Now peaceful nature lies diffus'd in eafe;
A folemn stillness reigns o'er land and seas.
* Sleep sheds o'er all his balm to fleep refign'd,
Birds, beafts lie hush'd, and busy human-kind.
No air of breath difturbs the drowsy woods,
No whispers murmur from the filent floods!
The moon fheds down a filver-ftreaming light,
And glads the melancholic face of night:
Now clouds fwift-skimming veil her fullied ray,
+ Now bright she blazes with a fuller day:
The stars in order twinkle in the skies,
And fall in filence, and in filence rife:
Till, as a giant strong, a bridegroom gay,
The fun fprings dancing through the gates of day:
He shakes his dewy locks, and hurls his beams
O'er the proud hills, and down the glowing streams:
His fiery courfers bound above the main,
And whirl the car along th' ethereal plain:
The fiery courfers and the car display
A ftream of glory, and a flood of day.'
Did e'er thy eye defcend into the deep,
Or haft thou feen where infant tempefts fleep?
Was e'er the grave, or regions of the night,
Yet trod by thee, or open'd to thy fight?
Has death difclos'd to thee her gloomy state
The ghaftly forms, the various woes that wait
In terrible array before her awful gate?
'Know't thou where darknefs bears eternal sway,
Or where the fource of everlafting day?
Say, why the thriving hail with rushing found
Pours from on high, and rattles on the ground?
Why hover fnows, down-wavering by degrees,
Shine from the hills, or glitter from the trees?
Say, why, in lucid drops, the balmy rain
With sparkling gems impearls the spangled plain ?
Or, gathering in the vale, a current flows,
And on each flower a fudden spring bestows?
Say, why with gentle fighs the evening breeze
Salutes the flowers, or murmurs through the trees?
Or why loud winds in ftorms of vengeance fly,
Howl o'er the main, and thunder in the fky?
Say, to what wondrous magazines repair
The viewlefs beings, when ferene the air?
Till, from their dungeons loos'd, they roar aloud,
Upturn whole oceans, and tofs cloud on cloud,
While waves encountering waves, in mountains
driven,
Swell to the ftarry vault, and dash the heaven.
Know'ft thou, why comets threaten in the air,
Heralds of woe, deftruction, and despair,
The plague, the sword, and all the forms of war?
On ruddy wings why forky lightning flies,
And rolling thunder grumbles in the skies?
Say, can thy voice, when fultry Sirius reigns,
And funs intenfely glowing cleave the plains,
No more the monsters of the defert roar, Doubling the terrors of the midnight hour. The foul, the fifees, to repofe refign'd, Al, all lie hufh'd, and busy human-kind. The fainting murmur dies upon the floods, And fighing breezes lull the drowsy woods.
† Now bright fhé blazes, and supplies the day.
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Th' exhaufted urns of thirsty springs fupply,
And mitigate the fever of the fky?
Or, when the heavens are charg'd with gfcomy clouds,
And half the skies precipitate in floods,
Chace the dark horror of the ftorm away,
Reftrain the deluge, and reftore the day?
By thee does fummer deck herself with charms,
Or hoary winter lock his frozen arms?
Say, if thy hand inftruct the rose to glow,
Or to the lily give unfullied fnow?
Teach fruits to knit from bloffoms by degrees,
Swell into orbs, and load the bending trees,
Whose various kinds a various hue unfold,
With crimson blush, or burnish into gold ?--
Say, why the fun arrays with thining dyes
The gaudy bow that gilds the gloomy skies?
He from his urn pours forth his golden ftreams,
And humid clouds imbibe the glittering beams;
Sweetly the varying colours fade or rife,
And the vaft arch embraces half the skies.
Say, didft thou give the mighty feas their bars,
Fill air with fowl, or light up heaven with stars,
Whose thousand times ten thousand lamps display
A friendly radiance, mingling ray with ray?
Say, canft thou rule the courfers of the fun,
Or lash the lazy fign, Boötes, on?
Doft thou inftruct the eagle how to fly,
To mount the viewless winds, and tower the fky?
On founding pinions borne, he foars, and shrouds
His proud afpiring head among the clouds ;
Strong-pounc'd, and fierce, he darts upon his prey,
He fails in triumph through th' ethereal way,
Bears on the fun, and basks in open day.
Does the dread King, and terror of the wood,
The lion, from thy hand expect his, food?
Stung with keen hunger from his den he comes,
Ranges the plains, and o'er the foreft roams:
He fnuffs the track of beafts, he fiercely roars, Doubling the horrors of the midnight hours: With fullen majesty he stalks away,
And the rocks tremble while he feeks his prey:
Dreadful he grins, he rends the favage brood
With unfheath'd paws, and churns the spouting
blood.
