With what attractive charms this goodly frame
Of Nature touches the consenting hearts
Of mortal men and what the pleasing stores
Which beauteous Imitation thence derives
To deck the poet or the painter toil
My verse unfolds Attend ye gentle Powers
Of musical delight and while I sing
Your gifts your honours dance around my strain
Thou smiling queen of every tuneful breast
Indulgent Fancy from the fruitful banks
Of Avon whence thy rosy fingers cull
Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf
Where Shakspeare lies be present and with thee
Let Fiction come upon her vagrant wings
Wafting ten thousand colours through the air
Which by the glances of her magic eye
She blends and shifts at will through countless forms
Her wild creation Goddess of the lyre
Which rules the accents of the moving sphere
Wilt thou eternal Harmony descend
And join this festive train for with thee comes
The guide the guardian of their lovely sports
Majestic Truth and where Truth deigns to come
Her sister Liberty will not be far
Be present all ye Genii who conduct
The wandering footsteps of the youthful bard
New to your springs and shades who touch his ear
With finer sounds who heighten to his eye
The bloom of Nature and before him turn
The gayest happiest attitude of things
Oft have the laws of each poetic strain
The critic-verse employ'd yet still unsung
Lay this prime subject though importing most
A poet name for fruitless is the attempt
By dull obedience and by creeping toil
Obscure to conquer the severe ascent
Of high Parnassus Nature kindling breath
Must fire the chosen genius Nature hand
Must string his nerves and imp his eagle-wings
Impatient of the painful steep to soar
High as the summit there to breathe at large
AEthereal air with bards and sages old
Immortal sons of praise These flattering scenes
To this neglected labour court my song
Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task
To paint the finest features of the mind
And to most subtile and mysterious things
Give colour strength and motion But the love
Of Nature and the Muses bids explore
Through secret paths erewhile untrod by man
The fair poetic region to detect
Untasted springs to drink inspiring draughts
And shade my temples with unfading flowers
Cull'd from the laureate vale profound recess
Where never poet gain'd a wreath before
From Heaven my strains begin from Heaven descends
The flame of genius to the human breast
And love and beauty and poetic joy
And inspiration Ere the radiant sun
Sprang from the east or 'mid the vault of night
The moon suspended her serener lamp
Ere mountains woods or streams adorn'd the globe
Or Wisdom taught the sons of men her lore
Then lived the Almighty One then deep retired
In his unfathom'd essence view'd the forms
The forms eternal of created things
The radiant sun the moon nocturnal lamp
The mountains woods and streams the rolling globe
And Wisdom mien celestial From the first
Of days on them his love divine he fix'd
His admiration till in time complete
What he admired and loved his vital smile
Unfolded into being Hence the breath
Of life informing each organic frame
Hence the green earth and wild resounding wares
Hence light and shade alternate warmth and cold
And clear autumnal skies and vernal showers
And all the fair variety of things
But not alike to every mortal eye
Is this great scene unveil'd For since the claims
Of social life to different labours urge
The active powers of man with wise intent
The hand of Nature on peculiar minds
Imprints a different bias and to each
Decrees its province in the common toil
To some she taught the fabric of the sphere
The changeful moon the circuit of the stars
The golden zones of heaven to some she gave
To weigh the moment of eternal things
Of time and space and fate unbroken chain
And will quick impulse others by the hand
She led o'er vales and mountains to explore
What healing virtue swells the tender veins
Of herbs and flowers or what the beams of morn
Draw forth distilling from the clifted rind
In balmy tears But some to higher hopes
Were destined some within a finer mould
She wrought and temper'd with a purer flame
To these the Sire Omnipotent unfolds
The world harmonious volume there to read
The transcript of Himself On every part
They trace the bright impressions of his hand
In earth or air the meadow purple stores
The moon mild radiance or the virgin form
Blooming with rosy smiles they see portray'd
That uncreated beauty which delights
The Mind Supreme They also feel her charms
Enamour'd they partake the eternal joy
For as old Memnon image long renown'd
By fabling Nilus to the quivering touch
Of Titan ray with each repulsive string
Consenting sounded through the warbling air
Unbidden strains even so did Nature hand
To certain species of external things
Attune the finer organs of the mind
So the glad impulse of congenial powers
Or of sweet sound or fair proportion'd form
The grace of motion or the bloom of light
Thrills through Imagination tender frame
From nerve to nerve all naked and alive
They catch the spreading rays till now the soul
At length discloses every tuneful spring
To that harmonious movement from without
Responsive Then the inexpressive strain
Diffuses its enchantment Fancy dreams
Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves
And vales of bliss the intellectual power
Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear
And smiles the passions gently soothed away
Sink to divine repose and love and joy
Alone are waking love and joy serene
As airs that fan the summer Oh attend
Whoe'er thou art whom these delights can touch
Whose candid bosom the refining love
Of Nature warms oh listen to my song
And I will guide thee to her favourite walks
And teach thy solitude her voice to hear
And point her loveliest features to thy view
Know then whate'er of Nature pregnant stores
Whate'er of mimic Art reflected forms
With love and admiration thus inflame
The powers of Fancy her delighted sons
To three illustrious orders have referr'd
Three sister graces whom the painter hand
The poet tongue confesses the Sublime
The Wonderful the Fair I see them dawn
I see the radiant visions where they rise
More lovely than when Lucifer displays
His beaming forehead through the gates of morn
To lead the train of Phoebus and the spring
Say why was man so eminently raised
Amid the vast Creation why ordain'd
Through life and death to dart his piercing eye
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame
But that the Omnipotent might send him forth
In sight of mortal and immortal powers
As on a boundless theatre to run
The great career of justice to exalt
His generous aim to all diviner deeds
To chase each partial purpose from his breast
And through the mists of passion and of sense
And through the tossing tide of chance and pain
To hold his course unfaltering while the voice
Of truth and virtue up the steep ascent
Of nature calls him to his high reward
The applauding smile of Heaven Else wherefore burns
In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope
That breathes from day to day sublimer things
And mocks possession Wherefore darts the mind
With such resistless ardour to embrace
Majestic forms impatient to be free
Spurning the gross control of wilful might
Proud of the strong contention of her toils
Proud to be daring Who but rather turns
To heaven broad fire his unconstrained view
Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame
Who that from Alpine heights his labouring eye
Shoots round the wide horizon to survey
Nilus or Ganges rolling his bright wave
Through mountains plains through empires black with shade
And continents of sand will turn his gaze
To mark the windings of a scanty rill
That murmurs at his feet The high-born soul
Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing
Beneath its native quarry Tired of earth
And this diurnal scene she springs aloft
Through fields of air pursues the flying storm
Rides on the vollied lightning through the heavens
Or yoked with whirlwinds and the northern blast
Sweeps the long tract of day Then high she soars
The blue profound and hovering round the sun
Beholds him pouring the redundant stream
Of light beholds his unrelenting sway
Bend the reluctant planets to absolve
The fated rounds of Time Thence far effused
She darts her swiftness up the long career
Of devious comets through its burning signs
Exulting measures the perennial wheel
Of Nature and looks back on all the stars
Whose blended light as with a milky zone
Invests the orient Now amazed she views
The empyreal waste where happy spirits hold
Beyond this concave heaven their calm abode
And fields of radiance whose unfading light
Has travell'd the profound six thousand years
Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things
Even on the barriers of the world untired
She meditates the eternal depth below
Till half recoiling down the headlong steep
She plunges soon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up
In that immense of being There her hopes
Rest at the fated goal For from the birth
Of mortal man the Sovereign Maker said
That not in humble nor in brief delight
Not in the fading echoes of renown
Power purple robes nor pleasure flowery lap
The soul should find enjoyment but from these
Turning disdainful to an equal good
Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view
Till every bound at length should disappear
And infinite perfection close the scene
Call now to mind what high capacious powers
Lie folded up in man how far beyond
The praise of mortals may the eternal growth
Of Nature to perfection half divine
Expand the blooming soul What pity then
Should sloth unkindly fogs depress to earth
Her tender blossom choke the streams of life
And blast her spring Far otherwise design'd
Almighty Wisdom Nature happy cares
The obedient heart far otherwise incline
Witness the sprightly joy when aught unknown
Strikes the quick sense and wakes each active power
To brisker measures witness the neglect
Of all familiar prospects though beheld
With transport once the fond attentive gaze
Of young astonishment the sober zeal
Of age commenting on prodigious things
For such the bounteous providence of Heaven
In every breast implanting this desire
Of objects new and strange to urge us on
With unremitted labour to pursue
Those sacred stores that wait the ripening soul
In Truth exhaustless bosom What need words
To paint its power For this the daring youth
Breaks from his weeping mother anxious arms
In foreign climes to rove the pensive sage
Heedless of sleep or midnight harmful damp
Hangs o'er the sickly taper and untired
The virgin follows with enchanted step
The mazes of some wild and wondrous tale
From morn to eve unmindful of her form
Unmindful of the happy dress that stole
The wishes of the youth when every maid
With envy pined Hence finally by night
The village matron round the blazing hearth
Suspends the infant audience with her tales
Breathing astonishment of witching rhymes
And evil spirits of the death-bed call
Of him who robb'd the widow and devour'd
The orphan portion of unquiet souls
Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
Of deeds in life conceal'd of shapes that walk
At dead of night and clank their chains and wave
The torch of hell around the murderer bed
At every solemn pause the crowd recoil
Gazing each other speechless and congeal'd
With shivering sighs till eager for the event
Around the beldame all erect they hang
Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd
But lo disclosed in all her smiling pomp
Where Beauty onward moving claims the verse
Her charms inspire the freely-flowing verse
In thy immortal praise O form divine
Smooths her mellifluent stream Thee Beauty thee
The regal dome and thy enlivening ray
The mossy roofs adore thou better sun
For ever beamest on the enchanted heart
Love and harmonious wonder and delight
Poetic Brightest progeny of Heaven
How shall I trace thy features where select
The roseate hues to emulate thy bloom
Haste then my song through Nature wide expanse
Haste then and gather all her comeliest wealth
Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains
Whate'er the waters or the liquid air
To deck thy lovely labour Wilt thou fly
With laughing Autumn to the Atlantic isles
And range with him the Hesperian field and see
Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove
The branches shoot with gold where'er his step
Marks the glad soil the tender clusters grow
With purple ripeness and invest each hill
As with the blushes of an evening sky
Or wilt thou rather stoop thy vagrant plume
Where gliding through his daughters honour'd shades
The smooth Peneus from his glassy flood
Reflects purpureal Tempo pleasant scene
Fair Tempe haunt beloved of sylvan Powers
Of Nymphs and Fauns where in the golden age
They play'd in secret on the shady brink
With ancient Pan while round their choral steps
Young Hours and genial Gales with constant hand
Shower'd blossoms odours shower'd ambrosial dews
And spring Elysian bloom Her flowery store
To thee nor Tempe shall refuse nor watch
Of winged Hydra guard Hesperian fruits
From thy free spoil Oh bear then unreproved
Thy smiling treasures to the green recess
Where young Dione stays With sweetest airs
Entice her forth to lend her angel form
For Beauty honour'd image Hither turn
Thy graceful footsteps hither gentle maid
Incline thy polish'd forehead let thy eyes
Effuse the mildness of their azure dawn
And may the fanning breezes waft aside
Thy radiant locks disclosing as it bends
With airy softness from the marble neck
The cheek fair-blooming and the rosy lip
Where winning smiles and pleasures sweet as love
With sanctity and wisdom tempering blend
Their soft allurement Then the pleasing force
Of Nature and her kind parental care
Worthier I'd sing then all the enamour'd youth
With each admiring virgin to my lyre
Should throng attentive while I point on high
Where Beauty living image like the Morn
That wakes in Zephyr arms the blushing May
Moves onward or as Venus when she stood
Effulgent on the pearly car and smiled
Fresh from the deep and conscious of her form
To see the Tritons tune their vocal shells
And each cerulean sister of the flood
With loud acclaim attend her o'er the waves
To seek the Idalian bower Ye smiling band
Of youths and virgins who through all the maze
Of young desire with rival steps pursue
This charm of Beauty if the pleasing toil
Can yield a moment respite hither turn
Your favourable ear and trust my words
I do not mean to wake the gloomy form
Of Superstition dress'd in Wisdom garb
To damp your tender hopes I do not mean
To bid the jealous thunderer fire the heavens
Or shapes infernal rend the groaning earth
To fright you from your joys my cheerful song
With better omens calls you to the field
Pleased with your generous ardour in the chase
And warm like you Then tell me for ye know
Does Beauty ever deign to dwell where health
And active use are strangers Is her charm
Confess'd in aught whose most peculiar ends
Are lame and fruitless Or did Nature mean
This pleasing call the herald of a lie
To hide the shame of discord and disease
And catch with fair hypocrisy the heart
Of idle faith Oh no with better cares
The indulgent mother conscious how infirm
Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill
By this illustrious image in each kind
Still most illustrious where the object holds
Its native powers most perfect she by this
Illumes the headstrong impulse of desire
And sanctifies his choice The generous glebe
Whose bosom smiles with verdure the clear tract
Of streams delicious to the thirsty soul
The bloom of nectar'd fruitage ripe to sense
And every charm of animated things
Are only pledges of a state sincere
The integrity and order of their frame
When all is well within and every end
Accomplish'd Thus was Beauty sent from heaven
The lovely ministries of Truth and Good
In this dark world for Truth and Good are one
And Beauty dwells in them and they in her
With like participation Wherefore then
O sons of earth would ye dissolve the tie
Oh wherefore with a rash impetuous aim
Seek ye those flowery joys with which the hand
Of lavish Fancy paints each flattering scene
Where Beauty seems to dwell nor once inquire
Where is the sanction of eternal Truth
Or where the seal of undeceitful Good
To save your search from folly Wanting these
Lo Beauty withers in your void embrace
And with the glittering of an idiot toy
Did Fancy mock your vows Nor let the gleam
Of youthful hope that shines upon your hearts
Be chill'd or clouded at this awful task
To learn the lore of undeceitful Good
And Truth eternal Though the poisonous charms
Of baleful Superstition guide the feet
Of servile numbers through a dreary way
To their abode through deserts thorns and mire
And leave the wretched pilgrim all forlorn
To muse at last amid the ghostly gloom
Of graves and hoary vaults and cloister'd cells
To walk with spectres through the midnight shade
And to the screaming owl accursed song
Attune the dreadful workings of his heart
Yet be not ye dismay'd A gentler star
Your lovely search illumines From the grove
Where Wisdom talk'd with her Athenian sons
Could my ambitious hand entwine a wreath
Of Plato olive with the Mantuan bay
Then should my powerful verse at once dispel
Those monkish horrors then in light divine
Disclose the Elysian prospect where the steps
