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Oh! be no longer, if unkind, thus fair;
Take Horror's fhape, and fright me to despair!
Rather than thus, unpitying, fee my moan,
Far rather frown, and fix me here in stone!
But mock not thus !-Alas (the charmer faid,
Smiling, and in her smile soft radiance play'd)
Alas! no more eluded ftrength employ,

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To clafp a fhade !-What more is mortal joy?
Man's blifs is, like his knowledge, but furmis'd;
One ignorance, the other pain difguis'd!
Thou wert (had all thy with been still poffeft)
Supremely curft from being greatly bleft;
For oh! fo fair, fo dear was I to thee,
Thou hadst forgot thy God, to worship me;
This he forefaw, and fnatch'd me to the tomb;
Above I flourish in unfading bloom.
Think me not loft: for thee I heaven implore!
Thy guardian ang 1, though a wife no more!
I, when abstracted from this world you seem,
Hint the pure thought, and frame the heavenly dream!
Close at thy fide, when morning ftreaks the air,
In Mufic's voice I wake thy mind to prayer !
By me, thy hymns, like pureft incenfe, rife,
Fragrant with grace, and pleafing to the skies!
And when that form fhall from its clay refine,
(That only bar betwixt my foul and thine!)
When thy lov'd fpirit mounts to realms of light,
Then fhall Olympia aid thy carliest flight;

led we'll flame in raptures that aspire
and all youth, all fenfe, and all defire.

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She

She ended. Still fuch sweetness dwells behind,
Th' inchanting voice ftill warbles in
my mind :
But lo! th' unbodied vifion fleets away!-
-Stay, my Olympia !-I conjure thee, ftay!
Yet ftay for thee my memory lears to smart!
Sure every vein contains a bleeding heart!
Sooner fhall fplendor leave the blaze of day,
Than love, fo pure, fo vaft as mine, decay!
From the fame heavenly fource its luftre came,
And glows, immortal, with congenial flame!
Ah!-let me not with fires neglected burn;
Sweet mistress of my foul, return, return!

Alas!-fhe's fled I traverfe now the place,
Where my enamour'd thoughts her footsteps trace.
Now, o'er the tomb, I bend my drooping head,
There tears, the eloquence of forrow, fhed.
Sighs choak my words, unable to exprefs
The pangs, the throbs of fpeechlefs tenderness!
Not with more ardent, more transparent flame,
Call dying faints on their Creator`s name,
Than I on her's;-but through yon yielding door,
Glides a new phantom o'er th' illumin'd floor!
The roof fwift-kindles from the beaming ground,
And floods of living luftre flame around!
In all the majesty of light array'd,

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Awful it fhines!-'tis Cato's honour'd fhade!

As I the heavenly vifitant purfue,

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Sublimer Glory opens to my view

He speaks!-But, oh! what words shall dare repeat His thoughts! They leave me fir'd with patriot heat!

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More than poetic raptures now I feel,
And own that godlike paffion, public zeal! 380
But from my frailty, it receives a stain,

I grow, unlike my great infpirer, vain ;

And burn, once more, the bufy world to know,

And would, in scenes of action foremost glow!
Where proud ambition points her dazzling rays! 385
Where coronets and crowns, attractive, blaze!
When my Olympia leaves the realms above,

And lures me back to folitary love.

She tells me truth, prefers an humble state,
That genuine greatnefs fhuns the being great!

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That mean are thofe, who falfe-term'd honour prizes
Whofe fabricks from their country's ruin rife;
Who look the traitor, like the patriot, fair;
Who, to enjoy the vineyard, wrong the heir.

I hear through all my veins new transports roll!
I gaze!-warm love comes rufhing on my foul:
Ravish'd I gaze !-again her charms decay!
Again my manhood to my grief gives way!
Cato returns!-Zeal takes her course to reign!
But zeal is in ambition loft again!

I'm now the flave of fondness !-now of pride!
-By turns they conquer, and by turns fubfide!
Thefe balanc'd each by each, the golden mean,
Betwixt them found, gives happiness ferene;
This Ill enjoy!—He ended !—I replied,
O Hermit! thon art worth feverely try'd!
But had not innate grief produc'd thy woes,
Men, barbarous men, had prey'd on thy repofe.

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When

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When feeking joy, we feldom forrow mifs,
And often mifery points the path to blifs.
The foil, moft worthy of the thrifty fwain,
Is wounded thus, ere trufted with the grain;
The fruggling grain muft work obfcure its way,
Ere the first green fprings upward to the day;
Up-fprung, fuch weed-like coarfenefs it betrays, 415
Flocks on th' abandon'd blade permissive graze;
Then shoots the wealth, from imperfection clear,
And thus a grateful harvest crowns the year.

THU

CANTO III.

HUS free our focial time from morning flows
Till rifing fhades attempt the day to close.
Thus my new friend: Behold the light's decay:
Back to yon city let me point thy way.
South-weft, behind yon hill, the floping fun,
To ocean's verge his fluent course has run :
His parting eyes a watery radiance fhed,

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Glance through the vale, and tip the mountain's head: To which oppos'd, the fhadowy gulfs, below, Beauteous, reflect the party-colour'd fnow.

ΤΟ

Now dance the stars, where Vefper leads the way; Yet all faint-glimmering with remains of day. Orient, the Queen of Night emits her dawn, And throws, unfeen, her mantle o'er the lawn. Up the blue steep, her crimson orb now fhines; Now on the mountain-top her arm reclines,

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In ared crefcent feen: Her zone now gleams,
Like Venus, quivering in reflecting ftreams.
Yet reddening, yet round-burning up the air,
From the white cliff, her feet flow-rifing glare!
See! flames, condens'd now vary her attire;
Her face, a broad circumference of fire.
Dark firs feem kindled in nocturnal blaze;
Through ranks of pines, her broken luftre plays,
Here glares, there brown-projecting shade bestows, 25
And, glittering, fports upon the spangled frows.

Now filver turn her beams!-yon den they gain;
The big, rouz'd lion fhakes his brindled main.
Fierce, fleet, gaunt monsters, all prepar'd for gore,
Rend woods, vales, rocks, with wide-refounding roar.
O dire prefage!-But fear not thou, my friend,
Our fteps the guardians of the just attend.
Homeward I'll wait thee on-and now furvey,
How men and fpirits chace the night away!

Yon nymphs and fwains in amorous mirth advance; 35
To breathing mufic moves the circling dance.
Here the bold youth in deeds adventurous glow,
Skimming in rapid fleds the crackling fnow.
Not when Tydides won the funeral race.
Shot his light car along in swifter pace.
Here the glaz'd way with iron feet they dare,
And glide, well-pois'd, like Mercuries in air.
There crowds, with stable tread, and level'd eye.
Lift, and difmifs the quoits, that whirling fly.
With force fuperior, not with skill so true,

ponderous disk from Roman finews flew.

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Where

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