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Far from the hurricane's resistless sweep
That tears with thundering rage the Carib deep;
Far from the foul-winged Winter that deforms
And rolls the northern main with storms on storms;
Beneath salubrious skies, to summer gales
She gives the ventrous and returning sails:
The smiling isles, named Fortunate of old,
First on her Ocean's bosom fair unfold:
Thy world, Columbus, spreads its various breast,
Proud to be first by Lisboa's waves carest;
And Afric wooes and leads her easy way
To the fair regions of the rising day.
If Turkey's drugs invite or silken pride,
Thy straits, Alcides, give the ready tide;
And turn the prow, and soon each shore expands
From Gallia's coast to Europe's northern lands.
When Heaven decreed low to the dust to bring
That lofty oak[1], Assyria's boastful King,
- ↑ See Daniel, ch. iv.