Doft thou with thunder arm the generous horse,
Add nervous limbs, or fwiftness for the course?
Fleet as the wind, he shoots along the plain,
And knows no check, nor, hears the curbing rein;
His fiery eye-balls, formidably bright,
Dart a fierce glory, and a dreadful light:
Pleas'd with the clank of arms, and trumpets' found,
He bounds, and prancing paws the trembling ground;
He fnuffs the promis'd battle from afar,
Neighs at the captains, fhouts, and thunder of the war:
Rouz'd with the noble din and martial fight,
He pants with tumults of fevere delight:
His fprightly blood an even courfe difdains,
Pours from his heart, and charges in his veins;
He braves the spear, and mocks the twanging bows
Demand's the fight, and rushes on the foe.
He mocks the beating forms and wintery flowers, Making might hideous, as he flernly roars.
Occafioned by the Death of a beloved Daughter. 1723.
ADIEU vain mirth, and noisy joys!
Ye gay defires, deluding toys!
Thou, thoughtful Melancholy, deign
To hide me in thy pensive train!
If by the fall of murmuring floods,
Where awful fhades embrown the woods,
Or if, where winds in caverns groan,
Thou wandereft filent and alone;
Come, blissful mourner, wifely fad,
In forrow's garb, in fable clad;
Henceforth, thou Care, my hours employ !
Sorrow, be thou henceforth my joy!
By tombs where fullen spirits stalk,
Familiar with the dead I walk;
While to my fighs and groans by turns,
From graves the midnight echo mourns.
Open thy marble jaws, O tomb,
Though earth conceal me in thy womb !
And you, ye worms, this frame confound,
Ye brother reptiles of the ground!
O life, frail offspring of a day!
'Tis puff'd with one fhort gafp away!
Swift as the fhort-liv'd flower it flies,
It fprings, it blooms, it fades, it dies.
With cries we usher in our birth,
With groans refign our tranfient breath:
While round, ftern ministers of fate,
Pain, and disease, and forrow wait.
While childhood reigns, the fportive boy
Learns only prettily to toy;
And, while he roves from play to play,
The wanton trifles life away.
When to the noon of life we rife,
The man grows elegant in vice;
To glorious guilt in courts he climbs,
Vilely judicious in his crimes.
When youth and strength in age are loft,
Man feems already half a ghoft;
Wither'd and wan, to earth he bows,
A walking hofpital of woes.
Oh! happiness, thou empty name!
Say, art thou bought by gold or fame?
What art thou, gold, but fhining earth?
Thou, common fame, but common breath?
If virtue contradict the voice
Of public fame, applaufe is noife;
Ev'n victors are by conqueft curft,
The bravest warrior is the worst.
Look round on all that man below
Idly calls great, and all is fhow!
All, to the coffin from our birth,
In this vaft toy-fhop of the earth.
Come then, O friend of virtuous woe,
With folemn pace, demure, and flow :
Lo! fad and ferious, I purfue
Thy ftops-adieu, vain world, adieu!
They fing the different Succefs and Abfence of their Loves.
To the Right Honourable the LORD VISCOUNT TOWNSHEND, of RAINHAM in NORFOLK.
- Sylvæ fint Confule dignæ.”
HOW calm the evening! fee the falling day Gilds every mountain with a ruddy ray!
In gentle fighs the foftly whispering breeze
Salutes the flowers, and waves the trembling trees;
Hark! the night-warbler, from yon vocal boughs,
Glads every valley with melodious woes!
Swift through the air her rounds the swallow takes,
Or fportive skims the level of the lakes.
The timorous deer, swift-starting as they graze,
Bound off in crowds, then turn again, and gaze.
See! how yon fwans, with fnowy pride elate,
Arch their high necks, and fail along in itate!
Thy frifking flocks fafe-wandering crop the plain,
And the glad feason claims a gladiome ftrain.
Begin- -Ye echoes listen to the song,
And, with its fweetness pleas'd, each note pro
Sing, Mufe-and oh! may Townshend deign to
What the Mufe fings, to Townshend this is due !
Who, carrying with him all the world admires,
From all the world illustriously retires;
And, calmly wandering in his Rainham, roves
By lake, or fpring, by thicket, lawn, or groves;
Where verdant hills, or vales, where fountains stray,
Charm every thought of idle pomp away;
Unenvy'd views the fplendid toils of ftate,
In private happy, as in public great.
