- THE fam’d Bermuda’s1 ever-healthy isles,
- More fam’d by gentle Waller’s2 deathless strains,
- Than for their cedars, which, insulting, fly
- O’er the wide ocean; ‘mid their rocks contain
- A stone, which, when calcin’d, (experience says,) [405]
-
Is only second to Sabrina’s lime.
- WHILE flows the juice mellifluent from the Cane,
- Grudge not, my friend, to let thy slaves, each morn,
- But chief the sick and young, at setting day,
- Themselves regale with oft-repeated draughts [410]
- Of tepid Nectar; so shall health and strength
-
Confirm thy Negroes, and make labour light.
- WHILE flame thy chimneys, while thy coppers foam,
- How blithe, how jocund, the plantation smiles!
- By day, by night, resounds the choral song [415]
- Of glad barbarity; serene, the sun
- Shines not intensely hot; the trade-wind blows:
- How sweet, how silken, is its noontide breath?
- While to far climes the fell destroyer, Death,
- Wings his dark flight. Then seldom pray for rain: [420]
- Rather for cloudless days thy prayers prefer;