Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

II.

But fee the bride---fhe comes with filent pace,

Full of majefty and love;

Not with a nobler grace

Look'd the imperial wife of Jove,
When erft ineffably she shone

In Venus' irresistible, inchanting zone.

Phœbus, great god of verse, the nymph observe,
Obferve her well;

Then touch each sweetly-trem'lous nerve
Of thy refounding shell :
Her like huntress-Dian paint,
Modeft, but without restraint;
From Pallas take her decent pace,
With Venus fweeten all her face,
From the Zephyrs fteal her fighs,
From thyself her fun-bright eyes;
Then baffled, thou shalt see,
That as did Daphne thee,

Her charms thy genius' force fhall fly,
And by no foft perfuafive founds be brib'd

To come within INVENTION's narrow eye; But all indignant fhun its grasp, and scorn to be defcrib'd

III.

Now fee the bridegroom rife,

Oh! how impatient are his joys!

Bring me zephyrs to depaint his voice,

But light'ning for his eyes.

He

He leaps, he springs, he flies into her arms,

With joy intense,

Feeds ev'ry sense,

And fultanates o'er all her charms.
Oh! had I Virgil's comprehensive strain,
Or fung like Pope, without a word in vain,
Then should I hope my numbers might contain,
Egregious nymph, thy boundless happiness,
How arduous to express !

Such may it last to all eternity

And may thy Lord with thee,

Like two coeval pines in Ida's grove,
That interweave their verdant arms in love,
Each mutual office chearfully perform,
And share alike the funshine, and the storm;
And ever, as you flourish hand in hand,
Both fhade the fhepherd and adorn the land,
Together with each growing year arise,
Indiffolubly link'd, and climb at laft the fkies.

To

To E THELINDA,

On her doing my Verses the honour of wearing them in her bosom.

Written at Thirteen.

O DE XII.

I.

Appy verses! that were prest

HA

In fair Ethelinda's breaft!

Happy muse, that didst embrace

The sweet, the heav'nly-fragrant place!
Tell me, is the omen true,

Shall the bard arrive there too?

II.

Oft thro' my eyes my foul has flown,
And wanton'd on that ivory throne :
There with extatic transport burn'd,
And thought it was to heav'n return'd.
Tell me, is the omen true,

Shall the body follow too?

III.

When first at nature's early birth,
Heav'n fent a man upon the earth,
Ev'n Eden was more fruitful found,
When Adam came to till the ground ::
Shall then those breafts be fair in vain,
And only rife to fall again?

IV.

IV.

No, no, fair nymph---for no fuch end
Did heav'n to thee its bounty lend;
That breast was ne'er defign'd by fate,

For verse, or things inanimate;

Then throw them from that downy bed,
And take the poet in their stead.

On an EAGLE confined in a College-Court.

[blocks in formation]

Where Hyperborean mountains hoar

Their heads in Ether fhroud ;--
Thou fervant of almighty Jove,

Who, free and fwift as thought, could'ft rove
To the bleak north's extremeft goal ;---
Thou, who magnanimous could'st bear
The fovereign thund'rer's arms in air,
And shake thy native pole !----

II.

Oh cruel fate! what barbarous hand,

What more than Gothic ire,

At some fierce tyrant's dread command,

To check thy daring fire,

Has

Has plac'd thee in this fervile cell,
Where Discipline and Dulness dwell,
Where Genius ne'er was feen to roam;
Where ev'ry selfish soul's at rest,
Nor ever quits the carnal breast,

But lurks and fneaks at home!

III.

Tho' dim'd thine eye, and clipt thy wing, fo

So grov'ling! once so great!
The grief-inspired Mufe fhall fing
In tend'reft lays thy fate.

What time by thee fcholaftic Pride
Takes his precife, pedantic ftride,
Nor on thy mis'ry cafts a care,
The ftream of love ne'er from his heart
Flows out, to act fair pity's part;

But stinks, and stagnates there.
IV.

Yet useful ftill, hold to the throng---
Hold the reflecting glass,---
That not untutor'd at thy wrong
The paffenger may pafs:

Thou type of wit and fenfe confin'd,
Cramp'd by the oppreffors of the mind,

Who ftudy downward on the ground;
Type of the fall of Greece and Rome;
While more than mathematic gloom,
Envelopes all around!

ΑΝ

« AnteriorContinuar »