Of those whom Nature charms through blooming walks
Through fragrant mountains and poetic streams
Amid the train of sages heroes bards
Led by their winged Genius and the choir
Of laurell'd science and harmonious art
Proceed exulting to the eternal shrine
Where Truth conspicuous with her sister-twins
The undivided partners of her sway
With Good and Beauty reigns Oh let not us
Lull'd by luxurious Pleasure languid strain
Or crouching to the frowns of bigot rage
Oh let us not a moment pause to join
That godlike band And if the gracious Power
Who first awaken'd my untutor'd song
Will to my invocation breathe anew
The tuneful spirit then through all our paths
Ne'er shall the sound of this devoted lyre
Be wanting whether on the rosy mead
When summer smiles to warn the melting heart
Of luxury allurement whether firm
Against the torrent and the stubborn hill
To urge bold Virtue unremitted nerve
And wake the strong divinity of soul
That conquers chance and fate or whether struck
For sounds of triumph to proclaim her toils
Upon the lofty summit round her brow
To twine the wreath of incorruptive praise
To trace her hallow'd light through future worlds
And bless Heaven image in the heart of man
Thus with a faithful aim have we presumed
Adventurous to delineate Nature form
Whether in vast majestic pomp array'd
Or dress'd for pleasing wonder or serene
In Beauty rosy smile It now remains
Through various being fair proportion'd scale
To trace the rising lustre of her charms
From their first twilight shining forth at length
To full meridian splendour Of degree
The least and lowliest in the effusive warmth
Of colours mingling with a random blaze
Doth Beauty dwell Then higher in the line
And variation of determined shape
Where Truth eternal measures mark the bound
Of circle cube or sphere The third ascent
Unites this varied symmetry of parts
With colour bland allurement as the pearl
Shines in the concave of its azure bed
And painted shells indent their speckled wreath
Then more attractive rise the blooming forms
Through which the breath of Nature has infused
Her genial power to draw with pregnant veins
Nutritious moisture from the bounteous earth
In fruit and seed prolific thus the flowers
Their purple honours with the Spring resume
And such the stately tree which Autumn bends
With blushing treasures But more lovely still
Is Nature charm where to the full consent
Of complicated members to the bloom
Of colour and the vital change of growth
Life holy flame and piercing sense are given
And active motion speaks the temper'd soul
So moves the bird of Juno so the steed
With rival ardour beats the dusty plain
And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy
Salute their fellows Thus doth Beauty dwell
There most conspicuous even in outward shape
Where dawns the high expression of a mind
By steps conducting our enraptured search
To that eternal origin whose power
Through all the unbounded symmetry of things
Like rays effulging from the parent sun
This endless mixture of her charms diffused
Mind mind alone bear witness earth and heaven
The living fountains in itself contains
Of beauteous and sublime here hand in hand
Sit paramount the Graces here enthroned
Celestial Venus with divinest airs
Invites the soul to never-fading joy
Look then abroad through nature to the range
Of planets suns and adamantine spheres
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense
And speak O man does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy strong conception as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar fate
Amid the crowd of patriots and his arm
Aloft extending like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder call'd aloud
On Tully name and shook his crimson steel
And bade the father of his country hail
For lo the tyrant prostrate on the dust
And Rome again is free Is aught so fair
In all the dewy landscapes of the Spring
In the bright eye of Hesper or the morn
In Nature fairest forms is aught so fair
As virtuous friendship as the candid blush
Of him who strives with fortune to be just
The graceful tear that streams for others' woes
Or the mild majesty of private life
Where Peace with ever blooming olive crowns
The gate where Honour liberal hands effuse
Unenvied treasures and the snowy wings
Of Innocence and Love protect the scene
Once more search undismay'd the dark profound
Where Nature works in secret view the beds
Of mineral treasure and the eternal vault
That bounds the hoary ocean trace the forms
Of atoms moving with incessant change
Their elemental round behold the seeds
Of being and the energy of life
Kindling the mass with ever-active flame
Then to the secrets of the working mind
Attentive turn from dim oblivion call
Her fleet ideal band and bid them go
Break through time barrier and o'ertake the hour
That saw the heavens created then declare
If aught were found in those external scenes
To move thy wonder now For what are all
The forms which brute unconscious matter wears
Greatness of bulk or symmetry of parts
Not reaching to the heart soon feeble grows
The superficial impulse dull their charms
And satiate soon and pall the languid eye
Not so the moral species nor the powers
Of genius and design the ambitious mind
There sees herself by these congenial forms
Touch'd and awaken'd with intenser act
She bends each nerve and meditates well pleased
Her features in the mirror For of all
The inhabitants of earth to man alone
Creative Wisdom gave to lift his eye
To Truth eternal measures thence to frame
The sacred laws of action and of will
Discerning justice from unequal deeds
And temperance from folly But beyond
This energy of Truth whose dictates bind
Assenting reason the benignant Sire
To deck the honour'd paths of just and good
Has added bright Imagination rays
Where Virtue rising from the awful depth
Of Truth mysterious bosom doth forsake
The unadorn'd condition of her birth
And dress'd by Fancy in ten thousand hues
Assumes a various feature to attract
With charms responsive to each gazer eye
The hearts of men Amid his rural walk
The ingenuous youth whom solitude inspires
With purest wishes from the pensive shade
Beholds her moving like a virgin muse
That wakes her lyre to some indulgent theme
Of harmony and wonder while among
The herd of servile minds her strenuous form
Indignant flashes on the patriot eye
And through the rolls of memory appeals
To ancient honour or in act serene
Yet watchful raises the majestic sword
Of public Power from dark Ambition reach
To guard the sacred volume of the laws
Genius of ancient Greece whose faithful steps
Well pleased I follow through the sacred paths
Of Nature and of Science nurse divine
Of all heroic deeds and fair desires
Oh let the breath of thy extended praise
Inspire my kindling bosom to the height
Of this untempted theme Nor be my thoughts
Presumptuous counted if amid the calm
That soothes this vernal evening into smiles
I steal impatient from the sordid haunts
Of strife and low ambition to attend
Thy sacred presence in the sylvan shade
By their malignant footsteps ne'er profaned
Descend propitious to my favour'd eye
Such in thy mien thy warm exalted air
As when the Persian tyrant foil'd and stung
With shame and desperation gnash'd his teeth
To see thee rend the pageants of his throne
And at the lightning of thy lifted spear
Crouch'd like a slave Bring all thy martial spoils
Thy palms thy laurels thy triumphal songs
Thy smiling band of art thy godlike sires
Of civil wisdom thy heroic youth
Warm from the schools of glory Guide my way
Through fair Lyceum walk the green retreats
Of Academus and the thymy vale
Where oft enchanted with Socratic sounds
Ilissus pure devolved his tuneful stream
In gentler murmurs From the blooming store
Of these auspicious fields may I unblamed
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn
My native clime while far above the flight
Of Fancy plume aspiring I unlock
The springs of ancient wisdom while I join
Thy name thrice honour'd with the immortal praise
Of Nature while to my compatriot youth
I point the high example of thy sons
And tune to Attic themes the British lyre
When shall the laurel and the vocal string
Resume their honours When shall we behold
The tuneful tongue the Promethean band
Aspire to ancient praise Alas how faint
How slow the dawn of Beauty and of Truth
Breaks the reluctant shades of Gothic night
Which yet involves the nations Long they groan'd
Beneath the furies of rapacious force
Oft as the gloomy north with iron swarms
Tempestuous pouring from her frozen caves
Blasted the Italian shore and swept the works
Of Liberty and Wisdom down the gulf
Of all-devouring night As long immured
In noontide darkness by the glimmering lamp
Each Muse and each fair Science pined away
The sordid hours while foul barbarian hands
Their mysteries profaned unstrung the lyre
And chain'd the soaring pinion down to earth
At last the Muses rose and spurn'd their bonds
And wildly warbling scatter'd as they flew
Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa bowers
To Arno myrtle border and the shore
Of soft Parthenope But still the rage
Of dire ambition and gigantic power
From public aims and from the busy walk
Of civil commerce drove the bolder train
Of penetrating Science to the cells
Where studious Ease consumes the silent hour
In shadowy searches and unfruitful care
Thus from their guardians torn the tender arts
Of mimic fancy and harmonious joy
To priestly domination and the lust
Of lawless courts their amiable toil
For three inglorious ages have resign'd
In vain reluctant and Torquato tongue
Was tuned for slavish pasans at the throne
Of tinsel pomp and Raphael magic hand
Effused its fair creation to enchant
The fond adoring herd in Latian fanes
To blind belief while on their prostrate necks
The sable tyrant plants his heel secure
But now behold the radiant era dawns
When freedom ample fabric fix'd at length
For endless years on Albion happy shore
In full proportion once more shall extend
To all the kindred powers of social bliss
A common mansion a parental roof
There shall the Virtues there shall Wisdom train
Their long-lost friends rejoining as of old
Embrace the smiling family of Arts
The Muses and the Graces Then no more
Shall Vice distracting their delicious gifts
To aims abhorr'd with high distaste and scorn
Turn from their charms the philosophic eye
The patriot bosom then no more the paths
Of public care or intellectual toil
Alone by footsteps haughty and severe
In gloomy state be trod the harmonious Muse
And her persuasive sisters then shall plant
Their sheltering laurels o'er the bleak ascent
And scatter flowers along the rugged way
Arm'd with the lyre already have we dared
To pierce divine Philosophy retreats
And teach the Muse her lore already strove
Their long-divided honours to unite
While tempering this deep argument we sang
Of Truth and Beauty Now the same glad task
Impends now urging our ambitious toil
We hasten to recount the various springs
Of adventitious pleasure which adjoin
Their grateful influence to the prime effect
Of objects grand or beauteous and enlarge
The complicated joy The sweets of sense
Do they not oft with kind accession flow
To raise harmonious Fancy native charm
So while we taste the fragrance of the rose
Glows not her blush the fairer While we view
Amid the noontide walk a limpid rill
Gush through the trickling herbage to the thirst
Of summer yielding the delicious draught
Of cool refreshment o'er the mossy brink
Shines not the surface clearer and the waves
With sweeter music murmur as they flow
Nor this alone the various lot of life
Oft from external circumstance assumes
A moment disposition to rejoice
In those delights which at a different hour
Would pass unheeded Fair the face of Spring
When rural songs and odours wake the morn
To every eye but how much more to his
Round whom the bed of sickness long diffused
Its melancholy gloom how doubly fair
When first with fresh-born vigour he inhales
The balmy breeze and feels the blessed sun
Warm at his bosom from the springs of life
Chasing oppressive damps and languid pain
Or shall I mention where celestial Truth
Her awful light discloses to bestow
A more majestic pomp on Beauty frame
For man loves knowledge and the beams of Truth
More welcome touch his understanding eye
Than all the blandishments of sound his ear
Than all of taste his tongue Nor ever yet
The melting rainbow vernal-tinctured hues
To me have shown so pleasing as when first
The hand of Science pointed out the path
In which the sunbeams gleaming from the west
Fall on the watery cloud whose darksome veil
Involves the orient and that trickling shower
Piercing through every crystalline convex
Of clustering dewdrops to their flight opposed
Recoil at length where concave all behind
The internal surface of each glassy orb
Repels their forward passage into air
That thence direct they seek the radiant goal
From which their course began and as they strike
In different lines the gazer obvious eye
Assume a different lustre through the brede
Of colours changing from the splendid rose
To the pale violet dejected hue
Or shall we touch that kind access of joy
That springs to each fair object while we trace
Through all its fabric Wisdom artful aim
Disposing every part and gaining still
By means proportion'd her benignant end
Speak ye the pure delight whose favour'd steps
The lamp of Science through the jealous maze
Of Nature guides when haply you reveal
Her secret honours whether in the sky
The beauteous laws of light the central powers
That wheel the pensile planets round the year
Whether in wonders of the rolling deep
Or the rich fruits of all-sustaining earth
Or fine-adjusted springs of life and sense
Ye scan the counsels of their Author hand
What when to raise the meditated scene
The flame of passion through the struggling soul
Deep-kindled shows across that sudden blaze
The object of its rapture vast of size
With fiercer colours and a night of shade
What like a storm from their capacious bed
The sounding seas o'erwhelming when the might
Of these eruptions working from the depth
Of man strong apprehension shakes his frame
Even to the base from every naked sense
Of pain or pleasure dissipating all
Opinion feeble coverings and the veil
Spun from the cobweb fashion of the times
To hide the feeling heart Then Nature speaks
Her genuine language and the words of men
Big with the very motion of their souls
Declare with what accumulated force
The impetuous nerve of passion urges on
The native weight and energy of things
Yet more her honours where nor Beauty claims
Nor shows of good the thirsty sense allure
From passion power alone our nature holds
Essential pleasure Passion fierce illapse
Rouses the mind whole fabric with supplies
Of daily impulse keeps the elastic powers
Intensely poised and polishes anew
By that collision all the fine machine
Else rust would rise and foulness by degrees
Encumbering choke at last what heaven design'd
For ceaseless motion and a round of toil 
But say does every passion thus to man
Administer delight That name indeed
Becomes the rosy breath of love becomes
The radiant smiles of joy the applauding hand
Of admiration but the bitter shower
That sorrow sheds upon a brother grave
But the dumb palsy of nocturnal fear
Or those consuming fires that gnaw the heart
Of panting indignation find we there
To move delight Then listen while my tongue
The unalter'd will of Heaven with faithful awe
Reveals what old Harmodius wont to teach
My early age Harmodius who had weigh'd
Within his learned mind whate'er the schools
Of Wisdom or thy lonely-whispering voice
O faithful Nature dictate of the laws
Which govern and support this mighty frame
Of universal being Oft the hours
From morn to eve have stolen unmark'd away
While mute attention hung upon his lips
As thus the sage his awful tale began 
''Twas in the windings of an ancient wood
When spotless youth with solitude resigns
To sweet philosophy the studious day
What time pale Autumn shades the silent eve
Musing I roved Of good and evil much
And much of mortal man my thought revolved
When starting full on fancy gushing eye
The mournful image of Parthenia fate
That hour O long beloved and long deplored
When blooming youth nor gentlest wisdom arts
Nor Hymen honours gather'd for thy brow
Nor all thy lover all thy father tears
Avail'd to snatch thee from the cruel grave
Thy agonising looks thy last farewell
Struck to the inmost feeling of my soul
As with the hand of Death At once the shade
More horrid nodded o'er me and the winds
With hoarser murmuring shook the branches Dark
As midnight storms the scene of human things
Appear'd before me deserts burning sands
Where the parch'd adder dies the frozen south
And desolation blasting all the west
With rapine and with murder tyrant power
Here sits enthroned with blood the baleful charms
Of superstition there infect the skies
And turn the sun to horror Gracious Heaven
What is the life of man Or cannot these
Not these portents thy awful will suffice
That propagated thus beyond their scope
They rise to act their cruelties anew
In my afflicted bosom thus decreed
The universal sensitive of pain
The wretched heir of evils not its own
Thus I impatient when at once effused
A flashing torrent of celestial day
Burst through the shadowy void With slow descent
A purple cloud came floating through the sky
And poised at length within the circling trees
