Drives through the sleeping ranks : then to his | Beside what fountain, in what breezy bower, Gave signals of retreat, but nobler deeds [friend Reclines my charmer in the noon-tide hour He meditates, to drag the radiant car, FLORUS. Or lift it through the threefold ranks, up-born Soft, I adjure you, by the skipping fawns, High on his shoulders, or with slaughter stain By the fleet roes, that bound along the lawns; Thensanguji'd field; when, lo! the martial maid Soft tread, ye virgin daughters of the grove, Down rusbes from the battlements of Heaven, Nor with your dances wake my sleeping love 1 And sudden cries, “ Return, brave chief, return, DAMON. Lest from the skies some guardian power of Troy | Return, O virgin ! and if proud disdain Wrathful descend, and rouse the hostile bands.” Arm thy fierce soul, return, enjoy my pain : Thus speaks the warrior queen: the heavenly If pleas'd thou view'st a faithful lover's cares, Tydides owns, and mounts the fiery steeds, (voice Thick rise, ye sighs: in floods descend, yc tearst Observant of the high command; the bow FLORUS. Snge Ithacus apply'd, and tow'rd the tents (plain. Return, O virgin! while in verdant meads By springs we sport, or dream on flowery beds The food of wolves, or hungry lions' prey. DAMON, Ah! shield her, Heaven! your rage, ye beasts, for TO A YOUNG LADY, UPON HER LEAVING, AND RETURN Those are not limbs for savages to tear! (bear! TO, THE COUNTRY. Adieu, ye meads! with her through wilds I go DAMON, O'er burning sands, or everlasting snow; Say, while each scene so beautiful appears, With her I wander through the desert way, Why heaves thy bosom, and why flow thy tears? The food of wolves, or hungry lions' prey. FLORUS. nooth flow the floods, soft breathe the vernal airs: | Frown o'er th' aërial vault, and rust in floods; The spring, flowers, floous, conspire to charm our Ere raging storis howl o'er the frozen plains ; cares. Thy charms may suffer by the storms or rains. FLORUS. | DAMON. But vain the pleasures which the season yields, Come, Rosalind, o come; then infant flowers The laughing vallies, or the painted fields. Shall bloom and smile, and forin their charms by No more, ye floods, in silver mazes flow; By you, the lily shall her white compose; (yours: Smile not, ye flowers; no more, soft breezes, blow: Your blush shall add new blushes to the rose; Far, Damon, far from these unhappy groves, Each flowery mead, and every tree shall bud, The cruel, lovely Rosalinda roves. And fuller honours clothe the youthful wood. . DAMON. FLORUS. Ah! now I know why late the opening buds . Yet, ah ! forbear to urge thy homeward way. Clos'd up their gems, and sicken'd in the woods ; While sultry suns infest the glowing day : Why droop'd the lily in her snowy pride; The sultry suns thy beauties may impair! And why the rose withdrew her sweets, and dy'd : Yet haste away! for thou art now too fair, For thee, fair Rosalind, the opening buds DAMON. Clos'd up their gerns, and sicken'd in the woods; Hark! from yon bower what airs soft-warbled play! For thee the lily shed her snowy pride; My soul takes wing to meet th' enchanting lay: For thee the rose withdrew her sweets, and dy'd. Silence, ye nightingales ! attend the voice ! While thus it warbles, all your songs are noise. Bee! where yon vine in soft embraces weaves FLORUS. Her wanton ringlets with the myrtle's leaves ; See! from the bower a form majestic moves, There tun'd sweet Pbilou el her sprightly lay, Both to the rising and the falling day: And, sinoothly gliding, shines along the groves ; But since fair Rosalind forsook the plains, Say, comes a goddess from the golden spheres? A goddess comes, or Rosalind appears ! DAMON. Shine forth, thou Sun, bright ruler of the day; DAMON. And where she treads, ye flowers, adorn the way! Say, O) ye winds, that range the distant skies, Rejoice, ye groves; my heart, dismiss thy cares! My goddess comes, my Rosalind appears! POVERTY AND POETRY. Could by his verses tame a lion, And, by his strange enchanting tunes, Make bears or wolves dance rigadoons But it is plain, that in these times | Aw'd by your