Thus godlike Scipio, on whofe cares reclin'd
The burthen and repofe of half mankind,
Left to the vain their pomp, and calmly ftray'd,
The world forgot, beneath the laurel fhade:
Nor longer would be great, but, void of ftrife,
Clos'd in foft peace his eve of glorious life.
Feed round, my goats; ye fheep, in fafety graze; Ye winds, breathe gently while I tune my lays.
The joyous fpring draws nigh! ambrofial fhowers Unbind the earth, the earth unbinds the flowers, The flowers blow sweet, the daffodils unfold The fpreading glories of their blooming gold.
As the gay hours advance, the bloffoms fhoot,
The knitting bloffoms harden into fruit;
And as the autumn by degrees enfues,
The mellowing fruits difplay their streaky hues.
When the winds whiftle, and the tempeft roars,
When foaming billows lafh the founding fhores,
The bloomy beauties of the pastures die,
And in gay heaps of fragrant ruin lie.
With a feign'd paffion, the I love, beguiles,
And gayly falfe the dear diffembler fmiles;
But let her fill thofe bleft deceits employ,
Still may the feign, and cheat me into joy!
LYCIDAS.
On yonder bank the yielding nymph reclin'd,
Gods! how tranfported 1, and the how kind!
There rife, ye flowers, and there your pride dif-
play,
There fhed your odours where the fair-one lay!
DAPHNIS.
Once, as my fair-one in the rofy bower
In gentle flumbers pafs'd the noon-tide hour,
Soft I approach'd, and raptur'd with the bliss
At leifure gaz'd, then ftole a filent kifs :
She wak'd; when confcious fmiles, but ill repreft,
Spoke no difdain!-Was ever fwain so blett?
With fragrant apples from the bending bough
In fport my charmer gave her fwain a blow:
The fair offender, of my wrath afraid,
Fled, till Ifeiz'd and kifs'd the blooming maid:
She fmil'd, and vow'd if thus her crimes I pay,
She would offend a thousand times a day!
O'er the fteep mountain, and the pathless mead,
From my embrace the lovely scorner fled;
But ftumbling in the flight, by chance the fell:
I faw-but what-her lover will not tell!
From me my fair-one fled, diffembling play,
And in the dark conceal'd the wanton lay;
But laugh'd, and show'd by the directing found
She only hid, in fecret to be found.
Far hence to happier climes Belinda ftrays, But in my breast her lovely image stays;
Where'er Belinda roves, ye Zephyrs, play!
Where'er the treads, ye flowers, adorn the way
From fultry funs, ye groves, my charmer keep t
Ye bubbling fountains, murmur to her fleep!
LYCIDAS.
If ftreams smooth-wandering, Delia, yield delight;
If the gay rofe, or lily, please thy fight;
Smooth ftreams here wander, here the roses glow,
Here the proud lilies rife to fhade thy brow!
DAPHNIS.
Aid me, ye Mufes, while I loud proclaim
Waft it, ye breezes, to the hills around;
What love inspires, and fing Belinda's name :
And sport, ye echoes, with the favourite found.
LYCIDAS.
Thy name, my Delia, fhall improve my fong,
The pleafing labour of my ravish'd tongue:
Her name to heaven propitious Zephyrs bear,
And breathe it to her kindred angels there!
But fee! the night difplays her starry train,
Soft filver dews impearl the glittering plain;
An awful horror fills the gloomy woods,
And bluish mists rife from the fmoaking floods:
* Hafte, Daphnis, hafte to fold thy woolly care,
The deepening fhades imbrown th' unwholefome air.
MECENAS, whofe high lineage fprings
From a long race of ancient kings,
Patron and friend! thy honour'd name
At once is my defence and fame.
There are, who with fond tranfport praise
The chariot thundering in the race;
Where conqueft won, and palms bestow'd,
Lift the proud mortal to a God.
The man who courts the people's voice, And doats on offices and noife; Or they who till the peaceful fields, And reap what bounteous nature yields, Unmov'd, the merchant's wealth behold, Nor hazard happiness for gold; Untempted by whole worlds of gain To ftem the billows of the main.
Hafte, Lycidas, to fold, Gej
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The merchant, when the form invades,
Invies the quiet of the shades;
But foon relaunches from the thore,
Dreading the crime of being poor!
Some careless waite the mirthful day
With generous wines, and wanton play,
Indulgent of the genial hour,
By fpring, or rill, or fhade, or bower.
Some hear with joy the clanging jar
Of trumpets that alarm to war;
While metrons tremble at the breath
That calls their fons to arms and death.