Hung obvious to my view till opening wide
Its lucid orb a more than human form
Emerging lean'd majestic o'er my head
And instant thunder shook the conscious grove
Then melted into air the liquid cloud
And all the shining vision stood reveal'd
A wreath of palm his ample forehead bound
And o'er his shoulder mantling to his knee
Flow'd the transparent robe around his waist
Collected with a radiant zone of gold
Aethereal there in mystic signs engraved
I read his office high and sacred name
Genius of human kind Appall'd I gazed
The godlike presence for athwart his brow
Displeasure temper'd with a mild concern
Look'd down reluctant on me and his words
Like distant thunders broke the murmuring air
'Vain are thy thoughts O child of mortal birth
And impotent thy tongue Is thy short span
Capacious of this universal frame 
Thy wisdom all-sufficient Thou alas
Dost thou aspire to judge between the Lord
Of Nature and his works to lift thy voice
Against the sovereign order he decreed
All good and lovely to blaspheme the bands
Of tenderness innate and social love
Holiest of things by which the general orb
Of being as by adamantine links
Was drawn to perfect union and sustain'd
From everlasting Hast thou felt the pangs
Of softening sorrow of indignant zeal
So grievous to the soul as thence to wish
The ties of Nature broken from thy frame
That so thy selfish unrelenting heart
Might cease to mourn its lot no longer then
The wretched heir of evils not its own
O fair benevolence of generous minds
O man by Nature form'd for all mankind
He spoke abash'd and silent I remain'd
As conscious of my tongue offence and awed
Before his presence though my secret soul
Disdain'd the imputation On the ground
I fix'd my eyes till from his airy couch
He stoop'd sublime and touching with his hand
My dazzling forehead 'Raise thy sight' he cried
'And let thy sense convince thy erring tongue
I look'd and lo the former scene was changed
For verdant alleys and surrounding trees
A solitary prospect wide and wild
Rush'd on my senses 'Twas a horrid pile
Of hills with many a shaggy forest mix'd
With many a sable cliff and glittering stream
Aloft recumbent o'er the hanging ridge
The brown woods waved while ever-trickling springs
Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine
The crumbling soil and still at every fall
Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock
Remurmuring rush'd the congregated floods
With hoarser inundation till at last
They reach'd a grassy plain which from the skirts
Of that high desert spread her verdant lap
And drank the gushing moisture where confined
In one smooth current o'er the lilied vale
Clearer than glass it flow'd Autumnal spoils
Luxuriant spreading to the rays of morn
Blush'd o'er the cliffs whose half-encircling mound
As in a sylvan theatre enclosed
That flowery level On the river brink
I spied a fair pavilion which diffused
Its floating umbrage 'mid the silver shade
Of osiers Now the western sun reveal'd
Between two parting cliffs his golden orb
And pour'd across the shadow of the hills
On rocks and floods a yellow stream of light
That cheer'd the solemn scene My listening powers
Were awed and every thought in silence hung
And wondering expectation Then the voice
Of that celestial power the mystic show
Declaring thus my deep attention call'd 
'Inhabitant of earth to whom is given
The gracious ways of Providence to learn
Receive my sayings with a steadfast ear 
Know then the Sovereign Spirit of the world
Though self-collected from eternal time
Within his own deep essence he beheld
The bounds of true felicity complete
Yet by immense benignity inclined
To spread around him that primeval joy
Which fill'd himself he raised his plastic arm
And sounded through the hollow depths of space
The strong creative mandate Straight arose
These heavenly orbs the glad abodes of life
Effusive kindled by his breath divine
Through endless forms of being Each inhaled
From him its portion of the vital flame
In measure such that from the wide complex
Of coexistent orders one might rise
One order all-involving and entire
He too beholding in the sacred light
Of his essential reason all the shapes
Of swift contingence all successive ties
Of action propagated through the sum
Of possible existence he at once
Down the long series of eventful time
So fix'd the dates of being so disposed
To every living soul of every kind
The field of motion and the hour of rest
That all conspired to his supreme design
To universal good with full accord
Answering the mighty model he had chose
The best and fairest of unnumber'd worlds
That lay from everlasting in the store
Of his divine conceptions Nor content
By one exertion of creative power
His goodness to reveal through every age
Through every moment up the tract of time
His parent hand with ever new increase
Of happiness and virtue has adorn'd
The vast harmonious frame his parent hand
From the mute shell-fish gasping on the shore
To men to angels to celestial minds
For ever leads the generations on
To higher scenes of being while supplied
From day to day with his enlivening breath
Inferior orders in succession rise
To fill the void below As flame ascends
As bodies to their proper centre move
As the poised ocean to the attracting moon
Obedient swells and every headlong stream
Devolves its winding waters to the main
So all things which have life aspire to God
The sun of being boundless unimpair'd
Centre of souls Nor does the faithful voice
Of Nature cease to prompt their eager steps
Aright nor is the care of Heaven withheld
From granting to the task proportion'd aid
That in their stations all may persevere
To climb the ascent of being and approach
For ever nearer to the life divine 
'That rocky pile thou seest that verdant lawn
Fresh-water'd from the mountains Let the scene
Paint in thy fancy the primeval seat
Of man and where the Will Supreme ordain'd
His mansion that pavilion fair-diffused
Along the shady brink in this recess
To wear the appointed season of his youth
Till riper hours should open to his toil
The high communion of superior minds
Of consecrated heroes and of gods
Nor did the Sire Omnipotent forget
His tender bloom to cherish nor withheld
Celestial footsteps from his green abode
Oft from the radiant honours of his throne
He sent whom most he loved the sovereign fair
The effluence of his glory whom he placed
Before his eyes for ever to behold
The goddess from whose inspiration flows
The toil of patriots the delight of friends
Without whose work divine in heaven or earth
Nought lovely nought propitious conies to pass
Nor hope nor praise nor honour Her the Sire
Gave it in charge to rear the blooming mind
The folded powers to open to direct
The growth luxuriant of his young desires
And from the laws of this majestic world
To teach him what was good As thus the nymph
Her daily care attended by her side
With constant steps her gay companion stay'd
The fair Euphrosyne the gentle queen
Of smiles and graceful gladness and delights
That cheer alike the hearts of mortal men
And powers immortal See the shining pair
Behold where from his dwelling now disclosed
They quit their youthful charge and seek the skies
I look'd and on the flowery turf there stood
Between two radiant forms a smiling youth
Whose tender cheeks display'd the vernal flower
Of beauty sweetest innocence illumed
His bashful eyes and on his polish'd brow
Sate young simplicity With fond regard
He view'd the associates as their steps they moved
The younger chief his ardent eyes detain'd
With mild regret invoking her return
Bright as the star of evening she appear'd
Amid the dusky scene Eternal youth
O'er all her form its glowing honours breathed
And smiles eternal from her candid eyes
Flow'd like the dewy lustre of the morn
Effusive trembling on the placid waves
The spring of heaven had shed its blushing spoils
To bind her sable tresses full diffused
Her yellow mantle floated in the breeze
And in her hand she waved a living branch
Rich with immortal fruits of power to calm
The wrathful heart and from the brightening eyes
To chase the cloud of sadness More sublime
The heavenly partner moved The prime of age
Composed her steps The presence of a god
High on the circle of her brow enthroned
From each majestic motion darted awe
Devoted awe till cherish'd by her looks
Benevolent and meek confiding love
To filial rapture soften'd all the soul
Free in her graceful hand she poised the sword
Of chaste dominion An heroic crown
Display'd the old simplicity of pomp
Around her honour'd head A matron robe
White as the sunshine streams through vernal clouds
Her stately form invested Hand in hand
The immortal pair forsook the enamel'd green
Ascending slowly Rays of limpid light
Gleam'd round their path celestial sounds were heard
And through the fragrant air ethereal dews
Distill'd around them till at once the clouds
Disparting wide in midway sky withdrew
Their airy veil and left a bright expanse
Of empyrean flame where spent and drown'd
Afflicted vision plunged in vain to scan
What object it involved My feeble eyes
Endured not Bending down to earth I stood
With dumb attention Soon a female voice
As watery murmurs sweet or warbling shades
With sacred invocation thus began
'Father of gods and mortals whose right arm
With reins eternal guides the moving heavens
Bend thy propitious ear Behold well pleased
I seek to finish thy divine decree
With frequent steps I visit yonder seat
Of man thy offspring from the tender seeds
Of justice and of wisdom to evolve
The latent honours of his generous frame
Till thy conducting hand shall raise his lot
From earth dim scene to these ethereal walks
The temple of thy glory But not me
Not my directing voice he oft requires
Or hears delighted this enchanting maid
The associate thou hast given me her alone
He loves O Father absent her he craves
And but for her glad presence ever join'd
Rejoices not in mine that all my hopes
This thy benignant purpose to fulfil
I deem uncertain and my daily cares
Unfruitful all and vain unless by thee
Still further aided in the work divine
She ceased a voice more awful thus replied 
'O thou in whom for ever I delight
Fairer than all the inhabitants of Heaven
Best image of thy Author far from thee
Be disappointment or distaste or blame
Who soon or late shalt every work fulfil
And no resistance find If man refuse
To hearken to thy dictates or allured
By meaner joys to any other power
Transfer the honours due to thee alone
That joy which he pursues he ne'er shall taste
That power in whom delighteth ne'er behold
Go then once more and happy be thy toil
Go then but let not this thy smiling friend
Partake thy footsteps In her stead behold
With thee the son of Nemesis I send
The fiend abhorr'd whose vengeance takes account
Of sacred order violated laws
See where he calls thee burning to be gone
Pierce to exhaust the tempest of his wrath
On yon devoted head But thou my child
Control his cruel frenzy and protect
Thy tender charge that when despair shall grasp
His agonising bosom he may learn
Then he may learn to love the gracious hand
Alone sufficient in the hour of ill
To save his feeble spirit then confess
Thy genuine honours O excelling fair
When all the plagues that wait the deadly will
Of this avenging demon all the storms
Of night infernal serve but to display
The energy of thy superior charms
With mildest awe triumphant o'er his rage
And shining clearer in the horrid gloom
Here ceased that awful voice and soon I felt
The cloudy curtain of refreshing eve
Was closed once more from that immortal fire
Sheltering my eyelids Looking up I view'd
A vast gigantic spectre striding on
Through murmuring thunders and a waste of clouds
With dreadful action Black as night his brow
Relentless frowns involved His savage limbs
With sharp impatience violent he writhed
As through convulsive anguish and his hand
Arm'd with a scorpion lash full oft he raised
In madness to his bosom while his eyes
Rain'd bitter tears and bellowing loud he shook
The void with horror Silent by his side
The virgin came No discomposure stirr'd
Her features From the glooms which hung around
No stain of darkness mingled with the beam
Of her divine effulgence Now they stoop
Upon the river bank and now to hail
His wonted guests with eager steps advanced
The unsuspecting inmate of the shade
As when a famish'd wolf that all night long
Had ranged the Alpine snows by chance at morn
Sees from a cliff incumbent o'er the smoke
Of some lone village a neglected kid
That strays along the wild for herb or spring
Down from the winding ridge he sweeps amain
And thinks he tears him so with tenfold rage
The monster sprung remorseless on his prey
Amazed the stripling stood with panting breast
Feebly he pour'd the lamentable wail
Of helpless consternation struck at once
And rooted to the ground The Queen beheld
His terror and with looks of tenderest care
Advanced to save him Soon the tyrant felt
Her awful power His keen tempestuous arm
Hung nerveless nor descended where his rage
Had aim'd the deadly blow then dumb retired
With sullen rancour Lo the sovereign maid
Folds with a mother arms the fainting boy
Till life rekindles in his rosy cheek
Then grasps his hands and cheers him with her tongue 
'Oh wake thee rouse thy spirit Shall the spite
Of yon tormentor thus appal thy heart
While I thy friend and guardian am at hand
To rescue and to heal Oh let thy soul
Remember what the will of heaven ordains
Is ever good for all and if for all
Then good for thee Nor only by the warmth
And soothing sunshine of delightful things
Do minds grow up and flourish Oft misled
By that bland light the young unpractised views
Of reason wander through a fatal road
Far from their native aim as if to lie
Inglorious in the fragrant shade and wait
The soft access of ever circling joys
Were all the end of being Ask thyself
This pleasing error did it never lull
Thy wishes Has thy constant heart refused
The silken fetters of delicious ease
Or when divine Euphrosyne appear'd
Within this dwelling did not thy desires
Hang far below the measure of thy fate
Which I reveal'd before thee and thy eyes
Impatient of my counsels turn away
To drink the soft effusion of her smiles
Know then for this the everlasting Sire
Deprives thee of her presence and instead
O wise and still benevolent ordains
This horrid visage hither to pursue
My steps that so thy nature may discern
Its real good and what alone can save
Thy feeble spirit in this hour of ill
From folly and despair O yet beloved
Let not this headlong terror quite o'erwhelm
Thy scatter'd powers nor fatal deem the rage
Of this tormentor nor his proud assault
While I am here to vindicate thy toil
Above the generous question of thy arm
Brave by thy fears and in thy weakness strong
This hour he triumphs but confront his might
And dare him to the combat then with ease
Disarm'd and quell'd his fierceness he resigns
To bondage and to scorn while thus inured
By watchful danger by unceasing toil
The immortal mind superior to his fate
Amid the outrage of external things
Firm as the solid base of this great world
Rests on his own foundations Blow ye winds
Ye waves ye thunders roll your tempest on
Shake ye old pillars of the marble sky
Till all its orbs and all its worlds of fire
Be loosen'd from their seats yet still serene
The unconquer'd mind looks down upon the wreck
And ever stronger as the storms advance
Firm through the closing ruin holds his way
Where Nature calls him to the destined goal
So spake the goddess while through all her frame
Celestial raptures flow'd in every word
In every motion kindling warmth divine
To seize who listen'd Vehement and swift
As lightning fires the aromatic shade
In Aethiopian fields the stripling felt
Her inspiration catch his fervid soul
And starting from his languor thus exclaim'd 
'Then let the trial come and witness thou
If terror be upon me if I shrink
To meet the storm or falter in my strength
When hardest it besets me Do not think
That I am fearful and infirm of soul
As late thy eyes beheld for thou hast changed
My nature thy commanding voice has waked
My languid powers to bear me boldly on
Where'er the will divine my path ordains
Through toil or peril only do not thou
Forsake me Oh be thou for ever near
That I may listen to thy sacred voice
And guide by thy decrees my constant feet
But say for ever are my eyes bereft
Say shall the fair Euphrosyne not once
Appear again to charm me Thou in heaven
O thou eternal arbiter of things
Be thy great bidding done for who am I
To question thy appointment Let the frowns
Of this avenger every morn o'ercast
The cheerful dawn and every evening damp
With double night my dwelling I will learn
To hail them both and unrepining bear
His hateful presence but permit my tongue
One glad request and if my deeds may find
Thy awful eye propitious oh restore
The rosy-featured maid again to cheer
This lonely seat and bless me with her smiles
He spoke when instant through the sable glooms
With which that furious presence had involved
The ambient air a flood of radiance came
Swift as the lightning flash the melting clouds
Flew diverse and amid the blue serene
Euphrosyne appear'd With sprightly step
The nymph alighted on the irriguous lawn
And to her wondering audience thus began 
'Lo I am here to answer to your vows
And be the meeting fortunate I come
With joyful tidings we shall part no more 
Hark how the gentle echo from her cell
