She cheers his gloom with ftreams of bursting light,
By day a fun, a beaming moon by night;
Darts through the quivering shades her heavenly ray,
And spreads with rifing flowers his folitary way.
Ye heavens, for this in fhowers of sweetness fhed
Your mildeft influence o'er her favour'd head!
Long may her name, which diftant climes fhall praife,
Live in our notes, and bloffom in our lays!
And, like an odorous plant, whofe blushing flower
Paints every dale, and fweetens every bower,
Borne to the fkies in clouds of foft perfume
For ever flourish, and for ever bloom!
These grateful fongs, ye maids and youths, renew,
While fresh-blown violets drink the pearly dew;
O'er Azib's banks while love-lorn damfels rove,
And gales of fragrance breathe from Hager's grove.
So fung the youth, whofe fweetly-warbled ftrains
Fair Mena heard, and Saba's spicy plains.
Sooth'd with his lay, the ravifh'd air was calm,
The winds fcarce whisper'd o'er the waving palm;
The camels bounded o'er the flowery lawn,
Like the swift oftrich, or the fportful fawn;
Their fiken bands the liftening rofe-buds rent,
And twin'd their bloffoms round his vocal tent:
He fung, tili on the bank the moonlight flept,
And clofing flowers beneath the night-dew wept;
Then ceas'd, and flumber'd in the lap of reft
Till the fhrill lark had left his low-built neft.
Now haftes the fwain to tune his rapturous tales
In other meadows, and in other vales,
Written in the Year 1769.
ILD was the vernal gale, and caim the day,
When Maia near a crystal fountain lay,
Young Maia, fairest of the blue-eyed maids,
That rov'd at noon in Tibet's musky fhades;
But, haply, wandering through the fields of air,
Some fiend had whisper'd-Maia, thou art fair!
Hence fwelling pride had fill'd her fimple breast,
And rifing paffions robb'd her mind of reft;
In courts and glittering towers fhe wish'd to dwell,
And scorn'd her labouring parent's lowly cell.
And now, as gazing o'er the glaffy stream,
She faw her blooming cheek's reflected beam,
Her treffes brighter than the morning sky,
And the mild radiance of her fparkling eye,
Low fighs and trickling tears by turns fhe ftole,
And thus difcharg'd the anguish of her foul:
"Why glow those cheeks, if unadmir'd they glow?
"Why flow those treffes, if unprais'd they flow?
"Why dart thofe eyes their liquid ray ferene,
"Unfelt their influence, and their light unfeen?
"Ye heavens! was that love-breathing bofom made
"To warm dull groves, and cheer the lonely glade?
"Ah, no: those blushes, that enchanting face,
Some tap'ftried hall, or gilded bower, might grace; "Might deck the scenes, where love and pleasure reign, "And fire with amorous flames the youthful train.”
While thus fhe spoke, a fudden blaze of light Shot through the clouds, and ftruck her dazzled fight, She rais'd her head, aftonish'd, to the skies,
And veil'd with trembling hands her aching eyes 3
When through the yielding air fhe faw from far
A goddess gliding in a golden car,
That foon defcended on the flowery lawn,
By two fair yokes of starry peacocks drawn:
A thousand nymphs with many a fprightly glance
Form'd round the radiant wheels an airy dance,
Celestial fhapes! in fluid light array'd;
Like twinkling ftars their beamy fandals play'd;
Their lucid mantles glitter'd in the fun,
(Webs half fo bright the filkworm never fpun)
Transparent robes, that bore the rainbow's hue,
And finer than the nets of pearly dew
That morning spreads o'er every opening flower,
When sportive fummer decks his bridal bower.
The queen herself, too fair for mortal fight,
Sat in the centre of encircling light.
Soon with foft touch fhe rais'd the trembling maid,
And by her fide in filent flumber laid:
Straight the gay birds difplay'd their spangled train,
And flew refulgent through th' aerial plain;
The fairy band their fhining pinions spread,
And, as they rofe, fresh gales of fweetness shed;
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