The fportfman, train'd in ftorms, defies
The chilling blaft, and freezing skies:
Unmindful of his bride, in vain
Soft beauty pleads! along the plain
The flag he chaces, or beguiles
The furious boar into his toils.
For you the blooming ivy grows,
Proud to adorn your learned brows;
Petron of letters you arifes
Grow to a God, and mount the fkies.
Humbly in breezy fhades I ftray
Where Sylvans dance, and Satyrs play;
Contented to advance my claim,
Only o'er men without a name;
Trafcribing what the Mufes fing
Harmonious to the pipe or ftring.
But if indulgently you deign
To rank me with the Lyric train,
Aloft the towering Mufe fhall rife
On bolder wings, and gain the skies.
And critics, biafs'd by mistaken rules,
Like Turkish zealots, reverence none but fools.
But praife from fuch injurious tongues is fhame;
They rail the happy author into fame :
Thus Phœbus through the zodiac takes his way,
And rifes amid montters into day.
Oh vilenefs of mankind! when writing well
Becomes a crime, and danger to excel !
While noble scorn, my friend, fuch infult fees,
And flies from towns to wilds, from men to trees.
Free from the luft of wealth, and glittering fnares,
That make th' unhappy Great in love with cares,
Me humble joys in calm retirement please,
A filent happiness, and learned eafe.
Deny me grandeur, heaven, but goodness grant!
A king is lefs illuftrious than a faint:
Hail, holy virtue! come, thou heavenly gueft,
Come, fix thy pleafing empire in my breast!
*Thou know'ft her influence, friend: thy cheerful mien
Proclaims the innocence and peace within;
Such joys as none but fons of virtue know,
Shine in thy face, and in thy bofom glow.
So when the holy mount the prophet trod,
And talk'd familiar as a Friend with God,
Celestial radiance every feature shed,
And ambient glories dawn'd around his head.
Sure what th' unthinking Great mistaken call
Their happiness, is folly, folly all!
Like lofty mountains in the clouds they hide
Their haughty heads, but fwell with barren pride;
And while low vales in ufeful beauty lie,
Heave their proud naked fummits to the sky.
In honour, as in place, ye great, tranfcend!
An angel fall'n, degenerates to a fiend:
Th' all-cheering fun is honour'd with his fhrines;
Not that he moves aloft, but that he shines.
Why flames the ftar on Walpole's generous breaft?
To my Friend Mr. ELIJAH FENTON, Author of Not that he's higheft, but because he'it beft;
MARIAMNE, a Tragedy. 1726.
WHY art thou flow to frike th' harmonious fhell,
Averfe to fing, who know'ft to fing fo well?
If thy proud Mufe the tragic bufkin wears,
Gren Sophocles revives and re-appears;
While, regularly bold, the nobly fings
Strains worthy to detain the ears of kings:
If by thy hand th' † Homeric lyre be ftrung,
The lyre returns fuch founds as Homer fung..
The kind compulfion of a friend obey,
And, though reluctant, fwell the lofty lay;
Then liftening groves once more fhall catch the found,
While Grecian Mufes fing on Briti ground.
Thus calm and filent thy own Proteus roves
Through pearly mazes, and through coral gioves;
But when, emerging from the azure main,
Coercive bands th' unwilling God constrain,
Then heaves his bofom with prophetic fires,
And his tongue fpeaks fublime, what heaven infpires.
Envy, 'tis true, with barbarous rage invades
What ev'n fierce lightning fpares, the laurel fhades;
*Te Doctarum Hederæ, &c.
Mr. Fenton traflated four books of the Odyfty. See the fury of Proteus, OdyJey, lib. 4. tranflated by Mr. Fenton.
Fond to oblige; in bleffing others, bleft.
How wondrous few, by avarice uncontrol'd,
Have virtue to fubdue the thirft of gold
The shining dirt the fordid wretch enfnares
To buy, with mighty treafures, mighty cares;
Blindly he courts, milguided by the will,
A fpecious good, and meets a real ill:
So when Ulytles plough'd the furgy main;
When now in view appear'd his native reign,
His wayward mates th' Æolian bag unbind,
Expecting treasures, but out rufh'd a wind;
The fudden hurricane in thunder roars,
Buffets the bark, and whits it from the fhores.
O heaven! by what vain paffions man is fway'd,
Proud of his reafon, by his will betray'd!
Blindly he wanders in parfait or vice,
And hates confinement, though in paradife;
Doom'd, when enlarg'd, inttead of Eden's bowers,
To rove in wilds, and gather thorns for flowers;
Between th' extremes, direct he fees the way,
Yet wilful fwerves, perverfely fond to stray!
