THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 


 
 SELECT 
 
 POEMS. 
 
 PRINTED IN
 
 ELEGY, 
 
 WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. 
 BY MR. GRAY. 
 
 THE curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
 The lowing herd wind flowly o'er the lea, 
 The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, 
 And leaves the world to darknefs and to me. 
 
 Now fades the glimmering landfcape on the fight, 
 And all the air a folemn ftillnefs holds, 
 Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
 And drowfy tinklings lull the diftant folds ; 
 
 Save that, from yonder ivy- mantled tow'r, 
 The moping owl does to the moon complain 
 Of fuch, as wand'ring near her fecret bow'r 
 Moleft her ancient folitary reign, 
 
 B Beneath 
 
 975970
 
 t * ] 
 
 Beneath thofe rugged elms, that yew-tree's (hade, 
 Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap, 
 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet fleep. 
 
 The breezy call of incenfe-breathing Morn, 
 The fwallow twitt'ring from the ftraw-built fhed, 
 The cock's fhrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 
 No more mall roufe them from their lowly bed : 
 
 For them no more the blazing hearth mall burn, 
 Or bufy houfewife ply her evening care: 
 No children run to lifp their fire's return, 
 Or climb his knees the envied kifs to mare. 
 
 Oft did the harveft to their fickle yield, 
 Their furrow oft the ftubborn glebe has broke: 
 How jocund did they drive their team afield ! 
 How bow'd the woods beneath their fturdy ftroke ! 
 
 Let
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 Let not Ambition mock their ufeful toil, 
 Their homely joys, and deftiny obfcure -, 
 Nor Grandeur hear, with a difdainful fmile, 
 The fhort and limple annals of the poor. 
 
 The boaft of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike th' inevitable hour ; 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 
 
 Nor you, ye proud, impute to thefe the fault, 
 If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raife, 
 Where thro* the long-drawn ifle, and fretted vault, 
 The pealing anthem fwells the note of praife. 
 
 Can floried urn, or animated buft, 
 Back to its manfion call the fleeting breath? 
 Can Honour's voice provoke the filent duft, 
 Or Flatt'ry footh the dull cold ear of Death? 
 
 B 2 Perhaps
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 Perhaps in this negle&ed fpot is laid 
 Some heart oace pregnant with celeftial fire ; 
 Hands, that the rod of empire might have fway'd, 
 Or wak'd to ecftacy the living lyre : 
 
 But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
 Rich with the fpoils of Time, did ne'er unroll j 
 Chill Penury reprefs'd their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the foul. 
 
 Full many a gem of pureft ray ferene 
 The dark unfathom'd caves of Ocean bear : 
 Full many a flower is born to blum unfeen, 
 And wafte its fweetnefs on the defert air. 
 
 Some village Hampden, that with dauntlefs breaft 
 The little Tyrant of his fields withftood; 
 Some mute inglorious Milton here may reft, 
 Some Cromwell guiltlefs of his country's blood. 
 
 Th'
 
 [ S ] 
 
 Th' applaufe of lift'ning fenates to command, 
 The threats of pain and ruin to defpife, 
 To fcatter plenty o'er a fmiling land, 
 And read their hiftory in a nation's eyes, 
 
 Their lot forbad : nor circumfcrib'd alone 
 Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd; 
 Forbad to wade through flaughter to a throne, 
 And (hut the gates of mercy on mankind ; 
 
 The ftruggling pangs of confcious Truth to hide, 
 To quench the blumes of ingenuous Shame, . 
 Or heap the fhrine of Luxury and Pride 
 With incenfe kindled at the Mufe's flame. 
 
 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble ftrife, 
 Their fober wifhes never learn'd to ftrayj 
 Along the cool fequefter'd vale of life 
 They kept the noifelefs tenor of their way. 
 
 B 3 Yet
 
 Yet ev'n thefe bones from infult to protect, 
 Some frail memorial ftill ereded nigh, 
 With uncouth rhymes and (hapelefs fculpture deck'd, 
 Implores the palling tribute of a figh : 
 
 Their name, their years, fpelt by th' unletter'd Mufe, 
 The place of fame and elegy fupplyj 
 And many a holy text around me flrews. 
 That teach the ruftic moralift to die. 
 
 For who, to dumb Forgetfulnefs a prey, 
 This pleafing anxious being e'er refign'd, 
 Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
 Nor caft one longing ling'ring look behind ! 
 
 On fome fond breaft the parting foul relies, 
 Some pious drops the clofing eye requires; 
 Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, 
 Awake and faithful to her wonted fires. 
 
 For
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead 
 Doft in thefe lines their artlefs tale relate; 
 If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, 
 Some kindred Spirit mail inquire thy fate, 
 
 Haply fome hoary-headed fwain may fay, 
 ' Oft have we feen him at the peep of dawn, 
 ' Brufhing with hafty fteps the dews away 
 ' To meet the fun upon the upland lawn : 
 
 *' There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
 ' That wreathes its old fantaftic roots fo high, 
 ' His liftlefs length at noontide would he ftretch, 
 ' And pore upon the brook that babbles by. 
 
 ' Hard by yon wood, now fmiling, as in fcorn, 
 ' Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove, 
 ' Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, 
 ' Or craz'd with care, or crofs'd in hopelefs love. 
 
 B 4 One
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 ' One morn I mifs'd him on the cuftom'd hill, 
 ' Along the heath, and near his favourite tree ; 
 ' Another came; nor yet betide the rill, 
 ' Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he : 
 
 ' The next, with dirges due in fad array, 
 
 * Slow through the church- way path we fawhim borne : 
 
 * Approach and read (for thou canft read) the lay, 
 ' Grav'd on the flone, beneath yon aged thorn. 
 
 ' There fcatter'd oft, the earlieft of the year, 
 ' By hands unfeen are ihow'rs of violets found 3 
 ' The redbreaft loves to build and warble there, 
 ' And little footfleps lightly print the ground/ 
 
 THE
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 THE EPITAPH. 
 
 HER& refts his head upon the lap of Earth 
 A Youth t to Fortune and to Fame unknown: 
 Fair Science frown d not on his humble birth, 
 And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. 
 
 Large was his bounty, and his foul Jincere, 
 
 Heav'n did a recompence as largely fend: 
 
 He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear, 
 
 He gain' d from Heav'n ('twas all he wifh'd) a friend. 
 
 No farther fee k his merits to difclofe, 
 Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 
 (There they alike in trembling hope repofe) 
 The bofom of his Father and his God. 
 
 ODE
 
 ODE 
 
 ON A YOUNG LADY ATTENDING HER MOTHER. 
 BTMISS AIK1N. 
 
 H E N blooming beauty, in the noon of power, 
 While offer 'd joys demand each fprightly hour, 
 With all that pomp of charms and winning mien, 
 Which, fure to conquer, needs but to be feen^ 
 When me, whofe name the fofteft love infpires, 
 To the hufh'd chamber of difeafe retires, 
 To watch and weep befide a parent's bed, 
 Catch the faint voice, and raife the languid head, 
 What mixt delight each feeling heart muft warm ! 
 An angel's office fuits an angel's form ! 
 Thus the tall column graceful rears its head 
 To prop fome mould'ring tow'r with mofs o'erfpread, 
 Whofe ftately piles and arches yet difplay 
 The venerable graces of decay: 
 
 Thus
 
 Thus round the wither'd trunk frefh fhoots are feen 
 To fhade their parent with a cheerful green. 
 More health, dear Maid ! thy foothing prefence brings, 
 Than pureft fkies, or falutary fprings. 
 That voice, thofe looks, fuch healing virtues bear, 
 Thy fweet reviving fmiles might cheer defpair ; 
 On the pale lips detain the parting breath, 
 And bid hope bloflbm in the fhades of death. 
 Beauty, like thine, could never reach a charm 
 So pow'rful to fubdue, fo fure to warm. 
 On her lov'd child behold the mother gaze, 
 In weaknefs pleas'd, and fmiling thro' decays, 
 And leaning on that breaft her cares aflwage; 
 How foft a pillow for declining age ! 
 
 For this, when that fair frame muft feel decay, 
 (Ye fates protrad it to a diftant day!) 
 When thy approach no tumults fhall impart, 
 Nor that commanding glance ftrike thro* the heart; 
 
 When,
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
 When meaner beauties mall have leave to mine, 
 And crowds divide the homage lately thine ; 
 Not with the tranfient praife thofe charms can boaft 
 Shall thy fair fame and gentle deeds be loft : 
 Some pious hand mail thy weak limbs fuftain, 
 And pay thee back thefe generous cares again ; 
 Thy name mail flourifh, by the good approv'd, 
 Thy memory honour'd, and thy duft belov'd. 
 
 ODE
 
 [ '3 ] 
 
 ODE 
 
 TO WISDOM. 
 BT THE SAME. 
 
 O WISDOM! if thy foft controul 
 Can footh the ficknefs of the foul, 
 Can bid the warring paffions ceafe, 
 And breathe the calm of tender peace; 
 Wifdom ! I blefs thy gentle fway. 
 And ever, ever will obey. 
 
 But if thou com'ft with frown auftere 
 
 To nurfe the brood of care and fear, 
 
 To bid our fweeteft paffions die, 
 
 And leave us in their room a figh; 
 
 Or, if thine afpeft ftern have power 
 
 To wither each poor tranfient flower 
 
 That cheers the pilgrimage of woe, 
 
 And dry the fprings whence hope mould flow ; 
 
 Wifdom,
 
 [ '4 1 
 
 Wifdom, thine empire I difclaim, 
 Thou empty boaft of pompous name ! 
 In gloomy fhades of cloifters dwell, 
 But never haunt my cheerful cell. 
 Hail to pleafure's frolic train ! 
 Hail to fancy's golden reign ! 
 Feftive mirth, and laughter wild, 
 Free and fportful as the child ! 
 Hope, with eager fparkling eyes, 
 And eafy faith, and fond furprize ! 
 Let thefe, in fairy colours dreft, 
 For ever mare my carelefs breaft: 
 Then, tho' wife I may not be, 
 The wife themfelves (hall envy me. 
 
 ODE
 
 ODE 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF COL. ROSS. 
 
 BT MR. W. COLLINS. 
 
 I. 
 
 n i L E, loft to all his former mirth, 
 Britannia's genius bends to earth, 
 
 And mourns the fatal day; 
 While, ftain'd with blood, he flrives to tear 
 Unfeemly from his fea-green hair 
 
 The wreaths of cheerful May; 
 
 II. 
 
 The thoughts which mufing pity pays, 
 
 And fond remembrance loves to raife, 
 
 Your faithful hours attend ; 
 Still fancy, to herfelf unkind, 
 Awakes to grief the foften'd mind, 
 
 And points the bleeding friend. 
 
 III. By
 
 t 16 ] 
 
 III. 
 
 By rapid Scheld's defcending wave 
 
 His country's vows fhall blefs the grave, 
 
 WEere-e'er the youth is laid: 
 That facred fpot the village hind 
 With ev'ry fweeteft turf fhall bind, 
 
 And peace protect the {hade. 
 
 IV. 
 
 O'er him, whofe doom thy virtues grieve, 
 Aerial forms fhall fit at eve, 
 
 And bend the penfive head ! 
 And, fall'n to fave his injur'd land, 
 Imperial Honour's awful hand 
 
 Shall point his lonely bed ! 
 
 V. 
 
 The warlike dead of every age, 
 
 Who fill the fair recording page, 
 
 Shall leave their fainted reft : 
 And, half-reclining on his fpear, 
 Each wondering Chief by turns appear, 
 
 To hail the blooming gueft. 
 
 VI. Old
 
 [ '7 J 
 
 VI. 
 
 Old EDWARD'S fons, unknown to yield, 
 
 Shall crowd from CRESS Y'S laurcll'd field, 
 
 And gaze with fix'd delight; 
 Again for Britain's wrongs they feel, 
 Again they fnatch the gleamy fteel, 
 
 And wifti th' avenging fight. 
 
 VII. 
 
 If, weak to footh fo foft an heart, 
 Thefe pidlur'd glories nought impart 
 
 To dry thy conftant tear; 
 If yet in forrow's diftant eye, 
 Expos'd and pale thou feeft him lie, 
 
 Wild war infulting near ; 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Where-e'er from time thou court' ft relief, 
 The Mufe (hall ftill with focial grief 
 
 Her gentle promife keep : 
 Ev'n humble HARTING'S cottag'd vale 
 Shall learn the fad repeated tale, 
 
 And bid her fhepherds weep. 
 
 C ODE,
 
 f i8 ] 
 ODE, 
 
 WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1745. 
 Sr THE SAME. 
 
 How fleep the brave, who fink to reft, 
 By all their country's wifhes bleft ! 
 When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
 Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, 
 She there fhall drefs a fweeter fod 
 Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 
 
 By fairy hands their knell is rung, 
 By forms unfeen their dirge is fung : 
 There Honour comes, a Pilgrim grey, 
 To blefs the turf that wraps their clay, 
 And Freedom {hall awhile repair, 
 To dwell a weeping Hermit there ! 
 
 THE
 
 THE GARLAND. 
 BY M. PRIOR. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE pride of every grove I chofe, 
 
 The violet fweet, and lily fair, 
 The dappled pink, and blufhing rofe, 
 To deck my charming CH LOB'S hair. 
 
 II. 
 
 At morn the Nymph vouchfaf 'd to place 
 
 Upon her brow the various wreath; 
 The flowers lefs blooming than her face, 
 
 The fcent lefs fragrant than her breath. 
 
 III. 
 
 The flowers me wore along the day : 
 
 And every nymph and fhepherd faid, 
 That in her hair they look'd more gay 
 Than glowing in their native bed. 
 
 C 2 IV. Undreft
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
 IV. 
 
 Undreft at evening, when {he found 
 
 Their odours loft, their colours paft, 
 She chang'd her look, and on the ground 
 
 Her garland and her eyes {he caft. 
 
 V. 
 
 That eye dropt fenfe diftinct and clear, 
 
 As any Mufe's tongue could fpeak ; 
 When from its lid a pearly tear 
 
 Ran trickling down her beauteous cheek. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Diflembling what I knew too well, 
 
 My love, my life, faid I, explain 
 This change of humour: pr'ythee tell; 
 
 That falling tear what does it mean ? 
 
 VII. 
 
 She figh'd ; me fmil'd ; and to the flowers 
 
 Pointing, the lovely moralift faid : 
 See, friend, in fome few fleeting hours, 
 See yonder what a change is made ; 
 
 VIII. Ah
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Ah me ! the blooming pride of May 
 And that of beauty are but one : 
 
 At morn both flourifli bright and gay, 
 Both fade at evening, pale and gone. 
 
 IX. 
 
 At dawn poor STELLA danc'd and fung; 
 
 The amorous youth around her bow'd ; 
 At night her fatal knell was rung -, 
 I faw, and kifs'd her in her fhrowd ! 
 
 X. 
 
 Such as fhe is who died to-day, 
 
 Such I, alas ! may be to-morrow : 
 Go, DAMON, bid thy Mufe difplay 
 The juftice of thy CHLOE'S forrow. 
 
 C 3 HYMN.
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
 HYMN. 
 jr MR. JDDISON'. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE fpacious firmament on high, 
 
 With all the blue ethereal fky, 
 
 And fpangled heavens, a mining frame, 
 
 Their great original proclaim : 
 
 Th' unwearied fun, from day to day, 
 
 Doth his Creator's power difplay, 
 
 And publimes to every land 
 
 The work of an Almighty hand. 
 
 II. 
 
 Soon as the evening fhades prevail, 
 
 The moon takes up the wondrous talc, 
 And nightly to the liftening earth 
 Repeats the flory of her birth : 
 Whilft all the ftars that round her burn, 
 And all the planets in their turn, 
 
 Confirm
 
 [ 23 J 
 
 Confirm the tidings as they roll, 
 
 And fpread the truth from pole to pole. 
 
 III. 
 
 What though, in folemn filence, all 
 Move round this dark terreftrial ball ! 
 What though nor real voice nor found 
 Amidft their radiant orbs be found ! 
 In reafon's ear they all rejoice, 
 And utter forth a glorious voice, 
 For ever finging, as they fliine* 
 " The hand that made us is Divine/ 1 
 
 C 4 HYMN.
 
 HYMN. 
 Br THE SAME. 
 
 I. 
 
 \V HEN all thy mercies, O my God, 
 
 My rifing foul furveys ; 
 Tranfported with the view, I'm loft 
 In wonder, love, and praife : 
 
 II. 
 
 O how mall words with equal warmth 
 
 The gratitude declare, 
 That glows within my ravifh'd heart ? 
 
 But thou canft read it there. 
 
 III. 
 
 Thy providence my life fuftain'd, 
 
 And all my wants redreft, 
 When in the filent womb I lay, 
 And hung upon the breafl. 
 
 IV. To
 
 IV. 
 
 To all my weak complaints and cries 
 
 Thy mercy lent an ear, 
 Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learnt 
 To form themfelves in prayer. 
 
 V. 
 
 Unnumber'd comforts to my foul 
 
 Thy tender care beftow'd, 
 Before my infant heart conceiv'd 
 
 From whom thofe comforts flow'd. 
 
 VI. 
 
 When in the flippery paths of youth 
 
 With heedlefs fleps I ran, 
 Thine arm unfeen convey'd me fafe, 
 
 And led me up to man: 
 
 VII. 
 
 Through hidden dangers, toils, and deaths, 
 
 It gently cleared my way, 
 And through the pleafing fnares of vice, 
 More to be fear'd than they. 
 
 VIII. When
 
 VIII. 
 
 When worn with ficknefs, oft haft thou. 
 
 With health renew'd my face ; 
 And, when in fins and forrows funk, 
 Reviv'd my foul with grace. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Thy bounteous hand with worldly blifs 
 
 Has made my cup run o'er, 
 And in a kind and faithful friend 
 
 Haft doubled all my ftore. 
 
 X. 
 
 Ten thoufand, thoufand precious gifts 
 
 My daily thanks employ, 
 Nor is the leaft a chearful heart, 
 
 That taftes thofe gifts with joy. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Through every period of my life 
 
 Thy goodnefs I'll purfue -, 
 And after death in diftant worlds 
 The glorious theme renew. 
 
 XII. When
 
 XII. 
 
 When nature fails, and day and night 
 Divide thy works no more, 
 
 My ever-grateful heart, O Lord, 
 Thy mercy fliall adore. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Through all eternity to thee 
 
 A joyful fong I'll raife, 
 
 For, Oh ! eternity's too fhort 
 
 To utter all thy praifc. 
 
 HYMN.
 
 HYMN. 
 BT THE SAME. 
 
 I. 
 
 \V H E N riling from the bed of death, 
 
 O'erwhelm'd with guilt and fear, 
 J fee my Maker, face to face, 
 Oh how fhall I appear ! 
 
 II. 
 
 If yet while pardon may be found, 
 
 And mercy may be fought, 
 My heart with inward horror (brinks, 
 And trembles at the thought ; 
 
 III. 
 
 When thou, O Lord, (halt ftand difclos'd 
 
 In majefty fevere, 
 And fit in judgment on my foul, 
 Oh how (hall I appear! 
 
 IV. But
 
 IV. 
 
 But thou haft told the troubled mind, 
 Who does her fins lament, 
 
 The timely tribute of her tears 
 Shall endlefs woe prevent. 
 
 V. 
 
 Then fee the forrow of my heart, 
 
 Ere yet it be too late ; 
 And hear my Saviour's dying groans, 
 To give thofe forrows weight. 
 
 VI. 
 
 For never fhall my foul defpair 
 
 Her pardon to procure, 
 Who knows thy only Son has died 
 
 To make that pardon fure. 
 
 ON
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF ADDISON. 
 BT MR. TICK EL. 
 
