his burning throne! So was their path, To those who first the cheerless ocean roamed, Darkened with dread and peril.

Scylla here, And fell Charybdis, on their whirling gulph Sit, like the sisters of Despair, and howl, As the devoted ship, dashed on the crags, 230 Goes down: and oft the neighbour shores are strewn With bones of strangers sacrificed, whose bark Has foundered nigh, where the red watch-tower glares Through darkness.

Hence mysterious dread, and tales Of Polyphemus and his monstrous rout; And warbling syrens on the fatal shores Of soft Parthenope.