With genuine sympathy may yet complain,
While sad Remembrance bleeds at every vein.
These, chief among the Ship's conducting train,
Her path explored along the deep domain;
Trained to command, and range the swelling sail,
Whose varying force conforms to every gale.
Charged with the commerce, hither also came
A gallant youth, PALEMON was his name:
A Father's stern resentment doomed to prove,
He came the victim of unhappy love!
His heart for ALBERT's beauteous daughter bled,
For her a sacred flame his bosom fed:
Nor let the wretched Slaves of Folly scorn
This genuine passion, Nature's eldest born!
"Twas his with lasting anguish to complain, While blooming ANNA mourned the cause in vain. Graceful of form, by Nature taught to please,
Of power to melt the female breast with ease;
To her PALEMON told his tender tale
Soft as the voice of Summer's evening gale:
His Soul, where moral truth spontaneous grew,
No guilty wish, no cruel passion knew:
Though tremblingly alive to Nature's Laws,
Yet ever firm to Honour's sacred cause;
O'erjoyed he saw her lovely eyes relent,
The blushing Maiden smiled with sweet consent.
Oft in the mazes of a neighbouring grove
Unheard they breathed alternate vows of love:
By fond society their passion grew,
Like the young blossom fed with vernal dew;
While their chaste Souls possessed the pleasing pains
That Truth improves, and Virtue ne'er restrains.
In evil hour th' officious tongue of Fame
Betrayed the Secret of their mutual flame.
With grief and anger struggling in his breast,
PALEMON'S Father heard the tale confest;
Long had he listened with Suspicion's ear,
And learnt, sagacious, this event to fear.
Too well, fair Youth! thy liberal heart he knew,
A heart to Nature's warm impressions true:
Full oft his wisdom strove with fruitless toil
With Avarice to pollute that generous soil;
That soil impregnated with nobler seed
Refused the culture of so rank a weed.
Elate with wealth in active Commerce won,
And basking in the smile of fortune's sun;
For many freighted Ships from shore to shore,
Their wealthy charge by his appointment bore;
With scorn the Parent eyed the lowly shade
That veiled the beauties of this charming maid.
He, by the lust of Riches only moved,
Such mean connexions haughtily reproved;
Indignant he rebuked th' enamoured boy,
The flattering promise of his future joy;
He soothed and menaced, anxious to reclaim
This hopeless passion, or divert its aim:
Oft led the youth where circling joys delight
The ravished sense, or beauty charms the sight.
With all her powers enchanting Music failed,
And Pleasure's syren voice no more prevailed:
Long with unequal art, in vain he strove
To quench th' ethereal flame of ardent Love.
The Merchant, kindling then with proud disdain,
In look, and voice, assumed an harsher strain.
In Absence now his only hope remained;
And such the stern decree his will ordained:
Deep anguish, while PALEMON heard his doom,
Drew o'er his lovely face a saddening gloom;
High beat his heart, fast flowed th' unbidden tear,
His bosom heaved with agony severe;
In vain with bitter sorrow he repin'd,
No tender pity touched that sordid mind
To thee, brave ALBERT! was the charge consign'd.
The stately Ship forsaking England's shore
To regions far remote PALEMON bore.
Incapable of change, th' unhappy youth
Still loved fair ANNA with eternal truth;
Still ANNA'S image swims before his sight
In fleeting vision through the restless night;
From clime to clime an Exile doomed to roam,
His heart still panted for its secret home.
The Moon had circled twice her wayward zone,
To him since young ARION first was known;
Who wandering here through many a scene renown'd, In ALEXANDRIA's port the vessel found;
Where, anxious to review his native shore,
He on the roaring wave embarked once more.
Oft by pale Cynthia's melancholy light
With him Palemon kept the watch of night,
In whose sad bosom many a sigh supprest
Some painful secret of the soul confest :
Perhaps ARION Soon the cause divin'd,
Though shunning still to probe a wounded mind;
He felt the chastity of silent woe,
Though glad the balm of comfort to bestow.
He with PALEMON, oft recounted o'er
The tales of hapless Love in ancient lore,
Recalled to memory by th' adjacent shore:
The scene thus present, and its story known,
The Lover sighed for sorrows not his own.
Thus, though a recent date their Friendship bore,
Soon the ripe metal own'd the quick'ning ore;
For in one tide their passions seemed to roll,
By kindred age and sympathy of soul.
These o'er th' inferior naval train preside,
The course determine, or the commerce guide: O'er all the rest, an undistinguished Crew,
Her wing of deepest shade Oblivion drew.
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