Why night, in fable rob'd, as day-light fades,
O'er half the nations draws her awful shades?
Now peaceful nature lies diffus'd in ease;
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 disturbs the drowzy woods,
No whispers murmur from the filent floods!
The moon fheds down a filver-streaming 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 ftrong, a bridegroom gay,
The fun springs dancing through the gates of day:
He shakes his dewy locks, and hurls his beams
O'er the proud hills, and down the glowing ftreams:
His fiery courfers bound above the main,
And whirl the car along th' ethereal plain:
* No more the monfters of the defert roar,
Doubling the terrors of the midnight hour.
The fowl, the fishes, to repofe refign'd,
All, all lie hufh'd, and bufy human-kind.
The fainting murmur dies upon the floods,
And fighing breezes lull the drowzy woods.
Now bright the blazes, and supplies the day.
The fiery courfers and the car display
A stream of glory, and a flood of day.
Did c'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 disclos'd to thee her gloomy state,
The ghaftly forms, the various woes that wait
In terrible array before her awful gate?
Know'st thou where darkness bears eternal fway,
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 fparkling 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 storms of vengeance fly,
Howl o'er the main, and thunder in the sky?
Say, to what wondrous magazines repair
The viewless beings, when ferene the air?
Till, from their dungeons loos'd, they roar aloud,
Upturn whole oceans, and toss cloud on cloud,
While waves encountering waves, in mountains driven,
Swell to the starry vault, and dash the heaven.
Know't thou, why comets threaten in the air,
Heralds of woe, destruction, and despair,
The plague, the fword, 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,
Th' exhaufted urns of thirsty fprings fupply,
And mitigate the fever of the sky?
Or, when the heavens are charg'd with gloomy clouds,
And half the fkies precipitate in floods,
Chace the dark horror of the ftorm away,
Restrain the deluge, and restore 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 unsullied 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 shining 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, didst 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, canst thou rule the courfers of the fun,
Or lash the lazy fign, Boötes, on?
Doft thou instruct the eagle how to fly,
To mount the viewless winds, and tower the sky?
On founding pinions borne, he foars, and fhrouds
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 forest roams :
*He fnuffs the track of beasts, he fiercely roars,
Doubling the horrors of the midnight hours:
With fullen majesty he stalks away,
And the rocks tremble while he seeks 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 fwiftnefs for the courfe?
Fleet as the wind, he shoots along the plain,
And knows no check, nor hears the curbing rein;
* He mocks the beating ftorms and wintery showers,
Making night hideous, as he fternly roars.
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 course difdains,
Pours from his heart, and charges in his veins;
He braves the fpear, and mocks the twanging bow,
Demands the fight, and ruthes on the foe.
Occafioned by the Death of a beloved Daughter. 1723
DIEU vain mirth, and noify joys!
Ye gay defires, deluding toys!
Thou, thoughtful Melancholy, deign
To hide me in thy penfive train!
If by the fall of murmuring floods,
Where awful shades 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!
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