Talks through the cliffs and murmuring o'er the stream
Repeats the accents we shall part no more 
O my delightful friends well pleased on high
The Father has beheld you while the might
Of that stern foe with bitter trial proved
Your equal doings then for ever spake
The high decree that thou celestial maid
Howe'er that grisly phantom on thy steps
May sometimes dare intrude yet never more
Shalt thou descending to the abode of man
Alone endure the rancour of his arm
Or leave thy loved Euphrosyne behind
She ended and the whole romantic scene
Immediate vanish'd rocks and woods and rills
The mantling tent and each mysterious form
Flew like the pictures of a morning dream
When sunshine fills the bed Awhile I stood
Perplex'd and giddy till the radiant power
Who bade the visionary landscape rise
As up to him I turn'd with gentlest looks
Preventing my inquiry thus began 
'There let thy soul acknowledge its complaint
How blind how impious There behold the ways
Of Heaven eternal destiny to man
For ever just benevolent and wise
That Virtue awful steps howe'er pursued
By vexing fortune and intrusive pain
Should never be divided from her chaste
Her fair attendant Pleasure Need I urge
Thy tardy thought through all the various round
Of this existence that thy softening soul
At length may learn what energy the hand
Of virtue mingles in the bitter tide
Of passion swelling with distress and pain
To mitigate the sharp with gracious drops
Of cordial pleasure Ask the faithful youth
Why the cold urn of her whom long he loved
So often fills his arms so often draws
His lonely footsteps at the silent hour
To pay the mournful tribute of his tears
Oh he will tell thee that the wealth of worlds
Should ne'er seduce his bosom to forego
That sacred hour when stealing from the noise
Of care and envy sweet remembrance soothes
With virtue kindest looks his aching breast
And turns his tears to rapture Ask the crowd
Which flies impatient from the village walk
To climb the neighbouring cliffs when far below
The cruel winds have hurl'd upon the coast
Some helpless bark while sacred Pity melts
The general eye or Terror icy hand
Smites their distorted limbs and horrent hair
While every mother closer to her breast
Catches her child and pointing where the waves
Foam through the shatter'd vessel shrieks aloud
As one poor wretch that spreads his piteous arms
For succour swallow'd by the roaring surge
As now another dash'd against the rock
Drops lifeless down Oh deemest thou indeed
No kind endearment here by Nature given
To mutual terror and compassion tears
No sweetly melting softness which attracts
O'er all that edge of pain the social powers
To this their proper action and their end 
Ask thy own heart when at the midnight hour
Slow through that studious gloom thy pausing eye
Led by the glimmering taper moves around
The sacred volumes of the dead the songs
Of Grecian bards and records writ by Fame
For Grecian heroes where the present power
Of heaven and earth surveys the immortal page
Even as a father blessing while he reads
The praises of his son If then thy soul
Spurning the yoke of these inglorious days
Mix in their deeds and kindle with their flame
Say when the prospect blackens on thy view
When rooted from the base heroic states
Mourn in the dust and tremble at the frown
Of cursed ambition when the pious band
Of youths who fought for freedom and their sires
Lie side by side in gore when ruffian pride
Usurps the throne of Justice turns the pomp
Of public power the majesty of rule
The sword the laurel and the purple robe
To slavish empty pageants to adorn
A tyrant walk and glitter in the eyes
Of such as bow the knee when honour'd urns
Of patriots and of chiefs the awful bust
And storied arch to glut the coward rage
Of regal envy strew the public way
With hallow'd ruins when the Muse haunt
The marble porch where Wisdom wont to talk
With Socrates or Tully hears no more
Save the hoarse jargon of contentious monks
Or female Superstition midnight prayer
When ruthless Rapine from the hand of Time
Tears the destroying scythe with surer blow
To sweep the works of glory from their base
Till Desolation o'er the grass-grown street
Expands his raven wings and up the wall
Where senates once the price of monarchs doom'd
Hisses the gliding snake through hoary weeds
That clasp the mouldering column thus defaced
Thus widely mournful when the prospect thrills
Thy beating bosom when the patriot tear
Starts from thine eye and thy extended arm
In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jove
To fire the impious wreath on Philip brow
Or dash Octavius from the trophied car
Say does thy secret soul repine to taste
The big distress Or wouldst thou then exchange
Those heart-ennobling sorrows for the lot
Of him who sits amid the gaudy herd
Of mute barbarians bending to his nod
And bears aloft his gold-invested front
And says within himself I am a king
And wherefore should the clamorous voice of woe
Intrude upon mine ear The baleful dregs
Of these late ages this inglorious draught
Of servitude and folly have not yet
Bless'd be the eternal Ruler of the world
Defiled to such a depth of sordid shame
The native honours of the human soul
Nor so effaced the image of its Sire
What wonder therefore since the endearing ties
Of passion link the universal kind
Of man so close what wonder if to search
This common nature through the various change
Of sex and age and fortune and the frame
Of each peculiar draw the busy mind
With unresisted charms The spacious west
And all the teeming regions of the south
Hold not a quarry to the curious flight
Of Knowledge half so tempting or so fair
As man to man Nor only where the smiles
Of Love invite nor only where the applause
Of cordial Honour turns the attentive eye
On Virtue graceful deeds For since the course
Of things external acts in different ways
On human apprehensions as the hand
Of Nature temper'd to a different frame
Peculiar minds so haply where the powers
Of Fancy neither lessen nor enlarge
The images of things but paint in all
Their genuine hues the features which they wore
In Nature there Opinion will be true
And Action right For Action treads the path
In which Opinion says he follows good
Or flies from evil and Opinion gives
Report of good or evil as the scene
Was drawn by Fancy lovely or deform'd
Thus her report can never there be true
Where Fancy cheats the intellectual eye
With glaring colours and distorted lines
Is there a man who at the sound of death
Sees ghastly shapes of terror conjured up
And black before him nought but death-bed groans
And fearful prayers and plunging from the brink
Of light and being down the gloomy air
An unknown depth Alas in such a mind
If no bright forms of excellence attend
The image of his country nor the pomp
Of sacred senates nor the guardian voice
Of Justice on her throne nor aught that wakes
The conscious bosom with a patriot flame
Will not Opinion tell him that to die
Or stand the hazard is a greater ill
Than to betray his country And in act
Will he not choose to be a wretch and live
Here vice begins then From the enchanting cup
Which Fancy holds to all the unwary thirst
Of youth oft swallows a Circaean draught
That sheds a baleful tincture o'er the eye
Of Reason till no longer he discerns
And only guides to err Then revel forth
A furious band that spurn him from the throne
And all is uproar Thus Ambition grasps
The empire of the soul thus pale Revenge
Unsheaths her murderous dagger and the hands
Of Lust and Rapine with unholy arts
Watch to o'erturn the barrier of the laws
That keeps them from their prey thus all the plagues
The wicked bear or o'er the trembling scone
The tragic Muse discloses under shapes
Of honour safety pleasure ease or pomp
Stole first into the mind Yet not by all
Those lying forms which Fancy in the brain
Engenders are the kindling passions driven
To guilty deeds nor Reason bound in chains
That Vice alone may lord it oft adorn'd
With solemn pageants Folly mounts the throne
And plays her idiot antics like a queen
A thousand garbs she wears a thousand ways
She wheels her giddy empire Lo thus far
With bold adventure to the Mantuan lyre
I sing of Nature charms and touch well pleased
A stricter note now haply must my song
Unbend her serious measure and reveal
In lighter strains how Folly awkward arts
Excite impetuous Laughter gay rebuke
The sportive province of the comic Muse
See in what crowds the uncouth forms advance
Each would outstrip the other each prevent
Our careful search and offer to your gaze
Unask'd his motley features Wait awhile
My curious friends and let us first arrange
In proper order your promiscuous throng
Behold the foremost band of slender thought
And easy faith whom flattering Fancy soothes
With lying spectres in themselves to view
Illustrious forms of excellence and good
That scorn the mansion With exulting hearts
They spread their spurious treasures to the sun
And bid the world admire But chief the glance
Of wishful Envy draws their joy-bright eyes
And lifts with self-applause each lordly brow
In number boundless as the blooms of Spring
Behold their glaring idols empty shades
By Fancy gilded o'er and then set up
For adoration Some in Learning garb
With formal band and sable-cinctured gown
And rags of mouldy volumes Some elate
With martial splendour steely pikes and swords
Of costly frame and gay Phoenician robes
Inwrought with flowery gold assume the port
Of stately Valour listening by his side
There stands a female form to her with looks
Of earnest import pregnant with amaze
He talks of deadly deeds of breaches storms
And sulphurous mines and ambush then at once
Breaks off and smiles to see her look so pale
And asks some wondering question of her fears
Others of graver mien behold adorn'd
With holy ensigns how sublime they move
And bending oft their sanctimonious eyes
Take homage of the simple-minded throng
Ambassadors of Heaven Nor much unlike
Is he whose visage in the lazy mist
That mantles every feature hides a brood
Of politic conceits of whispers nods
And hints deep omen'd with unwieldy schemes
And dark portents of state Ten thousand more
Prodigious habits and tumultuous tongues
Pour dauntless in and swell the boastful band
Then comes the second order all who seek
The debt of praise where watchful Unbelief
Darts through the thin pretence her squinting eye
On some retired appearance which belies
The boasted virtue or annuls the applause
That Justice else would pay Here side by side
I see two leaders of the solemn train
Approaching one a female old and gray
With eyes demure and wrinkle-furrow'd brow
Pale as the cheeks of death yet still she stuns
The sickening audience with a nauseous tale
How many youths her myrtle chains have worn
How many virgins at her triumphs pined
Yet how resolved she guards her cautious heart
Such is her terror at the risks of love
And man seducing tongue The other seems
A bearded sage ungentle in his mien
And sordid all his habit peevish Want
Grins at his heels while down the gazing throng
He stalks resounding in magnific praise
The vanity of riches the contempt
Of pomp and power Be prudent in your zeal
Ye grave associates let the silent grace
Of her who blushes at the fond regard
Her charms inspire more eloquent unfold
The praise of spotless honour let the man
Whose eye regards not his illustrious pomp
And ample store but as indulgent streams
To cheer the barren soil and spread the fruits
Of joy let him by juster measures fix
The price of riches and the end of power
Another tribe succeeds deluded long
By Fancy dazzling optics these behold
The images of some peculiar things
With brighter hues resplendent and portray'd
With features nobler far than e'er adorn'd
Their genuine objects Hence the fever'd heart
Pants with delirious hope for tinsel charms
Hence oft obtrusive on the eye of scorn
Untimely zeal her witless pride betrays
And serious manhood from the towering aim
Of wisdom stoops to emulate the boast
Of childish toil Behold yon mystic form
Bedeck'd with feathers insects weeds and shells
Not with intenser view the Samian sage
Bent his fix'd eye on heaven intenser fires
When first the order of that radiant scene
Swell'd his exulting thought than this surveys
A muckworm entrails or a spider fang
Next him a youth with flowers and myrtles crown'd
Attends that virgin form and blushing kneels
With fondest gesture and a suppliant tongue
To win her coy regard adieu for him
The dull engagements of the bustling world
Adieu the sick impertinence of praise
And hope and action for with her alone
By streams and shades to steal these sighing hours
Is all he asks and all that fate can give
Thee too facetious Momion wandering here
Thee dreaded censor oft have I beheld
Bewilder'd unawares alas too long
Flush'd with thy comic triumphs and the spoils
Of sly derision till on every side
Hurling thy random bolts offended Truth
Assign'd thee here thy station with the slaves
Of Folly Thy once formidable name
Shall grace her humble records and be heard
In scoffs and mockery bandied from the lips
Of all the vengeful brotherhood around
So oft the patient victims of thy scorn
But now ye gay to whom indulgent fate
Of all the Muse empire hath assign'd
The fields of folly hither each advance
Your sickles here the teeming soil affords
Its richest growth A favourite brood appears
In whom the demon with a mother joy
Views all her charms reflected all her cares
At full repaid Ye most illustrious band
Who scorning Reason tame pedantic rules
And Order vulgar bondage never meant
For souls sublime as yours with generous zeal
Pay Vice the reverence Virtue long usurp'd
And yield Deformity the fond applause
Which Beauty wont to claim forgive my song
That for the blushing diffidence of youth
It shuns the unequal province of your praise
Thus far triumphant in the pleasing guile
Of bland Imagination Folly train
Have dared our search but now a dastard kind
Advance reluctant and with faltering feet
Shrink from the gazer eye enfeebled hearts
Whom Fancy chills with visionary fears
Or bends to servile tameness with conceits
Of shame of evil or of base defect
Fantastic and delusive Here the slave
Who droops abash'd when sullen Pomp surveys
His humbler habit here the trembling wretch
Unnerved and struck with Terror icy bolts
Spent in weak wailings drown'd in shameful tears
At every dream of danger here subdued
By frontless laughter and the hardy scorn
Of old unfeeling vice the abject soul
Who blushing half resigns the candid praise
Of Temperance and Honour half disowns
A freeman hatred of tyrannic pride
And hears with sickly smiles the venal mouth
With foulest licence mock the patriot name
Last of the motley bands on whom the power
Of gay Derision bends her hostile aim
Is that where shameful Ignorance presides
Beneath her sordid banners lo they march
Like blind and lame Whate'er their doubtful hands
Attempt Confusion straight appears behind
And troubles all the work Through many a maze
Perplex'd they struggle changing every path
O'erturning every purpose then at last
Sit down dismay'd and leave the entangled scene
For Scorn to sport with Such then is the abode
Of Folly in the mind and such the shapes
In which she governs her obsequious train
Through every scene of ridicule in things
To lead the tenor of my devious lay
Through every swift occasion which the hand
Of Laughter points at when the mirthful sting
Distends her sallying nerves and chokes her tongue
What were it but to count each crystal drop
Which Morning dewy fingers on the blooms
Of May distil Suffice it to have said
Where'er the power of Ridicule displays
Her quaint-eyed visage some incongruous form
Some stubborn dissonance of things combined
Strikes on the quick observer whether Pomp
Or Praise or Beauty mix their partial claim
Where sordid fashions where ignoble deeds
Where foul Deformity are wont to dwell
Or whether these with violation loathed
Invade resplendent Pomp imperious mien
The charms of Beauty or the boast of Praise
Ask we for what fair end the Almighty Sire
In mortal bosoms wakes this gay contempt
These grateful stings of laughter from disgust
Educing pleasure Wherefore but to aid
The tardy steps of Reason and at once
By this prompt impulse urge us to depress
The giddy aims of Folly Though the light
Of Truth slow dawning on the inquiring mind
At length unfolds through many a subtile tie
How these uncouth disorders end at last
In public evil yet benignant Heaven
Conscious how dim the dawn of truth appears
To thousands conscious what a scanty pause
From labours and from care the wider lot
Of humble life affords for studious thought
To scan the maze of Nature therefore stamp'd
The glaring scenes with characters of scorn
As broad as obvious to the passing clown
As to the letter'd sage curious eye
Such are the various aspects of the mind 
Some heavenly genius whose unclouded thoughts
Attain that secret harmony which blends
The etherial spirit with its mould of clay
Oh teach me to reveal the grateful charm
That searchless Nature o'er the sense of man
Diffuses to behold in lifeless things
The inexpressive semblance of himself
Of thought and passion Mark the sable woods
That shade sublime yon mountain nodding brow
With what religious awe the solemn scene
Commands your steps as if the reverend form
Of Minos or of Numa should forsake
The Elysian seats and down the embowering glade
Move to your pausing eye Behold the expanse
Of yon gay landscape where the silver clouds
