Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side, Transformed to combs, the speckled, and the white. FROM "THE MESSIAH." The swain in barren deserts with surprise To leafless shrubs the flow`ring palms succeed, And od❜rous myrtle to the noisome weed. The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead; The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. The smiling infant in his hand shall take The crested basilisk and speckled snake, Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey, And with their forky tongues shall innocently play. Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes! See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings, And heaped with products of Sabæan springs ! For thee Idume's spicy forests blow, And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. Drawn without his knowledge while conversing with Mr. Allen at Prior Park O'erflow thy courts: the Light Himself shall shine Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine ! The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, FROM THE "ELEGY ON AN UNFORTUNATE LADY." What can atone (oh ever-injured shade !) Thy fate unpitied, and thy rights unpaid? No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier. By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed, By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed. By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned, By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourned: What though no friends in sable weeds appear, Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year, And bear about the mockery of woe To midnight dances, and the public show? What though no weeping loves thy ashes grace, Nor polished marble emulate thy face? What though no sacred earth allow thee room, Nor hallowed dirge be muttered o'er thy tomb? Yet shall thy grave with rising flow'rs be drest, And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast: There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, There the first roses of the year shall blow; While angels with their silver wings o'ershade The ground, now sacred by thy reliques made. 66 FROM AN ESSAY ON MAN." Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind; His soul, proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, or milky way; Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n ; He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. FROM "THE DUNCIAD." In flowed at once a gay embroidered race, And tittering pushed the pedants off the place : Some would have spoken, but the voice was drowned By the French horn, or by the opening hound. The first came forwards, with as easy mien, As if he saw St. James's and the queen. When thus th' attendant orator began, "Receive, great empress! thy accomplished son: Thou gavest that ripeness, which so soon began, Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down, DUBLIN:Printed LONDON Reprinted for A.Dodd To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs, Vain of Italian arts, Italian souls: To happy convents, bosomed deep in vines, Where slumber abbots, purple as their wines: To isles of fragrance, lily-silvered vales, Diffusing languor in the panting gales: To lands of singing, or of dancing slaves, Love-whisp'ring woods, and lute-resounding waves. But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps, And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps." |