Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view!) 295
Long lov'd, ador'd ideas, all adieu!
O Grace ferene! O Virtue heavenly fair!
Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care!
And Faith, our early immortality!
Fresh-blooming Hope, gay daughter of the sky!
Enter, each mild, each amicable guest;
Receive and wrap me in eternal rest!
See in her cell fad Eloïfa fpread,
Propt on fome tomb, a neighbour of the dead.
In each low wind methinks a Spirit calls,
And more than Echoes talk along the walls.
Here, as I watch'd the dying lamps around,
From yonder shrine I heard a hollow found.
Come, fifter, come!" (it faid, or feem'd to say) Thy place is here, fad fifter, come away! "Once like thyfelf, I trembled, wept, and pray'd, "Love's victim then, though now a fainted maid: "But all is calm in this eternal fleep;
"Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, "Ev'n fuperftition loses every fear;
"For God, not man, abfolves our frailties here."
I come, I come! prepare your rofeate bowers,
Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flowers.
Thither, where finners may have rest, I go,
Where flames refin'd in breasts feraphic glow
Thou, Abelard! the laft fad office pay,
And smooth my passage to the realms of day;
See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll,
Suck my last breath, and catch my flying foul!
Ah no-in facred vestments may'st thou stand,
The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand,
Prefent the Crofs before my lifted eye,
Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.
Ah then, thy once-lov'd Eloïfa fee!
It will be then no crime to gaze on me.
See from my cheek the tranfient roses fly!
See the laft fparkle languish in my eye!
Till every motion, pulfe, and breath be o'er;
And ev'n my Abelard be lov'd no more.
O Death all eloquent! you only prove
What duft we doat on, when 'tis man we love.
Then too, when fate shall thy fair frame destroy,
(That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy)
In trance extatic may thy pangs be drown'd,
Bright clouds defcend, and Angels watch thee round,
From opening skies may ftreaming glories fhine,
And Saints embrace thee with a love like mine.
May one kind grave unite each hapless name,
And graft my love immortal on thy fame!
Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er,
When this rebellious heart fhall be at no more;
If ever chance two wandering lovers brings
To Paraclete's white walls and filver fprings,
O'er the pale marble fhall they join their heads,
And drink the falling tears each other sheds;
Then fadly say, with mutual pity mov'd,
"O may we never love as these have lov'd!"
From the full choir, when loud Hofannas rife,
And fwell the pomp of dreadful facrifice,
Amid that scene if fome relenting eye
Glance on the stone where our cold relicks lie,
Devotion's felf fhall steal a thought from heaven,
One human tear fhall drop, and be forgiven.
And fure if fate fome future bard shall join
In fad fimilitude of griefs to mine,
Condemn'd whole years in abfence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such if there be, who loves fo long, fo well;
Let him our fad, our tender ftory tell!
The well-fung woes will footh my penfive ghoft; 365 He beft can paint them who fhall feel them moft.
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