40

Loft, and bewilder'd in despair,
How piercing are the hapless lover's cries!
What tender ftrokes in melting accents rife!
Oh, what a master-piece of pity's there?
Nor goodly Joafh fhows thy fweetness lefs,
When, like kind heaven, he frees then from diftrefs! 45
V.

Hail thou, whofe verfe, a living image, fhines,
In Gideon's character your own you drew!
As there the graceful patriot fhines,

We in that image bright Hillarius view!

Let the low crowd, who love unwholesome fare, 50 When in thy words the breath of angels flows,

Like grofs-fed fpirits, fick in purer air,
Their earthy fouls by their dull taste disclose !
Thy dazzling genius fhines too bright!

And they, like spectres, fhun the ftreams of light. 55
But while in fhades of ignorance they stray,
Round thee rays of knowledge play,
And fhew thee glittering in abftracted day.'

}

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

BESSY, COUNTESS OF ROCHFORD,

DAUGHTER OF THE LATE EARL RIVERS,

WHEN WITH CHILD.

AS when the fun walks forth in flaming gold,

Mean plants may finile, and humble flowers un

fold,

The low-laid lark the diftant æther wings,
And, as the foars, her daring anthem fings;

So,

So, when thy charms 'celestial views create,
My fmiling fong furmounts my gloomy fate.
Thy angel-embryo prompts my towering lays,
Claims my fond with, and fires my future praise :
May it, if male, its grandfire's image wear;
Or in its mother's charms confess the fair;
At the kind birth may each mild planet wait;
Soft be the pain, but prove the bleffing great.

Hail, Rivers! hallow'd fhade! defcend from reft! Defcend and smile, to see thy Rochford bleft: Weep not the fcenes through which my life must run, 15 Though fate, fleet-footed, fcents thy languid fon. The bar that, darkening, crofs'd my crested claim, Yields at her charms, and brightens in their flame : That blood which, honour'd, in thy Rochford reigns, In cold, unwilling wanderings trac'd my veins. Want's wintery realm froze hard around my view; And fcorn's keen blafts a cutting anguish blew. To fuch fad weight my gathering griefs were wrought,, Life feem'd not life, but when convuls'd with thought! Decreed beneath a mother's frown to pine, Madness were ease, to misery form'd like mine!·

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Yet my Mufe waits thee through the realms of day, Where lambent lightnings round thy temples play. Sure my fierce woes will, like thofe fires, refine, Thus lose their torture, and thus glorious shine! And now the Mufe heavens milky path furveys, With thee, 'twixt pendent worlds, it wondering ftrays, Worlds which, unnumber'd as thy virtues, roll Round funs-fix'd, radiant emblems of thy foul !

Hence

Hence lights refracted run through distant skies,
Changeful on azure plains in quivering dyes!
So thy mind darted through its earthy frame,
A wide, a various, and a glittering flame.

Now a new scene enormous luftre brings,
Now feraphs fhade thee round with filver wings;
In angel-forms thou feeft thy Rochford fhine;
In each fweet form is trac'd her beauteous line!
Such was her foul, ere this felected mould
Sprung at thy with, the fparkling life t' infold!
So amidst cherubs fhone her fon refin'd,
Are infant-flesh the new-form'd foul enfhrin'd!
So fhall a fequent race from Rochford rife,
The world's fair pride-Defcendants of the fkies.

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40

45

TO THE EXCELLENT

MIR

AN D A,

CONSORT OF AARON HILL, ESQ.

ON READING HER POEMS.

EACH foftening charm of Clio's fmiling fong,

Montague's foul, which shines divinely ffrong, These blend, with graceful ease, to form thy rhyme, Tender, yet chafte; fweet-founding, yet fublime; Wisdom and wit have made thy works their care, Each paffion glows, refined by precept, there : To fair Miranda's form each grace is kind; The Mufes and the Virtues tune thy mind.

5

VERSE S

то A

YOUNG

LADY.

POLLY, from me, though now a love-fick youth,
Nay, though a poet, hear the voice of truth!
Polly, you're not a beauty, yet you 're pretty ;
So grave, yet gay; fo filly, yet fo witty ;
A heart of foftnefs, yet a tongue of fatire;
You've cruelty, yet, ev'n with that, good-nature:
Now you are free, and now referv'd awhile;
Now a forc'd frown betrays a willing fmile.
Reproach'd for absence, yet your fight deny'd;
My tongue you filence, yet my filence chide.

How would you praise me, fhould your fex defame!
Yet, fhould they praife, grow jealous, and exclaim.
If I defpair, with some kind look you bless;
But if I hope, at once all hope fupprefs.

5

You fcorn; yet should my paffion change, or fail, 15
Too late you'd whimper out a fofter tale.
You love; yet from your lover's with retire;
'Doubt, yet difcern; deny, and yet defire.

Such, Polly, are your fex-part truth, part fiction,
Some thought, much whim, and all a contradiction. 20

THE

GEN T LE M

A N.

A

ADDRESSED TO

JOHN JOLIFFE, Esq

Decent mein, an elegance of dress,

Words, which, at ease, each winning grace ex-
prefs;

A life, where love, by wisdom polish'd, shines,
Where wisdom's felf again, by love, refines;
Where we to chance for friendship never truft,
Nor ever dread from fudden whim disgust;
The focial manners, and the heart humane;
A nature ever great, and never vain ;
A wit, that no licentious pertnefs knows;
The sense, that unaffuming candour shows;
Reafon, by narrow principles uncheck'd,
Slave to no party, bigot to no fect;

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Knowledge of various life, of learning too ;
Thence taste; thence truth, which will from tafte enfue:
Unwilling cenfure, though a judgment clear;

A fmile indulgent, and that fmile fincere ;
An humble, though an elevated mind;
A pride, its pleasure but to ferve mankind:
If these esteem and admiration raise;

Give true delight, and gain unflattering praise,
In one wifh'd view, th' accomplish'd man we see ;
These graces all are thine, and thou art He.

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20

CHARAC