Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/398

 260 THE POEMS OF ANNE �To ward our greater Cares, or mitigate your Woes. Ye Clouds! that pity'd our Distress, �And by your pacifying Showers (The soft and usual methods of Success) Kindly assay' d to make this Tempest less; Vainly your Aid was now alas! employ' d, In vain you wept o'er those destructive Hours, In which the Winds full Tyranny en joy 'd, �Nor wou'd allow you to prevail, 240 �But drove your scorn' d, and scatter' d Tears to wail The Land that lay destroy 'd. �Whilst You obey'd, you Winds ! that must fulfill �The just Disposer's Righteous Will ; Whilst not the Earth alone, you disarray, But to more ruin'd Seas wing'd your impetuous Way. �Which to foreshew, the still portentous Sun Beamless, and pale of late, his Race begun, Quenching the Rays, he had no Joy to keep, In the obscure, and sadly threaten'd Deep. 250 �Farther than we, that Eye of Heaven discerns, And nearer plac'd to our malignant Stars, Our brooding Tempests, and approaching Wars Anticipating learns. �When now, too soon the dark Event �Shews what that faded Planet meant ; Whilst more the liquid Empire undergoes, More she resigns of her entrusted Stores, The Wealth, the Strength, the Pride of diff rent Shores In one Devoted, one Recorded Night, 260 �Than Years had known destroy'd by generous Fight, Or Privateering Foes. �All Rules of Conduct laid aside, �No more the baffl'd Pilot steers, ��� �