Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/131

Th'impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vain,
And Mecca saddens at the long delay.

But chief at sea, whose every flexile wave 975
Obeys the blast, th' aërial tumult swells.
In the dread ocean, undulating wide,
Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe,
The circling ^[1]Typhon, whirl'd from point to point,
Exhausting all the rage of all the sky, 980
And dire Ecnephia reign. Amid the heavens,
Falsely serene, deep in a cloudy ^[2] speck
Compress'd, the mighty tempest brooding dwells.
Of no regard, save to the skilful eye,
Fiery and foul, the small prognostic hangs 985
Aloft, or on the promontory's brow
Musters its force. A feint deceitful calm,
A fluttering gale, the demon sends before,
To tempt the spreading sail. Then down at once,
Precipitant, descends a mingled mass 990
Of roaring winds, and flame, and rushing floods.
In wild amazement fix'd the sailor stands.
Art is too slow: By rapid fate oppress'd,
His broad-wing'd vessel drinks the whelming tide,
Hid in the bosom of the black abyss. 995
With such mad seas the daring ^[3]Gama fought.
For many a day, and many a dreadful night,
Incessant, lab'ring round the stormy cape;
By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst
Of gold. For then from ancient gloom emerg'd 1000
The rising world of trade: the Genius, then,

Of

1. Typhon and Ecnephia, names of particular storms or hurricanes known only between the tropics.
2. Called by sailors the Ox-Eye, being in appearance at first no bigger.
3. Vasco de Gama, the first who sailed round Africa, by the Cape of Good-Hoope, to the East Indies.