When all around, and all above,
Seem'd like my fair to whisper love:
Thy flatt'ring pencil drew each grace,
Her temper heav'nly as her face;
Pure as the fountain's limpid ftream
Gentle as Cynthia's filver beam.
When rous'd by Friendship's gen'rous name,
I at thy magic call appear'd,
My foul, unfpotted, felt the flame,
And ev'ry with with friendship fhar'd.
No more thy tranfports, or thy charms, I'll prove,
Fickle alike in Friendfhip, and in Love!
In days of funfhine, days of eafe,
'Tis then thou'rt dreft in all thy pride,
'Tis then thy gaudy phantoms pleafe,
And ev'ry fear and care deride:
But when tempefts rend the breaft,
And the mind with madness boils,
Or defp'rate love the reafon foils,
Thou leav'ft us lonely and oppreft.
From forrow's thorny couch thy pleafures fly,
As the gay vifion fhuns approaching day;
Nor love nor friendship's lenient hand apply,
At last too fure thy vot'ries to betray.
No more, no more, thou fascinating pow'r!
Delusive meteor of an idle hour!"
The NATURALIST'S SUMMER's EVENING WALK,
[From WHITE'S NATURAL HISTORY of SELEORNE.]
equidem credo, quia fit divinitus illis
WHEN day declining fheds a milder gleam,
What time the May-fly haunts the pool or ftream;
When the still owl fkims round the graffy mead,
What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed;
Then be the time to steal adown the vale,
And liften to the vagrant cuckoo's tale;
To hear the clamorous curlew call his mate,
Or the foft quail his tender pain relate;
To fee the fwallow fweep the dark'ning plain
Belated, to fupport her infant-train ;
To mark the fwift in rapid giddy ring
Dafh round the fteeple, unfubdu'd of wing:
Amufive birds!-fay where your hid retreat
When the froft rages and the tempefts beat;
Whence your return, by fuch nice instinct led,
When fpring, foft feafon, lifts her bloomy head?
Such baffled fearches mock man's prying pride,
The GOD of NATURE is your fecret guide.
While deep'ning fhades obfcure the face of day
To yonder bench leaf-fhelter'd let us ftray,
'Till blended objects fail the fwimming fight,.
And all the fading landfcape finks in night;
To hear the drowsy dor come brushing by
With buzzing wing, or the fhrill cricket cry;
To fee the feeding bat glance through the wood;
To catch the diftant falling of the flood;
While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl-hung
Through the ftill gloom protracts his chattering fong;
While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings,
Unfeen, the foft enamour'd woodlark fings:
These NATURE's works, the curious mind employ,
Inspire a foothing melancholy joy:
As fancy warms, a pleafing kind of pain
Steals o'er the cheek and thrills the creeping vein!
Each rural fight, each found, each fmell, combine;
The tinkling fheep-bell, or the breath of kine;
The new-mown hay that fcents the fwelling breeze,
Or cottage-chimney fmoking through the trees..
The chilling night-dews fall: - away retire;
For fee, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire!
Thus, ere night's veil had half-obfcur'd the fky,
Th' impatient damfel hung her lamp on high:
True to the fignal, by love's meteor led,
Leander haften'd to his Hero's bed.
ODE on his MAJESTY's BIRTH-DAY.
By the Rev. T. WARTON. B, D. Poet Laureat.
WHAT native genius taught the Britons bold
guard their fea-girt cliffs of old?
'Twas Liberty: fhe taught difdain
Of death, of Rome's imperial chain.
She bade the Druid harp to battle found,
In tones prophetic, through the gloom profound
Of forefts hoar, with holy foliage hung;
From grove to grove the pealing prelude rung;
Belinus call'd his painted tribes around,
And, rough with many a veteran scar,
Swept the pale legions with the fcythed car,
While baffled Cæfar fled, to gain
An easier triumph on Pharfalia's plain;
And left the ftubborn ifle to stand elate
Amidst a conquer'd world, in lone majestic state!
A kindred fpirit foon to Britain's shore
The fons of Saxon Elva bore;
Fraught with th' unconquerable foul,
Who died to drain the warrior-bowl,
In that bright hall, where Odin's Gothic throne
With the broad blaze of brandish'd falchions fhone;
Where the long roofs rebounded to the din
Of spectre chiefs, who feafted far within:
Yet not intent on dreadful deeds alone,
They felt the fires of focial zeal,
The peaceful wifdom of the public weal;
Though nurs'd in arms and hardy strife,
They knew to frame the plans of temper'd life;
The king's, the people's, balanc'd claims to found
On one eternal base, indiffolubly bound.
