268 MEMOIRS OF 



of Captain Pierce, his family and fellow- 

 voyagers, thus forms a tragic drama: 



Oft o'er thy lovely daughters, haplefs Pierce ! 



Her fighs mall breathe, her forrows dew their hearfe. 



With brow upturned to heav'n, " We will not part/' 



He cried, and clafp'd them to his aching heart. 



Dam'd in dread conflict on the rock,y grounds, 



Crafh the ihock'd marls, the daggering wreck rebounds ; 



Through gaping feams the rufhing deluge fwims ; 



Chills their pale bofoms, bathes their fhuddering limbs ; 



Climbs their white fhoulders, buoys their flreaming hair, 



And the laft fea-mriek bellows in the air. 



Each, with loud fobs, their tender (ire carefs'd, 



And gafping, ftrain'd him clofer to her breaft. 



Stretch'd on one bier they fleep beneath the brine, 



And their white bones with ivory arms entwine. 



The third, fourth, and fifth, couplets of 

 the above quotation, are extremely fine 

 pictures, and " found never echoed fenfe" 

 with more folemn horror than " and the 

 " laft fea-fhriek bellowed in the air." The 

 defcription ought to have clofed with that 

 line, and the next couplet fhould have im- 

 mediately 



