But

you fecure fhall pour your fad complaint, Nor dread the meagre phantoms wan array; What none but fear's officious hand can paint, What none, but fuperftition's eye, furvey. The glimmering twilight and the doubtful dawn Shall fee your step to thefe fad fcenes return: Conftant, as cryftal dews impearl the lawn, Shall Strephon's tear bedew Ophelia's urn!* Sure nought unhallow'd shall presume to stray Where fleep the reliques of that virtuous maid: Nor aught unlovely bend its devious way, Where foft Ophelia's dear remains are laid. Haply thy Mufe, as with unceasing sighs She keeps late vigils on her urn reclin’d, May fee light groups of pleasing visions rife ; And phantoms glide, but of celestial kind. There fame, her clarion pendant at her fide, Shall feek forgivenefs of Ophelia's fhade; "Why has fuch worth, without diftinction, dy'd, Why, like the defert's lily, bloom'd to fade?"

Then young fimplicity, averfe to feign,

Shall unmolefted breathe her fofteft figh:
And candour with unwonted warmth complain,
And innocence indulge a wailful cry.

Then elegance, with coy judicious hand,
Shall cull fresh flowrets for Ophelia's tomb :· ́
And beauty chide the Fates' fevere command,
That fhew'd the frailty of fo fair a bloom!

And fancy then, with wild ungovern'd woe,
Shall her lov'd pupil's native taste explain;
For mournful fable all her hues forego,

And ask fweet folace of the Mufe in vain!
Ah, gentle forms, expect no fond relief;

Too much the facred Nine their lofs deplore: Well may ye grieve, nor find an end of griefYour best, your brightest favourite is no more.

ELEGY V.

He compares the turbulence of love with the tranquillity of friendship. To MELISSA his Friend.

FROM love, from angry love's inclement reign

I pafs a while to friendship's equal skies; Thou, generous maid, reliev'ft my partial pain, And chear'ft the victim of another's eyes.

'Tis thou, Meliffa, thou deferv'ft my care:
How can my will and reafon disagree?

How can my paffion live beneath despair!
How can my bosom sigh for aught but thee?
Ah dear Meliffa! pleas'd with thee to rove,
My foul has yet surviv'd its dreariest time;
Ill can I bear the various clime of love!

Love is a pleafing, but a various clime!
So fmiles immortal Maro's favourite shore,
Parthenope, with every verdure crown'd!
When ftrait Vefuvio's horrid cauldrons roar,
And the dry vapour blasts the regions round.

Oh

Oh blissful regions! oh unrival'd plains!
When Maro to these fragrant haunts retir'd!
Oh fatal realms! and oh accurft domains!
When Pliny, 'mid fulphureous clouds, expir'd!
So fmiles the furface of the treacherous main,
As o'er its waves the peaceful halcyons play;
When foon rude winds their wonted rule regain,
And sky and ocean mingle in the fray.

But let or air contend, or ocean rave;

Ev'n hope fubfide amid the billows tost; Hope, ftill emergent, ftill contemns the wave, And not a feature's wonted fmile is loft.

ELE GY VI.

To a lady on the language of birds.

COME then, Dione, let us range the grove,

The science of the feather'd choirs explore:

Hear linnets argue, larks defcant of love,
And blame the gloom of folitude no more.
My doubt fubfides—'tis nò Italian song,

Nor fenfelefs ditty, chears the vernal tree :
Ah! who, that hears Dione's tuneful tongue,
Shall doubt that mufic may with fenfe agree
And come, my Mufe! that lov'ft the fylvan shade
Evolve the mazes, and the mift difpel :
Tranflate the fong; convince my doubting maid,
No folemn dervise can can explain fo well.-

Penfive beneath the twilight shades I fate,

The flave of hopeless vows, and cold difdajn!
When Philomel addrefs'd his mournful mate,

And thus I conftrued the mellifluent strain.
"Sing on, my bird-the liquid notes prolong,
At every note a lover fheds his tear;
Sing on, my bird-'tis Damon hears thy song;
Nor doubt to gain applaufe, when lovers hear.
He the fad fource of our complaining knows;

A foe to Tereus, and to lawless love!
He mourns the story of our ancient woes;

Ah could our mufic his complaints remove! Yon' plains are govern'd by a peerless maid;

And fee pale Cynthia mounts the vaulted sky, A train of lovers court the checquer'd fhade;

Sing on, my bird, and hear thy mate's reply.
Erewhile no fhepherd to thefe woods retir'd;

No lover bleft the glow-worm's pallid ray:
But ill-ftar'd birds, that liftening not admir'd,
Or listening envy'd our fuperior lay.
Chear'd by the fun, the vassals of his power,

Let fuch by day unite their jarring strains!
But let us chufe the calm, the filent hour,
Nor want fit audience while Dione reigns."

ELEGY

VII.

ELE GY

He defcribes his vifion to an acquaintance.

"Cætera per terras omnes animalia," &c.

ON diftant heaths, beneath autumnal skies,

VIRG.

Penfive I saw the circling fhades defcend;

Weary and faint I heard the form arife,

While the fun vanish'd like a faithlefs friend.
No kind companion led my steps aright;
No friendly planet lent its glimmering ray;
Ev'n the lone cot refus'd its wonted light,
Where toil in peaceful slumber clos'd the day.
Then the dull bell had given a pleasing found;
The village cur 'twere tranfport then to hear;
In dreadful filence all was hufh'd around,

While the rude ftorm alone diftrefs'd mine ear. As led by Orwell's winding banks I stray'd, Where towering Wolfey breath'd his native air; A fudden luftre chas'd the flitting fhade,

The founding winds were hufh'd, and all was fair. Inftant a grateful form appear'd confeft;

White were his locks with awful scarlet crown'd, And livelier far than Tyrian seem'd his veft, That with the glowing purple ting'd the ground. Stranger, he said, amid this pealing rain, Benighted, lonesome, whither would'st thou stray? Does wealth or power thy weary step conftrain? Reveal thy wish, and let me point the way.