Sudden, to shake the Saxon's mild domain,
Rufh'd in rude fwarms the robber Dane,
From frozen waftes, and caverns wild,
To genial England's fcenes beguil'd;
And in his clamorous van exulting came
The demons foul of famine and of flame :
Witness the sheep-clad fummits, roughly crown'd
With many a frowning fofs, and airy mound,
Which yet his defultory march proclaim!-
Nor ceas'd the tide of gore to flow,
Till Alfred's laws allur'd th' inteftine foe;
And Harold calm'd his headlong rage
To brave atchievement, and to counsel fage;
For oft in favage breafts the buried feeds
Of brooding virtue live, and freedom's faireft deeds!
But fee, triumphant o'er the fouthern wave,
The Norman fweeps!--Tho' fift he gave.
New grace to Britain's naked plain,
With arts and manners in his train;
And many a fane he rear'd, that still fublime
In maffy pomp has mock'd the ftealth of time;
And caftle fair, that, ftript of half its towers,
From fome broad fteep in thatter'd glory lours;
Yet brought he flavery from a fofter clime
Each eve, the curfeu's note fevere
(That now but foothes the mufing poet's ear)
At the new tyrant's stern command, Warn'd to unwelcome rest a wakeful land;
While proud oppreffion o'er the ravish'd field
High rais'd his armed hand, and fhook the feudal shield.
Stoop'd then that freedom to defpotic fway,
For which, in many a fierce affray,
The Britons bold, the Saxons bled,
His Danish javelins 'Lefwin led
O'er Haftings' plain, to ftay the Norman yoke?
She felt, but to refift, the fudden stroke:
The tyrant-baron grafp'd the patriot's steel,
And taught the tyrant-king its force to feel;
And quick revenge the regal bondage broke.
And ftill unchang'd and uncontroul'd,
Its rescued rights fhall the dread empire hold:
For lo, revering Britain's caufe,
A king new luftre lends to native laws!
The facred Sovereign of this feftal day
On Albion's old renown reftects a kindred ray!
[From Mr. HAYLEY'S OCCASIONAL STANZAS.
Written at the Requeft of the REVOLUTION SOCIETY.]
FOR Britain, and for human kind,
To raise the proftrate form of law,
Attentive Virtue held her feat, enfhrin'd
In thy unconquerable foul, Naffau!
Heroes, by victory more careft,
The fiery bolts of war have hurl'd,
And conquerors have liv'd of earth the peft;
But Glory's felf, from all her flags unfurl'd,
Counts not a name like thine a bleffing to the world.
Deprefs'd, dishonour'd, wrong'd, enthrall'd,
Withering in fhame's foul-blighting fhade,
To thee our deeply-fuffering country call'd,
As innocence to heaven, fecure of aid;
For well fhe knew thy fpirit's force,
Which, firm as a defensive tower,
Checking outrageous devaftation's course,
Stood, in thy nation's dark defpairing hour,
The champion of diftrefs, the fcourge of lawless power.
Pureft of princely names! unfway'd
By base ambition's fordid fprings,
In thee the rescued world was richly paid
For the oppreffive crimes of prouder kings:
The Gallic defpot, in his dreams
Of wide unlimited controul,
Tho' flattery, rich in fancy's magic beams,
Blazon'd him high on Glory's gorgeous roll,
Sunk into dim eclipfe beneath thy brighter foul.
As in the feas, where fultry air
The wildly-torturous wave impels, Hideous, and hoftile to the feaman's prayer, The watery column of perdition fwells: Yet haply a corrective power
The vex'd and maddening waters feel; Tho' in their fpiral force fate feems to lower, The mafs, portentous to the veffel's weal, Diffolves at the approach of fcience-pointed steel.
So, rais'd by bigotry's hot breath,
And pregnant with unnumber'd woes,
With every form of danger and of death,
Here the ftrange bulk of tyranny arofe;
And fo, when freedom's darken'd ifle,
The baleful prodigy deplored,
So, brave Naffau! this fudden upstart pile,
This public mifery's tempeftuous hoard,
Difpers'd before the point of thy preserving sword,
Science, religion, every power
Friendly to earth and true to heaven,
Exulted in the bleft and bloodless hour,
When freedom's fceptre to thy fway was given:
The probity that rul'd thy heart,
And taught the fearful to rejoice
Scorning to awe with force or lure with art,
Left refcu'd liberty's reviving voice
To fix in free debate the fovereign of her choice.
Confcious of all a monarch's care,
And firm his duties to fulfil,
Thy generous fpirit, with a guardian's air,
Receiv'd the gift of her unbiafs'd will;
By freedom crown'd, for her thy life,
That never fear'd the forms of fate,
Was freely ftak'd in peril's diftant ftrife,
When, arm'd with Gallic war's prefumptuous weight, The recreant JAMES reclaim'd his abdicated state.
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