 IF, dumb too long, the drooping Mufe hath ftay'd, 
 And left her debt to ADDISON unpaid; 
 Blame not her filence, WARWICK, but bemoan, 
 And judge, oh judge, my bofom by your own. 
 What mourner ever felt poetic fires ? 
 Slow comes the verfe, that real woe infpires : 
 Grief unaffected fuits but ill with art, 
 Or flowing numbers with a bleeding heart. 
 Can I forget the difmal night, that gave 
 My foul's beft part for ever to the grave ! 
 How filent did his old companions tread, 
 By midnight lamps, the manfions of the dead ; 
 Thro' breathing ftatues, then unheeded things, 
 Thro' rows of warriors, and thro' walks of kings ! 
 What awe did the flow folemn knell infpire ; 
 The pealing organ, and the pauiing choir ; 
 
 The
 
 [ 3' ] 
 
 The duties by the lawn-rob'd prelate pay'd ; 
 And the laft words, that duft to duft convey 'd! 
 While fpeechlefs o'er thy doling grave we bend. 
 Accept thefe tears, thou dear departed friend, 
 Oh ! gone for ever, take this long adieu ; 
 And fleep in peace, next thy lov'd MONTAGU! 
 
 To ftrew frefh laurels let the tafk be mine, 
 A frequent pilgrim at thy facred mrine ; 
 Mine with true fighs thy abfence to bemoan, 
 And grave with faithful epitaph thy ftone. 
 If e'er from me thy lov'd memorial part, 
 May fhame afflicT: this alienated heart; 
 Of thee forgetful if I form a fong, 
 My lyre be broken, and untun'd my tongue; 
 My grief be doubled, from thy image free, 
 And mirth a torment, unchaftis'd by thee. 
 
 Oft let me range the gloomy ifles alone, 
 (Sad luxury! to vulgar minds unknown) 
 Along the walls where fpeaking marbles mow 
 What worthies form the hallow'd mould below : 
 
 Proud
 
 [ 3* ] 
 
 Proud names, who once the reins of empire held ; 
 In arms who triumph'd; or in arts excell'd; 
 Chiefs, grac'd with fears, and prodigal of blood; 
 Stern patriots, who for facred freedom flood; 
 Juft men, by whom impartial laws were given; 
 And faints, who taught, and led the way to heaven. 
 Ne'er to thefe chambers, where the mighty reft, 
 Since their foundation, came a nobler gueft ; 
 Nor e'er was to the bowers of blifs convey 'd 
 A fairer fpirit, or more welcome made. 
 
 In what new region, to the juft affign'd, 
 What new employments pleafe th' unbody'd mind ? 
 A winged virtue, through th' ethereal fky, 
 From world to world unwearied does he fly ? 
 Or curious trace the long laborious maze 
 Of Heaven's decrees, where wondering Angels gaze ? 
 Does he delight to hear bold Seraphs tell 
 How Michael battled, and the Dragon fell? 
 Or, mix'd with milder Cherubim, to glow 
 In hymns of love, not ill elTay'd below ? 
 
 Or
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
 Or doft thou warn poor mortals left behind ? 
 
 A tafk well fuited to thy gentle mind ! 
 
 Ohl if fometimes thy fpotleis form defcend, 
 
 To me thy aid, thou guardian genius, lend ! 
 
 When age mifguides me, or when fear alarms, 
 
 When pain diftrelfes, or when pleafure charms, 
 
 In filent whifperings purer thoughts impart, 
 
 And turn from ill a frail and feeble heart ; 
 
 Lead through the paths thy virtue trod before, 
 
 'Till blifs fhall join, nor death can part us more. 
 
 That aweful form (which, fo the heavens decree, 
 
 Muft flill be lov'd, and ftill deplor'd by me) 
 
 In nightly vifions feldom fails to rife, 
 
 Or, rous'd by fancy, meet my waking eyes : 
 
 If bufinefs calls, or crowded courts invite, 
 
 Th' unblemifh'd ftatefman feems to flrike my fight; 
 
 If in the ftage I feek to footh my care, 
 
 I meet his foul, which breathes in CATO there; 
 
 If penfive to the rural fhades I rove, 
 
 His ihape o'ertakes me in the lonely grove : 
 
 D Twas
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
 *Twas there of juft and good he reafon'd ftrong, 
 Clear'd fome great truth, or rais'd fome ferious fong; 
 There patient ihow'd us the wife courfe to fleer, 
 A candid cenfor, and a friend lincere ; 
 There taught us how to live -, and (oh ! too high 
 The price for knowledge !) taught us how to die. 
 
 Thou hill, whofe brow the antique ftrudtures grace, 
 Rear'd by bold chiefs of WARWICK'S noble race, 
 Why, once fo lov'd, whene'er thy bower appears, 
 O'er my dim eye-balls glance the fudden tears! 
 How fweet were once thy profpefts frefh and fair, 
 Thy doping walks and unpolluted air! 
 How fweet the gloom beneath thy aged trees, 
 Thy noon-tide madow, and thy evening breeze ! 
 His image thy forfaken bowers reftore -, 
 Thy walks and airy profpecls charm no more ; 
 No more the fummer's in thy gloom allay 'd, 
 Thy evening breezes, and thy noon-day made. , 
 
 From other ills, however fortune frown'd, 
 Some refuge in the Mufe's art I found } 
 
 Reludant
 
 [ 35 1 
 
 Reluctant now I touch the trembling firing, 
 Bereft of him, who taught me how to fmg ; 
 And thefe fad accents, murmur'd o'er his urn, 
 Betray that abfence, they attempt to mourn. 
 Oh ! muft I then (now frem my bofom bleeds, 
 And CRAGGS in death to ADDISON fucceeds) 
 The vcrfe, begun to one loft friend, prolong, 
 And weep a fecond in th' unfinifh'd fong ! 
 
 Thofe works divine, which, on his death-bed laid, 
 To thee, O CRAGGS, th' expiring fage convey'd, 
 Great, but ill-omen'd monument of fame, 
 Nor he furviv'd to give, nor thou to claim. 
 Swift after him thy focial fpirit flies, 
 And clofe to his, how foon ! thy coffin lies. ' 
 Bleft pair ! whofe union future bards fhall tell 
 In future tongues; each other's boaft! farewel. 
 Farewel ! whom join'd in fame, in friendship try'd, 
 No chance could fever, nor the grave divide. 
 
 -mcrf 
 D 2 THE
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
 '. * ..a'ib' 51 
 THE HERMIT. 
 
 Sr Z>. PARNELL. 
 
 FA R in a wild, unknown to public view, 
 From youth to age a reverend Hermit grew ; 
 The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell, 
 His food the fruits, his drink the cryftal well: 
 Remote from man, with God he pafs'd the days, 
 Prayer all his bufmefs, all his pleafure praife. 
 
 A life fo facred, fuch ferene repofe, 
 Seem'd heaven itfelf, till one fuggeftion rofe 
 That vice mould triumph, virtue vice obey; 
 This fprung fome doubt of Providence's fway: 
 His hopes no more a certain profpedt boafl, 
 And all the tenour of his foul is loft. 
 So when a fmooth expanfe receives impreft 
 Calm nature's image on its watery breaft, 
 Down bend the banks, the trees depending grow, 
 And flues beneath with anfwering colours glow: 
 
 But
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
 But if a ftone the gentle fea divide, 
 Swift ruffling circles curl on every fide, 
 And glimmering fragments of a broken fun; 
 Banks, trees, and ikies, in thick diforder run. 
 
 To clear this doubt, to know the world by fight, 
 To find if books or fwains report it right 
 (For yet by fwains alone the world he knew, 
 Whofe feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew) 
 He quits his cell ; the pilgrim-ftaff he bore, 
 And fix'd the fcallop in his hat before; 
 Then, with the rifmg fun, a journey went, 
 Sedate to think, and watching each event. 
 
 The morn was wafted in the pathlefs grafs, 
 And long and lonefome was the wild to pafs ; 
 But when the fouthern fun had warm'tl the day, 
 A youth came pofting o'er a croffing way; 
 His raiment decent, his complexion fair, 
 And foft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair: 
 Then near approaching, Father, hail ! he cried ; 
 And hail, my fon! the reverend Sire replied; 
 
 D 3 Words
 
 [ 38 1 
 
 Words follow'd words, from queftion anfwer flow'cf. 
 And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road; 
 'Till each with other pleas'd, and loth to part, 
 While in their age they differ, join in heart : 
 Thus ftands an aged elm in ivy bound, 
 Thus youthful ivy clafps an elm around. 
 
 Now funk the fun ; the clofing hour of day 
 Came onward, mantled o'er with fober greyj 
 Nature in iilence bid the world repofe> 
 When near the road a ftately palace rofer 
 There by the moon thro' ranks of trees they pafs, 
 Whofe verdure crown'd their Hoping fides of grafs. 
 It chanc'd the noble matter of the dome 
 Still made his houfe the wandering Granger's home: 
 Yet flill the kindnefs, from a thirft of praife, 
 Prov'd the vain flourifh of expenfive eafe. 
 The pair arrive : the livery 'd fervants wait, 
 Their lord receives them at the pompous gate ; 
 The table groans with coftly piles of food, 
 And all is more than hofpitably good. 
 
 Then,
 
 t 39 J 
 
 Then, led to reft, the day's long toil they drown, 
 Deep funk in fleep, and (ilk, and heaps of down. 
 
 At length 'tis morn, and at the dawn of day 
 Along the wide canals the Zephyrs play; 
 Frefh o'er the gay parterres the breezes creep, 
 And {hake the neighbouring wood to banifh fleep: 
 Up rife the guefls, obedient to the call; 
 An early banquet deck'd the fplendid hall; 
 Rich lufcious wine a golden goblet grac'd, 
 Which the kind matter forc'd the guefts to tafte. 
 Then, pleas'd and thankful, from the porch they go; 
 And, but the Landlord, none had caufe of woe : 
 His cup was vanim'd ; for in fecret guife 
 The younger Gueft purloin'd the glittering prize. 
 
 As one who fpies a ferpent in his way, if.ji 
 Gliflening and bafking in the fummer ray, 
 Diforder'd flops to fhun the danger near, 
 Then walks with faintnefs on, and looks with fear; 
 So feem'd the Sire, when, far upon the road, 
 The mining fpoil his wiley partner (liow'd. 
 
 D 4 He
 
 [ 4 1 
 
 He ftopp'd with filence, walk'd with trembling heart, 
 And much he wifh'd, but durft not afk, to part: 
 Murmuring he lifts his eyes, and thinks it hard , 
 That generous adlions meet a bafe reward. 
 
 While thus they pafs, the fun his glory fhrouds, 
 The changing fkies hang out their fable clouds -, 
 A found in air prefaged approaching rain, 
 And beafts to covert feud acrofs the plain. 
 Warn'd by the iigns, the wandering pair retreat 
 To fcek for fhelter at a neighbouring feat: 
 'Twas built with turrets on a rifing ground, 
 And ftrong, and large, and unimprov'd around ; 
 Its owner's temper, timorous and fevere, 
 Unkind and griping, caus'd a defert there. 
 As near the Mifer's heavy doors they drew, 
 Fierce riling gufts with fudden fury blew, 
 The nimble lightning mix'd with mowers began, j\// 
 And o'er their heads loud rolling thunder ran. , rfx 
 Here long they knock, but knock or call in vain, 
 Driven by the wind, and batter'd by the rain. 
 
 At
 
 [ 4' ] 
 
 At length fome pity warm'd the matter's breafl ''' 
 ('Twas then his threfhold firft receiv'd a gueft): ' 
 Slow creaking turns the door with jealous cattt; fn 
 And half he welcomes in the fhivering pair ; 
 One frugal faggot lights the naked walls, 
 And nature's fervour through their limbs recalls : 
 Bread of the coarfeft fort, with meagre wine, 
 (Each hardly granted) ferv'd them both to dine ; 
 And when the tempeft firft appear'd to ceafe, 
 A ready warning bid them part in peace. 
 
 With ftill remark the pondering Hermit view'd, 
 In one fo rich, a life fo poor and rude ; 
 And why mould fuch (within himfelf he cried) 
 Lock the loft wealth a thoufand want befide ? 
 But what new marks of wonder foon take place 
 In every fettling feature of his face, 
 
 v f _/ -iTf* 
 
 When from his veft the young companion bore 
 That cup the generous landlord own'd before, 
 And paid profufely with the precious bowl 
 The ftinted kindnefs of this churlim foul. 
 
 But
 
 [ 4* ] 
 
 But now the clouds in airy tumult fly, 
 The fun emerging opes an azure iky ; 
 A frefher green the fmelling leaves difplay, 
 And, glittering as they tremble, cheer the day: 
 The weather courts them from the poor retreat, 
 And the glad mafter bolts the wary gate. 
 
 While hence they walk, the Pilgrim's bofom wrought 
 With all the travel of uncertain thought ; 
 His partner's acts without their caufe appear, 
 'Twas there a vice, and feem'd a madnefs here: 
 Detefting that, and pitying this, he goes, 
 Loft and confounded with the various mows. 
 
 Now night's dim (hades again involve the fky ; 
 Again the wanderers want a place to lie ; 
 Again they fearch, and find a lodging nigh. 
 The foil improv'd around, the manfion neat, 
 And neither poorly low nor idly great ; 
 It feem'd to fpeak its matter's turn of mind, 
 Content, and not to praifc, but virtue kind. 
 
 Hither
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
 Hither the walkers turn with weary feet, 
 Then blefs the manfion, and the mafter greet: 
 Their greeting fair, beftow'd with modeft guife, 
 The courteous mafter hears, and thus replies: 
 Without a vain, without a grudging heart, 
 To him, who gives us all, I yield a part ; 
 From him you come, for him accept it here, 
 A -frank and fober, more than coftly cheer. 
 He fpoke, and bid the welcome table fpread ; 
 Then talk of virtue till the time of bed ; 
 When the grave houfehold round his hall repair, 
 Warn'd by a bell, and clofe the hours with prayer. 
 
 At length the world, renew'd by calm repofe, 
 Was ftrong for toil, the dappled morn arofe ; 
 Before the Pilgrims part, the younger crept 
 Near the clos'd cradle, where an infant flept, 
 And writh'd his neck: the Landlord's little pride, 
 O ftrange return ! grew black, and gafp'd, and died. 
 Horror of horrors ! what ! his only fon ! 
 How look'd our Hermit when the fa& was done ; 
 
 Not
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 Not hell, tho' hell's black jaws in funder part, 
 And breathe blue fire, could more affault his heart. 
 
 Confus'd and {truck with iilence at the deed,' 
 He flies, but trembling fails to fly with fpeed. 
 His fteps the Youth purfues ; the country lay 
 Perplex'd with roads, a fervant fliow'd the way: 
 A river crofs'd the path ; the pafTage o'er 
 Was nice to find -, the fervant trod before ; 
 Long arms of oaks an open bridge fupplied, 
 And deep the waves beneath the bending glide. 
 The Youth, who feem'd to watch a time to fin, 
 Approach'd the carelefs guide, and thruft him in ; 
 Plunging he falls, and rifing lifts his head, 
 Then flaming turns, and fmks among the dead. 
 
 Wild fparkling rage inflames the father's eyes, 
 He burfts the bands of fear, and madly cries, 
 Detefted wretch ! But fcarce his fpeech began, 
 When the ftrange partner feem'd no longer man : 
 His youthful face grew more ferenely fweet ; 
 His robe turn'd white, and flow'd upon his feet -, 
 
 Fair
 
 t 45 ] 
 
 Fair rounds of radiant points inveft his hair 5 
 Celeftial odours breathe through purpled air -, 
 And wings, whofe colours glitter'd on the day, 
 Wide at his back their gradual plumes difplay. 
 The form ethereal burfts upon his fight, 
 And moves in all the majefty of light. 
 
 Tho' loud at firft the Pilgrim's paffion grew, 
 Sudden he gaz'd, and wift not what to do ; 
 Surprize in fecret chains his words fufpends, 
 And in a calm his fettling temper ends. 
 But filence here the beauteous Angel broke 
 (The voice of muiic ravim'd as he fpoke). 
 
 Thy prayer, thy praife, thy life to vice unknown, 
 In fweet memorial rife before the throne; lisft n 
 Thefe charms, fuccefs in our bright region find, 
 And force an Angel down to calm thy rnindja.J M 
 For this commiflion'd, I forfook the fky j 
 Nay, ceafe to kneel thy fellow-fervant I. ,{j n^dW 
 
 Then know the truth of government divine, > ; 
 And let thefe fcruples be no longer thine, jdoi 3iH 
 
 The
 
 [ 4ff J 
 
 The Maker juftly claims that world he made ; 
 In this the right of Providence is laid ; 
 Its facred majefty through all depends 
 On uling fecond means to work his ends ; 
 'Tis thus, withdrawn in ftate from human eye, 
 The Power exerts his attributes on high ; 
 Your actions ufes, nor controuls your will, 
 And bids the doubting fons of men be ftill. 
 
 What ftrange events can jftrike with more furprize, 
 Than thofe which lately ftruck thy wondering eyes ? 
 Yet, taught by thefe, confefs th' Almighty juft, 
 And, where you can't unriddle, learn to truft ! 
 
 The great, vain man, who far'd on coftly food, 
 Whofe life was too luxurious to be good ; 
 Who made his ivory ftands with goblets mine, 
 And forc'd his guefts to morning draughts of wine ; 
 Hath, with the cup, the gracelefs cuftom loft, 
 And ftill he welcomes, but with lefs of coft. 
 
 The mean fufpicious wretch, whofe bolted doer 
 Ne'er mov'd in pity to the wandering poor, 
 
 With
 
 [ 47 1 
 
 With him I left the cup, to teach his mind 
 That Heaven can blefs, if mortals will be kind : 
 Confcious of wanting worth, he views the bowl, 
 And feels compaffion touch his grateful foul. 
 Thus artifts melt the fullen ore of lead, 
 With heaping coals of fire upon its head ; 
 In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow, 
 And, loofe from drofs, the filver runs below. 
 
 Long had -our pious friend in virtue trod, 
 But nowthe child half wean'd his heart from God; 
 (Child of his age) for him he liv'd in pain, 
 And meafur'd back his fteps to earth again. 
 To what exceffes had his dotage run ! 
 But God, to fave the father, took the fon. 
 To all but thee in fits he feem'd to go ; 
 And 'twas my ministry to deal the blow. 
 The poor fond parent, humbled in the dufl, 
 Now owns in tears the punimment was juft. 
 
 But now had all his fortune felt a wrack, 
 Had that falfe fervant fped in fafety back ; 
 
 This
 
 [ 48 J 
 
 This night his treafur'd heaps he meant to fleal, 
 And what a fund of charity would fail ! 
 
 Thus Heaven inftru&s thy mind: this trial o'er, 
 Depart in peace, refign, and fin no more. 
 
 On founding pinions here the youth withdrew, 
 The Sage ftood wondering as the Seraph flew. 
 Thus look'd Eliiha when, to mount on high, 
 His matter took the chariot of the fky: 
 The fiery pomp afcending left the view; 
 The prophet gaz'd, and wim'd to follow too. 
 
 The bending Hermit here a prayer begun: 
 Lord ! as in heaven, on earth thy will be done! 
 Then gladly turning, fought his ancient place, 
 And pafs'd a life of piety and peace. 
 
 ON
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF DR. PARNELL. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE EARL OF OXFORD 
 AND EARL MORTIMER. 
 
 BT MR. POPE. 
 
 SUCH were the notes thy once-lov'd Poet fung, 
 "Till death untimely flopp'd his tuneful tongue. 
 Oh juft beheld and loft! admir'd and mourn'd! 
 With fofteft manners, gentleft arts, adorn'd ! 
 Bleft in each fcience, bleft in every ftrain ! 
 Dear to the Mufe, to HARLEY dear in vain! 
 
 For hinx, thou oft haft bid the world attend, 
 Fond to forget the ftatefman in the friend: 
 For SWIFT and him, defpis'd the farce of ftate, 
 The fober follies of the wife and great ; 
 Dexterous, the craving, fawning crowd to quit, 
 And pleas'd to 'fcape from flattery to wit. 
 
 Abfent or dead, ftill let a friend be dear, 
 (A figh the abfent claims, the dead a tear) 
 
 E Recal
 
 [ 5 1 
 
 Recal thofe nights that clos'd thy toilfome days, 
 Still hear thy PAR NELL in his living lays : 
 Who carelefs, now, of intereft, fame, or fate, 
 Perhaps forgets that OXFORD e'er was great 5 
 Or, deeming meaneft what we greateft call, 
 Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall. 
 
