Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/174
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ALBANIA;
Blind with revenge, nor mindful of her end,Though near; for now her neck the hissing ball Hath pierc'd, from well-aimed musket shot unseen. In vain, alas! thou homeward hastest back; Mad to have risked thy life with artful man, On land, to the strange element, where now Thou agonising liest a monument For others not to dare their sphere beyond: While children, from their flight returning, gaze And wonder at the shaggy monster's form. 120But now the thronging peasants share the flesh, From which, for nightly lamps, they drain the oil; Though utmost Thule's long liv'd sons reserve, For winter meals, such unluxurious fare. Thus, Caledonia! thee rich ocean courts, Presenting his most useful gifts to thee; But thou secure, a land of yellow grain, Grain! which bleak Norway wooes with all her firs; And inly full of glory overprized, The main sea rough and hoar, disdainest coy; 130Unenvied, while the Belgian still purloins The treasures vowed to thee, and of thy sloth Full glad, in many a pitchy keel, bears off To distant shores, these more than orient pearls;