MINOR POEMS. PART II. VERSES SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER SELKIRK, DURING HIS SOLITARY ABODE IN THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. I AM monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute; That sages have seen in thy face? I am out of humanity's reach, I must finish my journey alone, The beasts that roam over the plain, Society, friendship, and love, Divinely bestow'd upon man, In the ways of religion and truth, Might learn from the wisdom of age, And be cheer'd by the sallies of youth. Religion! what treasure untold Ye winds, that have made me your sport, Some cordial endearing report Of a land I shall visit no more. My friends, do they now and then send A wish or a thought after me? O tell me I yet have a friend, Though a friend I am never to see. How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light. When I think of my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there; But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair. But the seafowl is gone to her nest, And reconciles man to his lot. THE CAST-AWAY. 1799. OBSCUREST night involved the sky, No braver chief could Albion boast He loved them both, but both in vain, Not long beneath the whelming brine, Expert to swim, he lay; Nor soon he felt his strength decline, Or courage die away; But waged with death a lasting strife, Supported by despair of life. He shouted: nor his friends had fail'd That, pitiless perforce, They left their outcast mate behind, And scudded still before the wind. Some succour yet they could afford; The cask, the coop, the floated cord, But he (they knew) nor ship nor shore, Nor, cruel as it seem'd, could he Yet bitter felt it still to die He long survives who lives an hour And so long he, with unspent power, And ever as the minutes flew, Entreated help, or cried-" Adieu!" At length, his transient respite past, Could catch the sound no more: |