 And fure, if aught beneath the feats divine 
 Can touch immortals, 'tis a foul like thine: 
 A foul fupreme, in each hard inftance tried, 
 Above all pain, all paffion, and all pride, 
 The rage of power, the blaft of public breath, 
 The luft of lucre, and the dread of death. 
 
 In vain to deferts thy retreat is made ; 
 The Mufe attends thee to the filent fhade : 
 'Tis her's, the brave man's lateft fteps to trace, 
 Re-judge his a<5ts, and dignify difgrace ; 
 When intereft calls off all her fneaking train, 
 When all th' obliged defert, and all the vain, 
 She waits, or to the fcaffold, or the cell, 
 When the laft lingering friend hath bid farewell. 
 
 E'en
 
 E'en now fhe fhades thy evening- walk with bays, 
 (No hireling fhe, no proftitute to praife) 
 E'en now, obfervant of the parting ray, 
 Eyes the calm fun-fet of thy various day, 
 Thro' fortune's cloud one truly great can fee, 
 Nor fears to tell, that MORTIMER is he. 
 
 E 2 THE
 
 [ 5* ] 
 
 THE SPLEEN. 
 BY MR. MATTHEW GREEN. 
 
 1 H i s motley piece to you I fend, 
 Who always were a faithful friend ; 
 Who, if difputes fhould happen hence, 
 Can beft explain the author's fenfe \ 
 And, anxious for the public weal, 
 Do, what I fing, fo often feel. 
 
 The want of method pray excufe, 
 Allowing for a vapour'd Mufe ; 
 Nor, to a narrow path confin'd, 
 Hedge in by rules a roving mind. 
 
 The child is genuine ; you may trace 
 Throughout the fire's tranfmitted face. 
 Nothing is flolen : my Mufc, tho' mean, 
 Draws from the fpring me finds within ; 
 Nor vainly buys what Gildon fells, 
 Poetic buckets for dry wells. 
 
 School-
 
 [.53 ] 
 
 School-helps I want to climb on high, 
 Where all the ancient treafures lie, 
 And there unfeen commit a theft 
 On wealth, in Greek exchequers left. 
 Then, where? from whom"? what can I fteal, 
 Who only with the moderns deal ? 
 This were attempting to put on 
 Raiment from naked bodies won: 
 They fafely fing before a thief, 
 They cannot give who want relief; 
 Some few excepted, names well known, 
 And juftly laurel'd with renown, 
 Whofe ftamp of genius marks their ware, 
 And theft detedts : of theft beware ; 
 From Moore fo lafh'd, example fit, 
 Shun petty larceny in wit. 
 
 Firft know, my friend, I do not mean 
 To write a treatife on the Spleen ; 
 Nor to prefcribe, when nerves convulfe ; 
 Nor mend th' alarum watch, your pulfe: 
 
 Tp* fj 
 O
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
 If I am right, your queftion lay, 
 What courfe I take to drive away 
 The day- mare Spleen, by whofe falfe pleas 
 Men prove mere fuicides in eafe ; 
 And how I do myfelf demean 
 In ftormy world to live ferene. 
 
 When by its magic -lantern Spleen 
 With frightful figures fpreads life's fcene, 
 And threatening profpe&s urge my fears, 
 A ftranger to the luck of heirs ; 
 Reafon, fome quiet to reftore, 
 Shews part is fubftance, fhadow more ; 
 With Spleen's dead weight tho' heavy grown, 
 In life's rough tide I fink not down, 
 But fwim, till Fortune throws a rope, 
 Buoyant on bladders fill'd with hope. 
 
 I always choofe the plaineft food 
 To mend vifcidity of blood. 
 Hail! water- gruel, healing power, 
 Of eafy accefs to the poor - t 
 
 Thy
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
 Thy help love's confeflbrs implore, 
 And do&ors fecretly adore : 
 To thee I fly, by thee dilute, 
 Thro' veins my blood doth quicker moot, 
 And by fwift current throws off clean 
 Prolific particles of Spleen. 
 
 I never fick by drinking grow, 
 Nor keep myfelf a cup too low ; 
 And feldom Chloe's lodgings haunt, 
 Thrifty of fpirits, which I want. 
 
 Hunting I reckon very good 
 To brace the nerves, and ilir the blood -, 
 But after no field-honours itch, 
 Atchiev'd by leaping hedge and ditch. 
 While Spleen lies foft relax'd in bed, 
 Or o'er coal fires inclines the head, 
 Hygeia's fons, with hound and horn, 
 And jovial cry awake the morn: 
 Thefe fee her from the dufky plight, 
 Smear'd by th' embraces of the night, 
 
 E 4 With
 
 t 56 ] 
 
 With roral warn redeem her face, 
 And prove herfelf of Titan's race ; 
 And, mounting in loofe robes the flues, 
 Shed light and fragrance as me flies : 
 Then horfe and hound fierce joy difplay, 
 Exulting at the Hark-away, 
 And in purfuit o'er tainted ground 
 From lungs robuft field-notes refound : 
 Then, as St. George the dragon flew, 
 Spleen pierc'd, trod down, and dying view> 
 While all their fpirits are on wing, 
 And woods, and hills, and vallies ring. 
 
 To cure the mind's wrong bias, Spleen, 
 Some recommend the bowling-green ; 
 Some, hilly walks -, all, exercife -, 
 Fling but a ftone, the giant dies ; 
 Laugh, and be well. Monkeys have been 
 Extreme good doctors for the Spleen ; 
 And kitten, if the humour hit, 
 Has harlequin'd away the fit. 
 
 Since
 
 [ 57 ] 
 
 Since mirth is good in this behalf, 
 At fome particulars let us laugh ; 
 Witlings, brifk fools, curs'd with half fenfe, 
 That Simulates their impotence, 
 Who buz in rhime, and, like blind flies, 
 Err with their wings for want of eyes ; 
 Poor authors worfhipping a calf, 
 Deep tragedies that make us laugh, 
 A ftricl: diflenter faying grace, 
 A lecturer preaching for a place, 
 Folks, things prophetic to difpenfe, 
 Making the paft the future tenfe, 
 The popifh dubbing of a prieft, 
 Fine epitaphs on knaves deceas'd, 
 Green-apron'd Pythonifla's rage, 
 Great ^Efculapius on his ftage, 
 A mifer ftarving to be rich, 
 The prior of Newgate's dying fpeech, 
 A jointur'd widow's ritual ftate, 
 Two Jews difputing tete-a-tete, 
 
 New
 
 [ 58 ] 
 
 New almanacks compos'd by feers, 
 
 Experiments on felons ears, 
 
 Difdainful prudes, who ceafelefs ply 
 
 The fuperb mufcle of the eye, 
 
 A coquet's April-weather face, 
 
 A Queenborough Mayor behind his mace, 
 
 And fops in military mew, 
 
 Are fovereign for the cafe in view. 
 
 If Spleen-fogs rife at clofe of day, 
 I clear my evening with a play, 
 Or to fome concert take my way* 
 The company, the mine of lights, 
 The fcenes of humour, mufic's flights, 
 Adjuft and fet the foul to rights. 
 
 Life's moving pictures, well-wrought plays, 
 To others' griefs attention raife: 
 Here, while the tragic fictions glow, 
 We borrow joy by pitying woe ; 
 There, gaily comic fcenes delight, 
 And hold true mirrors to our fight. 
 
 Virtue,
 
 [ 59 J 
 
 Virtue, in charming drefs array'd, 
 Calling the paffions to her aid, 
 When moral fcenes juil actions join, 
 Takes fhape, and /hews her face divine. 
 
 Mufic has charms, we all may find, 
 Ingratiate deeply with the mind. 
 When art does found's high power advance, 
 To mufic's pipe the paffions dance - t 
 Motions unwill'd its powers have fhewn, 
 Tarantulated by a tune. 
 Many have held the foul to be 
 Nearly allied to harmony: 
 Her have I known, indulging grief, 
 And munning company's relief, 
 Unveil her face, and looking round 
 Own, by neglecting forrow's wound, 
 The confanguinity of found. 
 
 In rainy days keep double guard, 
 Or Spleen will furely be too hard ; 
 
 Which,
 
 [ 60 ]. . 
 
 Which, like thofe fifh by failors met, 
 
 Fly higheft, while their wings are wet. 
 
 In fuch dull weather, fo unfit 
 
 To enterprize a work of wit, 
 
 When clouds one yard of azure fky, 
 
 That's fit for fimile, deny, 
 
 I drefs my face with fludious looks, 
 
 And fhorten tedious hours with books. 
 
 But if dull fogs invade the head, 
 
 That memory minds not what is read, 
 
 I fit in window dry as ark, 
 
 And on the drowning world remark : 
 
 Or to fome coffee -houfe I ft ray 
 
 For news, the manna of the day, 
 
 And from the hipp'd difcourfes gather, 
 
 That politics go by the weather: 
 
 Then feek good-humour'd tavern chums,' 
 
 And play at cards, but for fmall fums ; 
 
 Or with the merry fellows quaff, 
 
 And laugh aloud with them that laugh ; 
 
 Or
 
 Or drink a joco-ferious cup 
 
 With fouls who've ta'en their freedom up ; 
 
 And let my mind, beguil'd by talk, 
 
 In Epicurus' garden walk, 
 
 Who thought it heav'n to be ferene - f 
 
 Pain, hell -, and purgatory, Spleen. 
 
 Sometimes I drefs, with women fit, 
 And chat away the gloomy fit, 
 Quit the ftiff garb of ferious fenfe, 
 And wear a gay impertinence ; 
 Nor think, nor fpeak with any pains, 
 But lay on fancy's neck the reins ; 
 Talk of unufual fwell of waift 
 In maid of honour loofely lac'd, 
 And beauty borrowing Spanifti red, 
 And loving pair with feparate bed, 
 And jewels pawn'd for lofs of game, 
 And then redeem'd by lofs of fame -, 
 Of Kitty (aunt left in the lurch 
 By grave pretence to go to church) 
 
 Perceiv'd
 
 [ 62 ] 
 
 Perceiv'd in hack with lover fine, 
 Like Will, and Mary on the coin: 
 And thus in modiih manner we 
 Jn aid of fugar fweeten tea. 
 
 Permit, ye fair, your idol form, 
 Which e'en the coldeft heart can warm, 
 May with its beauties grace my line, 
 While I bow down before its fhrine, 
 And your throng' d altars with my lays 
 Perfume, and get by giving praife. 
 With fpeech fo fweet, fo fweet a mien, 
 You excommunicate the Spleen, 
 Which, fiend-like, flies the magic ring 
 You form with found, when pleas'd to fing. 
 Whate'er you fay, howe'er you move, 
 We look, we Men, and approve. 
 Your touch, which gives to feeling blifs, 
 Our nerves officious throng to kifs ; 
 By Celia's pat, on their report, 
 The grave-air'd foul, inclin'd to fport, 
 
 Renounces
 
 [ 63 ] 
 
 Renounces wifdom's fallen pomp, 
 
 And loves the floral game, to romp. 
 
 For who can view the pointed rays, 
 
 That from black eyes fcintillant blaze? 
 
 Love on his throne of glory feems 
 
 Encompafs'd with fatellite beams. 
 
 But when blue eyes, more foftly bright, 
 
 DirFufe benignly humid light, 
 
 We gaze, and fee the fmiling Loves, 
 
 And Cytherea's gentle doves, 
 
 And raptur'd fix in fuch a face 
 
 Love's mercy-feat, and throne of grace. 
 
 Shine but on age, you melt its fnow -, 
 
 Again fires long-extinguifh'd glow j 
 
 And, charm' d by witchery of eyes, 
 
 Blood long congealed liquefies : 
 
 True miracle, and fairly done 
 
 By heads which are ador'd while on. 
 
 But Oh ! what pity 'tis to find 
 Such beauties both of form and mind, 
 
 By
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
 By modern breeding much debas'd, 
 In half the female world at leaft! 
 Hence I with care fuch lotteries mun, 
 Where, a prize mifs'd, I'm quite undone ; 
 And han't, by venturing on a wife, 
 Yet run the greateft rifk in life. 
 
 Mothers, and guardian aunts, forbear 
 Your impious pains to form the fair ; 
 Nor lay out fo much coft and art 
 But to deflower the virgin heart ; y . ' ' 
 Of every folly-fort ering bed 
 By quickening heat of cuftom bred. 
 Rather than by your culture fpoil'd, 
 Defift, and give us nature wild ; 
 Delighted with a hoyden foul, 
 Which truth and innocence controul. 
 Coquets, leave off affected arts, 
 Gay fowlers at a flock of hearts ; 
 Woodcocks to mun your fnares have fkill, 
 You mew fo plain, you ftrive to kill. 
 
 In
 
 [ 65 ] 
 
 In love the artlefs catch the game, 
 And they fcarce mifs who never aim. 
 
 The world's great Author did create 
 The fex to fit the nuptial ftate, 
 And meant a blefling in a wife 
 To folace the fatigues of life ; 
 And old infpired times difplay, 
 How wives could love, and yet obey. 
 Then truth, and patience of controul, 
 And houfewife-arts adorn'd the foul ; 
 And charms, the gift of nature, (hone ; 
 And jealoufy, a thing unknown : 
 Veils were the only mafks they wore j 
 Novels (receipts to make a whore) 
 Nor ombre* nor quadrille they knew, 
 Nor Pam's puifTance felt at loo : 
 Wife men did not, to be thought gay, 
 Then compliment their power away : 
 But left, by frail defires mined, 
 The girls forbidden paths fhould tread, 
 
 F Of
 
 t 66 I 
 
 Of ignorance rais'd the fafe high wall ; 
 We fink haw-haws, that (hew them all : 
 Thus we at once folicit fenfe, 
 And charge them not to break the fence. 
 
 Now, if untir'd, confider friend, 
 What I avoid to gain my end. 
 
 I never am at Meeting feen> 
 Meeting, that region of the Spleen > 
 The broken heart, the bufy fiend, 
 The inward call, on Spleen depend. 
 
 Law, licens'd breaking of the peace, 
 To which vacation is difeafe, 
 A gypfy didtion fcarce known well 
 By th' magi, who law-fortunes tell, 
 I fhun -, nor let it breed within 
 Anxiety, and that the Spleen ; 
 Law, grown a foreft, where perplex 
 The mazes, and the brambles vex, 
 Where its twelve verderers every day 
 Are changing ftill the public way; 
 
 Yet
 
 [ 6 7 ] 
 
 Yet if we mifs our path and err, 
 We grievous penalties incur ; 
 And wanderers tire, and tear their fkin, 
 And then get out where they went in. 
 
 I never game, and rarely bet ; 
 Am loth to lend, or run in debt: 
 No compter- writs me agitate, 
 Who moralizing pafs the gate, 
 And there mine eyes on fpendthrifts turn, 
 Who vainly o'er their bondage mourn : 
 Wifdom, before beneath their care, 
 Pays her upbraiding vifits there ; 
 And forces folly thro* the grate 
 Her panegyric to repeat : 
 This view, profufely when inclin'd, 
 Enters a caveat in the mind: 
 Experience, join'd with common fenfe, 
 To mortals is a providence. 
 
 Paflion, as frequently is feen, 
 Subfiding fettles into Spleen : 
 
 F 2 Hence,
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
 Hence, as the plague of happy life, 
 I run away from party- ftrife ; 
 A prince's caufe, a church's claim, 
 I've known to raife a mighty flame, 
 And prieft, as floker, very free 
 To throw in peace and charity. 
 
 That tribe, whofe practicals decree 
 Small-beer the deadlier! herefy; 
 Who, fond of pedigree, derive 
 From the moft noted whore alive ; 
 Who own wine's old prophetic aid, 
 And love the mitre Bacchus made ; 
 Forbid the faithful to depend 
 On half-pint drinkers for a friend, 
 And in whofe gay red-letter'd face 
 We read good-living more than grace : 
 Nor they fo pure, and fo precife, 
 Immaculate as their white of eyes, 
 Who for the fpirit hug the Spleen, 
 Phyladler'd throughout all their mien; 
 
 Who
 
 1 
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
 Who their ill-tafted home-brew'd pray'r 
 To the flate's mellow forms prefer ; 
 Who doctrines, as infectious, fear, 
 Which are not fteep'd in vinegar, 
 And famples of heart- chefted grace 
 Expofe in mew-glafs of the face, 
 Did never me as yet provoke, 
 Either to honour band and cloak, 
 Or deck my hat with leaves of oak. 
 
 I rail not with mock-patriot grace 
 At folks, becaufe they are in place.; 
 Nor, hir'd to praife with ftallion pen, 
 Serve the ear-lechery of men ; 
 But to avoid religious jars 
 The laws are my expofitors, 
 Which in my doubting mind create 
 Conformity to church and ftate. 
 I go, purfuant to my plan, 
 To Mecca with the caravan ; 
 
 F 3 And
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 And think it right in common fenfe 
 Both for diverfion and defence. 
 
 Reforming fchemes are none of mine ^ 
 To mend the world's a vaft defign: 
 Like theirs, who tug in little boat 
 To pull to them the {hip afloat, 
 While to defeat their labour'd end, 
 At once both wind and ftream contend: 
 Succefs herein is feldom feen, 
 And zeal, when baffled, turns to Spleen. 
 
 Happy the man, who, innocent, 
 Grieves not at ills he can't prevent ; 
 His fkiff does with the current glide, 
 Not puffing pull'd againft the tide ; 
 He, paddling by the fcuffling crowd, 
 Sees unconcern'd life's wager row'd j 
 And when he can't prevent foul play, 
 Enjoys the folly of the fray. 
 
 By thefe reflections I repeal 
 Each hafly promife made in zeal. 
 
 When
 
 3 difp'ay, > 
 J 
 
 [ 71 1 
 
 When general Proclamations fay, 
 " We are bound our great light to 
 " And Indian darknefs drive away 
 Yet none but drunken watchmen fend, 
 And fcoundrel link-boys for that end j 
 When they cry up this holy war, 
 " Which every chriftian mould be for," 
 Yet fuch as owe the law their ears, 
 We find employ 'd as engineers ! 
 This view my forward zeal fo mocks, 
 In vain they hold the money-box; 
 At fuch a conduct, which intends 
 By vicious means fuch virtuous ends, 
 I laugh off Spleen, and keep my pence 
 From fpoiling Indian innocence. 
 
 Yet philofophic love of eafe 
 I fuffer not to prove difeafe ; 
 But rife up in the virtuous caufe- 
 Of a free prefs, and equal laws,, 
 
 F 4 The
 
 [ 72 ] 
 
 The prefs reftrain'd ! nefandous thought I 
 In vain our fires have nobly fought : 
 While free from force the prefs remains, 
 Virtue and Freedom chear our plains, 
 And learning largefTes beftows, 
 And keeps uncenfur'd open houfe. 
 We to the nation's public mart 
 Our works of wit, and fchemes of art, 
 And philofophic goods this way, 
 Like water-carriage, cheap convey. 
 This tree, which knowledge fo affords, 
 Inquifitors with flaming fwords 
 From lay-approach with zeal defend, 
 Left their own paradife mould end. 
 The prefs from her fecundous womb 
 Brought forth the arts of Greece and Rome ; 
 Her offspring, {kill'd in logic war, 
 Truth's banner wav'd in open air ; 
 The monfter Super ftition fled, 
 And hid in fhades its Gorgon head ; 
 
 And
 
 [ 73 1 
 
 And lawlefs power, the long-kept field, 
 By reafon quell'd, was forc'd to yield. 
 This nurfe of arts, and freedom's fence 
 To chain, is treafon againft fenfe ; 
 And Liberty, thy thoufand tongues 
 None filence, who defign no wrongs ; 
 For thofe, that ufe the gag's reftraint, 
 Firft rob, before they flop complaint. 
 Since difappointment galls within, 
 And fubjugates the foul to Spleen, 
 Moft fchemes, as money-fnares, I hate, 
 And bite not at projector's bait; 
 Sufficient wrecks appear each day, 
 And yet frefli fools are caft away. 
 Ere well the bubbled can turn round, 
 Their painted veflel runs aground ; 
 Or in deep feas it overfets 
 By a fierce hurricane of debts ; 
 Or helm- directors in one trip, 
 Freight firft embezzled, fink the mip. 
 
