Classic Poem

Thou Thanks expressive from the moistening eye!
Thou pledge assured of firm Dependence dear,
Reposed on O MNIPRESENCE , ever near — —
Thro' all that breathe, waft, waft thy hallow'd gale,
And let the universal wish exhale;
In symphony of vocal transport raise,
And mount to Heaven the tributary praise!
Whence, happy creatures! all your blessings flow,
Your voice to praise Him , and your skill to know;
Whence, as the drops that deck the morning's robe,
And gem the bosom of the twinkling globe,
Profusive gifts the S MILING G OODNESS sheds,
And boon around H IS boundless plenty spreads;
Nought, nought exempt; the myriad minim race
Inscrutable amid the etherial space,
That mock unseen, white human optic pries
Or aids the search with microscopic eyes,
The sweets of D EIFIED C OMPLACENCE claim;
To Him display the wonders of their frame,
H IS own contexture, where E TERNAL A RT ,
Emotive, pants within the alternate heart:
Here from the lungs the purple currents glide,
And hence impulsive bounds the sanguine tide,
With blithe pulsation beats the arterial maze,
And thro' the branching complication plays;
Its wanton floods the tubal system lave,
And to the veins resign their vital wave;
Thro' glands refining, shed specific juice,
Secreted nice to each appropriate use;
Or here expansile, in meanders bend,
While thro' the pores nutritive portions tend,
Their equal aliment dividual share,
And similar to kindred parts adhere.
From thousand rills the flux continuous drains,
Now swells the porta, now the cava veins;
Here rallies last the recollected blood,
And on the right pours in the cordial flood:
While gales ingredient to the thorax pass,
And breathing lungs imbibe the etherial mass;
Whence, their licentious ducts dilation claim,
And open obvious to the welcome stream,
Which salient, thro' the heart's contractile force,
Expulsive springs its recontinual course.
The captive air impatient of retreat,
Refines expansive with internal heat,
Its levity too rare to poise the exterior weight;
Compressive round the incumbent aether lies,
And strict its elemental fold applies,
Whence either pulmonary lobe expires,
And all the interior subtile breath retires;
Subsiding lungs their labouring vessels press,
Affected mutual with severe distress,
While towards the left their confluent torrents gush,
And on the heart's sinister cavern rush;
Collected there complete their circling rout,
And vigorous from their venal engine shoot.
Again the heart's constrictive powers revive,
And the fresh fountain thro' the Aorta drive;
Arterial valves oppose the refluent blood,
And swift injections push the lingering flood;
Sped by the last, the foremost currents bound,
And thus perennial run the purpling round.

So where beneath the culminating beam
From India south the expanded oceans steam,
Intense their fervid exhalations rise,
And scale the steep of equinoctial skies;
Collected now progressive proudly sail,
And ride high born upon the trading gale;
Now 'thwart the trope, or zone antartic steer,
And now aloof the Cape's emergence veer;
Now wheeling dextrous wind the Æthiop main,
And shading now the Atlantic ocean stain;
Now westward hang o'er Montezuma's throne,
And view the worlds to ancient worlds unknown:
Around the antipodes the adventurers roam,
And exiled never hope their native home;
Some pious drops the restless vagrants shed,
And now afresh their wing'd effusion spread;
Askance, or cross the broad Pacific deep,
Obliquely north the floating squadrons sweep;
Still arctic ply to reach the frozen pole,
Now hurry'd on Sarmatian tempests roll;
Sinister round extreme Imaus bend,
And glooming o'er the Scythian realms depend;
Now driven before the keen Septentrion fly,
And intercept the clear Norossian sky;
Now view where swathed the mighty Tartar lay;
Now sidelong hover on the Caspian sea;
Now gather blackening from the farther shore,
And o'er Armenia sluice the impetuous store;
Euphrates here and rapid Tigris swell,
And weep their streams where great Darius fell.
Primaeval there, the blissful garden stood;
Here, youthful Ammon stemm'd the torrent flood.
Circumfluous rolls the long disparted tide,
And mighty realms the wandering flux divide:
Here, Nineveh, and fair Seleucia rise;
There, Babel vain, attempts the laughing skies,
While proudly round the female structures gleam,
And break and tremble in the blazing stream;