guardian's dangerous power, No house is rais'd by poets' rhymes; . At distance trembling we adore; They for themselves can only rear At distance once again behold A few wild castles in the air ; A serpent guard the blooming gold. Poor are the brethren of the bays, Well pleas'd, and harmless, lo! he lies, · Down from high strains, to ekes and ayes, Basks in the sunshine of your eyes; The Muses too are virgins yet, Now twists his spires, and now unfurls And may be till they portions get. The gay confusion of his curls. Yet still the doating rhymer dreams, Oh! happy on your breast to lie, And sings of Helicon's bright streams; As that bright star that gilds the sky, But Helicon, for all his clatter, Who, ceasing in the spheres to shine, Yields only uninspiring water; Would, for your breast, his Heaven resign, Yet ev'n athirst he sweetly singe Yet, oh! fair virgin, caution take, Of Nectar, and Elysian springs. Lest some bold cheat assume the snake. What dire malignant planet sheds, When Jove comprest the Grecian dame Ye bards, his influence on your heads? Aloof he threw the lightning's flame; Lawyers by endless controversies, On radiant spires the lover rode, And in the snake conceal'd the gode TO A LADY OF THIRTY. No more let youth its beauty boast, S n at thirty reigns a toast, And, like the Sun as he declines, For what another mounts the gallows More mildly, but more sweetly sbipes The hand of Time alone disarms In shady groves the Muses stray, Her face of its superfluous charms: " And love in flowery meads to play ; But adds, for every grace resign'd, A thousand to adorn her mind. Youth was her too inflaming time; This, her more babitable clime: How must she then each heart engage, Who blooms like youth, is wise like age & Thus the rich orange-trees produce But love rewards the bard! the fair At once both ornament, and use : Attend his song, and ease his care: Here opening blossoms we behold, There fragrant orbs of ripen'd gold ON THE BIRTH-DAY OF MR. ROBERT TREFUSISU But then some say you purchase fame, And gain that envy'd prize, a name; BEING THREE YEARS OLD, MARCH 22, 1710-11. , Great recompence! like his who sells | Awake, sweet babe! the Sun's emerging ray, A diamond, for beads and bells. That gave you birth, renews the happy day! Will Fame be thought sufficient bail Calmly serene, and glorious to the view, To keep the poet from the jail ? He marches forth, and strives to look like you, Thus the brave soldier, in the wars, Bets empty praise, and aching scars; VARIATIONS. Is paid with fame and wooden legs; Why, lovely babe, does slumber seal your eyes And, stary'd, the glorious vagrant begs See, fair Aurora blushes in the skies! Begins his course, and ushers in the day. Calmly serene, and glorious to the view, He marches forth, and strives to look like you.' PLAYING WITH A SNAKE. Fair beauty's bud! when Time shall stretch thy It is a pleasing direful sight! Confirm thy charms, and ripen thee to man, (span, At once you charm us, and affright! How shall each swain, each beauteous nymph comSo Heaven destroying angels arms For love each nymph, for envy every swain! (plain, With terrour, dreadful in their charms! What matchless charms shall thy full noon adorn, Such, such was Cleopatra's air, When so admir'd, so glorious, is thy morn! * The Scorpion. By the dire asp, its poblest boast . Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great .. Fair beauty's bud! when Time sball stretch thy | Nobly adorn'd, and finish'd to display Confirin thy charms, and ripen thee to man, [span, A. fuller beam of Heaven's ethereal ray. . What plenteous fruits thy blossoms shall produce, 1 May all thy charins increase, O lovely boy! And yield not barren ornament, but use ! Spare them, ye pains, and age alone destroy! Ev'n now thy spring a rich increase prepares So fair thou art, that if great Cupid be To crown thy riper growth, and manly years. A child, the god might boast to look like thee! Thus in the kernel's intricate disguise, When young lulus' form he deign'd to wear, In miniature a little orchard lies; Such were his smiles, and such his