 Such
 
 [ 74 ] 
 
 Such was of late a corporation, 
 The brazen ferpent of the nation, 
 Which, when hard accidents diftrefs'd, 
 The poor muft look at to be bleft, 
 And thence expect, with paper feal'd 
 By fraud and ufury, to be heal'd. 
 
 I in no foul-confumption wait 
 Whole years at levees of the great ; 
 And hungry hopes regale the while 
 On the fpare diet of a fmile : 
 There you may fee the idol ftand 
 With mirror in his wanton hand ; 
 Above, below, now here, now there 
 He throws about the funny glare : 
 Crowds pant, and prefs to feize the prize, 
 The gay delufion of their eyes. 
 
 When Fancy tries her limning fkill 
 To draw and colour at her will, 
 And raife and round the figures well, 
 And (hew her talent to excel, 
 
 I guard
 
 I 75 1 
 
 I guard my heart, left it fhould woo 
 Unreal beauties fancy drew, 
 And difappointed, feel defpair 
 At lofs of things that never were. 
 
 When I lean politicians mark 
 Grazing on asther in the park -, 
 Who e'er on wing with open throats 
 Fly at debates, exprefles, votes, 
 Juft in the manner fwallows ufe, 
 Catching their airy food of news ; 
 Whofe latrant ftomachs oft moleft 
 The deep-laid plans their dreams fuggeft : 
 Or fee fome poet penfive fit, 
 Fondly miftaking Spleen for Wit - y 
 Who, tho' Ihort- winded, ftill will aim 
 To found the epic trump of Fame - y 
 Who ftill on Phoebus' fmiles will doat, 
 Nor learn convidtton from his coat ; 
 I blefs my ftars, I never knew 
 Whimfeys, which clofe purfu'd, undo, 
 
 And
 
 [ 76 ]' 
 
 And have from old experience been 
 
 Both parent and the child of Spleen. 
 
 Thefe fubjefts of Apollo's ftate, 
 
 Who from falfe fire derive their fate, 
 
 With airy purchafes undone 
 
 Of lands, which none lend money on, 
 
 Born dull, had follow'd thriving ways, 
 
 Nor loft one hour to gather bays : 
 
 Their fancies firft delirious grew, 
 
 And fcenes ideal took for true. 
 
 Fine to the fight ParnafTus lies, 
 
 And with falfe profpects cheats their eyes ; 
 
 The fabled gods the poets fing, 
 
 A feafon of perpetual fpring, 
 
 Brooks, flowery fields, and groves of trees, 
 
 Affording fweets and fimiles, 
 
 Gay dreams infpir'd in myrtle bowers, 
 
 And wreaths of undecaying flowers, 
 
 Apollo's harp with airs divine, 
 
 The facred mufic of the Nine, 
 
 Views
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
 Views of the temple rais'd to Fame, 
 And for a vacant nitch proud aim, 
 Ravifh their fouls, and plainly mew 
 What Fancy's fketching power can do : 
 They will attempt the mountain fteep, 
 Where on the top, like dreams in fleep, 
 The Mufes revelations mew, 
 That find men crack'd, or make them fo. 
 You friend, like me, the trade of rhime 
 Avoid, elaborate wafte of time ; 
 Nor are content to be undone, 
 To pafs for Phoebus' crazy fon. 
 Poems, the hop- grounds of the brain, 
 Afford the moft uncertain gain ; 
 And lotteries never tempt the wife 
 With blanks fo many to a prize. 
 I only tranfient vifits pay, 
 Meeting the Mufes in my way, 
 Scarce known to the faftidious dames, 
 Nor fkill'd to call them by their names. 
 
 Nor
 
 [ 78 1 
 
 Nor can their palTports in thefe days, 
 Your profit warrant, or your praife. 
 On poems by their dictates writ, 
 Critics, as fworn appraifers, fit, 
 And, mere upholfterers, in a trice 
 On gems and paintings fet a price. 
 Thefe tayloring artifts for our lays 
 Invent crampt rules, and, with ftrait ftays 
 Striving free Nature's fhape to hit, 
 Emaciate fenfe, before they fit. 
 
 A common place, and many friends, 
 Can ferve the plagiary's endsj 
 Whofe eafy vamping talent lies, 
 Firft wit to pilfer, then difguife. 
 Thus fome, devoid of art and fkill 
 To fearch the mine on Pindus' hill, 
 Proud to afpire and workmen grow, 
 By genius doom'd to ftay below, 
 For their own digging mew the town 
 Wit's treafure brought by others down. 
 
 Some
 
 [ T) ] 
 
 Some wanting, if they find a mine, 
 An artift's judgment to refine, 
 On fame precipitately fix'd, 
 The ore with bafer metals mix'd 
 Melt down, impatient of delay, 
 And call the vicious mafs a play : 
 All thefe engage, to ferve their ends, 
 A band felecl: of trufty friends, 
 Who, leflbn'd right, extol the thing, 
 As Pfapho taught his birds to fing, 
 Then to the ladies they fubmit, 
 Returning officers on wit ; 
 A crowded houfe their prefence draws, 
 And on the beaus impofes laws ; 
 A judgment in its favour ends, 
 When all the pannel are its friends : 
 Their natures merciful and mild 
 Have from mere pity fav'd the child ; 
 In bulrufh ark the bantling found, 
 Helplefs and ready to be drown'd, 
 
 They
 
 [ So ] 
 
 They have preferv'd by kind fupport, 
 And brought the baby-mufe to court. 
 
 But there's a youth, that you can name, 
 Who needs no leading- firings to fame, 
 Whofe quick maturity of brain 
 The birth of Pallas may explain : 
 Dreaming of whofe depending fate, 
 I heard Melpomene debate, 
 " This, this is he, that was foretold 
 Should emulate our Greeks of old ; 
 Infpir'd by me with facred art, 
 He fmgs, and rules the varied heart 
 If Jove's dread anger he rehearfe, 
 We hear the thunder in his verfe ; 
 If he defcribes love turn'd to rage, 
 The furies riot in his page ; 
 If he fair liberty and law 
 By ruffian power expiring draw, 
 The keener paflions then engage 
 Aright, and fandtify their rage ; 
 
 If
 
 t 81 ] 
 
 If he attempt difaftrous love, 
 
 We hear thofe plaints that wound the grove, 
 
 Within, the kinder paffions glow, 
 
 And tears diftill'd from pity flow." 
 
 From the bright vifion I defcend, 
 And my deferted theme attend. 
 
 Me never did ambition feize, 
 Strange fever, moft inflam'd by eafe ! 
 The a&ive lunacy of pride, 
 That courts jilt Fortune for a bride; 
 This paradife-tree, fo fair and high, 
 I view with no afpiring eye : 
 Like afpine make the reftlefs leaves, 
 And Sodom-fruit our pains deceives ; 
 Whence frequent falls give no furprize, 
 But fits of Spleen call'd " growing wife." 
 Greatnefs in glittering forms difplay'd 
 Affedls weak eyes much us'd to (hade ; 
 And by its falfly-envy'd fcene 
 Gives felf-debafing fits of Spleen. 
 G
 
 [ 82 ] 
 
 We mould be pleas'd that things are fo, 
 Who do for nothing fee the mow, 
 And, middle-fiz'd, can pafs between 
 Life's hubbub fafe, becaufe unfeen ; 
 And 'midft the glare of greatnefs trace 
 A watery fun -mine in the face ; 
 And pleafures fled to, to redrefs 
 The fad fatigue of idlenefs. 
 
 Contentment, parent of delight, 
 So much a ftranger to our fight, 
 Say, goddefs, in what happy place 
 Mortals behold thy blooming face -, 
 Thy gracious aufpices impart, 
 And for thy temple chufe my heart. 
 They, whom thou deigned to infpire, 
 Thy fcience learn, to bound defire ; 
 By happy alchymy of mind 
 They turn to pleafure all they find j 
 They both difdain an outward mien, 
 The grave and folemn garb of Spleen, 
 
 And
 
 And meretricious arts of drefs, 
 To feign a joy, and hide diftrefs ; 
 Unmov'd when the rude tempeft blows, 
 Without an opiate they repofe ; 
 And cover'd by your fhield, defy 
 The whizzing fhafts, that round them fly: 
 Nor, meddling with the gods' affairs, 
 Concern themfelves with diftant cares ; 
 But place their blifs in mental reft, 
 And feaft upon the good poflefs'd. 
 
 Forc'd by foft violence of prayer, 
 The blythfome goddefs fooths my care ; 
 I feel the deity infpire, 
 And thus me models my defire : 
 Two hundred pounds, half-yearly paid, 
 Annuity fecurely made ; 
 A farm fome twenty miles from town, 
 Small, tight, falubrious, and my own ; 
 Two maids, that never faw the town, 
 A ferving-man not quite a clown j 
 
 G 2 A boy
 
 t 84 J 
 
 A boy to help to tread the mow, 
 
 And drive, while t'other holds the plough *, 
 
 A chief of temper form'd to pleafe, 
 
 Fit to converfe, and keep the keys ; 
 
 And better to preferve the peace, 
 
 CcmmifTion'd by the name of niece: 
 
 With understandings of a lize 
 
 To think their matter very wife. 
 
 May Heaven (it's all I wifh for) fend 
 
 One genial room to treat a friend ; 
 
 Where decent cupboard, little plate, 
 
 Difplay benevolence, not ftate. 
 
 And may my humble dwelling ftand 
 
 Upon fome chofen fpot of land ; 
 
 A pond before full to the brim, 
 
 Where cows may cool, and geefe may fwim ; 
 
 Behind, a green like velvet neat, 
 
 Soft to the eye, and to the feet -, 
 
 Where odorous plants in evening fair 
 
 Breathe all around ambrofial air ; 
 
 From
 
 From Eurus, foe to kitchen-ground, j 
 
 Fenc'd by a dope with bufhes crown'd, 
 
 Fit dwelling for the feather'd throng, 
 
 Who pay their quit-rents with a fong; 
 
 With opening views of hill and dale, 
 
 Which fenfe and fancy too regale, 
 
 Where the half-cirque, which vifion bounds, 
 
 Like amphitheatre furrounds : 
 
 And woods impervious to the breeze, 
 
 Thick phalanx of embodied trees, 
 
 From hills thro' plains in dufk array 
 
 Extended far, repel the day. 
 
 Here ftillnefs, height, and folemn fhade 
 
 Invite, and contemplation aid : 
 
 Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate 
 
 The dark decrees and will of fate ; 
 
 And dreams beneath the fpreadirig beech 
 
 Infpire, and docile fancy teach, 
 
 While foft as breezy breath of wind, 
 
 Impulfes ruflle thro' the mind : 
 
 G 3 Here
 
 [ 86 ] 
 
 Here Dryads, fcorning Phoebus' ray, 
 While Pan melodious pipes away, 
 In meafur'd motions frifk about, 
 'Till old Silenus puts them out. 
 There fee the clover, pea, and bean, 
 Vie in variety of green ; 
 Frefh paftures fpeckled o'er with fheep, 
 Brown fields their fallow fabbaths keep, 
 Plump Ceres golden trefTes wear, 
 And poppy top-knots deck her hair ; 
 And filver flreams through meadows ftray, 
 And Naiads on the margin play, 
 And leiTer nymphs on fide of hills 
 From play- thing urns pour down the rills. 
 Thus fhelter'd, free from care and flrife, 
 May I enjoy a calm thro' life : 
 See faction, fafe in low degree, 
 As men at land fee florms at fea; 
 And laugh at miferable elves, 
 Not kind, fo much as to themfelves j 
 
 Curs'd
 
 t 87 ] 
 
 Curs'd with fuch fouls of bafe alloy, 
 
 As can pofTefs, but not enjoy; 
 
 Debarr'd the pleafure to impart 
 
 By avarice, fphin&er of the heart ; 
 
 Who wealth, hard earn'd by guilty cares, 
 
 Bequeath untouch'd to thanklefs heirs. 
 
 May I, with look ungloarn'd by guile, 
 
 And wearing Virtue's livery-fmile, 
 
 Prone the diftreffed to relieve, 
 
 And little trefpafles forgive, 
 
 With income not in Fortune's pow'r, 
 
 And ikill to make a bufy hour, 
 
 With trips to town life to amufe, 
 
 To purchafe books, and hear the news, 
 
 To fee old friends, brufh off the clown, 
 
 And quicken tafte at coming down, 
 
 Unhurt by licknefs' blafting rage, 
 
 And flowly mellowing in age, 
 
 When Fate extends its gathering gripe, 
 
 Fall off like fruit grown fully ripe, 
 
 G 4 Quit
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
 Quit a worn being without pain ; 
 Perhaps to blofTom foon again ! 
 
 But now more ferious fee me grow, 
 And what I think, my Memmius, know. 
 
 Th' enthufiaft's hopes, and raptures wild, 
 Have never yet my reafon foil'd - t 
 His fpringy foul dilates like air, 
 When free from weight of ambient care, 
 And, hufh'd in meditation deep, 
 Slides into dreams, as when aileep ; 
 Then, fond of new difcoveries grown, 
 Proves a Columbus of her own \ 
 Difdains the narrow bounds of place, 
 And thro' the wilds of endlefs fpace, 
 Born up on metaphyfick wings, 
 Chafes light forms and fhadowy things, 
 And in the vague excurlion caught, 
 Brings home fome rare exotick thought. 
 The melancholy man fuch dreams, 
 As brighter!: evidence, efteems; 
 
 Fain
 
 [ 89 ] 
 
 Fain would he fee fome diftant fcenc 
 Suggefted by his reftlefs Spleen, 
 And Fancy's telefcope applies 
 With tinctur'd glafs to cheat his eyes. 
 Such thoughts, as love the gloom of night, 
 I clofe examine by the light ; 
 For who, tho' brib'd by gain to lie, 
 Dare fun-beam-written truths deny, 
 And execute plain common fenfe 
 On faith's mere hearfay evidence? 
 That fuperftition mayn't create, 
 And club its ill with thofe of fate, 
 I many a notion take to tafk, 
 Made dreadful by its vifor-mafk; 
 Thus fcruple, fpafm of the mind, 
 Is cur'd, and certainty I find ; 
 Since optic reafon fhews me plain, 
 I dreaded fpe&res of the brain ; 
 And legendary fears are gone, 
 Tho' in tenacious childhood fown. 
 
 Thus
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 Thus in opinions I commence 
 Freeholder in the proper fenfe ; 
 And neither fuit nor fervice do, 
 Nor homage to pretenders mew, 
 Who boaft themfelves by fpurious roll 
 Lords of the manor of the foul : 
 Preferring fenfe, from chin that's bare, 
 To nonfenfe thron'd in whifker'd hair. 
 
 To thee, Creator uncreate, 
 O Entium Ens ! divinely great ! 
 Hold, Mufe, nor melting pinions try, 
 Nor near the blazing glory fly, 
 Nor (training break thy feeble bow, 
 Unfeather'd arrows far to throw: 
 Thro' fields unknown nor madly flray, 
 Where no ideas mark the way : 
 With tender eyes, and colours faint, 
 And trembling hands forbear to paint : 
 Who features veil'd by light can hit ? 
 Where can, what has no outline, fit ? 
 
 My
 
 [ 91 ] 
 
 My foul, the vain attempt forego ; 
 
 Thyfelf, the fitter fubjedt, know. 
 
 He wifely fhuns the bold extreme, 
 
 Who foon lays by th' unequal theme, 
 
 Nor runs, with wifdom's Sirens caught, 
 
 On quickfands fwallowing fhipwreck'd thought ; 
 
 But, confcious of his diftance, gives 
 
 Mute praife, and humble negatives. 
 
 In one, no objed: of our light. 
 
 Immutable and infinite, 
 
 Who can't be cruel, or unjuft, 
 
 Calm and refign'd, I fix my truft; 
 
 To him my pad and preient flate 
 
 I owe, and mufl my future fate. 
 
 A ftranger into life I'm come, 
 
 Dying may be our going home; 
 
 Tranfported here by angry Fate, 
 
 The convi&s of a prior ftate. 
 
 Hence
 
 [ 92 I 
 
 Hence I no anxious thoughts beftow 
 On matters, I can never know -, 
 Thro' life's foul way, like vagrant pafs'd, 
 He'll grant a fettlement at laft, 
 And with fweet eafe the wearied crown, 
 By leave to lay his being down. 
 If doom'd to dance th' eternal round 
 Of life no fooner loft but found, 
 And diffolution foon to come, 
 Like fponge, wipes out life's prefent fujn> 
 But can't our ftate of power bereave 
 An endlefs feries to receive ; 
 Then, if hard dealt with here by fate, 
 We balance in another ftate, 
 (And confcioufnefs muft go along 
 And fign th' acquittance for the wrong) 
 He for his creatures mufl decree 
 More happinefs than mifery* 
 
 Or
 
 t 93 ] 
 
 Or be fuppofed to create, 
 Curious to try, what 'tis to hate : 
 And do an ad:, which rage infers, 
 'Caufe lamenefs halts, or blindnefs errs. 
 Thus, thus I fleer my bark, and fail 
 On even keel with gentle gale ; 
 At helm I make my reafon fit, 
 My crew of pafiions all fubmit. 
 If dark and bluftering prove fome nights, 
 Philofophy puts forth her lights ; 
 Experience holds the cautious glafs, 
 To fhun the breakers as I pafs, 
 And frequent throws the wary lead, 
 To fee what dangers may be hid : 
 And once in feven years I'm feen 
 At Bath or Tunbridge, to careen -, 
 Tho' pleas'd to fee the dolphins play, 
 I mind my compafs and my way ; 
 
 With
 
 [ 94 I 
 
 With ftore fufficient for relief, 
 And wifely ftill prepar'd to reef; 
 Nor wanting the difperfive bowl 
 Of cloudy weather in the foul, 
 I make (may Heaven propitious fend 
 Such wind and weather to the end !) 
 Neither becalm'd, nor over-blown, 
 Life's voyage to the world unknown 
 
 THE
 
 t 95 ] 
 
 THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF. 
 BY DRTDEN. 
 
 No w turning from the wintry figns, the fun 
 His courfe exalted thro* the Ram had run, 
 And, whirling up the Ikies, his chariot drove 
 Thro' Taurus, and the lightfome realms of love ; 
 Where Venus from her orb defcends in fhowers, 
 To glad the ground, and paint the fields with flowers; 
 When firft the tender blades of grafs appear, 
 And buds, that yet the blaft of Eurus fear, 
 Stand at the door of life, and doubt to clothe the year; 
 Till gentle heat, and foft repeated rains, 
 Make the green blood to dance within their veins ; 
 Then, at their call, embolden'd out they come, 
 And fwell the gems, and burft the narrow room ; 
 Broader and broader yet their blooms difplay, 
 Salute the welcome fun, and entertain the day. 
 
 Then 
 
 j
 
 [; 96 1 
 
 Then from their breathing fouls the fweets repair 
 To fcent the fkies, and purge th' unwholfome air: 
 Joy fpreads the heart, and, with a general fong, 
 Spring ifTues out, and leads the jolly months along. 
 
 In that fweet feafon, as in bed I lay, 
 And fought in fleep to pafs the night away, 
 I turn'd my weaned lide, but ftill in vain, 
 Tho' full of youthful health and void of pain ; 
 Cares I had none, to keep me from my reft, 
 For love had never enter'd in my breaft ; 
 I wanted nothing fortune could fupply, 
 Nor did me flumber till that hour deny : 
 I wonder'd then, but after found it true, 
 Much joy had dried away the balmy dew; 
 Seas would be pools, without the brufhing air, 
 To curl the waves ; and fure fome little care 
 Should weary nature fo, to make her want repair. 
 
 When Chanticleer the fecond watch had fung, 
 Scorning the fcorner fleep, from bed I fprung ; 
 
 And
 
 [ 97 1 
 
 And dreffing, by the moon, in loofe array, 
 
 Pafs'd out in open air, preventing day, 
 
 And fought a goodly grove, as fancy led my way. 
 
