CLXXXII.

Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- Assyria--Greece--Rome--Carthage--what are they?[549] Thy waters washed[550] them power while they were free,[qh] And many a tyrant since; their shores obey The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay Has dried up realms to deserts:--not so thou, Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play,[qi] Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow-- Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.

CLXXXIII.

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm-- Icing the Pole, or in the torrid clime Dark-heaving--boundless, endless, and sublime-- The image of Eternity-the throne[qj] Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime[551] The monsters of the deep are made--each Zone Obeys thee--thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.