winning air: Thc fibrous labyrinths by just degrees Ev'n Venus might mistake thee for her own, Stretch their swoln cells, replete with future trees; Idid not thy eyes proclaim thee not her son ; By Time evolvd, the spreading branches rise, Thence all the lightning of thy mother's flies, Yield their rich fruits, and shoot into the skies. | A Cupid grac'd with Cytheraa's eyes! O lovely babe, what lustre shall adorn Yet ah ! how short a date the Powers decree Thy noon of beauty, when so bright thy morn! To that bright frame of beauties, and to thee! Pass a few days, and all those beauties sy ! Pass a few years, and thou, alas ! shalt die! Then all thy kindred, all thy friends shall see Than those gay trifles, titles, wealth, and show : With tears, what now thou art, and they must be ; May valour, wisdom, learning, crown thy days! A pale, cold, lifeless lump of earth deplore ! Those fools admire--these Heaven and Angels Such shalt thou be, and kings shall be no more ! praise !! Butoh! when, ripe for death, Fate calls thee hence, With riches blest, to Heaven those riches lend, Sure lot of every mortal excellence ! The poor man's guardian, and the good man's friend: When, pregnant as the womb, the teening Earth Bid virtuous Sorrow smile, scorn'd Merit cheer, Resigns thee quicken'd to thy second birth, And o'er Amiction pour the generous tear. Risé, cloth'd with beauties that shall never die ! Some, wildly liberal, squander, not beston, | A saint on Earth! an angel in the sky! TO A GENTLEMAN OF SEVENTY. Thus offerings from th' unjust pollute the skies, WHO MARRIED A LADY OF SIXTEEN. The good, turn smoke into a sacrifice. | What woes must such unequal union bring, As when an artist plans a favourite draught, When hoary Winter weds the youthful Spring! The structures rise responsive to the thought; You, like Mezentius,' in the nuptial bed, Once more unite the living to the dead. THE VARIATIONS. XLIII CHAPTER OF ECCLESIASTICUS. That all to thee with admiration run, A PARAPIIRASE. The Sun, that rolls his beany orb on high, | Pride of the world, and glory of the sky, Fair Venus would mistake thee for her own, | Ilustrious in his course, in bright array | Marches along the Heavens, and scatters day Did not thy eyes proclaim thee not her son. There all the lightnings of thy mother's shine, | O'er Earth, and o'er the main, and through th'ethe. Their radiant glory and their sweetness join, He in the morn renews his radiant round, (real way. To show their fatal power, and all their charms, in | And warms the fragrant bosom of the ground: | But ere the noon of day, in fiery gleams If fond Narcissus in the crystal stood, [thine, A form like thine, O lovely infant, view'd, He darts the glory of his blazing beams; Well might the flame the pining youth destroy ; Beneath the burnings of his sultry ray, Excess of beauty justified the boy. Earth, to her centre, pierc'd admits the day; Huge vales expand, where rivers rollid before. ADDITION. And lessen'd seas contract within their shore. 9 To brace the mind to dignity of thought, 0! Power supreme! O! high above all height! To emulate what godlike Tully wrote, Thou gav'st the Sun to shine, and thou art Light: Be this thy early wish! The garden breeds, Whether he falls or rises in the skies, If unimprov'd, at least but gaudy weeds : He by thy voice is taught to fall or rise; And stubborn youth, by culture unsubdu'd, Swiftly he moves, refulgent in his sphere, . Lies wildly barren, or but gayly rude. And measures out the day, the month, and year; . Yet, as some Phidias gives the marble life, He drives the hours along with slower pace, While Art with Nature holds a dubious strifo, The minutes rush away impetuous in their race: Adorns a rock with graces not its own, He wakes the flowers that sleep within the earth, And calls a Venus from the rugged stone; And calls the fragrant infants out to birth; So culture aids the human soul to rise, To scorn the sordid Earth, and mount the skies, * The living and the dead, Athis command, Till by degrees the noble guest refines, Were coupled face to face, and hand to hand. Claims