 Straight as a line in beauteous order flood 
 
 Of oaks unfhorn a venerable wood ; 
 
 Frefh was the grafs beneath, and every tree, 
 
 At diftance planted in a due degree, 
 
 Their branching arms in air with equal fpace 
 
 Strctch'd to their neighbours with a long embrace ; 
 
 And the new leaves on every bough were feen, 
 
 Some ruddy colour'd, fome of lighter green : 
 
 The painted birds, companions of the fpring, 
 
 Hopping from fpray to fpray, were heard to iing : 
 
 Both eyes and ears receiv'd a like delight, 
 
 Enchanting mufic, and a charming fight. 
 
 On Philomel I fix'd my whole defire ; 
 
 And liften'd for the queen of all the quire ; 
 
 Fain would I hear her heavenly voice to fing ; 
 
 And wanted yet an omen to the fpring. 
 
 H Attending
 
 i 98 i 
 
 Attending long in vain, I took the way, 
 Which thro' a path, but fcarcely printed, lay 3 
 In narrow mazes oft it feem'd to meet, 
 And look'd, as lightly prefs'd by fairy feet. 
 Wandering I walk'd alone, for fUll methought 
 To fome ftrange end fo flrange a path was wrought: 
 
 At laft it led me where an arbour flood, 
 
 
 The facred receptacle of the wood : 
 
 This place unmark'd, tho' oft I walk'd the green, 
 
 In all my progrefs I had never feen : 
 
 And feiz'd at once with wonder and delight, 
 
 Gaz'd all around me, new to the tranfporting fight. 
 
 'Twas bench'd with turf, and goodly to be. feen, 
 
 The thick young grafs arofe in frefher green : 
 
 The mound was newly made, no fight could pafs 
 
 Betwixt the nice partitions of the grafs -, 
 
 The well-united fods fo clofely lay ; 
 
 And all around the fhades defended it from day : 
 
 For fycamores with eglantine were fpread, 
 
 A hedge about the fides, a covering over head. 
 
 And
 
 t 99 ] 
 
 And fo the fragrant brier was wove between, 
 The fycamore and flowers were mixt with green, 
 That nature feem'd to vary the delight; 
 And fatisfy'd at once the fmell and fight. 
 The matter workman of the bower was known 
 Through fairy-lands, and built for Oberon ; 
 Who twining leaves with fuch proportion drew, 
 They rofe by meafure, and by rule they grew ; 
 No mortal tongue can half the beauty tell ; 
 For none but hands divine could work fo well. 
 Both roof and lides were like a parlour made, 
 A foft recefs, and a cool fummer made ; 
 The hedge was fet fo thick, no foreign eye 
 The perfons plac'd within it could efpy ; 
 But all that pafs'd without with eafe was fecfl, 
 As if nor fence nor tree was plac'd between : 
 'Twas border 'd with a field ; and fome was plain 
 With grafs, and fome was fow'd with rifing grain : 
 That, now the dew with fpangles deck'd the ground, 
 A fweeter fpot of earth was never found. 
 
 H 2 Ilook'd
 
 I look'd and look'd, and ftill with new delight j 
 Such joy my foul, fuch pleafures fill'd my fight; 
 And the frem eglantine exhal'd a breath, 
 Whofe odours were of power to raife from death. 
 Nor fullen difcontent, nor anxious care, 
 Ev'n tho' brought thither, could inhabit there : 
 But thence they fled, as from their mortal foe, . 
 For this fweet place could only pleafure know. 
 
 Thus as I mus'd I caft afide my eye, 
 And faw a medlar- tree was planted nigh: 
 The fpreading branches made a goodly fhow, 
 And full of opening blooms was every bough : 
 A goldfinch there I faw with gaudy pride 
 Of painted plumes, that hopp'd from iide to fide, 
 Still pecking as me pafs'd; and ftill me drew 
 The fweets from every flower, and fuck'd the dew : 
 Suffic'd at length, me warbled in her throat, 
 And tun'd her voice to many a merry note; 
 But indiftincl:, and neither fwcet nor clear, 
 Yet fuch as footh'd my foul, and pleas'd my ear. 
 
 Her
 
 [ 101 ] 
 
 Her fhort performance was no fooner try'd, 
 When me I fought, the nightingale, reply'd: 
 So fweet, fo fhrill, fo varioufly me fung, 
 That the grove echo'd, and the valleys rung : 
 And I fo ravifh'd with her heavenly note, 
 I flood entranc'd, and had no room for thought, 
 But all o'er-power'd with ecftafy of blifs, 
 Was in a pleafing dream of paradife -, 
 At length I wak'd, and looking round the bow'r 
 Search'd every tree, and pry'd on every flower, 
 If any where by chance I might efpy 
 The rural poet of the melody | 
 For ftill methought me fung not far away ; 
 At laft I found her on a laurel fpray : 
 Clofe by my fide me fat, and fair in fight, 
 Full in a line, againft her oppofite; 
 Where ftood with eglantine the laurel twin'd, 
 And both their native fweets were well conjoint. 
 
 On the green bank I fat, and liften'd long ; 
 (Sitting was more convenient for the fong:) 
 
 H 3 Nor
 
 [ 10. ] 
 
 Nor till her lay was ended could I move, "ij- 1 
 But wifh'd to dwell for ever in the grove ; 
 Only methought the time too fwiftly pafs'd, 
 And every note I fear'd would be the laft : 
 My fight and fmell, and hearing were employ'd, 
 And all three fenfes in full guft enjoy'd. 
 And what alone did all the reft furpafs, 
 The fweet pofTeffion of the fairy place % 
 Single, and confcious to myfelf alone 
 Of pleafures to the excluded world unknown : 
 Pleafures which no where elfe were to be found, 
 And all Elyfium in a fpot of ground. 
 
 Thus while I fat intent to fee and hear, 
 And drew perfumes of more than vital air, 
 All fuddenly I heard the approaching found 
 Of vocal mufic, on the enchanted ground: 
 An hoft of faints it feem'd, fo full the quire ; 
 As if the blefs'd above did all confpire 
 To join their voices, and neglect the lyre. 
 
 At
 
 C 103 ] 
 
 At length there ifTued from the grove behind 
 A fair aflembly of the female kind : 
 A train lefs fair, as ancient fathers tell, 
 Seduc'd the fons of heaven to rebel. 
 I pafs their form, and every charming grace ; 
 Lefs than an angel would their worth debafe : 
 But their attire, like liveries of a kind, 
 All rich and rare, is frefh within my mind. 
 In velvet white as fnow the troop was gown'd, 
 The feams with fparkling emeralds fet around : 
 Their hoods and fleeves the fame -, and purfled o'er 
 With diamonds, pearls, and all the mining ftore 
 Of Eaftern pomp : their long defcending train, 
 With rubies edg'd, and faphires, fwept the plain: 
 High on their heads, with jewels richly fet, 
 Each lady wore a radiant coronet. 
 Beneath the circles, all the quire was grac'd 
 With chaplets green on their fair foreheads plac'd; 
 Of laurel fome, of woodbine many more ; 
 And wreaths of Agnus -caftus others bore ; 
 
 H 4 Thefe
 
 [ iQ4 I 
 
 Thefe laft, who with thofe virgin crowns were drefs'd, 
 Appear'd in higher honour than the reft : 
 They danc'd around ; but in the midft was feen 
 A lady of a more majeftic mien ; 
 By ftature and by beauty mark'd their fovereign queen. 
 
 She in the midft began with fober grace ; 
 Her fervants' eyes were fix'd upon her face, 
 And, as me mov'd or turn'd, her motions view'd, 
 Her meafures kept, and ftep by ftep purfued. 
 Methought me trod the ground with greater grace, 
 With more of godhead fhining in her face j 
 And as in beauty me furpafs'd the quire, 
 So, nobler than the reft, was her attirct 
 A crown of ruddy gold inclos'd her brow, 
 Plain without pomp, and rich without a {how : 
 A branch of Agnus-caftus in her hand 
 She bore aloft (her fceptre of command j) 
 Admir'd, ador'd by all the circling crowd, 
 For wherefoe'er {he turn'd her face, they bow'd : 
 
 And,
 
 And, as (he danc'd, a roundelay me fung, 
 
 In honour of the laurel, ever young : 
 
 She rais'd her voice on high, and fung fo clear, 
 
 The fawns came fcudding from the groves to hear : 
 
 And all the bending foreft lent an ear. 
 
 At every clofe me made, the attending throng 
 
 Reply'd, and bore the burden of the fong : 
 
 So juft, fo fmall, yet in fo fweet a note, 
 
 It feem'd the mufic melted in the throat. 
 
 Thus dancing on, and tinging as they danc'd, 
 They to the middle of the mead advanc'd, 
 Till round my arbour a new ring they made, 
 And footed it about the fecret made. 
 O'erjoy'd to fee the jolly troop fo near, 
 But fomewhat aw'd, I fhook with holy fear; 
 Yet not fo much but that I noted well 
 Who did the moft in fong or dance excel. 
 
 Not long I had obferv'd, when from afar 
 I heard a fudden fymphony of war ; 
 
 The
 
 The neighing courfers, and the foldiers cry, 
 And founding trumps that feem'd to tear the fky : 
 I faw foon after this, behind the grove 
 From whence the ladies did in order move, 
 Come ifTuing out in arms a warrior train, 
 That like a deluge pour'd upon the plain i 
 On barbed Heeds they rode in proud array, 
 Thick as the college of the bees in May, 
 When fwarming o'er the dufky fields they fly, 
 New to the flowers, and intercept the iky : 
 So fierce they drove, their courfers were fo fleet* 
 That the turf trembled underneath their feet* 
 
 To tell their coftly furniture were long, 
 The fummer's day would end before the fong r 
 To purchafe but the tenth of all their ftore 
 Would make the mighty Perfian monarch poor: 
 Yet what I can, I will : Before the reft 
 The trumpets iflued, in white mantles drefs'd : 
 
 A numerous
 
 [ io 7 ] 
 
 A numerous troop, and all their heads around 
 With chaplets green of cerrial-oak were crown'd, 
 And at each trumpet was a banner bound ; 
 Which waving in the wind difplay'd at large 
 Their mailer's coat of arms, and knightly charge. 
 Broad were the banners, and of fnowy hue, 
 A purer web the filk-worm never drew. 
 The chief about their necks the fcutcheons wore, 
 With orient pearls and jewels powder'd o'er : 
 Broad were their collars too, and every one 
 Was fet about with many a coftly flone. 
 Next thefe, of kings at arms a goodly train 
 In proud array came prancing o'er the plain : 
 Their cloaks were cloth of filver mix'd with gold, 
 And garlands green around their temples roll'd : 
 Rich crowns were on their royal fcutcheons plac'd, 
 With fapphires, diamonds, and with rubies grac'd : 
 And as the trumpets their appearance made, 
 So thefe in habits were alike array'd ; 
 
 But
 
 But with a pace more fober, and more flow j 
 And twenty, rank in rank, they rode a row. 
 The purfuivants came next, in number more ; 
 And like the heralds each his fcutcheon bore r 
 Clad in white velvet all their troop they led, 
 With each an oaken chaplet on his head. 
 
 Nine royal knights in equal rank fucceed, 
 Each warrior mounted on a fiery fteed : 
 In golden armour glorious to behold ; 
 The rivets of their arms were nail'd with gold. 
 Their furcoats of white ermine fur were made, 
 With cloth of gold bet ween, that caft a glittering made ; 
 The trappings of their fteeds were of the fame ; 
 The golden fringe ev'n fet the ground on flame, 
 And drew a precious trail : a crown divine 
 Of laurel did about their temples twine. 
 
 Three henchmen were for every knight affign'd, 
 All in rich livery clad, and of a kind ; 
 White velvet, but unmorn, for cloaks they wore ; 
 And each within his hand a truncheon bore : 
 
 The
 
 [ 109 ] 
 
 The foremoft held a helm of rare device j 
 A prince's ranfom would not pay the price. 
 The fecond bore the buckler of his knight, 
 The third of cornel-wood a fpear upright, 
 Headed with piercing fteel, and polifh'd bright. 
 Like to their lords their equipage was feen, 
 And all their foreheads crown'd with garlands green. 
 And after thefe came arm'd with fpear and fliield 
 ,An hoft fo great, as cover'd all the field : 
 And all their foreheads, like the knights before, 
 With laurels ever-green were fhaded o'er, 
 Or oak, or other leaves of lafting kind, 
 Tenacious of the ftem, and firm againft the wind. 
 Some in their hands, befide the lance and ihield, 
 The boughs of woodbine or of hawthorn held, 
 Or branches for their myftic emblems took, 
 Of palm, of laurel, or of cerrial-oak. 
 Thus marching to the trumpet's lofty found 
 Drawn in two lines adverfe they wheel'd around, 
 And in the middle meadow took their ground. 
 
 Among 
 
 md, ( 
 I. J
 
 Among themfelves the tourney they divide. 
 
 In equal fquadrons rang'd on either fide : 
 
 Then turn'd their horfes' heads, and man to man, 
 
 And fteed to fteed oppos'd, the jufts began. 
 
 They lightly fet their lances in the reft, 
 
 And, at the fign, againft each other prefs'd : 
 
 They met. I fitting at my eafe beheld 
 
 The mix'd events, and fortunes of the field. 
 
 Some broke their fpears, fome tumbled horfe and man, 
 
 And round the field the lighten'd courfers ran. 
 
 An hour and more, like tides, in equal fway 
 
 They rufh'd, and won by turns, and loft the day : 
 
 At length the nine (who ftill together held) 
 
 Their fainting foes to mameful flight com] 
 
 And with refiftlefs force o'er-ran the field. 
 
 Thus, to their fame, when finifh'd was the fight, 
 
 The vigors from their lofty fteeds alight : 
 
 Like them difmounted all the warlike train, 
 
 And two by two proceeded o'er the plain : 
 
 Till 
 
 9 
 
 w) I 
 
 ipell'd, J 
 
 I J
 
 [ "I ] 
 
 'Till to the fair aflembly they advanced, 
 Who near the fecret arbour fung and danc'd. 
 The ladies left their meafures at the fight, 
 To meet the chiefs, returning from the fight, 
 And each with open arms embrac'd her chofen knight.. 
 Amid the plain a fpreading laurel flood, 
 The grace and ornament of all the wood : 
 That pleafmg fhade they fought, a foft retreat 
 From fudden April fhowers, a fhelter from the heat : 
 Her leafy arms with fuch extent were fpread, 
 So near the clouds was her afpiring head, 
 That hofts of birds, that wing the liquid air, 
 Perch'd in the boughs, had nightly lodging there : 
 And flocks of fheep beneath the fhade. from far 
 Might hear the rattling hail, and wintery war; 
 From heaven's inclemency here find retreat, 
 Enjoy the cool, and fhun the fcorching heat : 
 A hundred knights might there at eafe abide ; 
 And every knight a lady by his fide : 
 
 The
 
 paid "I 
 
 ade; I 
 
 ' J 
 
 J 
 
 The trunk itfelf fuch odours did bequeath, 
 
 That a Moluccan breeze to thefe was common breath. 
 
 The lords and ladies here, approaching, paid 
 
 Their homage, with a low obeifance made 
 
 And feem'd to venerate the facred made. 
 
 Thefe rites perform'd, their pleafures they purfue, 
 
 With fongs of love, and mix with pleafures new; 
 
 Around the holy tree their dance they frame, 
 
 And every champion leads his chofen dame. 
 
 I caft my light upon the farther field, 
 And a frefh object of delight beheld : 
 For from the region of the Weft I heard 
 New mufic found, and a new troop appear'd, 
 Of knights and ladies mix'd, a jolly band, 
 But all on foot they march'd, and hand in hand ; 
 The ladies drefs'd in rich fymars were feen 
 Of Florence fattin, flower'd with white and 
 And for a made betwixt the bloomy gridelin. 
 The borders of their petticoats below 
 Were guarded thick with rubies on a row ; 
 
 And 
 
 green, > 
 i. 3
 
 
 t 3 1 
 
 And every damfel wore upon her head 
 
 Of flowers a garland, blended white and red. 
 
 Attir'd in mantles all the knights were feen, 
 
 That gratify 'd the view with chearful green : 
 
 Their chaplets of their ladies colours were, 
 
 Compos'd of white and red, to {hade their (hining hair. 
 
 Before the merry troop the minftrels play'd ; 
 
 All in their matter's liveries were array 'd, 
 
 And clad in green, and on their temples wore 
 
 The chaplets white and red their ladies bore. 
 
 Their inftruments were various in their kind, 
 
 Some for the bow, and fome for breathing wind : 
 
 The fawtry, pipe, and hautboy's noify band, 
 
 And thefoftlute, trembling beneath the touching hand. 
 
 A tuft of dailies on a flowery lay 
 
 They faw, and thitherward they bent their way ; 
 
 To this both knights and dames their homage made, 
 
 And due obeifance to the daify paid. 
 
 And then the band of flutes began to play, 
 
 To which a lady fung a virelay : 
 
 I And
 
 [ "4 1 
 
 And ftill at every clofe fhe would repeat 
 The burden of the fong, " The daify is fo fweet." 
 " The daify is fo fweet," when fhe begun, 
 The troop of knights and dames continued on : 
 The concert and the voice fo charm'd my ear, 
 And footh'd my foul, that it was heaven to hear. 
 But foon their pleafure pafs'd : at noon of day 
 The fun with fultry beams began to play : 
 Not Sirius {hoots a fiercer flame from high, 
 When with his poifonous breath he blafts the iky : 
 Then droop'd the fading flowers (their beauty fled) "1 
 And clos'd their fickly eyes, and hung the head - f > 
 And rivell'd up with heat, lay dying in their bed. J 
 The ladies gafp'd, and fcarcely could refpire -, 
 The breath they drew, no longer air, but fire ; 
 The fainty knights were fcorch'd j and knew not where 
 To run for fhelter, for no fhade was near j 
 And after this the gathering clouds amain 
 Pour'd down a ftorm of rattling hail and rain : 
 
 And
 
 [ H5 3 
 
 And lightening flam'd betwixt: the field, and flowers, 
 Burnt up before, were buried in the fliowers. 
 The ladies and the knights, no fhelter nigh, 
 Bare to the weather and the wintery fky, 
 Were dropping wet, difconfolate and wan, 
 And thro' their thin array receiv'd the rain ; 
 While thofe in white, protected by the tree, 
 Saw pafs in vain the aflault,and flood from danger free. 
 But as compaflion mov'd their gentle minds, 
 When ceas'd the ftorm, and filent were the winds, 
 Difpleas'd at what, not fuffering, they had feen, 
 They went to chear the faction of the green : 
 The queen in white array, before her band, 
 Saluting, took her rival by the hand ; 
 So did the knights and dames, with courtly grace, 
 And with behaviour fweet, their foes embrace. 
 Then thus the queen with laurel on her brow, 
 Fair fitter, I have fuffer'd in your woe ; 
 Nor fhall be wanting aught within my power 
 For your relief in my refrefhing bower, 
 
 I 2 That
 
 [ "6 ] 
 
 That other anfwer'd with a lowly look, 
 
 And foon the gracious invitation took : 
 
 For ill at eafe both me and all her train 
 
 The fcorching fun had borne, and beating rain. 
 
 Like courtefy was us'd by all in white, 
 
 Each dame a dame receiv'd, and every knight a knight. 
 
 The laurel champions with their fwords invade 
 
 The neighbouring forefls where the jufts were made, 
 
 And fere wood from the rotten hedges took, 
 
 And feeds of latent fire from flints provoke : 
 
 A chearful blaze arofe, and by the fire 
 
 They warm'd their frozen feet, and dry'd their wet 
 
 attire. 
 
 Refrefh'd with heat, the ladies fought around 
 For virtuous herbs, which gather'd from the ground, 
 They fqueez'd the juice, and cooling ointment made, 
 Which on their fun-burnt cheeks, and their chapt 
 
 fkins they laid : 
 
 Then fought green falads, which they bade them eat, 
 A fovereign remedy for inward heat. 
 