Flit o'er the heavens before the sprightly breeze
Now their gray cincture skirts the doubtful sun
Now streams of splendour through their opening veil
Effulgent sweep from off the gilded lawn
The aerial shadows on the curling brook
And on the shady margin quivering leaves
With quickest lustre glancing while you view
The prospect say within your cheerful breast
Plays not the lively sense of winning mirth
With clouds and sunshine chequer'd while the round
Of social converse to the inspiring tongue
Of some gay nymph amid her subject train
Moves all obsequious Whence is this effect
This kindred power of such discordant things
Or flows their semblance from that mystic tone
To which the new-born mind harmonious powers
At first were strung Or rather from the links
Which artful custom twines around her frame
For when the different images of things
By chance combined have struck the attentive soul
With deeper impulse or connected long
Have drawn her frequent eye howe'er distinct
The external scenes yet oft the ideas gain
From that conjunction an eternal tie
And sympathy unbroken Let the mind
Recall one partner of the various league
Immediate lo the firm confederates rise
And each his former station straight resumes
One movement governs the consenting throng
And all at once with rosy pleasure shine
Or all are sadden'd with the glooms of care
'Twas thus if ancient fame the truth unfold
Two faithful needles from the informing touch
Of the same parent stone together drew
Its mystic virtue and at first conspired
With fatal impulse quivering to the pole
Then though disjoin'd by kingdoms though the main
Roll'd its broad surge betwixt and different stars
Beheld their wakeful motions yet preserved
The former friendship and remember'd still
The alliance of their birth whate'er the line
Which one possess'd nor pause nor quiet knew
The sure associate ere with trembling speed
He found its path and fix'd unerring there
Such is the secret union when we feel
A song a flower a name at once restore
Those long-connected scenes where first they moved
The attention backward through her mazy walks
Guiding the wanton fancy to her scope
To temples courts or fields with all the band
Of painted forms of passions and designs
Attendant whence if pleasing in itself
The prospect from that sweet accession gains
Redoubled influence o'er the listening mind
By these mysterious ties the busy power
Of Memory her ideal train preserves
Entire or when they would elude her watch
Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste
Of dark oblivion thus collecting all
The various forms of being to present
Before the curious aim of mimic art
Their largest choice like Spring unfolded blooms
Exhaling sweetness that the skilful bee
May taste at will from their selected spoils
To work her dulcet food For not the expanse
Of living lakes in Summer noontide calm
Reflects the bordering shade and sun-bright heavens
With fairer semblance not the sculptured gold
More faithful keeps the graver lively trace
Than he whose birth the sister powers of Art
Propitious view'd and from his genial star
Shed influence to the seeds of fancy kind
Than his attemper'd bosom must preserve
The seal of Nature There alone unchanged
Her form remains The balmy walks of May
There breathe perennial sweets the trembling chord
Resounds for ever in the abstracted ear
Melodious and the virgin radiant eye
Superior to disease to grief and time
Shines with unbating lustre Thus at length
Endow'd with all that nature can bestow
The child of Fancy oft in silence bends
O'er these mix'd treasures of his pregnant breast
With conscious pride From them he oft resolves
To frame he knows not what excelling things
And win he knows not what sublime reward
Of praise and wonder By degrees the mind
Feels her young nerves dilate the plastic powers
Labour for action blind emotions heave
His bosom and with loveliest frenzy caught
From earth to heaven he rolls his daring eye
From heaven to earth Anon ten thousand shapes
Like spectres trooping to the wizard call
Flit swift before him From the womb of earth
From ocean bed they come the eternal heavens
Disclose their splendours and the dark abyss
Pours out her births unknown With fixed gaze
He marks the rising phantoms Now compares
Their different forms now blends them now divides
Enlarges and extenuates by turns
Opposes ranges in fantastic bands
And infinitely varies Hither now
Now thither fluctuates his inconstant aim
With endless choice perplex'd At length his plan
Begins to open Lucid order dawns
And as from Chaos old the jarring seeds
Of Nature at the voice divine repair'd
Each to its place till rosy earth unveil'd
Her fragrant bosom and the joyful sun
Sprung up the blue serene by swift degrees
Thus disentangled his entire design
Emerges Colours mingle features join
And lines converge the fainter parts retire
The fairer eminent in light advance
And every image on its neighbour smiles
Awhile he stands and with a father joy
Contemplates Then with Promethean art
Into its proper vehicle he breathes
The fair conception which embodied thus
And permanent becomes to eyes or ears
An object ascertain'd while thus inform'd
The various organs of his mimic skill
The consonance of sounds the featured rock
The shadowy picture and impassion'd verse
Beyond their proper powers attract the soul
By that expressive semblance while in sight
Of Nature great original we scan
The lively child of Art while line by line
And feature after feature we refer
To that sublime exemplar whence it stole
Those animating charms Thus Beauty palm
Betwixt them wavering hangs applauding Love
Doubts where to choose and mortal man aspires
To tempt creative praise As when a cloud
Of gathering hail with limpid crusts of ice
Enclosed and obvious to the beaming sun
Collects his large effulgence straight the heavens
With equal flames present on either hand
The radiant visage Persia stands at gaze
Appall'd and on the brink of Ganges doubts
The snowy-vested seer in Mithra name
To which the fragrance of the south shall burn
To which his warbled orisons ascend
Such various bliss the well-tuned heart enjoys
Favour'd of Heaven while plunged in sordid cares
The unfeeling vulgar mocks the boon divine
And harsh Austerity from whose rebuke
Young Love and smiling Wonder shrink away
Abash'd and chill of heart with sager frowns
Condemns the fair enchantment On my strain
Perhaps even now some cold fastidious judge
Casts a disdainful eye and calls my toil
And calls the love and beauty which I sing
The dream of folly Thou grave censor say
Is Beauty then a dream because the glooms
Of dulness hang too heavy on thy sense
To let her shine upon thee So the man
Whose eye ne'er open'd on the light of heaven
Might smile with scorn while raptured vision tells
Of the gay-colour'd radiance flushing bright
O'er all creation From the wise be far
Such gross unhallow'd pride nor needs my song
Descend so low but rather now unfold
If human thought could reach or words unfold
By what mysterious fabric of the mind
The deep-felt joys and harmony of sound
Result from airy motion and from shape
The lovely phantoms of sublime and fair
By what fine ties hath God connected things
When present in the mind which in themselves
Have no connexion Sure the rising sun
O'er the cerulean convex of the sea
With equal brightness and with equal warmth
Might roll his fiery orb nor yet the soul
Thus feel her frame expanded and her powers
Exulting in the splendour she beholds
Like a young conqueror moving through the pomp
Of some triumphal day When join'd at eve
Soft murmuring streams and gales of gentlest breath
Melodious Philomela wakeful strain
Attemper could not man discerning ear
Through all its tones the sympathy pursue
Nor yet this breath divine of nameless joy
Steal through his veins and fan the awaken'd heart
Mild as the breeze yet rapturous as the song
But were not Nature still endow'd at large
With all that life requires though unadorn'd
With such enchantment Wherefore then her form
So exquisitely fair her breath perfumed
With such ethereal sweetness whence her voice
Inform'd at will to raise or to depress
The impassion'd soul and whence the robes of light
Which thus invest her with more lovely pomp
Than Fancy can describe Whence but from Thee
O source divine of ever-flowing love
And Thy unmeasured goodness Not content
With every food of life to nourish man
By kind illusions of the wondering sense
Thou mak'st all Nature beauty to his eye
Or music to his ear well pleased he scans
The goodly prospect and with inward smiles
Treads the gay verdure of the painted plain
Beholds the azure canopy of heaven
And living lamps that over-arch his head
With more than regal splendour bends his ears
To the full choir of water air and earth
Nor heeds the pleasing error of his thought
Nor doubts the painted green or azure arch
Nor questions more the music mingling sounds
Than space or motion or eternal time
So sweet he feels their influence to attract
The fixed soul to brighten the dull glooms
Of care and make the destined road of life
Delightful to his feet So fables tell
The adventurous hero bound on hard exploits
Beholds with glad surprise by secret spells
Of some kind sage the patron of his toils
A visionary paradise disclosed
Amid the dubious wild with streams and shades
And airy songs the enchanted landscape smiles
Cheers his long labours and renews his frame
What then is taste but these internal powers
Active and strong and feelingly alive
To each fine impulse a discerning sense
Of decent and sublime with quick disgust
From things deform'd or disarranged or gross
In species This nor gems nor stores of gold
Nor purple state nor culture can bestow
But God alone when first His active hand
Imprints the secret bias of the soul
He mighty Parent wise and just in all
Free as the vital breeze or light of heaven
Reveals the charms of Nature Ask the swain
Who journeys homeward from a summer day's
Long labour why forgetful of his toils
And due repose he loiters to behold
The sunshine gleaming as through amber clouds
O'er all the western sky full soon I ween
His rude expression and untutor'd airs
Beyond the power of language will unfold
The form of beauty smiling at his heart
How lovely how commanding But though Heaven
In every breast hath sown these early seeds
Of love and admiration yet in vain
Without fair culture kind parental aid
Without enlivening suns and genial showers
And shelter from the blast in vain we hope
The tender plant should rear its blooming head
Or yield the harvest promised in its spring
Nor yet will every soul with equal stores
Repay the tiller labour or attend
His will obsequious whether to produce
The olive or the laurel Different minds
Incline to different objects one pursues
The vast alone the wonderful the wild
Another sighs for harmony and grace
And gentlest beauty Hence when lightning fires
The arch of heaven and thunders rock the ground
When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air
And ocean groaning from his lowest bed
Heaves his tempestuous billows to the sky
Amid the mighty uproar while below
The nations tremble Shakspeare looks abroad
Prom some high cliff superior and enjoys
The elemental war But Waller longs
All on the margin of some flowery stream
To spread his careless limbs amid the cool
Of plantane shades and to the listening deer
The tale of slighted vows and love disdain
Resound soft-warbling all the livelong day
Consenting Zephyr sighs the weeping rill
Joins in his plaint melodious mute the groves
And hill and dale with all their echoes mourn
Such and so various are the tastes of men
Oh bless'd of Heaven whom not the languid songs
Of Luxury the siren not the bribes
Of sordid Wealth nor all the gaudy spoils
Of pageant Honour can seduce to leave
Those ever-blooming sweets which from the store
Of Nature fair Imagination culls
To charm the enliven'd soul What though not all
Of mortal offspring can attain the heights
Of envied life though only few possess
Patrician treasures or imperial state
Yet Nature care to all her children just
With richer treasures and an ampler state
Endows at large whatever happy man
Will deign to use them His the city pomp
The rural honours his Whate'er adorns
The princely dome the column and the arch
The breathing marbles and the sculptured gold
Beyond the proud possessor narrow claim
His tuneful breast enjoys For him the Spring
Distils her dews and from the silken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds for him the hand
Of Autumn tinges every fertile branch
With blooming gold and blushes like the morn
Each passing Hour sheds tribute from her wings
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk
And loves unfelt attract him Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow not a cloud imbibes
The setting sun effulgence not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling shade
Ascends but whence his bosom can partake
Fresh pleasure unreproved Nor thence partakes
Fresh pleasure only for the attentive mind
By this harmonious action on her powers
Becomes herself harmonious wont so oft
In outward things to meditate the charm
Of sacred order soon she seeks at home
To find a kindred order to exert
Within herself this elegance of love
This fair-inspired delight her temper'd powers
Refine at length and every passion wears
A chaster milder more attractive mien
But if to ampler prospects if to gaze
On Nature form where negligent of all
These lesser graces she assumes the port
Of that Eternal Majesty that weigh'd
The world foundations if to these the mind
Exalts her daring eye then mightier far
Will be the change and nobler Would the forms
Of servile custom cramp her generous powers
Would sordid policies the barbarous growth
Of ignorance and rapine bow her down
To tame pursuits to indolence and fear
Lo she appeals to Nature to the winds
And rolling waves the sun unwearied course
The elements and seasons all declare
For what the Eternal Maker has ordain'd
The powers of man we feel within ourselves
His energy divine he tells the heart
He meant he made us to behold and love
What he beholds and loves the general orb
Of life and being to be great like him
Beneficent and active Thus the men
Whom Nature works can charm with God himself
Hold converse grow familiar day by day
With his conceptions act upon his plan
And form to his the relish of their souls
With what enchantment Nature goodly scene
Attracts the sense of mortals how the mind
For its own eye doth objects nobler still
Prepare how men by various lessons learn
To judge of Beauty praise what raptures fill
The breast with fancy native arts endow'd
And what true culture guides it to renown
My verse unfolds Ye gods or godlike powers
Ye guardians of the sacred task attend
Propitious Hand in hand around your bard
Move in majestic measures leading on
His doubtful step through many a solemn path
Conscious of secrets which to human sight
Ye only can reveal Be great in him
And let your favour make him wise to speak
Of all your wondrous empire with a voice
So temper'd to his theme that those who hear
May yield perpetual homage to yourselves
Thou chief O daughter of eternal Love
Whate'er thy name or Muse or Grace adored
By Grecian prophets to the sons of Heaven
Known while with deep amazement thou dost there
The perfect counsels read the ideas old
Of thine omniscient Father known on earth
By the still horror and the blissful tear
With which thou seizest on the soul of man
Thou chief Poetic Spirit from the banks
Of Avon whence thy holy fingers cull
Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf
Where Shakspeare lies be present And with thee
Let Fiction come on her aerial wings
Wafting ten thousand colours which in sport
By the light glances of her magic eye
She blends and shifts at will through countless forms
Her wild creation Goddess of the lyre
Whose awful tones control the moving sphere
Wilt thou eternal Harmony descend
And join this happy train for with thee comes
The guide the guardian of their mystic rites
Wise Order and where Order deigns to come
Her sister Liberty will not be far
Be present all ye Genii who conduct
Of youthful bards the lonely wandering step
New to your springs and shades who touch their ear
With finer sounds and heighten to their eye
The pomp of nature and before them place
The fairest loftiest countenance of things
Nor thou my Dyson to the lay refuse
Thy wonted partial audience What though first
In years unseason'd haply ere the sports
Of childhood yet were o'er the adventurous lay
With many splendid prospects many charms
Allured my heart nor conscious whence they sprung
Nor heedful of their end yet serious Truth
Her empire o'er the calm sequester'd theme
Asserted soon while Falsehood evil brood
Vice and deceitful Pleasure she at once
Excluded and my fancy careless toil
Drew to the better cause Maturer aid
Thy friendship added in the paths of life
The busy paths my unaccustom'd feet
Preserving nor to Truth recess divine
Through this wide argument unbeaten space
Withholding surer guidance while by turns
We traced the sages old or while the queen
Of sciences whom manners and the mind
Acknowledge to my true companion voice
Not unattentive o'er the wintry lamp
Inclined her sceptre favouring Now the fates
Have other tasks imposed to thee my friend
The ministry of freedom and the faith
Of popular decrees in early youth
