What care, what rules your heedlefs charms fhall fave,
Each nymph your rival, and each youth your flave?
Against your fame with fondnefs hate combines,
The rival batters, and the lover mines.
With diftant voice neglected Virtue calls,
Lefs heard and lefs, the faint remonstrance falls;
Tir'd with contempt, fhe quits the flip'ry reign,
And Pride and Prudence take her feat in vain.
In crowd at once, where none the pass defend,
The harmless Freedom, and the private Friend.
The guardians yield, by force fuperior ply'd;
By Int'reft, Prudence; and by Flatt'ry, Pride.
Now beauty falls betray'd, defpis'd, diftrefs'd,
And hiffing Infamy proclaims the reft.
Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find? Muft dull Sufpence corrupt the ftagnant mind?
Muft helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate ?
Muft no diflike alarm, no wishes rife,
No cries attempt the mercies of the skies?
Enquirer, cease, petitions yet remain,
Which heav'n may hear, nor deem religion vain.
Still raife for good the fupplicating voice,
But leave to heav'n the measure and the choice.
Safe in his pow'r, whofe eyes difcern afar
The secret ambush of a specious pray'r.
Implore his aid, in his decifions rest,
Secure whate'er he gives, he gives the best.
Yet when the fenfe of facred prefence fires,
And ftrong devotion to the skies afpires,
Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
Obedient paffions, and a will refign'd;
For love, which fcarce collective man can fill;
For patience fov'reign o'er tranfmuted ill;
For faith that panting for a happier feat,
Counts death kind Nature's fignal of retreat:
Thefe goods for man the laws of heav'n ordain,
These goods he grants, who grants the pow'r to gain;
With these celeftial Wisdom calms the mind,
And makes the happiness fhe does not find.
THE TEARS of OLD MAY-DAY,
ED by the jocund train of vernal hours
And vernal airs, uprofe the gentle May;
Blushing she rofe, and blushing rose the flow'rs
That fprung fpontaneous in the genial ray.
Her locks with heav'n's ambrofial dews were bright,
And am'rous zephyrs flutter'd on her breast:
With ev'ry shifting gleam of morning light
The colours fhifted of her rainbow veft.
Imperial enfigns grac'd her smiling form,
A golden key, and golden wand she bore;
This charms to peace each fullen eastern storm,`
And that unlocks the Summer's copious store.
Onward in confcious majefty fhe came,
The grateful honours of mankind to taste;
To gather faireft wreaths of future fame,
And blend fresh triumphs with her glories paft.
Vain hope! no more in choral bands unite
Her virgin vot'ries, and at early dawn,
Sacred to May and Love's myfterious rite,
Brush the light dew-drops a from the spangled lawn.
To her no more Augufta's wealthy pride
Pours the full tribute from Potofi's mine;
Nor fresh-blown garlands village maids provide,
A purer off'ring, at her ruftic shrine.
No more the Maypole's verdant height around
To Valour's games th' ambitious youth advance;
No merry bells and tabors' fprightlier found
Wake the loud carol, and the sportive dance.
Alluding to the country cuftom of gathering May-dew.
The plate garlands of London.
Sudden in penfive sadness droop'd her head,
Faint on her cheeks the blushing crimson dy'd-
"O! chafte victorious triumphs, whither fled?
"My maiden honours, whither gone?" the cry'd.
Ah! once to fame and bright dominion born,
The Earth and smiling Ocean saw me rife,
With time coeval and the ftar of morn,
The first, the fairest daughter of the skies.
Then, when at heav'n's prolific mandate sprung
The radiant beam of new-created day,
Celestial harps, to airs of triumph ftrung,
Hail'd the glad dawn, and angels call'd me MAY.
Space in her empty regions heard the found,
And hills, and dales, and rocks, and vallies rung;
The fun exulted in his glorious round,
And shouting planets in their courses fung.
For ever then I led the conftant year;
Saw Youth, and Joy, and Love's enchanting wiles;
Saw the mild Graces in my train appear,
And infant Beauty brighten in my smiles.
No Winter frown'd. In fweet embrace ally'd,
Three fifter Seasons danc'd th' eternal green;
And Spring's retiring softness gently vy'd
With Autumn's blush, and Summer's lofty mien.
Too soon, when man prophan'd the bleffings giv'n,
And Vengeance arm'd to blot a guilty age,
With bright Aftrea to my native heav'n
I fled, and flying faw the Deluge rage:
Saw bursting clouds eclipse the noontide beams,
While founding billows from the mountains roll'd,
With bitter waves polluting all my streams,
My nectar'd streams, that flow'd on fands of gold.
Then vanquish'd many a sea-girt ifle and grove,
Their forefts floating on the watʼry plain :
Then, fam'd for arts and laws deriv'd from Jove,
My Atalantis funk beneath the main.
No longer bloom'd primeval Eden's bow'rs,
Nor guardian dragons watch'd the Hefperian steep:
With all their fountains, fragrant fruits and flow'rs,
Torn from the continent to glut the deep.
No more to dwell in sylvan scenes I deign'd,
Yet oft descending to the languid earth,
With quick'ning pow'rs the fainting mafs fuftain'd,
And wak'd her flumb'ring atoms into birth.
And ev'ry echo caught my raptur'd name,
And ev'ry virgin breath'd her am'rous vows,
And precious wreaths of rich immortal fame,
Show'r'd by the Mufes, crown'd my lofty brows.
|