230
And Ocean spread his glassy wave,
And peopled was the flood;
And high upon the pathless air,
The wing'd musicians rode.
But more to swell the song of joy,
And fill the boundless plan,
Clad in the robe of innocence,
Forth walk'd majestic man.
Oh, had he lov'd the God, that stamp'd
His image on the clay,
And had he kept his gentle law,
How fair had been his way!
Cut whirling in a thoughtless course,
Ingloriously he fell,
And sadly does my song forbear,
That mournful fall to tell.
For as a stream whose restless wave
Forsakes its parent source,
Ungrateful man has found his way.
Embitter'd with remorse.