Not vainly they committed me they sent
To wait on pain and silent arts to urge
Inglorious not ignoble if my cares
To such as languish on a grievous bed
Ease and the sweet forgetfulness of ill
Conciliate nor delightless if the Muse
Her shades to visit and to taste her springs
If some distinguish'd hours the bounteous Muse
Impart and grant what she and she alone
Can grant to mortals that my hand those wreaths
Of fame and honest favour which the bless'd
Wear in Elysium and which never felt
The breath of envy or malignant tongues
That these my hand for thee and for myself
May gather Meanwhile O my faithful friend
O early chosen ever found the same
And trusted and beloved once more the verse
Long destined always obvious to thine ear
Attend indulgent so in latest years
When time thy head with honours shall have clothed
Sacred to even virtue may thy mind
Amid the calm review of seasons past
Fair offices of friendship or kind peace
Or public zeal may then thy mind well pleased
Recall these happy studies of our prime
From Heaven my strains begin from Heaven descends
The flame of genius to the chosen breast
And beauty with poetic wonder join'd
And inspiration Ere the rising sun
Shone o'er the deep or 'mid the vault of night
The moon her silver lamp suspended ere
The vales with springs were water'd or with groves
Of oak or pine the ancient hills were crown'd
Then the Great Spirit whom his works adore
Within his own deep essence view'd the forms
The forms eternal of created things
The radiant sun the moon nocturnal lamp
The mountains and the streams the ample stores
Of earth of heaven of nature From the first
On that full scene his love divine he fix'd
His admiration till in time complete
What he admired and loved his vital power
Unfolded into being Hence the breath
Of life informing each organic frame
Hence the green earth and wild-resounding waves
Hence light and shade alternate warmth and cold
And bright autumnal skies and vernal showers
And all the fair variety of things
But not alike to every mortal eye
Is this great scene unveil'd For while the claims
Of social life to different labours urge
The active powers of man with wisest care
Hath Nature on the multitude of minds
Impress'd a various bias and to each
Decreed its province in the common toil
To some she taught the fabric of the sphere
The changeful moon the circuit of the stars
The golden zones of heaven to some she gave
To search the story of eternal thought
Of space and time of fate unbroken chain
And will quick movement others by the hand
She led o'er vales and mountains to explore
What healing virtue dwells in every vein
Of herbs or trees But some to nobler hopes
Were destined some within a finer mould
She wrought and temper'd with a purer flame
To these the Sire Omnipotent unfolds
In fuller aspects and with fairer lights
This picture of the world Through every part
They trace the lofty sketches of his hand
In earth or air the meadow flowery store
The moon mild radiance or the virgin mien
Dress'd in attractive smiles they see portray'd
As far as mortal eyes the portrait scan
Those lineaments of beauty which delight
The Mind Supreme They also feel their force
Enamour'd they partake the eternal joy
For as old Memnon image long renown'd
Through fabling Egypt at the genial touch
Of morning from its inmost frame sent forth
Spontaneous music so doth Nature hand
To certain attributes which matter claims
Adapt the finer organs of the mind
So the glad impulse of those kindred powers
Of form of colour cheerful pomp of sound
Melodious or of motion aptly sped
Detains the enliven'd sense till soon the soul
Feels the deep concord and assents through all
Her functions Then the charm by fate prepared
Diffuseth its enchantment Fancy dreams
Rapt into high discourse with prophets old
And wandering through Elysium Fancy dreams
Of sacred fountains of o'ershadowing groves
Whose walks with godlike harmony resound
Fountains which Homer visits happy groves
Where Milton dwells the intellectual power
On the mind throne suspends his graver cares
And smiles the passions to divine repose
Persuaded yield and love and joy alone
Are waking love and joy such as await
An angel meditation Oh attend
Whoe'er thou art whom these delights can touch
Whom Nature aspect Nature simple garb
Can thus command oh listen to my song
And I will guide thee to her blissful walks
And teach thy solitude her voice to hear
And point her gracious features to thy view
Know then whate'er of the world ancient store
Whate'er of mimic Art reflected scenes
With love and admiration thus inspire
Attentive Fancy her delighted sons
In two illustrious orders comprehend
Self-taught from him whose rustic toil the lark
Cheers warbling to the bard whose daring thoughts
Range the full orb of being still the form
Which Fancy worships or sublime or fair
Her votaries proclaim I see them dawn
I see the radiant visions where they rise
More lovely than when Lucifer displays
His glittering forehead through the gates of morn
To lead the train of Phoebus and the Spring
Say why was man so eminently raised
Amid the vast creation why empower'd
Through life and death to dart his watchful eye
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame
But that the Omnipotent might send him forth
In sight of angels and immortal minds
As on an ample theatre to join
In contest with his equals who shall best
The task achieve the course of noble toils
By wisdom and by mercy preordain'd
Might send him forth the sovereign good to learn
To chase each meaner purpose from his breast
And through the mists of passion and of sense
And through the pelting storms of chance and pain
To hold straight on with constant heart and eye
Still fix'd upon his everlasting palm
The approving smile of Heaven Else wherefore burns
In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope
That seeks from day to day sublimer ends
Happy though restless Why departs the soul
Wide from the track and journey of her times
To grasp the good she knows not In the field
Of things which may be in the spacious field
Of science potent arts or dreadful arms
To raise up scenes in which her own desires
Contented may repose when things which are
Pall on her temper like a twice-told tale
Her temper still demanding to be free
Spurning the rude control of wilful might
Proud of her dangers braved her griefs endured
Her strength severely proved To these high aims
Which reason and affection prompt in man
Not adverse nor unapt hath Nature framed
His bold imagination For amid
The various forms which this full world presents
Like rivals to his choice what human breast
E'er doubts before the transient and minute
To prize the vast the stable the sublime
Who that from heights aerial sends his eye
Around a wild horizon and surveys
Indus or Ganges rolling his broad wave
Through mountains plains through spacious cities old
And regions dark with woods will turn away
To mark the path of some penurious rill
Which murmureth at his feet Where does the soul
Consent her soaring fancy to restrain
Which bears her up as on an eagle wings
Destined for highest heaven or which of fate's
Tremendous barriers shall confine her flight
To any humbler quarry The rich earth
Cannot detain her nor the ambient air
With all its changes For a while with joy
She hovers o'er the sun and views the small
Attendant orbs beneath his sacred beam
Emerging from the deep like cluster'd isles
Whose rocky shores to the glad sailor eye
Reflect the gleams of morning for a while
With pride she sees his firm paternal sway
Bend the reluctant planets to move each
Round its perpetual year But soon she quits
That prospect meditating loftier views
She darts adventurous up the long career
Of comets through the constellations holds
Her course and now looks back on all the stars
Whose blended flames as with a milky stream
Part the blue region Empyrean tracts
Where happy souls beyond this concave heaven
Abide she then explores whence purer light
For countless ages travels through the abyss
Nor hath in sight of mortals yet arrived
Upon the wide creation utmost shore
At length she stands and the dread space beyond
Contemplates half-recoiling nathless down
The gloomy void astonish'd yet unquell'd
She plungeth down the unfathomable gulf
Where God alone hath being There her hopes
Rest at the fated goal For from the birth
Of human kind the Sovereign Maker said
That not in humble nor in brief delight
Not in the fleeting echoes of renown
Power purple robes nor Pleasure flowery lap
The soul should find contentment but from these
Turning disdainful to an equal good
Through Nature opening walks enlarge her aim
Till every bound at length should disappear
And infinite perfection fill the scene
But lo where Beauty dress'd in gentler pomp
With comely steps advancing claims the verse
Her charms inspire O Beauty source of praise
Of honour even to mute and lifeless things
O thou that kindlest in each human heart
Love and the wish of poets when their tongue
Would teach to other bosoms what so charms
Their own O child of Nature and the soul
In happiest hour brought forth the doubtful garb
Of words of earthly language all too mean
Too lowly I account in which to clothe
Thy form divine for thee the mind alone
Beholds nor half thy brightness can reveal
Through those dim organs whose corporeal touch
O'ershadoweth thy pure essence Yet my Muse
If Fortune call thee to the task wait thou
Thy favourable seasons then while fear
And doubt are absent through wide nature bounds
Expatiate with glad step and choose at will
Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains
Whate'er the waters or the liquid air
To manifest unblemish'd Beauty praise
And o'er the breasts of mortals to extend
Her gracious empire Wilt thou to the isles
Atlantic to the rich Hesperian clime
Fly in the train of Autumn and look on
And learn from him while as he roves around
Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove
The branches bloom with gold where'er his foot
Imprints the soil the ripening clusters swell
Turning aside their foliage and come forth
In purple lights till every hillock glows
As with the blushes of an evening sky
Or wilt thou that Thessalian landscape trace
Where slow Peneus his clear glassy tide
Draws smooth along between the winding cliffs
Of Ossa and the pathless woods unshorn
That wave o'er huge Olympus Down the stream
Look how the mountains with their double range
Embrace the vale of Tempe from each side
Ascending steep to heaven a rocky mound
Cover'd with ivy and the laurel boughs
That crown'd young Phoebus for the Python slain
Fair Tempe on whose primrose banks the morn
Awoke most fragrant and the noon reposed
In pomp of lights and shadows most sublime
Whose lawns whose glades ere human footsteps yet
Had traced an entrance were the hallow'd haunt
Of sylvan powers immortal where they sate
Oft in the golden age the Nymphs and Fauns
Beneath some arbour branching o'er the flood
And leaning round hung on the instructive lips
Of hoary Pan or o'er some open dale
Danced in light measures to his sevenfold pipe
While Zephyr wanton hand along their path
Flung showers of painted blossoms fertile dews
And one perpetual spring But if our task
More lofty rites demand with all good vows
Then let us hasten to the rural haunt
Where young Melissa dwells Nor thou refuse
The voice which calls thee from thy loved retreat
But hither gentle maid thy footsteps turn
Here to thy own unquestionable theme
O fair O graceful bend thy polish'd brow
Assenting and the gladness of thy eyes
Impart to me like morning wished light
Seen through the vernal air By yonder stream
Where beech and elm along the bordering mead
Send forth wild melody from every bough
Together let us wander where the hills
Cover'd with fleeces to the lowing vale
Reply where tidings of content and peace
Each echo brings Lo how the western sun
O'er fields and floods o'er every living soul
Diffuseth glad repose There while I speak
Of Beauty honours thou Melissa thou
Shalt hearken not unconscious while I tell
How first from Heaven she came how after all
The works of life the elemental scenes
The hours the seasons she had oft explored
At length her favourite mansion and her throne
She fix'd in woman form what pleasing ties
To virtue bind her what effectual aid
They lend each other power and how divine
Their union should some unambitious maid
To all the enchantment of the Idalian queen
Add sanctity and wisdom while my tongue
Prolongs the tale Melissa thou may'st feign
To wonder whence my rapture is inspired
But soon the smile which dawns upon thy lip
Shall tell it and the tenderer bloom o'er all
That soft cheek springing to the marble neck
Which bends aside in vain revealing more
What it would thus keep silent and in vain
The sense of praise dissembling Then my song
Great Nature winning arts which thus inform
With joy and love the rugged breast of man
Should sound in numbers worthy such a theme
While all whose souls have ever felt the force
Of those enchanting passions to my lyre
Should throng attentive and receive once more
Their influence unobscured by any cloud
Of vulgar care and purer than the hand
Of Fortune can bestow nor to confirm
Their sway should awful Contemplation scorn
To join his dictates to the genuine strain
Of Pleasure tongue nor yet should Pleasure ear
Be much averse Ye chiefly gentle band
Of youths and virgins who through many a wish
And many a fond pursuit as in some scene
Of magic bright and fleeting are allured
By various Beauty if the pleasing toil
Can yield a moment respite hither turn
Your favourable ear and trust my words
I do not mean on bless'd Religion seat
Presenting Superstition gloomy form
To dash your soothing hopes I do not mean
To bid the jealous thunderer fire the heavens
Or shapes infernal rend the groaning earth
And scare you from your joys My cheerful song
With happier omens calls you to the field
Pleased with your generous ardour in the chase
And warm like you Then tell me for ye know
Doth Beauty ever deign to dwell where use
And aptitude are strangers is her praise
Confess'd in aught whose most peculiar ends
Are lame and fruitless or did Nature mean
This pleasing call the herald of a lie
To hide the shame of discord and disease
And win each fond admirer into snares
Foil'd baffled No with better providence
The general mother conscious how infirm
Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill
Thus to the choice of credulous desire
Doth objects the completest of their tribe
Distinguish and commend Yon flowery bank
Clothed in the soft magnificence of Spring
Will not the flocks approve it will they ask
The reedy fen for pasture That clear rill
Which trickleth murmuring from the mossy rock
Yields it less wholesome beverage to the worn
And thirsty traveller than the standing pool
With muddy weeds o'ergrown Yon ragged vine
Whose lean and sullen clusters mourn the rage
Of Eurus will the wine-press or the bowl
Report of her as of the swelling grape
Which glitters through the tendrils like a gem
When first it meets the sun Or what are all
The various charms to life and sense adjoin'd
Are they not pledges of a state entire
Where native order reigns with every part
In health and every function well perform'd
Thus then at first was Beauty sent from Heaven
The lovely ministress of Truth and Good
In this dark world for Truth and Good are one
And Beauty dwells in them and they in her
With like participation Wherefore then
O sons of earth would ye dissolve the tie
Oh wherefore with a rash and greedy aim
Seek ye to rove through every flattering scene
Which Beauty seems to deck nor once inquire
Where is the suffrage of eternal Truth
Or where the seal of undeceitful Good
To save your search from folly Wanting these
Lo Beauty withers in your void embrace
And with the glittering of an idiot toy
Did Fancy mock your vows Nor yet let hope
That kindliest inmate of the youthful breast
Be hence appall'd be turn'd to coward sloth
Sitting in silence with dejected eyes
Incurious and with folded hands far less
Let scorn of wild fantastic folly dreams
Or hatred of the bigot savage pride
Persuade you e'er that Beauty or the love
Which waits on Beauty may not brook to hear
The sacred lore of undeceitful Good
And Truth eternal From the vulgar crowd
Though Superstition tyranness abhorr'd
The reverence due to this majestic pair
With threats and execration still demands
Though the tame wretch who asks of her the way
To their celestial dwelling she constrains
To quench or set at nought the lamp of God
Within his frame through many a cheerless wild
Though forth she leads him credulous and dark
And awed with dubious notion though at length
Haply she plunge him into cloister'd cells
And mansions unrelenting as the grave
But void of quiet there to watch the hours
Of midnight there amid the screaming owl's
Dire song with spectres or with guilty shades
To talk of pangs and everlasting woe
Yet be not ye dismay'd A gentler star
Presides o'er your adventure From the bower
Where Wisdom sat with her Athenian sons
Could but my happy hand entwine a wreath
Of Plato olive with the Mantuan bay
Then for what need of cruel fear to you
To you whom godlike love can well command
Then should my powerful voice at once dispel
Those monkish horrors should in words divine
Relate how favour'd minds like you inspired
And taught their inspiration to conduct
By ruling Heaven decree through various walks