 The
 
 [ i.i7 3 
 
 The lady of the leaf ordain'd a feaft, 
 And made the lady of the flower her guefl : 
 When lo, a bower afcended on the plain, 
 With fudden feats ordain'd, and large for either train. 
 This bower was near my pleafant arbour plac'd, 
 That I could hear and fee whatever pafs'd : 
 The ladies fat with each a knight between, 
 Diilinguifh'd by their colours, white and green ; 
 The vanquifh'd party with the victors join'd, 
 Nor wanted fweet difcourfe, the banquet of the mind. 
 Mean time the minftrels play'd on either fide, 
 
 ^ 
 
 Vain of their art, and for the maftery vy'd. 
 
 The fweet contention lafted for an hour, 
 
 And reach'd my fecret arbour from the bower. 
 
 The fun was fet; and Vefper, to fupply 
 His abfent beams, had lighted up the iky; 
 When Philomel, officious all the day 
 To fing the fervice of th' enfuing May, 
 Fled from her laurel ihade, and wing'd her flight, 
 Dirc&ly to the queen array 'd in white ; 
 
 I 3 And
 
 And hopping fat familiar on her hand, 
 A new mufician, and increas'd the band. 
 
 The goldfinch, who, to fhun the fcalding heat, 
 Had chang'd the medlar for a fafer feat, 
 And hid in bufhes 'fcap'd the bitter fhower, 
 Now perch'd upon the lady of the flower ; 
 And either fongfter, holding out their throats, 
 And folding up their wings, renew'd their notes: 
 As if all day, preluding to the fight, 
 They only had rehears'd, to fing by night. 
 The banquet ended, and the battle done, 
 They danc'd by ftar-light and ^he friendly moon : 
 And when they were to part, the laureat queen 
 Supply 'd with fteeds the lady of the green; 
 Her and her train conducting on the way, 
 The moon to follow, and avoid the day. 
 This when I faw, inquifitive to know 
 The fecret moral of the myftique fhow, 
 I ftarted from my made, in hopes to find 
 Some nymph to fatisfy my longing mind : 
 
 And
 
 [ 9 
 
 And as my fair adventure fell, I found 
 
 A lady all in white, with laurel crown'd, 
 
 Who clos'd the rear, and foftly pac'd along, 
 
 Repeating to herfelf the former fong. 
 
 With due refpedt my body I inclin'd, 
 
 As to fome being of fuperior kind, 
 
 And made my court according to the day, 
 
 Wilhing her queen and her a happy May. 
 
 Great thanks, my daughter, with a gracious bow 
 
 She faid ; and I, who much defir'd to know 
 
 Of whence me was, yet fearful how to break 
 
 My mind, adventur'd humbly thus to fpeak : 
 
 Madam, might I prefume, and not offend, 
 
 So may the frars and fhining moon attend 
 
 Your nightly fports, as you vouchfafe to tell, 
 
 What nymphs they were who mortal forms excel, 
 
 And what the knights who fought in lifted fields fo well.. 
 
 To this the dame reply 'd : Fair daughter, know, 
 
 That what you faw was all a fairy fhow : 
 
 I 4 And
 
 And all thofe airy fhapes you now behold, 
 
 Were human bodies once, and cloth'd with earthly mold; 
 
 Our fouls, not yet prepar'd for upper light, 
 
 'Till doomfday wander in the fhades of night ; 
 
 This only holiday of all the year, 
 
 We privileg'd in fun-fhine may appear : 
 
 With fongs and dance we celebrate the day, 
 
 And with due honours ufher in the May. 
 
 At other times we reign by night alone, 
 
 And porting thro' the ikies purfue the moon : 
 
 But when the morn arifes, none are found ; 
 
 For cruel Demogorgon walks the round, 
 
 And if he finds a fairy lag in light, 
 
 He drives the wretch before, and lames into night. 
 
 All courteous are by kind ; and ever proud, 
 With friendly offices to help the good. 
 In every land we have a larger fpace 
 Than what is known to you of mortal race : 
 Where we with green adorn our fairy bowers, 
 And even this grove, unfeen before, is ours. 
 
 Know
 
 
 [ 121 ] 
 
 Know farther ; every lady cloth'd in white, 
 
 And, crown'd with oak and laurel every knight, 
 
 Are fervants to the leaf, by liveries known 
 
 Of innocence -, and I myfelf am one. 
 
 Saw you not her fo graceful to behold 
 
 In white attire, and crown'd with radiant gold ? 
 
 The fovereign lady of our land is fhe, 
 
 Diana call'd, the Queen of chaftity: 
 
 And, for the fpotlefs name of maid fhe bears, 
 
 That Agnus-caftus in her hand appears ; 
 
 And all her train, with leafy chaplets crown'd, 
 
 Were for unblam'd virginity renown'd ; 
 
 But thofe the chief, and higheft in command, 
 
 Who bear thofe holy branches in their hand : 
 
 The knights, adorn'd with laurel crowns, are they 
 
 Whom death nor danger ever could difmay, 
 
 Victorious names, who made the world obey 
 
 Who, while they liv'd, in deeds of arms excell'd, 
 
 And after death for deities were held. 
 
 they -I 
 
 But
 
 But thofe, who wear the woodbine on their brow, 
 Were knights of love, who never broke their vow ; 
 Firm to their plighted faith, and ever free 
 From fears and fickle chance, and jealoufy : 
 The lords and ladies who the woodbine bear, 
 As true as Triftram and Ifotta were. 
 
 But what are thofe, faid I, th' unconquer'd nine, 
 Who crown'd with laurel-wreaths in golden armour 
 
 flnne ? 
 
 And who the knights in green, and what the train 
 Of ladies drefs'd with daifies on the plain ? 
 Why both the bands in worfbip difagree, 
 And fome adore the flower, and fome the tree ? 
 
 Juft is your fuit, fair daughter, faid the dame : 
 Thofe laurell'd chiefs were men of mighty fame ; 
 Nine worthies were they call'd, of different rites, 
 Three jews, three pagans, and three chriftian knights. 
 Thefe, as you fee, ride foremoft in the eld, 
 As they the foremoft rank of honour held. 
 And all in deeds of chivalry excell'd : 
 
 Their
 
 [ "3 ] 
 
 Their temples wreath'd with leaves, that ftill renew; 
 
 For deathlefs laurel is the vigor's due : 
 
 Who bear the bows were knights in Arthur's reign, 
 
 Twelve they, and twelve the peers of Charlemain : 
 
 For bows the ftrength of brawny arms imply, 
 
 Emblems of valour, and of victory. 
 
 Behold an order yet of newer date, 
 
 Doubling their number, equal in their ftate : 
 
 Our England's ornament, the crown's defence, 
 
 In battle brave, protectors of their prince: 
 
 Unchang'd by fortune, to their fovereign true, 
 
 For which their manly legs are bound with blue. 
 
 Thefe, of the garter call'd, of faith unftain'd, 
 
 In fighting fields the laurel have obtain'd, 
 
 And well repaid the honours which they gain'd. 
 
 The laurel wreaths were firft by Caefar worn ; 
 
 And ftill they Caefar's fucceflbrs adorn : 
 
 One leaf of this is immortality, 
 
 And more of worth than all the world can buy. 
 
 One
 
 [ "4 ] 
 
 One doubt remains, faid I : the dames in green, 
 What were their qualities, and who their queen ? 
 Flora commands, faid me, thofe nymphs and knights, 
 Who liv'd in flothful eafe and loofe delights ; 
 Who never ads of honour durft purfue, 
 The men inglorious knights, the ladies all untrue : 
 Who nurs'd in idlenefs, and train'd in courts, 
 Pafs'd all their precious hours in plays and fports, 
 'Till death behind came {talking on, unfeen, 
 And wither'd (like the florin) the frefhnefs of their green, 
 Thefe, and their mates, enjoy their prefent hour, 
 And therefore pay their homage to the flower. 
 But knights in knightly deeds mould perfevere, 
 And ftill continue what at firft they were ; 
 Continue, and proceed in honour's fair carreer. 
 No room for cowardice, or dull delay ; 
 From good to better they fhould urge their way. 
 For this with golden fpurs the chiefs are grac'd, 
 With pointed rowels arm'd, to mend their hafte; 
 
 For
 
 t "5 ) 
 
 For this with lafting leaves their brows are bound ; T 
 
 I 
 For laurel is the fign of labour crown'd, 
 
 Which bears the bitter blafl, nor fhaken falls to ground: J 
 
 From winter winds it fuffers no decay, 
 
 For ever frefh and fair, and every month is May : 
 
 Ev'n when the vital fap retreats below, 
 
 Ev'n when the hoary head is hid in fnow; 
 
 The life is in the leaf, and ftill between 
 
 The fits of falling fnow appears the ftreaky green. 
 
 Not fo the flower ; which lafts for little fpace, 
 
 A fhort-liv'd good, and an uncertain grace ; 
 
 This way and that the feeble item is driven, 
 
 Weak to fuftain the ftorms, and injuries of heaven. 
 
 Propp'd by the fpring it lifts aloft the head, 
 
 But of a fickly beauty, foon to fhed ; 
 
 .In fummer living, and in winter dead. 
 
 For things of tender kind, for pleafure made, 
 
 Shoot up with fwift increafe, and fudden are decay'd. 
 
 With
 
 [ 126 ] 
 
 With humble words, the wifeft I could frame, 
 And proffer'd fervice, I repaid the dame -, 
 That, of her grace, me gave her maid to know 
 The fecret meaning of this moral mow. 
 And {he, to prove what profit I had made 
 Of myftic truth, in fables firft convey'd, 
 Demanded, till the next returning May, 
 Whether the leaf or flower I would obey ? 
 I chofe the leaf; fhe fmil'd with fober chear, 
 And wifh'd me fair adventure for the year; 
 And gave me charms and figils, for defence 
 Againft ill tongues, that fcandal innocence : 
 But I, faid me, my fellows muft purfue, 
 Already paft the plain, and out of view. 
 
 We parted thus -, I homeward fped my way, 
 Bewilder'd in the wood till dawn of 
 And met the merry crew who danc'd about the May. 
 Then late, refrem'd with fleep, I rofe to write 
 The vifionary vigils of the night : 
 
 Blum, 
 
 ped my way, "1 
 
 >f day : > 
 
 :'d about the May.J
 
 [ 1*7 ] 
 
 Blum, as thou may'ft, my little book, with mame, 
 Nor hope with homely verfe to purchafe fame ; 
 For fuch thy Maker chofe; and fo defign'd 
 Thy fimple ilile to fuit thy lowly kind. 
 
 ODE
 
 ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY. 
 BT THE SAME. 
 
 I. 
 
 TWA s at the royal feaft, for Perfia won, 
 
 By Philip's warlike fon : 
 
 Aloft in awful ilate 
 
 The godlike hero fat 
 On his imperial throne : 
 
 His valiant peers were plac'd around ; 
 Their brows with rofes and with myrtles bound - f 
 
 (So fhould defert in arms be crown' d :) 
 The lovely Thais, by his fide, 
 Sat like a blooming Eaftern bride, 
 In flower of youth and beauty's pride. 
 
 Happy, happy, happy pair ! 
 
 None but the brave, 
 
 None but the brave, 
 
 None but the brave deferves the fair. 
 
 CHORUS.
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Happy, happy, happy pair / 
 
 None but the brave, 
 
 None but the brave, 
 
 None but the brave deferves the fair. 
 
 II. 
 
 Timotheus, plac'd on high 
 
 Amid the tuneful quire, 
 With flying fingers touch'd the lyre : 
 The trembling notes afcend the iky, 
 
 And heavenly joys infpire. 
 The fong began from Jove, 
 Who left his blifsful feats above, 
 (Such is the power of mighty love) 
 A dragon's fiery form bely'd the god : 
 Sublime on radiant fpires he rode, 
 
 When he to fair Olympia prefs'd ; 
 And while he fought her fnowy breaft : 
 Then, round her flender waift he curl'd, 
 And ftamp'd an image of himfelf, a fovereign of the world. 
 
 K The
 
 [ 23 1 
 
 The Interring crowd admire the lofty found 
 A prefent deity, they fhout around : 
 A prefent deity, the vaulted roofs rebound : 
 With ravifh'd ears 
 The monarch hears, 
 AfTumes the god, 
 Affedts to nod, 
 
 And feems to make the fpheres. 
 CHORUS. 
 With ravifh'd ears 
 The monarch hears, 
 AJJumes the god, 
 Affefts to nod, 
 And feems to Jhake the fpheres. 
 
 III. 
 
 The praife of Bacchus then, the fweet mufician fung; 
 
 Of Bacchus, ever fair and ever young : 
 The jolly god in triumph comes; 
 Sound the trumpets ; beat the drums ; 
 
 Fluflh'd
 
 Flum'd with a purple grace 
 He fhews his honeft face. 
 
 Now give the hautboys breath ; he comes, he comes. 
 Bacchus, ever fair and young, 
 
 Drinking joys did firfl ordain ; 
 Bacchus' bleffings are a treafure, 
 Drinking is the foldier's pleafure ; 
 Rich the treafure, 
 Sweet the pleafure, 
 Sweet is pleafure after pain. 
 CHORUS. 
 Bacchus' bleffings are a treafure, 
 Drinking is the foldier's pleafurf ; 
 Rich the treafure, 
 Sweet the pleafure, 
 Sweet is pleafure after pain. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Sooth'd with the found, the king grew vain ; 
 
 Fought all his battles o'er again ; 
 And thrice he routed all his foes; and thrice he flew 
 
 the flain. 
 
 K 2 The
 
 t 
 
 The matter faw the madnefs rife > 
 His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes ; 
 And while he heaven and earth defy'd, 
 Chang'd his hand, and check'd his pride. 
 
 He chofe a mournful mufe 
 
 Soft pity to infufe : 
 He fung Darius great and good, 
 
 By too fevere a fate, 
 Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, 
 Fallen from his high eftate, 
 
 And weltering in his blood -, 
 Deferted, at his utmoft need, 
 By thofe his former bounty fed : 
 On the bare earth expos 'd he lies, 
 With not a friend to clofe his eyes. 
 With down-cad looks the joylefs vidor fat, 
 
 Revolving in his alter'd foul 
 
 The various turns of chance below ; 
 And, now and then, a figh he ftole ; 
 And tears began to flow. 
 
 CHORUS,
 
 
 I 133 ] 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Revolving in his alter d foul 
 
 'The various turns of chance below ; 
 
 And, now and then, a Jigh he jlole ; 
 And tears began to flow. 
 
 V. 
 
 The mighty mafter fmil'd, to fee 
 
 That love was in the next degree : 
 
 'Twas but a kindred-found to move, 
 
 For pity melts the mind to love. 
 Softly fweet, in Lydian meafures, 
 Soon he footh'd his foul to pleafures. 
 
 War, he fung, is toil and trouble ; 
 
 Honour but an empty bubble ; 
 Never ending, fUll beginning, 
 
 Fighting ftill, and ftill deflroying : 
 If the world be worth thy winning, 
 
 Think, O think, it worth enjoying : 
 Lovely Thais fits befide thee, 
 Take the good the gods provide thee. 
 
 K 3 The
 
 The many rend the fkies with loud applaufe ; 
 So Love was crown'd, but Mufic won the caufe. 
 The prince, unable to conceal his pain, 
 Gaz'd on the fair 
 Who caus'd his care, 
 And figh'd and look'd, figh'd and look'd, 
 Sigh'd and look'd, and figh'd again : 
 At length, with love and wine at once opprefs'd, 
 The vanquifh'd vidtor funk upon her bread. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 The prince, unable to conceal his pain, 
 Gaz'd on the fair 
 Who caus'd his care, 
 And Jigh'd and look'd, Jigh'd and look'd? 
 Sigh'd and look'd, and figh'd again : 
 <At length, 'with love and wine at once opprefs'd, 
 The vanquijh'd victor funk upon her breajl. 
 
 VI. Now
 
 t 155 ] 
 
 VI. 
 
 Now ftrike the golden lyre again : 
 A louder yet, and yet a louder ftrain. 
 Break his bands of lleep afunder, 
 And roufe him like a rattling peal of thunder. 
 Hark, hark ! the horrid found 
 Has rais'd up his head : 
 As awak'd from the dead, 
 And amaz'd, he flares around. 
 Revenge, revenge ! Timotheus cries, 
 See the furies arife ; 
 See the fnakes that they rear, 
 How they hifs in their hair, 
 And the fparkles that flam from their eyes ! 
 Behold a ghaftly band, 
 Each a torch in his hand ! 
 
 Thofe are Grecian ghofts, that in battle were flain, 
 And unbury'd remain 
 Inglorious on the plain : 
 Give the vengeance due 
 To the valiant crew: 
 
 K 4 Behold
 
 [ '36 ] 
 
 Behold how they tofs their torches on high, 
 How they point to the Perfian abodes, 
 And glittering temples of their hoftile gods. 
 The princes applaud with a furious joy; 
 And the king feiz'd a flambeau with zeal to deftroy; 
 
 Thais led the way, 
 
 To light him to his prey, 
 And, like another Helen, fir'd another Troy. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 And the kingfeizd a flambeau 'with zeal to deftroy ; 
 
 'Thais led the way, 
 
 To light him to his prey, 
 And, like another Helen, frd another Troy. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Thus, long ago, 
 Ere heaving bellows learn'd to blow, 
 
 While organs yet were mute; 
 Timotheus, to his breathing flute, 
 
 And
 
 t ,137 ] 
 
 And founding lyre, 
 
 Could fvvell the foul to rage, or kindle foft defire. 
 At laft divine Cecilia came, 
 Inventrefs of the vocal frame ; 
 The fweet enthufiaft, from her facred ftore, 
 Enlarg'd the former narrow bounds, 
 And added length to folemn founds, 
 With nature's mother- wit, and arts unknown before. 
 Let old Timotheus yield the prize, 
 
 Or both divide the crown ; 
 He rais'd a mortal to the ikies -, 
 She drew an angel down. 
 
 GRAND CHORUS. 
 At laft divine Cecilia came, 
 Inventrefs of the vocal frame-, 
 ^he fweet enthujiajt^from her facred Jlore, 
 Enlarged the former narrow bounds, 
 And added length to folemn founds, 
 With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. 
 
 Let
 
 t 138 ] 
 
 Let old Timotbeus yield the prize, 
 Or both divide the crown ; 
 
 He rais'd a mortal to the Jkies ; 
 She drew an angel doiun. 
 
 L,' ALLEGRO.
 
 [ 139 ] 
 
 L' A L L E G R O. 
 ET MILTON. 
 
 HENCE, loathed Melancholy, 
 
 Of Cerberus, and blackeft Midnight born, 
 
 In Stygian cave forlorn, 
 
 'Mongft horrid fhapes, and fhrieks, and lights unholy, 
 
 Find out fome uncouth cell, 
 
 Where brooding Darknefs fpreads his jealous wings, 
 And the night-raven fings ; 
 
 There under ebon fhades, and low-brow'd rocks, 
 
 As ragged as thy locks, 
 In dark Cimmerian defert ever dwell. 
 But come, thou Goddefs fair and free, 
 In heaven yclep'd Euphrofyne, 
 And by men, heart-ealing Mirth, 
 Whom lovely Venus at a birth 
 With two fitter Graces more 
 To ivy- crowned Bacchus bore 3 
 
 Or
 
 Or whether (as fome fages flng) 
 
 The frolic wind that breathes the fpring, 
 
 Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 
 
 As he met her once a Maying, 
 
 There on beds of violets blue, 
 
 And frefti-blown rofes wafh'd in dew, 
 
 Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, 
 
 So buxom, blithe, and debonair. 
 
