Lo, Love himself, with heavy woes oppreft! See how his forrows fwell his tender breaft;

His bow he breaks, and wide his arrows flings,

And folds his little arms, and hangs his drooping wings;
Then, lays his limbs upon the dying grafs,

And all with tears bedews his beauteous face,
With tears, which from his folded lids arife,
And even Love himself has weeping eyes.

All nature mourns; the floods and rocks deplore,
And with me,
cry
"Paftora is no more!"
I mourn Paftora dead; let Albion mourn,

And fable clouds her chalky cliffs adorn.
The rocks can melt, and air in mifts can mourn,
And floods can weep, and winds to fighs can turn;
The birds, in fongs, their forrows can disclose,
And nymphs and fwains, in words, can tell their woes.
But, oh! behold that deep and wild despair,
Which neither winds can fhew, nor floods, nor air.
See the great fhepherd, chief of all the fwains,
Lord of thefe woods and wide-extended plains,
Stretch'd on the ground, and close to earth his face,
Scalding with tears th' already-faded grafs ;
To the cold clay he joins his throbbing breast,
No more within Paftora's arms to reft!

No more! For those once soft and circling arms
Themselves are clay, and cold are all her charms
Cold are thofe lips, which he no more must kifs,
And cold that bofom, once all downy blifs;
On whose soft pillows, lull'd in fweet delights,
He us'd, in balmy fleep, to lofe the nights.

Ah!

Ah! where is all that love and fondness filed?
Ah! where is all that tender sweetness laid?
To duft must all that heaven of beauty come!
And muft Paftora moulder in the tomb!
Ah, death! more fierce and unrelenting far,
Than wildest wolves or favage tigers are;
With lambs and fheep their hungers are appeas'd,
But ravenous death the fhepherdefs has seiz’d.

I mourn Paftora dead; let Albion mourn, And fable clouds her chalky cliffs adorn. "But fee, Menalcas, where a fudden light, "With wonder ftops my fong, and ftrikes my fight! "And where Paftora lies, it spreads around, "Shewing all radiant bright the facred ground. "While from her tomb, behold, a flame afcends "Of whiteft fire, whofe flight to heaven extends! "On flaking wings it mounts, and quick as sight "Cuts through the yielding air with rays of light; "Till the blue firmament at laft it gains,

"And, fixing there, a glorious ftar remains :" Faireft it shines of all that light the skies,

As once on earth were feen Paftora's eyes.

TO THE KING,

ON THE TAKING OF NAMUR.

IRREGULAR

O D E.

"Præfenti tibi maturos largimur honores : "Nil oriturum aliàs, nil ortum tale fatentes." Hor. ad Auguftum.

OF

I.

F arms and war my Mufe afpires to fing, And strike the lyre upon an untry'd string : New fire informs my foul, unfelt before; And, on new wings, to heights unknowm I foar, 0 power unfeen! by whofe refiftlefs force Compell'd, I take this flight, direct my courfe : For Fancy wild and pathlefs ways will chufe, Which Judgment rarely, or with pain, pursues: Say, facred nymph, whence this great change proceeds. Why fcorns the lowly fwain his oaten reeds, Daring aloud to strike the founding lyre,

And fing heroic deeds;

Neglecting flames of love, for martial fire?

II.

William, alone, my feeble voice can raise;
What voice fo weak, that cannot fing his praife!
The listening world each whisper will befriend
That breathes his name, and every ear attend.

The

The hovering winds on downy wings shall wait around,
And catch, and waft to foreign lands, the flying found.
Ev'n I will in his praise be heard ;

For by his name my verse shall be preferr'd.'
Borne like a lark upon this eagle's wing,

High as the fpheres, I will his triumph sing;

High as the head of Fame; Fame, whofe exalted fize
From the deep vale extends up to the vaulted fkies:
A thousand talking tongues the monster bears,
A thousand waking eyes, and ever-open ears ;
Hourly fhe ftalks, with huge gigantic pace,
Measuring the globe, like time, with conftant race:
Yet fhall she stay, and bend to William's praise :
Of him, her thousand ears fhall hear triumphant lays,
Of him her tongue fhall talk, on him her eyes fhall gaze.

III.

But lo, a change aftonishing my eyes!

And all around, behold new objects rife !

What forms are thefe I fee? and whence?
Beings fubftantial? or does air condenfe,
To clothe in vifionary shape my various thought?
Are thefe by fancy wrought!

Can ftrong ideas strike so deep the fenfe!

O facred poefy! O boundless power!

What wonders dost thou trace, what hidden worlds explore !

Through feas, earth, air, and the wide-circling fky, What is not fought and seen by thy all-piercing eye!

IV.

'Twas now, when flowery lawns the profpect made,
And flowing brooks beneath a forest's fhade;
A lowing heifer, lovelieft of the herd,

Stood feeding by; while two fierce bulls prepar'd
Their armed heads for fight; by fate of war, to prove
The victor worthy of the fair-one's love.

Unthought prefage, of what met next my view!
For foon the fhady fcene withdrew.

And now, for woods, and fields, and fpringing flowers; Behold a town arise, bulwark'd with walls, and lofty

towers!

Two rival armies all the plain o'erspread,
Each in battalia rang'd, and fhining arms array'd:
With eager eyes beholding both from far
Namur, the prize and mistress of the war.

V.

Now, thirst of conqueft, and immortal fame,
Does every chief and foldier's heart inflame.
Defenfive arms the Gallic forces bear,
While hardy Britons for the storm prepare :
For fortune had, with partial hand, before
Refign'd the rule to Gallia's power.
High on a rock the mighty fortress stands,

Founded by Fate, and wrought by Nature's hands. A wondrous tafk it is th' Afcent to gain,

Through craggy cliffs, that strike the fight with pain, And nod impending terrors o'er the plain.

To this, what dangers men can add, by force or skill, (And great is human force and wit in ill)

Are