Happy the man who, safe on shore,
Now trims, at home, his evening fire;
Unmov'd, he hears the tempest roar,
That on the tufted groves expi
Alas! On us they doubly fall,
Our feeble barque, must beat them all.

Now to their haunts the birds retreat,
The squirrel seeks his hollow tree,
Wolves in their shaded caverns meet,
All, all are blest but wretched we -
Foredoomed a stranger to repose,
No rest the unsettled ocean knows.

While o'er the dark abyss we roam,
Perhaps, with last departing gleam,
We saw the sun descend in gloom,
No more to see his morning beam;
But buried low, by far too deep,
On coral beds, unpitied, sleep!

But what a strange, uncoasted strand
Is that, where fate permits no day -
No charts have we to mark that land,
No compass to direct that way -
What Pilot shall explore that realm,
What new Columbus take the helm!

While death and darkness both surround,
And tempest rage with lawless power,
Of friendship's voice I hear no sound,
No comfort in this dreadful hour -
What friendship can in tempests be,
What comfort on this raging sea?

The barque, accustomed to obey,
No more the trembling pilots guide;
Alone she gropes her trackless way,
While mountains burst on either side -
Thus, skill and science both must fall;
And ruin is the lot of all.

Philip Freneau, 1785

-- Scout --
"seen the heat ray yet?"