O Thou, whose power resistless fills The boundless whole, avert those ills We richly merit: purge away The sins which on our vitals prey; Protect, with Thine almighty shield Our conquering arms by flood and field, Wheel round the time when Peace shall smile O’er Britain’s highly-favoured Isle; p. 215When all shall loud hosannas sing To Thee, the great Eternal King!

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But hark! the bleak, loud whistling wind! Its crushing blast recalls to mind The dangers of the troubled deep; Where, with a fierce and thundering sweep, The winds in wild distraction rave, And push along the mountain wave With dreadful swell and hideous curl! Whilst hung aloft in giddy whirl, Or drop beneath the ocean’s bed, The leaky bark without a shred Of rigging sweeps through dangers dread. The flaring beacon points the way, And fast the pumps loud clanking play: It ’vails not—hark! with crashing shock She’s shivered ’gainst the solid rock, Or by the fierce, incessant waves Is beaten to a thousand staves; Or bilging at her crazy side, Admits the thundering hostile tide, And down she sinks!—triumphant rave The winds, and close her wat’ry grave!

The merchant’s care and toil are vain, His hopes He buried in the main— In vain the mother’s tearful eye Looks for its sole remaining joy— In vain fair Susan walks the shore, And sighs for him she’ll see no more— For deep they lie in ocean’s womb, And fester in a wat’ry tomb.

Now, from the frothy, thundering main, My meditations seek the plain, p. 216Where, with a swift fantastic flight, They scour the regions of the night, Free as the winds that wildly blow O’er hill and dale the blinding snow, Or, through the woods, their frolics play, And whirling, sweep the dusty way, When summer shines with burning glare, And sportive breezes skim the air, And Ocean’s glassy breast is fanned To softest curl by Zephyr bland.

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But Summer’s gone, and Winter’s here— With iron sceptre rules the year— Beneath this dark inclement sky How many wanderers faint and die! One, flouncing o’er the treacherous snow, Sinks in the pit that yawns below! Another numbed, with panting lift Inhales the suffocating drift! And creeping cold, with stiffening force, Extends a third, a pallid corse!

Thus death, in varied dreadful form, Triumphant rides along the storm: With shocking scenes assails the sight, And makes more sad the dismal night! How blest the man, whose lot is free From such distress and misery; Who, sitting by his blazing 

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