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 short-liv'd flower it flies,
It fprings, it blooms, it fades, it dies.
With cries we ufher in our birth,
With groans refign our tranfient breath:
While round, ftern minifters of fate,
Pain, and difeafe, 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 ftrength in age are loft,
Man feems already half a ghoft;

Wither'd, and wan, to earth he bows,
A walking hofpital of woes.

O!

O! 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 steps---adieu, vain world, adieu!

DAPHNIS

DAPHNIS AND

LYCIDAS.

A PASTOR A L.

They fing the different Succefs and Abfence of their Loves.

To the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount TOWNSHEN D, of Rainham in Norfolk.

H

"Sylvæ funt Confule dignæ.”

DAPHNI S.

VIRG.

OW calm the evening! fee the falling day
Gilds every mountain with a ruddy ray!

In gentle fighs the foftly whifpering 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 fwallow takes,
Or fportive fkims the level of the lakes.

The timorous deer, fwift-ftarting as they graze, Bound off in crouds, then turn again, and gaze. See how yon fwans, with fnowy pride elate, Arch their high necks, and fail along in state! Thy fiifking flocks fafe-wandering crop the plain, And the glad feafon claims a gladsome strain.

Begin

Ye echoes liften to the song,

And, with its fweetnefs pleas'd, each note prolong!

LYCIDAS.

LYCIDAS.

Sing, Mufe-and O! may Townshend deign to view
What the Muse 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 ftray,
Charm every thought of idle pomp away:
Uneavy'd views the fplendid toils of state,
In private happy, as in public great.

Thus godlike Scipio, on whofe cares reclin'd
The burthen and repose of half mankind,
Left to the vain their pomp, and calmly ftray'd,
The world forgot, beneath the laurel shade;
Nor longer would be great, but, void of strife,
Clos'd in foft peace his eve of glorious life.

Feed round, my goats; ye fheep, in safety graze; Ye winds, breathe gently while I tune my lays.

The joyous fpring draws nigh! amhrofial showers Unbind the earth, the earth unbinds the flowers, The flowers blow fweet, the daffodils unfold The spreading glories of their blooming gold.

DAPHNI S.

As the gay hours advance, the blossoms shoot,
The knitting blossoms harden into fruit,
And as the autumn by degrees enfues,

The mellowing fruits difplay their ftreaky hues.

LYCIDA S.

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.

DAPHNI S.

Severe the ftorms! when fhuddering winter binds
The earth! but winter yields to vernal winds.
O! Love, thy rigour my whole life deforms,
More cold than winter, more fevere than ftorms!

LYCIDAS.

Sweet is the fpring, and gay the fummer hours, When balmy odours breathe from painted flowers j But neither fweet the spring, nor fummer gay, When the I love, my charmer, is away.

DAPHNI S.

To favage rocks, through bleak inclement skies,
Deaf as thofe rocks, from me my fair-one flies:
O virgin, ceafe to fly! th' inclement air

May hurt thy charms !---but thou hast charms to fpare!

LYCIDAS.

I love, and ever fhall my love remain,
The faireft, kindeft virgin of the plain;
With equal paffion her soft bofom glows,

Feels the fweet pains, and fhares the heavenly woes.

DAPHNI S.