Rich without bounty, with abundance curft;
Whilft niggard fouls indulge their craving thirst,
The Prodigal pirtues expenfive vice,
And buys dishonour at a mighty-price;
Thou feel ther power, my friend, &c.
On beds of fate the fplendid glutton fleeps,
While ftarving Merit unregarded weeps :
His ill-plac'd bounty, while fcorn'd Virtue grieves,
A dog, a fawning fycophant, receives ;
And cringing knaves, or haughty ftrumpets, share
What would make Sorrow fmile, and cheer Despair.
Then would't thou fteer where fortune fpreads
the fails?
Go, flatter vice! for feldom flattery fails:
Soft through the ear the pleasing bane diftills
Delicious poifon! in perfumes it kills!
Be all but virtuous: Oh! unwife to live
Unfashionably good, and hope to thrive !
Trees that aloft with proudest honours rife,
Root'hell-ward, and thence flourish to the skies.
O happier thou, my friend, with ease content,
Bleft with the confcience of a life well-fpent!
Nor would'st be great; but guide thy gather'd
fails,
Safe by the fhore, nor tempt the rougher gales;
For fure, of all that feel the wound of fate,
None are completely wretched hut the great:
Superior woes, fuperior ftations bring;
A peasant fleeps, while cares awake a king :
Between a LADY and her LooKING-GLASS, while she had the Green-Sickness.
THE gay Ophelia view'd her face
In the clear crystal of her glass; The lightning from her eye was fled, Her cheek was pale, the roses dead.
Then thus Ophelia, with a frown :Art thou, falfe thing, perfidious grown! I never could have thought, I fwear,
Who reigns, muft fuffer crowns with gems in- To find fo great a flanderer there!
At once adorn and load the royal head :
Change but the scene, and kings in duft decay,
Swept from the earth the pageants of a day;
There no diftinctions on the dead await,
But pompous graves, and rottenness in state.
Such now are all that fhone on earth before;
Cæfar and mighty Marlborough are no more!
Unhallow'd feet o'er awful Tully tread,
And Hyde and Plato join the vulgar dead;
And all the glorious aims that can employ
The foul of mortals, muft with Hanmer die :
O Compton, when this breath we once refign,
My duft fhall be as eloquent as thine!
Till that last hear which calls me hence away
To pay that great arrear which all must pay;
Oh! may I tread the paths which faints have
trod,
Who knew they walk'd before th' all-feeing God!
Studious from ways of wicked men to keep,
Who mock at vice, while grieving angels weep.
Come, tafte, my friend! the joys retirement
brings,
Look down on royal flaves, and pity kings.
More happy!'laid where trees with trees entwin'd
In bowery arches tremble to the wind,
With innocence and fhade like Adam bleft,
While a new Eden opens in the breast!
Such were the fcenes descending angels trod
in guiltless days, when man convers'd with God.
Then fhall my lyre to loftier founds be ftrung,
Infpir'd by Homer, or what thou haft fung:
My Mufe from thine fhall catch a warmer ray;
As clouds are brighten'd by the God of day.
So trees unapt to bear, by art refin'd,
With fhoots ennobled of a generous kind,
High o'er the ground with fruits adepted rife,
And lift their spreading honours to the skies.
Dr. Breeme tranflated eight books of the Odyley.
Falíe thing! thy malice I defy!
Beaux vow I'm fair-who never lye.
More brittle far than brittle thou,
Would every grace of woman grow,
If charms fo great so soon decay,
The bright poffeffion of a day!
But this I know, and this declare,
That thou art falfe, and I am fair.
The glass was vex'd to be bely'd,
And thus with angry tone reply'd:
No more to me of falfehood talk, But leave your oatmeal and your chalk! 'Tis true, you're meagre, pale, and wan; The reafon is, you're fick for man.
While yet it fpoke, Ophelia frown'd, And dafh'd th' offender to the ground; With fury from her arm it fled, And round a glittering rain spread ; When lo! the parts pale looks difclofe, Pale looks in every fragment rofe; Around the room instead of one, An hundred pale Ophelias fhone; Away the frighted virgin flew, And humbled, from herself withdrew.
Ye beaux, who tempt the fair and young,
With inuff, and nonsense, dance, and fong;
Ye men of compliment and lace!
Behold this image in the glass:
The wondrous force of flattery prove,
To cheat fond virgins into love:
Though pale the cheek, yet fwear it glows
With the vermilion of the rofe:
Praife them-for praife is always true,
Though with both eyes the cheat they view
From hateful truths the virgin flies;
But the falfe fex is caught with lyes.
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