her high birthright, and divinely shing. I Drydep's Virgil, Ad viï The fragrant infants paint th' enameld vales, When stormy Winter from the frozen north Borne on his icy chariot issues forth, The blasted groves their verdant pride resign, To Heaven, and to their God, an offering pay. And billow's harden d into crystal shine: Sharp blows the rigour of the piercing winds, By thy command the Moon, as day-light fades, faces, | And the proud foods as with a breast-plate binds : Lifts her broad circle in the deepening shades; Ev’n the proud seas forget in tides to roll. Array'd in glory, and enthron'd in light, | Beneath the freezings of the northern pole; She breaks the solenn terrours of the night; I There waves on waves in solid mountains rise, Sweetly inconstant in her varying flame, | And Alps of ice invade the wondering skies; She changes still, another, yet the same ! While gulphs below, and slippery vallies lie, Now in decrease, by slow degrees she shrouds | And with a dreadful brightness pain the eye: Her fading lustre in a veil of clouds; | But if warm winds a warmer air restore, Nos at increase, her gathering beams display | And softer breezes bring a genial shower, A blaze of fight, and give a paler day; The genial shower revives the cheerful plain, Ten thousand stars adorn her glittering train, | And the huge hills now down into the main. Fall when she falls, and rise with her again; And o'er the deserts of the sky unfold | When the seas rage, and loud the ocean roars, Their burning spangles of sidereal gold: (bright, When foaining billows lash the sounding shores; Through the wide Heavens she moves serenely If he in thunder bid the waves subside, Queen of the gay attendants of the night; The waves obedient sink upon the tide, Orb above orb in sweet confusion lies, A sudden peace controls the limpid deep, And with a bright disorder paints the skies. And the still waters in soft silence sleen. Then Heaven lets down a golden-streaming ray, The Lord of Nature fizm'd the showery bow, And all the broad expansion flames with day: Turn'd its gay arch, and bade its colours ylow: In the clear glass the mariners descry A sun inverted, and a downward sky. They who adventurous plough the watery way, Adorns the clouds, and makes the tempést please. The dreadful wonders of the deep survey; | Familiar with the storms, their sails unbind, He, when deep-rolling clouds blot out the day, Teinpt the rough blast, and bound before the wind : And thunderous storms a solem gloom display, Vow high they mount, now shoot into a vale, Pours down a watery deluge fror on high, Now smooth their course, and scud before the gale; And opens all the sluices of the sky: | There rolling monsters, arm'l in scaly pride, High o'er the shores the rushing surge prevails, | Flounce in the billows, and dash round the tide; Bursts o'er the plain, and roars along the vales; There huge Leviathan unwieldy moves, Dashing abruptly, dreadful down it comes, And through the waves, a living island, roves; Tumbling through rocks, and tosses, whirls, and In dreadful pastime terribly he sports, Mean time, from every region of the sky, (foams : And the vast ocean scarce his weight supports; Red burning bolts in forky vengeance fly; Where'er he turns, the hoary deeps divide; Dreadfully bright o'er seas and earth they glare, | He breathes a tempest, and he spouts a tide. And bursts of thunder rend th' encumber'd air; At once the thunders of th' Almighty sound, Thus, Lord, the wonders of earth, sen, and air, Heaven lours, descend the floods, and rocks the Thy boundless wisdom and thy power adeclare; ground. Thou high in glory, and in might serene, He gives the furious whirlwind wings to fly, See'st and mov'st all, thyself unmov'l, unseen: To rend the Farth, and wheel along the sky; Shoul men and angels join in songs to raise In circling eddies whirl'd, it roars aloud, A grateful tribute equal to thy praise, Drives wave on wave, and dashes cloud on cloud: 1 Yet far thy glory would their praise outshine. Where'er it moves, it lays whole forests low; Though men and angels in the song