Awhile beneath the waves their tracks remain, 

 And burn in silver streams along the liquid plain. 

 Soon to the sport of death the crew repair, 

 Dart the long lance, or spread the baited snare. 

 One in redoubled mazes wheels along, 

 And glides, unhappy, near the triple prong. 

 Rodmond, unerring, o'er his head suspends, 

 The barbed steel, and every turn attends; 

 Unerring aimed, the missile weapon flew, 

 And, plunging, struck the fated victim through. 

 The upturning points his ponderous bulk sustain; 

 On deck he struggles with convulsive pain; 

 But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills, 

 And fleeting life escapes in sanguine rills, 

 What radiant changes strike the astonished sight, 

 What glowing hues of mingled shade and light! 

 No equal beauties gild the lucid west, 

 With parting beams all o'er profusely drest ; 

 No lovelier colours paint the vernal dawn, 

 When orient dews impearl the enameird lawn ; 

 Than from his sides, in bright suffusion glow, 

 That now with gold empyreal seem to glow. 

 / Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view, 

 And emulate the soft celestial hue ; 

 Now beam a flaming crimson to the eye, 

 And now assume the purple's deeper dye ; 

 But here description clouds each shining ray, 

 What terms of art can nature's pow'r display. 



