Such were the isles which happy Flaccus sung, Where one tree blossoms while another bears, Where spring forever gay, and ever young, Walks her gay round through her unwearied years. 13 Such were the climes which youthful Eden saw Ere crossing fates destroy'd her golden reign-- Reflect upon thy loss, unhappy man, And seek the vales of Paradise again. 14 No lowering skies are here--the neighbouring sun Clear and unveil'd, his brilliant journey goes, Each morn emerging from the ambient main, And sinking there each evening to repose. 15 In June's fair month the spangled traveller gains The utmost limits of his northern way, And blesses with his beams cold lands remote, Sad Greenland's coast, and Hudson's frozen bay. 16 The shivering swains of those unhappy climes Behold the side-way monarch through the trees, We feel his fiercer heat, his vertic beams, Temper'd with cooling winds and trade-wind breeze. 17 Yet, though so near heav'n's blazing lamp doth run, We court the beam that sheds the golden day, And hence are called the children of the sun, Who, without fainting, bear his downward ray. 18 No threatening tides upon our island rise, Gay Cynthia scarce disturbs the ocean here, No waves approach her orb, and she, as kind, Attracts no water to her silver sphere. 19 The happy waters boast, of various kinds, Unnumber'd myriads of the scaly race, Sportive they glide above the delug'd sand, Gay as their clime, in ocean's ample vase. 20 Some streak'd with burnish'd gold, resplendent glare, Some cleave the limpid deep, all silver'd o'er, Some, clad in living green, delight the eye, Some red, some blue; of mingled colours more. 21 Here glides the spangled Dolphin through the deep, The giant-carcas'd whales at distance stray. The huge green turtles wallow through the wave, Well pleas'd alike with land or water, they. 22 The Rainbow cuts the deep, of varied green, The well fed Grouper lurks remote, below, The swift Bonetta coasts the watry scene, The diamond coated Angels kindle as they go. 23 Delicious to the taste, salubrious food, Which might some temperate studious sage allure To curse the fare of his abstemious school, And turn, for once, a cheerful Epicure. 24 Unhurt, may'st thou this luscious food enjoy, To fulness feast upon the scaly kind; These, well selected from a thousand more, Delight the taste, and leave no plague behind. 25 Nor think Hygeia[B] is a stranger here; To sensual souls the climate may fatal prove, Anguish and death attend, and pain severe, The midnight revel, and licentious love. [B] Goddess of Health.--_Freneau's note._ 26 Full many a swain, in youth's serenest bloom, Is borne untimely to this alien clay, Constrain'd to slumber in a foreign tomb, Far from his friends, his country far away. 27