should join; And at the blast, eternal mountains bow; For though this Earth with skill divine is wrought, While, tearing up the sands, in drifts they rise, Above the guess of man, or angel's thought, And half the deserts mount the burthen'd skies. Yet in the spacious regions of the skies New scenes unfold, and worlds on worlds arise ; He from aërial treasures downward pours There other orbs, round other suns advance, Sheets of unsully'd snow in lucid showers; Float on the air, and run their mystic dance; Flake after fake, through air thick-wavering flies, | And yet the power of thy Almighty hand Till one vast shining waste all nature lies; Can build another world from every sand: Then the proud hills a virgin whiteness shed, And though vain man arraign thy high decree, TYE CONCLUSION OF AN EPILOGUE | TO MR. SOUTHERN'S LAST PLAY, CALLED MONLY THE The rising herb, or breaks the spreading blades: MISTRESS. While infant flowers that rais'd their bloony heads, | THERE was a time, when in his younger years, Crush'd by its fury, sink into their beds. Our author's scenes commanded smiles or tears; And though beneath the weight of days he bends, | Such are thy charms !-yet Zephyrs bring. But beauty, when it once declines, When I, who now adore, may see, But ere, sweet gift, thy grace consumes Show thou my fair-one how she blooms! | Put forth thy charms: and then declare A SONG, | Thyself less sweet, thyself less fair! Then sudden, by a swift decay, Let all thy beauties fade away; And let her in thy glass descry, How youth, and how frail beauty die. The sad Amintor sigh'd; . Ah! turn, my charmer, turn thy eyos! And thus, while streams of tears he shed, See! how at once it fades, it dies! The mournful shepherd cry'd: While thinemit gaily pleas'd the view,. “ Move slow, ye Hours ! thou, Time, delay! Unfaded, as before it grew! Prolong the bright Belinda's stay: Now, from thy bosom doom'd to stray, But you, like her, my prayer deny, 'Tis only beauteous in decay: And cruelly away ye tly. So the sweet-smelling Indian flowers, Griev'd when they leave those happier shores, “ Yet though she fies, she leaves behind Sicken, and die away in ours. Her lovely image in my mind. 0! fair Belinda, with me stay, So flowers, in Eden fond to blow, Or take thy image too away! In Paradise would only grow. “ See! how the fields are gay around, Nor wonder, fairest, to survey The flower so suddenly decay! Too cold thy breast! nor' can it grow Between such little hills of snow. “ But now, ye fields, no more be gay ; I now, vain infidel, no more No more, ye towers, your charms display! Deride th' Ægyptians, who adore 'Tis desert all, now you are fled, | The rising herb, and blooming flower ; | Now, now their convert I will be, And paradise is where you tread.” O lovely Flower! to worship thee. But if thou 'rt one of their sad train Who dy'd for love, and cold disdain, Who, chang'd by some kind pitying power, I love, I die through deep despair THE STORY OF TALUS. FROM THE FOURTHI BOOK OF APOLLONIUS RHODIUM Though Paradise adorn'd the coasts! v. 1629, 0! sweeter than each flower that blooms, This fragrance from thy bosom comes ! "Huey ,435 ผมอย, kve any kerne Thence, thence such sweets are spread abroad, Aűanos, &c. As might be incense for a god! The evening-star now lifts, as day-light fades, When Venus stood conceal'd from view, His golden circlet in the deepening shades; Her son, the latent goddess“ knew, Stretch'd at his ease, the weary labourer shares Such sweets breath'd round! and thus we know, A sweet forgetfulness of human cares; Our other Venus here below. At once in silence sink the sleeping gales; But see! my fairest, see this flower, The mast they drop ?, and furl the flagging sails; This short-liv'd beauty of an hour! All night, all day, they ply the bending oars Tow'rd Carpathus, and reach the rocky show: . From the stage. 3 Alluding to a rote of the Roman senate, by VARIATION. which they decreed Cæsar a crown of laurel to sme how could it grow. Rover his baldness. * Ambrosiæque coma divinum vertice odorem See Ovid's Metamorpha • Spirayêre. Virg. • Argonauts |