 Hafle thee, Nymph, and bring with thes 
 Jeft and youthful Jollity, 
 Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, 
 Nods and Becks, and wreathed Smiles, 
 Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, 
 And love to live in dimple fleek ; 
 Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
 And Laughter holding both his lides -5 
 Come, and trip it as you go 
 On the light fantaftic toe, 
 And in thy right hand lead with thee 
 The mountain nymph, fweet Liberty j 
 
 And,
 
 And, if I give thee honour due, 
 Mirth, admit me of thy crew, 
 To live with her, and live with thee, 
 In unreproved pleafures free ; 
 To hear the lark begin his flight, 
 And fmging ftartle the dull night, 
 From his watch-tower in the fides, 
 'Till the dappled dawn doth rife ; 
 Then to come, in fpite of forrow, 
 And at my window bid good-morrow, 
 Through the fweet-briar, or the vine, 
 Or the twitted eglantine : 
 While the cock with lively din 
 Scatters the rear of darknefs thin, 
 And to the ftack, or the barn-door, 
 Stoutly ftruts his dames before : 
 Oft liflening, how the hounds and horn 
 Chearly roufe the flumbering morn, 
 From the fide of fome hoar hill, 
 Through the high wood echoing fhrill : 
 
 Some
 
 Some time walking not unfeen 
 By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green> 
 Right againft the eaftern gate. 
 Where the great fun begins his flate, 
 Rob'd in flames and amber light, 
 The clouds in thoufand liveries dight, 
 While the plough-man near at hand 
 Whittles o'er the furrow'd land, 
 And the milk-maid fingeth blithe, 
 And the mower whets his fcythe, 
 And every fhepherd tells his tale 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
 
 Straight mine eye hath caught new pleafures, 
 Whilft the landfkip round it meafures, 
 Ruffe t lawns, and fallows gray, 
 Where the nibbling flocks do ftray, 
 Mountains on whofe barren breaft 
 The labouring clouds do often reft, 
 Meadows trim with daifies pied, 
 Shallow brooks, and rivers wide. 
 
 Towers
 
 t 143 1 
 
 Towers and battlements it fees 
 Bofom'd high in tufted trees, 
 Where perhaps fome beauty lies, 
 The Cynofure of neighbouring eyes : 
 Hard by, a cottage chimney fmokes, 
 From betwixt two aged oaks, 
 Where Corydon and Thyrfis met, 
 Are at their favoury dinner fet 
 Of herbs, and other country meffes, 
 Which the neat-handed Phyllis drefTes ; 
 And then in hafte her bower me leaves, 
 With Theftylis to bind the {heaves ; 
 Or, if the earlier feafon lead, 
 To the tann'd hay-cock in the mead. 
 
 Sometimes with fecure delight 
 The upland hamlets will invite, 
 When the merry bells ring round, 
 And the jocund rebecks found 
 To many a youth, and many a maid, 
 Dancing in the chequer'd (hade; 
 
 And
 
 J 
 
 And young and old come forth to play 
 On a funfhine holiday, 
 Till the live-long day-light fail ; 
 Then to the fpicy nut-brown ale, 
 With ftories told of many a feat, 
 How fairy Mab the junkets eat ; 
 She was pinch'd, and pull'd, me faid, 
 And he, by friar's lanthorn led, 
 Tells how the drudging Goblin fweat 
 To earn his cream-bowl duly fet, 
 When in one night, ere glimpfe of morn, 
 His madowy flail hath threfh'd the corn, 
 That ten day-labourers could not end ; 
 Then lies him down the lubbar fiend, 
 And ftretch'd out all the chimney's length, 
 Bafks at the fire his hairy ftrength, 
 And cropful out of doors he flings, 
 Ere the firft cock his mattin rings. 
 Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 
 By whifpering winds foon lull'd aileep. 
 
 Towered
 
 
 I '45 ] 
 
 Towered cities pleafe us then, 
 And the bufy hum of men, 
 Where throngs of knights and barons bold 
 In weeds of peace high triumphs hold ; 
 With ftore of ladies, whofe bright eyes 
 Rain influence, and judge the prize 
 Of wit, or arms, while both contend 
 To win her grace, whom all commend. 
 There let Hymen oft appear 
 In faffron robe, with taper clear, 
 And pomp, and feaft, and revelry, 
 With mafk and antique pageantry; 
 Such fights as youthful poets dream, 
 On fummer eves by haunted ftream. 
 Then to the well-trod ftage anon, 
 If Jonfon's learned fock be on, 
 Or fweeteft Shakefpear^, Fancy's child, 
 Warble his native wood- notes wild. 
 
 And ever againft eating cares 
 Lap me in foft Lydian airs ; 
 
 L Married
 
 Married to immortal verfe, 
 
 Such as the meeting foul may pierce,- 
 
 In "notes, with many a winding bout 
 
 Of linked fweetnefs long drawn out, 
 
 With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, 
 
 The melting voice through mazes running, 
 
 Untwifting all the chains that tie 
 
 The hidden foul of Harmony; 
 
 That Orpheus' felf may heave his head 
 
 From golden fl umber, on a bed 
 
 Of heapt Elyfian flowers, and hear 
 
 Such {trains as would have won the ear 
 
 Of Pluto, to have quite fet free 
 
 His half-regain'd Eurydice. 
 
 Thefe delights if thou canft give, 
 Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 
 
 II*
 
 
 IL PENSEROSO. 
 BT THE SAME. 
 
 HENCE, vain deluding joys, 
 
 The brood of Folly, without father bred! 
 How Httle you befted, 
 
 Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys ! 
 Dwell in fome idle brain, 
 And fancies fond with gaudy fhapes poflefs, 
 As thick and numberlefs 
 
 As the gay motes that people the fun-beams, 
 Or likeft hovering dreams, 
 
 The fickle penfioners of Morpheus' train. 
 But hail, thou Goddefs, fage and holy ! 
 Hail, divineft Melancholy ! 
 Whofe faintly vifage is too bright 
 To hit the fenfe of human fight, 
 And therefore to our weaker view, 
 O'erlaid with black, ftaid Wifdom's hue; 
 
 L 2 Black,
 
 t 148 ] 
 
 Black, but fuch as in efteern. 
 
 Prince Memnon's Mer might befeem, 
 
 Or that ftarr'd Ethiop queen that ftrove 
 
 To fet her beauty's praife above 
 
 The fea-nymphs, and their powers offended : 
 
 Yet thou art higher far defcended; 
 
 Thee bright hair'd Vefta, long of yore, 
 
 To folitary Saturn bore ; 
 
 His daughter (he (in Saturn's reign 
 
 Such mixture was not held a flam) 
 
 Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 
 
 He met her, and in fecret fhades 
 
 Of woody Ida's inmoft grove, 
 
 While yet there was no fear of Jove. 
 
 Come, penfive Nun, devout and pure, 
 . Sober, fledfaft, and demure, 
 Allinarobeofdarkeftgrain, 
 Flowing with majeftic train, 
 And fable ftole of Cyprus lawn, 
 Over thy decent fhoulders drawn : 
 
 Come,
 
 [ 149.] 
 
 Come, but keep thy wonted ftate, 
 With even ftep, and mufing gait, 
 And looks commercing with the ikies, 
 Thy rapt foul fitting in thine eyes -, 
 There, held in holy paflion ftill, 
 Forget thyfelf to marble, till 
 With a fad leaden downward caft 
 Thou fix them on the earth as faft : 
 And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet, 
 Spare Fart, that oft with Gods doth diet, 
 And hears the Mufes in a ring 
 Aye round about Jove's altar fing; 
 And add to thefe retired Leifure, 
 That in trim gardens takes his pleafure : 
 But firft, and chiefeft, with thee bring 
 Him that yon foars on golden wing, 
 Guiding the fiery wheeled throne, 
 The Cherub Contemplatioit^ 1 
 And the mute Silence hift along, 
 'Lefs Philomel will deign a fong^ 
 
 L 3 In
 
 J 
 
 In her fweeteft, faddeft plight, 
 Smoothing the rugged brow of night, ' 
 While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke, 
 Gently o'er the accuftom'd oak -, 
 Sweet bird, that fhunn'ft the noife of folly, 
 Moft mufical, moft melancholy ! 
 Thee, chauntrefs, oft, the woods among, 
 I woo to hear thy even-fong : 
 And miffing thee, I walk unfeen 
 On the dry fmooth-maven green, 
 To behold the wandering moon, 
 Riding near her higheft noon, 
 Like one that had been led aftray 
 Through the heaven's wide pathlefs way ; 
 And oft, as if her head me bow'd, 
 Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 
 Oft on a plat of rifmg ground, 
 I hear the far-off Curfew found, 
 Over fome wide-water'd more, 
 Swinging flow with fullen roar. 
 
 Or
 
 Or if the air will not permit, 
 Some ftill removed place will fit, 
 Where glowing embers through the room 
 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom; 
 Far from all refort of mirth, 
 Save the cricket on the hearth, 
 Or the bellman's drowfy charm, 
 To blefs the doors from nightly harm. 
 
 Or let my lamp at midnight hour 
 Be feen in fome high lonely tower ; 
 Where I may oft out- watch the Bear, 
 With thrice great Hermes, or unfphere 
 The fpirit of Plato, to unfold 
 What worlds, or what vaft regions, hold 
 The immortal mind that hath forfook 
 Her manfion in this flefhly nook : 
 And of thofe daemons that are found 
 In fire, air, flood, or under ground, 
 Whofe power hath a true confent 
 With planet, or with element. 
 
 L 4 Sometime
 
 [ '52 1 
 
 Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 
 In fcepter'd pall come fweeping by, aiio.* 
 Preferring Thebes', or Pelops' line, 
 Or the tale of Troy divine, * 
 
 Or what (though rare) of later age, 
 Ennobled hath the bufkin'd ftage. 
 
 But, O fad Virgin, that thy power 
 Might raife Mufasus from his bower, 
 Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing 
 Such notes as, warbled to the ftring, 
 Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 
 And made hell grant what love did feek : 
 Or call up him that left half-told 
 The flory of Cambufcan bold, 
 Of Camball, and of Algarfife, 
 And who had Canace to wife, 
 That own'd the virtuous ring and glafs, 
 And of the wonderous horfe of brafs, 
 On which the Tartar kin& did ride ; 
 And if aught elfe great bards befide 
 wW -In
 
 [ '53 ] 
 
 In fage and folemn tunes have fung, 
 
 Of tourneys and of trophies hung, 
 
 Of forefts, and enchantments drear, 
 
 Where more is meant than meets the ear. 
 
 Thus night oft fee me in thy pale career, 
 
 Till civil-fuited morn appear, 
 
 Not trick'd and frounc'd as me was wont 
 
 With the Attic boy to hunt, 
 
 But kerchief d in a comely cloud, 
 
 While rocking winds are piping loud, 
 
 Or umer'd with a mower {till, 
 
 When the guft hath blown his fill, 
 
 Ending on the ruftling leaves, 
 
 With minute drops from off the eaves. 
 
 And when the fun begins to fling 
 His flaring beams, me, Goddefs, bring 
 To arched walks of twilight groves, 
 And madows brown that Sylvan loves 
 Of pine, or monumental oak, 
 Where the rude ax with heaved flroke 
 
 Was
 
 [ '54 ] 
 
 Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt, . 
 
 Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt. 
 
 There in clofe covert by fome brook, 
 
 Where no profaner eye may look, 
 
 Hide me from day's garim eye, 
 
 While the bee with honeyed thigh, 
 
 That at her flowery work doth fing, 
 
 And the waters murmuring, 
 
 With fuch concert as they keep, 
 
 Entice the dewy-feather'd fleep : 
 
 And let fome flrange myfterious dream, 
 
 Wave at his wings in airy ftream 
 
 Of lively portraiture difplay'd, 
 
 Softly on my eye -lids laid ; 
 
 And as I wake, fweet mufic breathe 
 
 Above, about, or underneath, 
 
 Sent by fome fpirit to mortals good, 
 
 Or the unfeen Genius of the wood. 
 
 But let my due feet never fail 
 To walk the fludious cloyiter's pale, 
 
 And
 
 ( '55 ] 
 
 And love the high embowed roof, 
 With antique pillars mafly proof, 
 And floried windows richly dight, 
 Cafting a dim religious light. 
 There let the pealing organ blow, 
 To the full-voic'd quire below, 
 In fervice high, and anthems clear, 
 As may with fweetnefs, through mine ear, 
 Diflblve me into extafies, 
 And bring all heaven before mine eyes. 
 
 And may at laft my weary age 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage, 
 The hairy gown and mofly cell, 
 Where I may fit, and rightly fpell 
 Of every flar that heaven doth (hew, 
 And every herb that lips the dew; 
 'Till old experience do attain 
 To fomething like prophetic ftrain. 
 
 Thefe pleafures, Melancholy, give, 
 
 And I with thee will choofe to live. 
 
 DIRGE
 
 C i"5 J 
 
 v nuorf gnmsrs is tJto 
 
 ^ dtoif aid te?I 
 DIRGE IN CYMBELINlfe" 
 
 f>JDil * HI Z.iO/lss i.TJil^S' ^/.^.n" 1 ^ . ' $ - - 
 
 BY MR. W. COLLINS. 
 ,nii\ , iiiJ*7d feg ^ ' rjaUv/orf ir^H 
 
 To fair FIDELE'S grafly tomb 
 
 Soft maids and village hinds mail brin'* 
 Each opening fweet, of earlieft bloom, 
 
 And rifle all the breathing Spring. 
 
 ^loibi 5-o:h 'U:3 --\ 
 
 No wailing ghoft mail dare appear 
 To vex with fhrieks this quiet grove, 
 
 But fhepherd lads affemble here, 
 And melting virgins own their love. 
 
 No wither'd witch mall here be feen, 
 No goblins lead their nightly crew ; 
 
 The female fays mall haunt the green, 
 And drefs thy grave with pearly dew. 
 
 The
 
 The red-breaft oft, at evening hours, 
 
 Shall kindly lend his little aid, 
 With hoary mofs, and gather'd flowers, 
 
 To deck the ground where thou art laid. 
 
 When howling winds, and beating rain, 
 In tempefls {hake thy fylvan cell, 
 
 Or 'midft the chace on every plain, 
 
 The tender thought on thee {hall dwell j 
 
 >wi3rft (feafth bnA 
 Each lonely fcene {hall thee reftore, 
 
 For thee the tear be duly ftied ; 
 
 tio'!^ gnifijsvv 
 Belov'd, till life can charm no more ; 
 
 t&rcsv rniw x^v oT 
 
 And mourn'd, till Pity's felf be dead. 
 
 l ad 3i5cf llrt/ft il^iiw b^oriiiw o-VT 
 ^ID Y^rfin lisiii hs^I <?nildog oM 
 3^ig a/ll moBrl Ifstfl 2^4 
 
 ttHW avcig vdj 
 
 ODE
 
 [ '58 ] 
 ODE 
 
 ON THE PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 
 BT MR. GRAY. 
 
 IE diftant fpires, ye antique towers, 
 That crown the watery glade, 
 Where grateful Science ftill adores 
 Her HENRY'S * holy Shade -, 
 And ye, that from the ftately brow 
 Of WINDSOR'S heights the expanfe below 
 Of grove, of lawn, of mead furvey, 
 Whofe turf, whofe (hade, whofe flowers among 
 Wanders the hoary Thames along 
 His filver-winding way. 
 
 * King HENRY the Sixth, Founder of the College. 
 
 Ah
 
 [ S9 ] 
 
 Ah happy hills, ah pleafing made, 
 Ah fields belov'd in vain, 
 Where once my carelefs childhood ftray'd, 
 A ftranger yet to pain ! 
 I feel the gales, that from ye blow, 
 A momentary blifs beftow, 
 As waving frefh their gladfome wing* 
 My weary foul they feem to foothi 
 And, redolent of joy and youth, 
 To breathe a fecond fpring. 
 
 ; ; : ;*L ;/h icroii ist'It 3"<( bnA 
 Say, Father THAMES, for thou haft fecn 
 
 Full many a fprightly race 
 Difporting on thy margent green 
 The paths of pleafure trace, 
 Who foremoft now delight to cleave 
 With pliant arm thy glafly wave ? 
 The captive linnet which enthrall ? 
 What idle progeny fucceed 
 To chafe the rolling circle's fpeed, 
 Or urge the flying ball ? 
 
 While
 
 While forne, on earneft bulinefs bent, 
 Their murmuring labours ply 
 'Gainft graver hours, that bring conflraint 
 To fweeten liberty : 
 Some bold adventurers difdairr 
 The limits of their little reign, 
 And unknown regions dare defcry : 
 Still as they run they look behind, 
 They hear a voice in every wind, 
 And fnatch a fearful joy. 
 
 Gay hope is theirs, by fancy fed,. 
 Lefs pleafing when polTeft ; 
 The tear forgot as foon as med, 
 The funfhine of the breaft : 
 Theirs buxom health of rofy hue, 
 Wild wit, invention ever new, 
 And lively chear of vigour born ; 
 The thoughtlefs day, the eafy night, 
 The fpirits pure, the flumbers light. 
 That fly the approach of morn. 
 
 Alas,
 
 Alas, regardlefs of their doom, 
 The little vidtims play ! 
 No fenfe have they of ills to come, 
 Nor care beyond to-day : 
 Yet fee, how all around them wait 
 The minifters of human fate, 
 And black Misfortune's baleful train ! 
 Ah, mew them where in ambufh ffond, 
 To feize their prey, the murderous band ! 
 Ah, tell them they are men ! 
 
 Thefe mall the fury Paffions tear, 
 The vultures of the mind, 
 Difdainful Anger, pallid Fear, 
 And Shame, that fkulks behind ; 
 Or pining Love mall wafte their youth, 
 Or Jealoufy, with rankling tooth, 
 That inly gnaws the fecret heart ; 
 And Envy wan, and faded Care, 
 Grim-vifag'd comfortlefs Defpair, 
 And Sorrow's piercing dart. 
 
 M Ambition
 
 t 
 
 Ambition this mall tempt to rife, 
 Then whirl the wretch from high, 
 To bitter Scorn a facrifice, 
 And grinning Infamy : 
 The ftings of Falfehood thofe fhall try, 
 And hard Unkindnefs' alter'd eye, 
 That mocks the tear it forc'd to flow ; 
 And keen Remorfe with blood defil'd, 
 And moody Madnefs laughing wild 
 Amid fevereft woe. 
 
 Lo ! in the vale of years beneath 
 A grifly troop are feen, 
 The painful family of Death, 
 More hideous than their Queen : 
 This racks the joints, this fires the veins, 
 That every labouring finew ftrains, 
 Thofe in the deeper vitals rage : 
 Lo ! Poverty, to fill the band, 
 That numbs the foul with icy hand, 
 And flow-confuming Age. 
 
 To
 
 [ i6 3 ] 
 
 To each his fufferings : all arc men, 
 Condemn'd alike to groan ; 
 The tender for another's pain, 
 The unfeeling for his own. 
 Yet, ah ! why fhould they know their fate ? 
 Since forrow never comes too late, 
 And happinefs too fwiftly flies : 
 Thought would deftroy their paradife ; 
 No more where ignorance is blifs, 
 'Tis folly to be wife. 
 
 M 2 HYMN
 
 HYMN TO ADVERSITY. 
 BT THE S4ME. 
 
 DAUGHTER of Jove, relentlefs Power, 
 
 Thou tamer of the human breaft, 
 
 Whofe iron fcourge, and torturing hour, 
 
 The bad affright, afflidt the beft ! 
 
 Bound in thy adamantine chain, 
 
 The proud are taught to tafte of pain, 
 
 And purple tyrants vainly groan 
 
 With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. 
 
 When firft thy Sire to fend on earth 
 Virtue, his darling child, defign'd, 
 To thee he gave the heavenly birth, 
 And bade to form her infant mind. 
 Stern rugged nurfe ! thy rigid lore 
 With patience many a year me bore : 
 What forrow was, thou bad'ft her know, 
 And from her own fhe learnt to melt at others' woe. 
 
 Scar'd
 
 Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly 
 
 Self-pleafing Folly's idle brood, 
 
 Wild Laughter, Noife, and thoughtlefs Joy, 
 
 And leave us leifure to be good. 
 
 Light they difperfe; and with them go 
 
 The fummer-friend, the flattering foe ; 
 
 By vain Profperity receiv'd, 
 
 To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd. 
 
 Wifdom in fable garb array'd, 
 Immers'd in rapturous thought profound, 
 And Melancholy, filent maid 
 With leaden eye, that loves the ground* 
 Still on thy folemn fleps attend : 
 Warm Charity, the general friend, 
 With Juftice, to herfelf fevere, 
 And Pity, dropping foft the fadly-pleafing tear. 
 
