XXXI V. SECOND WINTER MEETING. 



2. 



As softly sinks from fear to rest 

 The hunted stag, at last hound free, 

 The ship that ploughs the stormy sea 

 Here stills her billow-beaten breast 

 And yields her welcome freight, to fill 

 Her hold with works of Bridport skill. 



3. 



Here, fair from ev'ry shipwright's tool, 

 The new ship plunges from the stocks 

 And chafes her first white foam ; and rocks 

 On heaving waters of thy pool, 

 Now soon to waft her crest in hope 

 O'er longsome tracts of sea-wide scope. 



4. 



The birds,* 1 where lay Prometheus bound, 

 Still ate with everlasting bills 

 His growing lungs, and these two hills* 2 

 So yield to eating waves their ground 

 That wastes in this receding shore, 

 But wastes, alas, to grow no more. 



5. 



How many untold years have run 

 Since those two now half -hills were whole, 

 And man beheld the waters roll 

 Where they sank, grassy to the sun, 

 Long ere the sea had cast the sand 

 And far -borne pebbles on this strand. 



* l The Eagles. See the mythoa of Prometheus. 

 * 2 The east and west cliffs. 