And prospects various but delightful all
Move onward while now myrtle groves appear
Now arms and radiant trophies now the rods
Of empire with the curule throne or now
The domes of contemplation and the Muse
Led by that hope sublime whose cloudless eye
Through the fair toils and ornaments of earth
Discerns the nobler life reserved for heaven
Favour'd alike they worship round the shrine
Where Truth conspicuous with her sister-twins
The undivided partners of her sway
With Good and Beauty reigns Oh let not us
By Pleasure lying blandishments detain'd
Or crouching to the frowns of bigot rage
Oh let not us one moment pause to join
That chosen band And if the gracious Power
Who first awaken'd my untutor'd song
Will to my invocation grant anew
The tuneful spirit then through all our paths
Ne'er shall the sound of this devoted lyre
Be wanting whether on the rosy mead
When Summer smiles to warn the melting heart
Of Luxury allurement whether firm
Against the torrent and the stubborn hill
To urge free Virtue steps and to her side
Summon that strong divinity of soul
Which conquers Chance and Fate or on the height
The goal assign'd her haply to proclaim
Her triumph on her brow to place the crown
Of uncorrupted praise through future worlds
To follow her interminated way
And bless Heaven image in the heart of man
Such is the worth of Beauty such her power
So blameless so revered It now remains
In just gradation through the various ranks
Of being to contemplate how her gifts
Rise in due measure watchful to attend
The steps of rising Nature Last and least
In colours mingling with a random blaze
Doth Beauty dwell Then higher in the forms
Of simplest easiest measure in the bounds
Of circle cube or sphere The third ascent
To symmetry adds colour thus the pearl
Shines in the concave of its purple bed
And painted shells along some winding shore
Catch with indented folds the glancing sun
Next as we rise appear the blooming tribes
Which clothe the fragrant earth which draw from her
Their own nutrition which are born and die
Yet in their seed immortal such the flowers
With which young Maia pays the village maids
That hail her natal morn and such the groves
Which blithe Pomona rears on Vaga bank
To feed the bowl of Ariconian swains
Who quaff beneath her branches Nobler still
Is Beauty name where to the full consent
Of members and of features to the pride
Of colour and the vital change of growth
Life holy flame with piercing sense is given
While active motion speaks the temper'd soul
So moves the bird of Juno so the steed
With rival swiftness beats the dusty plain
And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy
Salute their fellows What sublimer pomp
Adorns the seat where Virtue dwells on earth
And Truth eternal day-light shines around
What palm belongs to man imperial front
And woman powerful with becoming smiles
Chief of terrestrial natures need we now
Strive to inculcate Thus hath Beauty there
Her most conspicuous praise to matter lent
Where most conspicuous through that shadowy veil
Breaks forth the bright expression of a mind
By steps directing our enraptured search
To Him the first of minds the chief the sole
From whom through this wide complicated world
Did all her various lineaments begin
To whom alone consenting and entire
At once their mutual influence all display
He God most high bear witness Earth and Heaven
The living fountains in himself contains
Of beauteous and sublime with him enthroned
Ere days or years trod their ethereal way
In his supreme intelligence enthroned
The queen of love holds her unclouded state
Urania Thee O Father this extent
Of matter thee the sluggish earth and tract
Of seas the heavens and heavenly splendours feel
Pervading quickening moving From the depth
Of thy great essence forth didst thou conduct
Eternal Form and there where Chaos reign'd
Gav'st her dominion to erect her seat
And sanctify the mansion All her works
Well pleased thou didst behold the gloomy fires
Of storm or earthquake and the purest light
Of summer soft Campania new-born rose
And the slow weed which pines on Russian hills
Comely alike to thy full vision stand
To thy surrounding vision which unites
All essences and powers of the great world
In one sole order fair alike they stand
As features well consenting and alike
Required by Nature ere she could attain
Her just resemblance to the perfect shape
Of universal Beauty which with thee
Dwelt from the first Thou also ancient Mind
Whom love and free beneficence await
In all thy doings to inferior minds
Thy offspring and to man thy youngest son
Refusing no convenient gift nor good
Their eyes didst open in this earth yon heaven
Those starry worlds the countenance divine
Of Beauty to behold But not to them
Didst thou her awful magnitude reveal
Such as before thine own unbounded sight
She stands for never shall created soul
Conceive that object nor to all their kinds
The same in shape or features didst thou frame
Her image Measuring well their different spheres
Of sense and action thy paternal hand
Hath for each race prepared a different test
Of Beauty own'd and reverenced as their guide
Most apt most faithful Thence inform'd they scan
The objects that surround them and select
Since the great whole disclaims their scanty view
Each for himself selects peculiar parts
Of Nature what the standard fix'd by Heaven
Within his breast approves acquiring thus
A partial Beauty which becomes his lot
A Beauty which his eye may comprehend
His hand may copy leaving O Supreme
O thou whom none hath utter'd leaving all
To thee that infinite consummate form
Which the great powers the gods around thy throne
And nearest to thy counsels know with thee
For ever to have been but who she is
Or what her likeness know not Man surveys
A narrower scene where by the mix'd effect
Of things corporeal on his passive mind
He judgeth what is fair Corporeal things
The mind of man impel with various powers
And various features to his eye disclose
The powers which move his sense with instant joy
The features which attract his heart to love
He marks combines reposits Other powers
And features of the self-same thing unless
The beauteous form the creature of his mind
Request their close alliance he o'erlooks
Forgotten or with self-beguiling zeal
Whene'er his passions mingle in the work
Half alters half disowns The tribes of men
Thus from their different functions and the shapes
Familiar to their eye with art obtain
Unconscious of their purpose yet with art
Obtain the Beauty fitting man to love
Whose proud desires from Nature homely toil
Oft turn away fastidious asking still
His mind high aid to purify the form
From matter gross communion to secure
For ever from the meddling hand of Change
Or rude Decay her features and to add
Whatever ornaments may suit her mien
Where'er he finds them scatter'd through the paths
Of Nature or of Fortune Then he seats
The accomplish'd image deep within his breast
Reviews it and accounts it good and fair
Thus the one Beauty of the world entire
The universal Venus far beyond
The keenest effort of created eyes
And their most wide horizon dwells enthroned
In ancient silence At her footstool stands
An altar burning with eternal fire
Unsullied unconsumed Here every hour
Here every moment in their turns arrive
Her offspring an innumerable band
Of sisters comely all but differing far
In age in stature and expressive mien
More than bright Helen from her new-born babe
To this maternal shrine in turns they come
Each with her sacred lamp that from the source
Of living flame which here immortal flows
Their portions of its lustre they may draw
For days or months or years for ages some
As their great parent discipline requires
Then to their several mansions they depart
In stars in planets through the unknown shores
Of yon ethereal ocean Who can tell
Even on the surface of this rolling earth
How many make abode The fields the groves
The winding rivers and the azure main
Are render'd solemn by their frequent feet
Their rites sublime There each her destined home
Informs with that pure radiance from the skies
Brought down and shines throughout her little sphere
Exulting Straight as travellers by night
Turn toward a distant flame so some fit eye
Among the various tenants of the scene
Discerns the heaven-born phantom seated there
And owns her charms Hence the wide universe
Through all the seasons of revolving worlds
Bears witness with its people gods and men
To Beauty blissful power and with the voice
Of grateful admiration still resounds
That voice to which is Beauty frame divine
As is the cunning of the master hand
To the sweet accent of the well-tuned lyre
Genius of ancient Greece whose faithful steps
Have led us to these awful solitudes
Of Nature and of Science nurse revered
Of generous counsels and heroic deeds
Oh let some portion of thy matchless praise
Dwell in my breast and teach me to adorn
This unattempted theme Nor be my thoughts
Presumptuous counted if amid the calm
Which Hesper sheds along the vernal heaven
If I from vulgar Superstition walk
Impatient steal and from the unseemly rites
Of splendid Adulation to attend
With hymns thy presence in the sylvan shade
By their malignant footsteps unprofaned
Come O renowned power thy glowing mien
Such and so elevated all thy form
As when the great barbaric lord again
And yet again diminish'd hid his face
Among the herd of satraps and of kings
And at the lightning of thy lifted spear
Crouch'd like a slave Bring all thy martial spoils
Thy palms thy laurels thy triumphal songs
Thy smiling band of Arts thy godlike sires
Of civil wisdom thy unconquer'd youth
After some glorious day rejoicing round
Their new-erected trophy Guide my feet
Through fair Lyceum walk the olive shades
Of Academus and the sacred vale
Haunted by steps divine where once beneath
That ever living platane ample boughs
Ilissus by Socratic sounds detain'd
On his neglected urn attentive lay
While Boreas lingering on the neighbouring steep
With beauteous Orithyia his love tale
In silent awe suspended There let me
With blameless hand from thy unenvious fields
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn
My native clime while far beyond the meed
Of Fancy toil aspiring I unlock
The springs of ancient wisdom while I add
What cannot be disjoin'd from Beauty praise
Thy name and native dress thy works beloved
And honour'd while to my compatriot youth
I point the great example of thy sons
And tune to Attic themes the British lyre
Thus far of Beauty and the pleasing forms
Which man untutor'd fancy from the scenes
Imperfect of this ever changing world
Creates and views enarnour'd Now my song
Severer themes demand mysterious Truth
And Virtue sovereign good the spells the trains
The progeny of Error the dread sway
Of Passion and whatever hidden stores
From her own lofty deeds and from herself
The mind acquires Severer argument
Not less attractive nor deserving less
A constant ear For what are all the forms
Educed by fancy from corporeal things
Greatness or pomp or symmetry of parts
Not tending to the heart soon feeble grows
As the blunt arrow 'gainst the knotty trunk
Their impulse on the sense while the pall'd eye
Expects in vain its tribute asks in vain
Where are the ornaments it once admired
Not so the moral species nor the powers
Of Passion and of Thought The ambitious mind
With objects boundless as her own desires
Can there converse by these unfading forms
Touch'd and awaken'd still with eager act
She bends each nerve and meditates well pleased
Her gifts her godlike fortune Such the scenes
Now opening round us May the destined verse
Maintain its equal tenor though in tracts
Obscure and arduous May the source of light
All-present all-sufficient guide our steps
Through every maze and whom in childish years
From the loud throng the beaten paths of wealth
And power thou didst apart send forth to speak
In tuneful words concerning highest things
Him still do thou O Father at those hours
Of pensive freedom when the human soul
Shuts out the rumour of the world him still
Touch thou with secret lessons call thou back
Each erring thought and let the yielding strains
From his full bosom like a welcome rill
Spontaneous from its healthy fountain flow
But from what name what favourable sign
What heavenly auspice rather shall I date
My perilous excursion than from Truth
That nearest inmate of the human soul
Estranged from whom the countenance divine
Of man disfigured and dishonour'd sinks
Among inferior things For to the brutes
Perception and the transient boons of sense
Hath Fate imparted but to man alone
Of sublunary beings was it given
Each fleeting impulse on the sensual powers
At leisure to review with equal eye
To scan the passion of the stricken nerve
Or the vague object striking to conduct
From sense the portal turbulent and loud
Into the mind wide palace one by one
The frequent pressing fluctuating forms
And question and compare them Thus he learns
Their birth and fortunes how allied they haunt
The avenues of sense what laws direct
Their union and what various discords rise
Or fixed or casual which when his clear thought
Retains and when his faithful words express
That living image of the external scene
As in a polish'd mirror held to view
Is Truth where'er it varies from the shape
And hue of its exemplar in that part
Dim Error lurks Moreover from without
When oft the same society of forms
In the same order have approach'd his mind
He deigns no more their steps with curious heed
To trace no more their features or their garb
He now examines but of them and their
Condition as with some diviner tongue
Affirms what Heaven in every distant place
Through every future season will decree
This too is Truth where'er his prudent lips
Wait till experience diligent and slow
Has authorised their sentence this is Truth
A second higher kind the parent this
Of Science or the lofty power herself
Science herself on whom the wants and cares
Of social life depend the substitute
Of God own wisdom in this toilsome world
The providence of man Yet oft in vain
To earn her aid with fix'd and anxious eye
He looks on Nature and on Fortune course
Too much in vain His duller visual ray
The stillness and the persevering acts
Of Nature oft elude and Fortune oft
With step fantastic from her wonted walk
Turns into mazes dim his sight is foil'd
And the crude sentence of his faltering tongue
Is but opinion verdict half believed
And prone to change Here thou who feel'st thine ear
Congenial to my lyre profounder tone
Pause and be watchful Hitherto the stores
Which feed thy mind and exercise her powers
Partake the relish of their native soil
Their parent earth But know a nobler dower
Her Sire at birth decreed her purer gifts
From his own treasure forms which never deign'd
In eyes or ears to dwell within the sense
Of earthly organs but sublime were placed
In his essential reason leading there
That vast ideal host which all his works
Through endless ages never will reveal
Thus then endow'd the feeble creature man
The slave of hunger and the prey of death
Even now even here in earth dim prison bound
The language of intelligence divine
Attains repeating oft concerning one
And many past and present parts and whole
Those sovereign dictates which in furthest heaven
Where no orb rolls Eternity fix'd ear
Hears from coeval Truth when Chance nor Change
Nature loud progeny nor Nature self
Dares intermeddle or approach her throne
Ere long o'er this corporeal world he learns
To extend her sway while calling from the deep
From earth and air their multitudes untold
Of figures and of motions round his walk
For each wide family some single birth
He sets in view the impartial type of all
Its brethren suffering it to claim beyond
Their common heritage no private gift
No proper fortune Then whate'er his eye
In this discerns his bold unerring tongue
Pronounceth of the kindred without bound
Without condition Such the rise of forms
Sequester'd far from sense and every spot
Peculiar in the realms of space or time
Such is the throne which man for Truth amid
The paths of mutability hath built
Secure unshaken still and whence he views
In matter mouldering structures the pure forms
Of triangle or circle cube or cone
Impassive all whose attributes nor force
Nor fate can alter There he first conceives
True being and an intellectual world
The same this hour and ever Thence he deems
Of his own lot above the painted shapes
That fleeting move o'er this terrestrial scene
Looks up beyond the adamantine gates
Of death expatiates as his birthright claims
Inheritance in all the works of God
Prepares for endless time his plan of life
And counts the universe itself his home
Whence also but from Truth the light of minds
Is human fortune gladden'd with the rays
Of Virtue with the moral colours thrown
On every walk of this our social scene
Adorning for the eye of gods and men
The passions actions habitudes of life
And rendering earth like heaven a sacred place
Where Love and Praise may take delight to dwell
Let none with heedless tongue from Truth disjoin
The reign of Virtue Ere the dayspring flow'd
Like sisters link'd in Concord golden chain
They stood before the great Eternal Mind
Their common parent and by him were both
Sent forth among his creatures hand in hand
Inseparably join'd nor e'er did Truth
Find an apt ear to listen to her lore
Which knew not Virtue voice nor save where Truth' 
Majestic words are heard and understood
