| |
| WHERE 1 the remote 2 Bermudas ride, | |
| In the ocean’s bosom unespied, | |
| From a small boat, that rowed along, | |
| The listening winds received this song: | |
| |
| ‘What should we do but sing His praise, | 5 |
| That led us through the watery maze, | |
| Unto an isle so long unknown, | |
| And yet far kinder than our own? | |
| Where He the huge sea-monsters wracks, | |
| That lift the deep upon their backs; | 10 |
| He lands us on a grassy stage, | |
| Safe from the storms, and prelate’s rage. | |
| He gave us this eternal spring, | |
| Which here enamels every thing, | |
| And sends the fowls to us in care, | 15 |
| On daily visits through the air; | |
| He hangs in shades the orange bright, | |
| Like golden lamps in a green night, | |
| And does in the pomegranates close | |
| Jewels more rich than Ormus 3 shows; | 20 |
| He makes the figs our mouths to meet, | |
| And throws the melons at our feet; | |
| But apples plants of such a price, | |
| No tree could ever bear them twice; | |
| With cedars chosen by His hand, | 25 |
| From Lebanon, He stores the land, | |
| And makes the hollow seas, that roar, | |
| Proclaim the ambergris on shore; | |
| He cast (of which we rather boast) | |
| The Gospel’s pearl upon our coast, | 30 |
| And in these rocks for us did frame | |
| A temple where to sound His name. | |
| Oh! let our voice His praise exalt, | |
| Till it arrive at Heaven’s vault, | |
| Which, thence (perhaps) rebounding, may | 35 |
| Echo beyond the Mexique Bay.’ | |
| |
| Thus sung they, in the English boat, | |
| An holy and a cheerful note; | |
| And all the way, to guide their chime, | |
| With falling oars they kept the time. | 40 |
