1070

With desolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempest wrapt; or shrinks aghast
Back from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid stream below, and strives to reach
The farther shore where, succourless and sad,
She with extended arms his aid implores,
But strives in vain borne by the outrageous flood
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,
Or whelmed beneath the boiling eddy sinks.
These are the charming agonies of love,
Whose misery delights. But through the heart
Should jealousy its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful misery no more,
But agony unmixed, incessant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blasting all
Love's Paradise. Ye fairy prospects, then,
Ye bed of roses and ye bowers of joy,
Farewell! Ye gleamings of departed peace,
Shine out your last! The yellow-tinging plague
Internal vision taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps.

Ah then instead of love-enlivened cheeks,
Of sunny features, and of ardent eyes

With flowing rapture bright, dark looks succeed,
Suffused, and glaring with untender fire,

A clouded aspect, and a burning cheek

Where the whole poisoned soul malignant sits,

1080

1090

1070 His dearer life extends her beckoning arms 1728; Wild as a Bacchanal she spreads her arms 1730-38. 1073 The three following lines were omitted from the original text in 1744

Then a weak, wailing, lamentable cry

Is heard, and all in tears he wakes, again
To tread the circle of revolving woe.

1078 gall] rage 1728-38.

1080 The Paradise of Love 1728; 1082 departed] departing 1088 rapture] raptures

the line thus consisting of six feet. 1728-44. 1086 Ah] Ay 1728-38. 1730-38,

And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondness, eat him up
With fervent anguish and consuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their id'e aid,
Deceitful pride, and resolution frail,
Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours
Afresh her beauties on his busy thought,
Her first endearments twining round the soul
With all the witchcraft of ensnaring love.
Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew,
Flames through the nerves, and boils along the veins;
While anxious doubt distracts the tortured heart :
For even the sad assurance of his fears

1100

Were peace to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds
Through flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fevered rapture or of cruel care—

His brightest aims extinguished all, and all
His lively moments running down to waste.

But happy they! the happiest of their kind! Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate

1110

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. 'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws, Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

Attuning all their passions into love;

Where friendship full-exerts her softest power, 1120
Perfect esteem enlivened by desire
Ineffable and sympathy of soul,

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,

1096 rage] pine 1728-38. Reflection pours 1728-38. her] his 1728-38.

1099 Giving a moment's ease.

1107 peace] heaven 1728.

II 20

With boundless confidence: for nought but love
Can answer love, and render bliss secure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To bless himself, from sordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care
Well-merited consume his nights and days;
Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love
Is wild desire, fierce as the suns they feel;
Let eastern tyrants from the light of heaven
Seclude their bosom-slaves, meanly possessed
Of a mere lifeless, violated form :

While those whom love cements in holy faith
And equal transport free as nature live,
Disdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all,
Who in each other clasp whatever fair

1130

High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish? 1140
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind or mind-illumined face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven!
Meantime a smiling offspring rises round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees
The human blossom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,
The father's lustre and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an assiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To
pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
1155 enlivening] in-

1137 What is] for what's 1728-38. spiring 1728-38; fix] plant 1728-38.

1150

Oh, speak the joy! ye, whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,

1160

And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss,
All various Nature pressing on the heart-
An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and consenting Spring
Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads:
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild;
When after the long vernal day of life,
Enamoured more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they sink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

1170

1157 ye] you 1728-38. 1161-5 Instead of these lines, which first appeared in edition 1744, the first text (1728-38) gives-Obedient fortune and approving Heaven. These are the blessings of diviner love.

1169 heads] head 1728-38. gentle, calm 1728-38.

1170 serene and mild] cool, 1172 as more remembrance swells] as

soul approaches soul 1728-38. 1173 Added in 1744. 1176 These concluding lines were added in 1744.

NOTES TO SPRING

1175,

There is no Argument prefixed to the earlier editions. But the following interesting table of Contents appears in the second edition (1729):

THE CONTENTS.

The subject-Spring. Described as a personage descending on Earth.

Address to Lady Hartford.

Winter described as a personage resigning the dominion of

the year.

Spring, yet unconfirmed.

The sun in Taurus fixes the Spring quarter.

First effects of the Spring, in softening Nature.

Plowing.

Sowing and Harrowing.

The praise of Agriculture.

Particularly applied to Britons.

Effects of the Spring in colouring the fields and unfolding the

leaves.

The country in blossom.

A blight.

A philosophical account of insects producing the blight.
A Spring-shower.

The sun breaking out in the evening after the rain.

The Rainbow.

Herbs produced-the food of man in the first ages of the world. -Then, the Golden Age.

As described by the poets.

The degeneracy of mankind from that state.

On this, the Deluge and effects thereof, particularly in shortening the life of man.

Hence, a vegetable diet recommended.

The cruelty of feeding on animals.

Flowers in prospect: The difficulty of describing that delicate part of the Season.

A wildflower-piece....

A gardenflower-piece.

An apostrophe to the Supreme Being as the soul of vegetation. Influence of the Spring on birds; and first, of their singing. Their courtship.

Building their nests.

Brooding, and care of their young.

Arts to secure them.

Against confining them in cages, and particularly the nightingale her lamentation for her young.

:

Teaching their young to fly.

The eagle trying his at the sun.

A piece of household-fowl.

Influence of the Spring on other animals, the bull, horse, &c. A landskip of the shepherd tending his flock with lambs frisking around him; and a transition in praise of our present happy Constitution.