THE SHIPWRECK CANTO I. [Illustration: O bliss supreme: where Virtue’s self can melt With joys, that guilty Pleasure never felt; Formed to refine the thought with chaste desire, And kindle sweet Affection’s purest fire. DRAWN BY RICHARD WESTALL, R.A. ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM FINDEN. PUBLISHED BY JOHN SHARPE, PICCADILLY, OCT. 1, 1819.] CANTO I. I. A ship from Egypt, o’er the deep impelled By guiding winds, her course for Venice held. Of famed Britannia were the gallant crew, And from that isle her name the vessel drew; The wayward steps of Fortune they pursued, And sought in certain ills imagined good: Though cautioned oft her slippery path to shun, Hope still with promised joys allured them on; And, while they listened to her winning lore, The softer scenes of peace could please no more: Long absent they from friends and native home The cheerless ocean were inured to roam; Yet Heaven, in pity to severe distress, Had crowned each painful voyage with success; Still to compensate toils and hazards past Restored them to maternal plains at last. Thrice had the sun to rule the varying year Across the equator rolled his flaming sphere, Since last the vessel spread her ample sail From Albion’s coast, obsequious to the gale; She o’er the spacious flood from shore to shore Unwearying wafted her commercial store; The richest ports of Afric she had viewed, Thence to fair Italy her course pursued; Had left behind Trinacria’s burning isle, And visited the margin of the Nile: And now, that winter deepens round the Pole, The circling voyage hastens to its goal; They, blind to Fate’s inevitable law, No dark event to blast their hope foresaw, But from gay Venice soon expect to steer For Britain’s coast, and dread no perils near; Inflamed by Hope, their throbbing hearts elate Ideal pleasures vainly antedate, Before whose vivid intellectual ray Distress recedes, and danger melts away: Already British coasts appear to rise, The chalky cliffs salute their longing eyes; Each to his breast, where floods of rapture roll, Embracing strains the mistress of his soul; Nor less o’erjoyed, with sympathetic truth, Each faithful maid expects th’ approaching youth: In distant souls congenial passions glow, And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow— Such shadowy happiness their thoughts employ, Illusion all, and visionary joy! Thus time elapsed, while o’er the pathless tide Their ship through Grecian seas the pilots guide. Occasion called to touch at Candia’s shore, Which, blest with favouring winds, they soon explore; The haven enter, borne before the gale, Despatch their commerce, and prepare to sail. Eternal powers! what ruins from afar