Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

XIII. On a Stone, by a Chalybeat Spring.

FONS FERRVGINEVS.

DIVAE QUAE SECESSV ISTO FRVI CONCEDIT.

XIV. On a Stone Seat, making part of a Cave.

INTVS AQVAE DULCIS, VIVOQUE SEDILIA SAXO; NYMPHARVM DOMVS.

XV. On two Seats, to two of his moft particular Friends. The firft thus,

AMICITIAE ET MERITIS

RICHARDI GRAVES:

IPSAE TE, TITYRE, PINVS,

IPSI TE FONTES, IPSA HAEC ARBVSTA VOCABANT.

The other,

AMICITIAE ET MERITIS

RICHARDI JAGO.

XVI. On a Statue of Venus de Medicis.

"T

"Semi educta Venus."

O Venus, Venus here retir'd,
"My fober vows I pay:

"Not her on Paphian plains admir'd,
“The bold, the pert, the gay.

<< Not

Not her whofe amorous leer prevail'd "To bribe the Phrygian boy;

"Not her who, clad in armour, fail'd "To save difaftrous Troy.

"Fresh rifing from the foamy tide,

"She every bosom warms;

"While half withdrawn fhe feems to hide, "And half reveals, her charms.

“Learn hence, ye boastful fons of taste, "Who plan the rural shade;

"Learn hence to fhun the vicious wafte
"Of pomp, at large difplay'd.

"Let fweet concealment's magic art
"Your mazy bounds invest;
"And while the fight unveils a part,
"Let fancy paint the rest.

Let coy referve with coft unite
"To grace your wood or field;
No ray obtrusive pall the fight,
"In aught you paint, or build.
And far be driven the fumptuous glare
“ Of gold, from British groves;
"And far the meretricious air

"Of China's vain alcoves.

"'Tis bafhful beauty ever twines

"The most coercive chain;

'Tis fhe, that fovereign rule declines,

"Who beft deserves to reign."

[blocks in formation]

XVII. Intended to be written at the Beginning of a Collection of Flowers, which Mr. SHENSTONE coloured for Mrs. JAGO.

ELEGANTISSIMAE PVELLAE

DOROTHEAE FANCOVRT,

QVAE PERDILECTI SVI CONDISCIPVLI

RICHARDI IAGO

AMORES MERVIT,

D. D.

GVLIELMVS SHENSTONE;

DEBITAE NYMPHIS OPIFEX CORONAE.

XVIII. Proposed to Mr. GRAVES by Mr. SHENSTONE, as a proper Inscription for himself.

AMICITIAE G. S.

QVI,

NAIADAS PARITER AC MVSAS

EXCOLENDO,

SIMUL ET VILLAM EIVS ELEGANTISSIMAM

NOMENOVE SVVM

ILLVSTRAVIT.

"(FORTVNATVS ET ILLE DEOS QUI NOVIT

"AGRESTES)

"PANAQUE, SYLVANVMQVE, SENEM, NYM"PHASQVE SORORES." VIRG.

VERSES

VERSE S

то

MR. S HENST ON E.

Written on a Ferme Ornée, near Birmingham. By the late Lady LUXBOROUGH.

[ocr errors]

IS Nature here bids pleasing scenes arife,
And wifely gives them Cynthio to revife:
To veil each blemish; brighten every grace;
Yet ftill preferve the lovely parent's face.
How well the Bard obeys, each valley tells;
Thefe lucid ftreams, gay meads, and lonely cells;
Where modeft Art in filence lurks conceal'd,
While Nature shines fo gracefully reveal'd,
That the triumphant claims the total plan,
And, with fresh pride, adopts the work of man.

TO WILLIAM SHENSTONE, Efq; at the LEASOWES.
By Mr. GRAVES.

"Vellem in amicitia fic erraremus!"

EE! the tall youth, by partial Fate's decree,

SEE!

HOR.

To affluence born, and from restraint fet free.

Eager he seeks the scenes of gay refort,

The mall, the rout, the play-house, and the court :

[blocks in formation]

Soon for fome varnish'd nymph of dubious fame,
Or powder'd peeress, counterfeits a flame.
Behold him now, enraptur'd, fwear and figh,
Drefs, dance, drink, revel, all he knows not why;
Till, by kind fate restor❜d to country air,

He marks the roses of fome rural fair:
Smit with her unaffected native charms,
A real paffion foon his bofom warms;
And, wak'd from idle dreams, he takes a wife,
And taftes the genuine happiness of life.

Thus, in the vacant feafon of the year,
Some Templar gay begins his wild career.
From feat to feat o'er pompous fcenes he flies,
Views all with equal wonder and furprize;
Till, fick of domes, arcades, and temples grown,
He hies fatigued, not fatisfied, to town.
Yet if fome kinder Genius point his way
To where the Mufes o'er thy Leasowes stray,
Charm'd with the fylvan beauties of the place,
Where Art affumes the sweets of Nature's face,
Each hill, each dale, each confecrated grove,
Each lake, and falling ftream, his rapture move.
Like the fage captive in Calypfo's grott,
The cares, the pleasures, of the world forgot,
Of calm content he hails the genuine sphere,
And longs to dwell a blissful hermit here.

VER

« ПредишнаНапред »