 Oh, gently on thy fuppliant's head, 
 Dread Goddefs, lay thy chaftening hand 1 
 
 M 3 Not
 
 [ 166 ] 
 
 Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, 
 
 Nor circled with the vengeful band 
 
 (As by the impious thou art feen) 
 
 With thundering voice, and threatening mien, 
 
 With fcreaming Horror's funeral cry, 
 
 Defpair, and fell Difeafe, and ghaftJy Poverty. 
 
 Thy form benign, Oh Goddefs, wear. 
 Thy milder influence impart ; 
 Thy philofophic train be there 
 To foften, not to wound my heart : 
 The generous fpark extinct revive, 
 Teach me to love and to forgive, 
 Exadl my own defects to fcan, 
 What others are to feel ; and know myfelf a man, 
 
 ODE
 
 t 167 ] 
 
 vj= rn.fioO vrfi of 
 ODE ON THE SPRING* 
 
 .BT THE SAME. 
 
 L o ! where the rofy-bofom*d Hours, 
 
 Fair VENUS' train appear, 
 
 Difclofe the long-expefting flowers, 
 
 And wake the purple year ! 
 
 The Attic warbler pours her throat, 
 
 Refponfive to the cuckow's note, 
 
 The untaught harmony of fpring : 
 
 While, whifpering pleafure as they fly, 
 
 Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue fky 
 
 Their gather'd fragrance fling. 
 
 Where'er the oak's thick branches ilretch 
 A broader browner fhade ; 
 Where'er the rude and mofs-grown beech 
 O'er-canopies the glade, 
 
 M 4 Befidc
 
 [ -68 ] 
 
 Befide fome water's rufhy brink 
 With me the Mufe fhall fit, and think 
 (At eafe reclin'd in ruftic ftate) 
 How vain the ardour of the Crowd, 
 How low, how little are the Proud, 
 How indigent the Great ! 
 
 Still is the toiling hand of Care : 
 The panting herds repofe : 
 Yet hark, how thro' the peopled air 
 The bufy murmur glows ! 
 The infeft youth are on the wing, 
 Eager to tafte the honied fpring, 
 And float amid the liquid noon : 
 Some lightly o'er the current fkim, 
 Some mew their gayly-gilded trim 
 Quick- glancing to the fun. 
 
 To
 
 [ 169 ] 
 
 To Contemplation's fober eye ?* : 
 Such is the race of Man : 
 And they that creep, and they that fly, 
 Shall end where they began. 
 Alike the Bufy and the Gay 
 But flutter thro' life's little day, 
 In fortune's varying colours dreft : 
 Brufh'd by the hand of rough Mifchance, 
 Or chill'd by age, their airy dance 
 They leave, in duft to reft. 
 
 Methinks I hear in accents low 
 The fportive kind reply : 
 Poor moralift ! and what art thou ? 
 A folitary fly ! 
 
 Thy joys no glittering female meets, 
 No hive haft thou of hoarded fweets, 
 No painted plumage to difplay : 
 On hafty wings thy youth is flown ; 
 Thy fun is fet, thy fpring is gone 
 We frolic, while 'tis May. 
 
 ODE
 
 C '7 J 
 
 ODE ON THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 
 BY THE SAMK. 
 
 I. I. 
 
 AWA K E, ^olian lyre, awake, 
 
 And give to rapture all thy trembling firings* 
 
 From Helicon's harmonious fprings 
 
 A thoufand rills their mazy progrefs take : 
 
 The laughing flowers, that round them blow, 
 
 Drink life and fragrance as they flow. 
 
 Now the rich ftream of mufic winds along, 
 
 Deep, majeftic, fmooth, and ftrong, 
 
 Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign : 
 
 Now rolling down the fteep amain, 
 
 Headlong, impetuous, fee it pour : 
 
 The rocks, and nodding groves, rebellow to the roar. 
 
 I. 2. Oh
 
 I. 2. 
 
 Oh ! fovereign of the willing foul, 
 Parent of fweet and folemn-breathing airs, 
 Enchanting (hell ! the fallen Cares, 
 And frantic Paffions, hear thy foft controul. 
 On Thracia's hills the Lord of War 
 Has curb'd the fury of his car, 
 And dropp'd his thirfty lance at thy command : 
 Perching on the fcepter'd hand 
 Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king 
 With ruffled plumes, and flagging wing : 
 Quench'd in dark clouds of flumber lie 
 The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. 
 
 ,. 1-3- 
 Thee the voice, the dance, obey, 
 
 Temper'd to thy warbled lay. 
 O'er Idalia's velvet-green 
 The rofy-crowned Loves are fcen 
 On Cytherea's day 
 
 With
 
 [ '72 ] 
 
 With antic fports, and blue-eyed Pleasures, 
 
 Frifking light in frolic meafures $ 
 
 Now purfuing, now retreating, 
 
 Now in circling troops they meet : 
 
 To brifk notes in cadence beating 
 
 Glance their many-twinkling feet. 
 
 Slow melting flrains their Queen's approach declare : 
 
 Where'er me turns the Graces homage pay $ 
 
 With arms fublime, that float upon the air, 
 
 In gliding ftate (he wins her eafy way : 
 
 O'er her warm cheek, and rifing bofom, move 
 
 The bloom of young Defire, and purple light of Love. 
 
 II. i. 
 
 Man's feeble race what ills await, 
 Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain> 
 Difeafe, and Sorrow's weeping train, 
 And Death, fad refuge from the ftorms of Fate ! 
 The fond complaint, my fong, difprove, 
 And juftify the laws of Jove. 
 
 Say,
 
 I >73 3 
 
 Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Mufe ? 
 
 Night, and all her fickly dews, 
 
 Her fpedres wan, and birds of boding cry, 
 
 He gives to range the dreary fky : 
 
 'Till down the eaftern cliffs afar 
 
 Hyperion's march they fpy,and glittering {hafts of war. 
 
 IL 2. 
 
 In climes beyond the folar road, 
 Where fhaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, 
 The Mufe has broke the twilight-gloom 
 To chear the mivering native's dull abode : 
 And oft, beneath the odorous fhade 
 Of Chili's boundlefs forefts laid, 
 She deigns to hear the favage youth repeat, 
 In loofe numbers wildly fweet, 
 Their feather-cinclur'd Chiefs, and dufky Loves : 
 Her track, where'er the goddefs roves, 
 Glory purfue, and generous fhame, 
 The unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame. 
 
 IL 3. Woods,
 
 t 174 } 
 
 . ; ; ; ;.,:.. ii. 3 . 
 
 . Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's fteep, 
 Ifles, that crown the ./Egean deep, 
 Fields, that cool IlifTus laves, 
 Or where Masander's amber waves 
 In lingering labyrinths creep, 
 How do your tuneful Echos languifhv 
 Mute, but to the voice of anguifh ! 
 Where each old poetic mountain 
 Infpiration breath'd around, 
 Every made and hallow'd fountain 
 Murmur'd deep a folemn found ; 
 Till the fad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, 
 Left their ParnafTus for the Latian plains. 
 Alike they fcorn the pomp of tyrant-power, 
 And coward vice, that revels in her chains ; 
 When Latium had her lofty fpirit loft, 
 They fought, oh Albion ! next thy fea-encircled coafr,. 
 
 III. I. Far
 
 r 175 i 
 m. i. 
 
 Far from the fun and fummer-gale, 
 In thy green lap was Nature's * Darling laid, 
 What time, where lucid Avon ftray'd, 
 To him the mighty mother did unveil 
 Her awful face : The dauntlefs child 
 Stretch'd forth his little arms, and fmil'd. 
 This pencil take (me faid) whofe colours clear 
 Richly paint the vernal year : 
 Thine too thefe golden keys, immortal boy ! 
 This can unlock the gates of joy ; 
 Of horror that, and thrilling fears, 
 Or ope the facred fource of fympathetic tears. 
 
 III. 2. 
 
 Nor fecond he -f, that rode fublime 
 
 v b'lswop i>aA 
 
 Upon the feraph-wings of extafy, 
 r r & / , r j aiOJj .. 
 
 The fecrets of the abyfs to fpy. 
 
 J ^ J LAdv 4 ld 
 
 He pafs'd the flaming bounds of place and time : 
 
 * SHAKESPEARE, f MILTON. 
 
 i ,rn 
 
 The
 
 t 176 ] 
 
 The living throne, the faphire-blaze. 
 Where Angels tremble, while they gaze, 
 He faw; but blafted with excefs of light, 
 Clos'd his eyes in endlefs night. 
 Behold, where DRYDEN'S lefs prefumptuous car 
 Wide o'er the fields of glory bear 
 Two courfers of ethereal race, 
 With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-refounding 
 pace. 
 
 m. 3 . 
 
 Hark, his hands the lyre explore ! 
 Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er 
 Scatters from her piftur'd urn 
 Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. 
 But ah ! 'tis heard no more 
 Oh ! Lyre divine, what daring Spirit 
 Wakes thee now? tho' he inherit 
 Nor the pride, nor ample pinion, 
 That the Theban Eagle bear 
 Sailing with fupreme dominion 
 
 Thro* the azure deep of air: 
 
 Yet
 
 [ '77 ] 
 
 Yet oft before his infant eyes would run 
 
 Such forms, as glitter in the Mufe's ray 
 
 With orient hues, unborrow'd of the Sun: 
 
 Yet fhall he mount, and keep his diflant way 
 
 Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, 
 
 Beneath the Good how far ! but far above the Great. 
 
 LYCIDAS:
 
 4 ^ahol . * .' ,'ii '. 
 
 L Y C I D A S: 
 
 AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF HIS FRIEND. 
 Sr MILTON. 
 
 YE T once more, O ye Laurels, and once more, 
 Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never fere, 
 I come to pluck your berries harm and crude, 
 And with forc'd fingers rude 
 Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 
 Bitter conftraint, and fad occafion dear, 
 Compels me to difturb your feafon due : 
 For LYCIDAS is dead ! dead ere his prime, 
 Young LYCIDAS, and hath not left his peer: 
 Who would not fing for LYCIDAS? he knew 
 Himfelf to fing, and build the lofty rhime. 
 He muft not float upon his watery bier 
 Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 
 Without the meed of fome melodious tear. 
 
 Begin
 
 Begin then, Sifters of the facred well, 
 That from beneath the feat of Jove doth fpring, 
 Begin, and fomewhat loudly fweep the firing. 
 Hence with denial vain, and coy excufe, 
 So may fome gentle Mufe 
 With lucky words favour my deftin'd urn, 
 And as he pafles turn, 
 And bid fair peace be to ,my fable fhroud : 
 For we were nurft upon the felf-fame hill, 
 Fed the fame flock by fountain, made, and rill. 
 Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd 
 Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, 
 We drove afield, and both together heard 
 What time the gray-fly winds her fultry horn j 
 Battening our flocks with the frem dews of night, 
 Oft till the ftar, that rofe, at evening, bright, 
 Toward Heaven's defcent had flop'd his weftering wheel. 
 Mean while the rural ditties were not mute, 
 Temper'd to the oaten flute, 
 Rough Satyrs danc'd, and Fauns with cloven heel 
 N 2 From
 
 From the glad found would not be abfent long, 
 And old Damastas lov'd to hear our fong. 
 
 But Oh the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
 Now thou art gone, and never muft return ! 
 Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and defart caves 
 With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 
 And all their echoes mourn. 
 The willows, and the hazel copfes green* 
 Shall now no more be feen, 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy foft lays. 
 As killing as the canker to the rofe, 
 Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 Or froft to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 
 When firft the white-thorn blows ; 
 Such, LYCIDAS, thy lofs to fhepherds' ear. 
 
 Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorfelefs deep 
 Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd LYCIDAS ? 
 For neither were ye playing on the fteep, 
 Where your old Bards, the famous Druids, lie, 
 Nor on the fhaggy top of Mona high, 
 
 Nor
 
 Nor yet where Deva fpreads her wizard ftream : 
 Ay me ! I fondly dream 
 
 Had ye been there, for what could that have done ? 
 What could the Mufe herfelf that Orpheus bore, 
 The Mufe herfelf for her enchanting fon, 
 Whom univerfal nature did lament, 
 
 '-. ' /'/ ' j.Ti * / 
 
 When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
 His goary vifage down the ftream was fent, 
 Down the fwift Hebrus to the Lefbian more ? 
 
 Alas ! what boots it with incefTant care 
 To ten.d the homely flighted Shepherd's trade, 
 
 And flridly meditate the thanklefs Mufe ? 
 
 > -* UTS o r . uU'W-'jniw i\j 
 
 Were it not better done, as others ufe, 
 
 OJ JIQlt 'l(J 
 
 To fport with Amaryllis in the {hade, 
 
 Or with the tangles of Neasra's hair ? 
 
 ,aAni>"/u. t ffj/j2 
 
 Fame is the fpur that the clear fpirit doth raife 
 (That laft infirmity of noble mind) 
 
 To fcorn delights, and live laborious days ; 
 
 6 Jzsn 10^ 
 
 3ut the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 
 
 N i And
 
 [ i8a ] 
 
 And think to burft out into fudden blaze, 
 
 Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred (hears, 
 
 And flits the thin-fpun life. " But not the praife/* 
 
 Phoebus repiy'd, and touch'd my trembling ears ; 
 
 " Fame is no plant that grows on mortal foil, 
 
 Nor in the glittering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, 
 
 But lives and fpreads aloft by thofe pure eyes, 
 
 And perfect witnefs of all-judging Jove ; 
 
 As he pronounces laftly on each deed, 
 
 Of fo much fame in Heaven expert thy meed." 
 
 O fountain Arethufe, and thou honour'd flood, 
 Smooth-Hiding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds, 
 That ftrain I heard was of a higher mood : 
 But now my oat proceeds, 
 And liftens to the herald of the fea 
 That came in Neptune's plea ; 
 He afk'd the waves, and afk'd the felon winds, 
 What hard mifhap hath doom'd this gentle fwain? 
 
 And
 
 And queflion'd every guft of rugged winds 
 
 That blows from off each beaked promontory jmoG 
 
 They knew not of his flory ; 
 
 And fage Hippotades their anfwer brings, 
 
 That not a blaft was from his dungeon flray'd, 
 
 The air was calm, and on the level brine 
 
 Sleek Panope with all her fitters play'd. 
 
 It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 
 
 Built in the eclipfe, and rigg'd with curfes dark, 
 
 That funk fo low that facred head of thine. 
 
 Next Camus, reverend fire, went footing flow, 
 His mantle hairy, and his bonnet fedge, 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 
 Like to that f^nguine flower infcrib'd with woe. 
 Ah ! who hath reft (quoth he) my dearefl pledge? 
 Laft came, and Jafl did go, 
 The pilot of the Galilean lake, 
 Two mafTy keys he bore, of metals twain, 
 (The golden opes, the iron fhuts amain )v-m 
 
 N 4 He
 
 He fhook his mitred locks, and ftern befpake, 
 
 " How well could I have fpar'd for thee, young fwain, 
 
 Enow of fuch as for their bellies' fake 
 
 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold ? 
 
 Of other care they little reckoning make, 
 
 Than how to fcramble at the (hearer's feaft, 
 
 And (hove away the worthy bidden gueft $ 
 
 Blind mouths ! that fcarce themfelves know how to hold 
 
 A fheep-hook, or have learn'd ought elfe the leaft 
 
 That to the faithful herdman's art belongs ! 
 
 What recks it them ? What need they ? They are fped* 
 
 And when they lift, their lean and flafhy fongs 
 
 Grate on their fcrannel pipes of wretched ftraw; 
 
 The hungry flieep look up, and are not fed, 
 
 But fwoln with wind, and the rank mift they draw, 
 
 Rot inwardly, and foul contagion fpread : 
 
 Befides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing faid, 
 
 But that two-handed engine at the door 
 
 Stands ready to fmite once, and fmite no more." 
 
 Return,
 
 I 185 ] 
 
 Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is paft, 
 That fhrunk thy ftreams ; return, Sicilian Mufe, 
 And call the vales, and bid them hither caft 
 Their bells, and flowrets of a thoufand hues. 
 Ye valleys low, where the mild whifpers ufe 
 Of fhades, and wanton winds, and guming brooks, 
 On whofe frefh lap the fwart ftar fparely looks, 
 Throw hither all your quaint enamel'd eyes, 
 That on the green turf fuck the honied fhowers, 
 And purple all the ground with vernal flowers : 
 Bring the rathe primrofe that forfaken dies, 
 The tufted crow-toe, and pale jefiamine, 
 The white pink, and the panfy freakt with jet, 
 
 ' jnp 
 
 The glowing violet, 
 
 The mulk-rofe, and the well-attir'd woodbine, 
 With cowflips wan that hang the penfive head, 
 And every flower that fad embroidery wears : 
 Bid Amaranthus all his beauty fhed, 
 
 And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 
 
 o) btti 
 
 To
 
 t 186 ] 
 
 To ftrew the laureat hearfe where LYCID lies; 
 For fo to interpofe a little eafe, 
 Let our frail thoughts dally with falfe furmife. 
 Ay me ! Whilft thee the mores, and founding feas 
 Wafh far away ; where'er thy bones are hurl'd, 
 Whether beyond the ftormy Hebrides, 
 Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 
 Vifit'ft the bottom of the monftrous world ; 
 Or whether thou, to our moift vows deny'd, 
 Sleep'ft by the fable of Bellerus old, 
 Where the great vifion of the guarded mount 
 Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold ; 
 Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth : 
 And, O ye dolphins, waft the haplefs youth. 
 
 Weep no more, woeful mepherds, weep no more, 
 For LYCID AS your forrow is not dead, 
 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor ; 
 So finks the day-ftar in the ocean bed, 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-/pangled ore 
 
 Flames
 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning Iky: 
 
 So LYCIDAS funk low, but mounted high, 
 
 Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves, 
 
 Where other groves and other ftreams along, 
 
 With nedtar pure his oozy locks he laves, 
 
 And hears the unexpreflive nuptial fong, 
 
 In the bleft kingdoms meek of joy and love; 
 
 There entertain him all the Saints above, 
 
 In folemn troops, and fweet focieties, 
 
 That ling, and tinging in their glory move, 
 
 And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. 
 
 Now, LYCIDAS, the fhepherds weep no more; 
 
 Henceforth thou art the genius of the more, 
 
 Jn thy large recompence, and lhalt be good 
 
 To all that wander in that perilous flood. 
 
 Thus fang the uncouth fwain to the oaks and rills 5 
 While the ftill morn went out with fandals gray, 
 He touch'd the tender flops of various quills, 
 With eager thought warbling his Doric lay: 
 
 And
 
 [ i88 ] 
 
 And now the fun had ftretch'd out all the hills* 
 And now was dropt into the weftern bay ; 
 At laft he rofe, and twitch'd his mantle blue : 
 To-morrow to frefh woods, and paftures ne,w. 
 
 THE END, 
 
 siO 
 
 t 
 
 ,':r^",
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Pago 
 
 ELEGT in a Country ChurchTard. By GRAY i 
 Ode on the Death of Col Rofs. By W. COLLINS 1 5 
 Ode, written in the Tear 1745. By the SAME 18 
 *The Garland. By M. PRIOR - - 19 
 
 Hymn. By ADDISON - - 22 
 
 Hymn. By the SAME - - - 24 
 
 Hymn. By the SAME - - 28 
 
 O A&* Death of Addifon. By TICKEL - 30 
 
 <fhe Hermit. By DR. PARNELL - - 36 
 
 On the Death of Dr. Parnell. By POPE - 49 
 We Spleen. By GREEN - 52 
 
 The Flower and the Leaf. By DRYDEN - 95 
 Ode on St. Cecilia s Day. By the SAME - 128 
 L' Allegro. By MILTON - - - 139 
 
 IlPenferofo. By the SAME < - - 147 
 
 Dirge
 
 Page 
 Dirge in Cymbeline. By COLLINS - -156 
 
 Ode on the Profpeft of Eton College. By GRAY 158 
 Hymn to Adverfity. By the SAME - 164 
 
 Ode on the Spring. By the SAME - - 167 
 
 Ode on the Progrefs of Poejy. By the SAME - 170 
 Lycidas : An Elegy on the Death of his Friend. 
 By MILTON - - 178
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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