Doth Virtue deign to inhabit Go inquire
Of Nature not among Tartarian rocks
Whither the hungry vulture with its prey
Returns not where the lion sullen roar
At noon resounds along the lonely banks
Of ancient Tigris but her gentler scenes
The dovecote and the shepherd fold at morn
Consult or by the meadow fragrant hedge
In spring-time when the woodlands first are green
Attend the linnet singing to his mate
Couch'd o'er their tender young To this fond care
Thou dost not Virtue honourable name
Attribute wherefore save that not one gleam
Of Truth did e'er discover to themselves
Their little hearts or teach them by the effects
Of that parental love the love itself
To judge and measure its officious deeds
But man whose eyelids Truth has fill'd with day
Discerns how skilfully to bounteous ends
His wise affections move with free accord
Adopts their guidance yields himself secure
To Nature prudent impulse and converts
Instinct to duty and to sacred law
Hence Right and Fit on earth while thus to man
The Almighty Legislator hath explain'd
The springs of action fix'd within his breast
Hath given him power to slacken or restrain
Their effort and hath shewn him how they join
Their partial movements with the master-wheel
Of the great world and serve that sacred end
Which he the unerring reason keeps in view
For if a mortal tongue may speak of him
And his dread ways even as his boundless eye
Connecting every form and every change
Beholds the perfect Beauty so his will
Through every hour producing good to all
The family of creatures is itself
The perfect Virtue Let the grateful swain
Remember this as oft with joy and praise
He looks upon the falling dews which clothe
His lawns with verdure and the tender seed
Nourish within his furrows when between
Dead seas and burning skies where long unmoved
The bark had languish'd now a rustling gale
Lifts o'er the fickle waves her dancing prow
Let the glad pilot bursting out in thanks
Remember this lest blind o'erweening pride
Pollute their offerings lest their selfish heart
Say to the heavenly ruler 'At our call
Relents thy power by us thy arm is moved
Fools who of God as of each other deem
Who his invariable acts deduce
From sudden counsels transient as their own
Nor further of his bounty than the event
Which haply meets their loud and eager prayer
Acknowledge nor beyond the drop minute
Which haply they have tasted heed the source
That flows for all the fountain of his love
Which from the summit where he sits enthroned
Pours health and joy unfailing streams throughout
The spacious region flourishing in view
The goodly work of his eternal day
His own fair universe on which alone
His counsels fix and whence alone his will
Assumes her strong direction Such is now
His sovereign purpose such it was before
All multitude of years For his right arm
Was never idle his bestowing love
Knew no beginning was not as a change
Of mood that woke at last and started up
After a deep and solitary sloth
Of boundless ages No he now is good
He ever was The feet of hoary Time
Through their eternal course have travell'd o'er
No speechless lifeless desert but through scenes
Cheerful with bounty still among a pomp
Of worlds for gladness round the Maker throne
Loud-shouting or in many dialects
Of hope and filial trust imploring thence
The fortunes of their people where so fix'd
Were all the dates of being so disposed
To every living soul of every kind
The field of motion and the hour of rest
That each the general happiness might serve
And by the discipline of laws divine
Convinced of folly or chastised from guilt
Each might at length be happy What remains
Shall be like what is past but fairer still
And still increasing in the godlike gifts
Of Life and Truth The same paternal hand
From the mute shell-fish gasping on the shore
To men to angels to celestial minds
Will ever lead the generations on
Through higher scenes of being while supplied
From day to day by his enlivening breath
Inferior orders in succession rise
To fill the void below As flame ascends
As vapours to the earth in showers return
As the poised ocean towards the attracting moon
Swells and the ever-listening planets charm'd
By the sun call their onward pace incline
So all things which have life aspire to God
Exhaustless fount of intellectual day
Centre of souls Nor doth the mastering voice
Of Nature cease within to prompt aright
Their steps nor is the care of Heaven withheld
From sending to the toil external aid
That in their stations all may persevere
To climb the ascent of being and approach
For ever nearer to the life divine
But this eternal fabric was not raised
For man inspection Though to some be given
To catch a transient visionary glimpse
Of that majestic scene which boundless power
Prepares for perfect goodness yet in vain
Would human life her faculties expand
To embosom such an object Nor could e'er
Virtue or praise have touch'd the hearts of men
Had not the Sovereign Guide through every stage
Of this their various journey pointed out
New hopes new toils which to their humble sphere
Of sight and strength might such importance hold
As doth the wide creation to his own
Hence all the little charities of life
With all their duties hence that favourite palm
Of human will when duty is sufficed
And still the liberal soul in ampler deeds
Would manifest herself that sacred sign
Of her revered affinity to Him
Whose bounties are his own to whom none said
'Create the wisest fullest fairest world
And make its offspring happy' who intent
Some likeness of Himself among his works
To view hath pour'd into the human breast
A ray of knowledge and of love which guides
Earth feeble race to act their Maker part
Self-judging self-obliged while from before
That godlike function the gigantic power
Necessity though wont to curb the force
Of Chaos and the savage elements
Retires abash'd as from a scene too high
For her brute tyranny and with her bears
Her scorned followers Terror and base Awe
Who blinds herself and that ill-suited pair
Obedience link'd with Hatred Then the soul
Arises in her strength and looking round
Her busy sphere whatever work she views
Whatever counsel bearing any trace
Of her Creator likeness whether apt
To aid her fellows or preserve herself
In her superior functions unimpair'd
Thither she turns exulting that she claims
As her peculiar good on that through all
The fickle seasons of the day she looks
With reverence still to that as to a fence
Against affliction and the darts of pain
Her drooping hopes repair and once opposed
To that all other pleasure other wealth
Vile as the dross upon the molten gold
Appears and loathsome as the briny sea
To him who languishes with thirst and sighs
For some known fountain pure For what can strive
With Virtue Which of Nature regions vast
Can in so many forms produce to sight
Such powerful Beauty Beauty which the eye
Of Hatred cannot look upon secure
Which Envy self contemplates and is turn'd
Ere long to tenderness to infant smiles
Or tears of humblest love Is aught so fair
In all the dewy landscapes of the Spring
The Summer noontide groves the purple eve
At harvest-home or in the frosty moon
Glittering on some smooth sea is aught so fair
As virtuous friendship as the honour'd roof
Whither from highest heaven immortal Love
His torch ethereal and his golden bow
Propitious brings and there a temple holds
To whose unspotted service gladly vow'd
The social band of parent brother child
With smiles and sweet discourse and gentle deeds
Adore his power What gift of richest clime
E'er drew such eager eyes or prompted such
Deep wishes as the zeal that snatcheth back
From Slander poisonous tooth a foe renown
Or crosseth Danger in his lion walk
A rival life to rescue as the young
Athenian warrior sitting down in bonds
That his great father body might not want
A peaceful humble tomb the Roman wife
Teaching her lord how harmless was the wound
Of death how impotent the tyrant rage
Who nothing more could threaten to afflict
Their faithful love Or is there in the abyss
Is there among the adamantine spheres
Wheeling unshaken through the boundless void
Aught that with half such majesty can fill
The human bosom as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar fate
Amid the crowd of patriots and his arm
Aloft extending like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder call'd aloud
On Tully name and shook the crimson sword
Of justice in his rapt astonish'd eye
And bade the father of his country hail
For lo the tyrant prostrate on the dust
And Rome again is free Thus through the paths
Of human life in various pomp array'd
Walks the wise daughter of the judge of heaven
Fair Virtue from her father throne supreme
Sent down to utter laws such as on earth
Most apt he knew most powerful to promote
The weal of all his works the gracious end
Of his dread empire And though haply man's
Obscurer sight so far beyond himself
And the brief labours of his little home
Extends not yet by the bright presence won
Of this divine instructress to her sway
Pleased he assents nor heeds the distant goal
To which her voice conducts him Thus hath God
Still looking toward his own high purpose fix'd
The virtues of his creatures thus he rules
The parent fondness and the patriot zeal
Thus the warm sense of honour and of shame
The vows of gratitude the faith of love
And all the comely intercourse of praise
The joy of human life the earthly heaven
How far unlike them must the lot of guilt
Be found Or what terrestrial woe can match
The self-convicted bosom which hath wrought
The bane of others or enslaved itself
With shackles vile Not poison nor sharp fire
Nor the worst pangs that ever monkish hate
Suggested or despotic rage imposed
Were at that season an unwish'd exchange
When the soul loathes herself when flying thence
To crowds on every brow she sees portray'd
Pell demons Hate or Scorn which drive her back
To solitude her judge voice divine
To hear in secret haply sounding through
The troubled dreams of midnight and still still
Demanding for his violated laws
Fit recompense or charging her own tongue
To speak the award of justice on herself
For well she knows what faithful hints within
Were whisper'd to beware the lying forms
Which turn'd her footsteps from the safer way
What cautions to suspect their painted dress
And look with steady eyelid on their smiles
Their frowns their tears In vain the dazzling hues
Of Fancy and Opinion eager voice
Too much prevail'd For mortals tread the path
In which Opinion says they follow good
Or fly from evil and Opinion gives
Report of good or evil as the scene
Was drawn by Fancy pleasing or deform'd
Thus her report can never there be true
Where Fancy cheats the intellectual eye
With glaring colours and distorted lines
Is there a man to whom the name of death
Brings terror ghastly pageants conjured up
Before him death-bed groans and dismal vows
And the frail soul plunged headlong from the brink
Of life and daylight down the gloomy air
An unknown depth to gulfs of torturing fire
Unvisited by mercy Then what hand
Can snatch this dreamer from the fatal toils
Which Fancy and Opinion thus conspire
To twine around his heart Or who shall hush
Their clamour when they tell him that to die
To risk those horrors is a direr curse
Than basest life can bring Though Love with prayers
Most tender with affliction sacred tears
Beseech his aid though Gratitude and Faith
Condemn each step which loiters yet let none
Make answer for him that if any frown
Of Danger thwart his path he will not stay
Content and be a wretch to be secure
Here Vice begins then at the gate of life
Ere the young multitude to diverse roads
Part like fond pilgrims on a journey unknown
Sits Fancy deep enchantress and to each
With kind maternal looks presents her bowl
A potent beverage Heedless they comply
Till the whole soul from that mysterious draught
Is tinged and every transient thought imbibes
Of gladness or disgust desire or fear
One homebred colour which not all the lights
Of Science e'er shall change not all the storms
Of adverse Fortune wash away nor yet
The robe of purest Virtue quite conceal
Thence on they pass where meeting frequent shapes
Of good and evil cunning phantoms apt
To fire or freeze the breast with them they join
In dangerous parley listening oft and oft
Gazing with reckless passion while its garb
The spectre heightens and its pompous tale
Repeats with some new circumstance to suit
That early tincture of the hearer soul
And should the guardian Reason but for one
Short moment yield to this illusive scene
His ear and eye the intoxicating charm
Involves him till no longer he discerns
Or only guides to err Then revel forth
A furious band that spurn him from the throne
And all is uproar Hence Ambition climbs
With sliding feet and hands impure to grasp
Those solemn toys which glitter in his view
On Fortune rugged steep hence pale Revenge
Unsheaths her murderous dagger Rapine hence
And envious Lust by venal fraud upborne
Surmount the reverend barrier of the laws
Which kept them from their prey hence all the crimes
That e'er defiled the earth and all the plagues
That follow them for vengeance in the guise
Of Honour Safety Pleasure Ease or Pomp
Stole first into the fond believing mind
Yet not by Fancy witchcraft on the brain
Are always the tumultuous passions driven
To guilty deeds nor Reason bound in chains
That Vice alone may lord it Oft adorn'd
With motley pageants Folly mounts his throne
And plays her idiot antics like a queen
A thousand garbs she wears a thousand ways
She whirls her giddy empire Lo thus far
With bold adventure to the Mantuan lyre
I sing for contemplation link'd with love
A pensive theme Now haply should my song
Unbend that serious countenance and learn
Thalia tripping gait her shrill-toned voice
Her wiles familiar whether scorn she darts
In wanton ambush from her lip or eye
Or whether with a sad disguise of care
O'ermantling her gay brow she acts in sport
The deeds of Folly and from all sides round
Calls forth impetuous Laughter gay rebuke
Her province But through every comic scene
To lead my Muse with her light pencil arm'd
Through every swift occasion which the hand
Of Laughter points at when the mirthful sting
Distends her labouring sides and chokes her tongue
Were endless as to sound each grating note
With which the rooks and chattering daws and grave
Unwieldy inmates of the village pond
The changing seasons of the sky proclaim
Sun cloud or shower Suffice it to have said
Where'er the power of Ridicule displays
Her quaint-eyed visage some incongruous form
Some stubborn dissonance of things combined
Strikes on her quick perception whether Pomp
Or Praise or Beauty be dragg'd in and shewn
Where sordid fashions where ignoble deeds
Where foul Deformity is wont to dwell
Or whether these with shrewd and wayward spite
Invade resplendent Pomp imperious mien
The charms of Beauty or the boast of Praise
Ask we for what fair end the Almighty Sire
In mortal bosoms stirs this gay contempt
These grateful pangs of laughter from disgust
Educing pleasure Wherefore but to aid
The tardy steps of Reason and at once
By this prompt impulse urge us to depress
Wild Folly aims For though the sober light
Of Truth slow dawning on the watchful mind
At length unfolds through many a subtle tie
How these uncouth disorders end at last
In public evil yet benignant Heaven
Conscious how dim the dawn of Truth appears
To thousands conscious what a scanty pause
From labour and from care the wider lot
Of humble life affords for studious thought
To scan the maze of Nature therefore stamp'd
These glaring scenes with characters of scorn
As broad as obvious to the passing clown
As to the letter'd sage curious eye
But other evils o'er the steps of man
Through all his walks impend against whose might
The slender darts of Laughter nought avail
A trivial warfare Some like cruel guards
On Nature ever-moving throne attend
With mischief arm'd for him whoe'er shall thwart
The path of her inexorable wheels
While she pursues the work that must be done
Through ocean earth and air Hence frequent forms
Of woe the merchant with his wealthy bark
Buried by dashing waves the traveller
Pierced by the pointed lightning in his haste
And the poor husbandman with folded arms
Surveying his lost labours and a heap
Of blasted chaff the product of the field
Whence he expected bread But worse than these
I deem far worse that other race of ills
Which human kind rear up among themselves
That horrid offspring which misgovern'd Will
Bears to fantastic Error vices crimes
Furies that curse the earth and make the blows
The heaviest blows of Nature innocent hand
Seem sport which are indeed but as the care
Of a wise parent who solicits good
To all her house though haply at the price
Of tears and froward wailing and reproach
From some unthinking child whom not the less
Its mother destines to be happy still
These sources then of pain this double lot
Of evil in the inheritance of man
Required for his protection no slight force
No careless watch and therefore was his breast
Fenced round with passions quick to be alarm'd
Or stubborn to oppose with Fear more swift
Than beacons catching flame from hill to hill
Where armies land with Anger uncontroll'd
As the young lion bounding on his prey
With Sorrow that locks up the struggling heart
And Shame that overcasts the drooping eye
As with a cloud of lightning These the part
Perform of eager monitors and goad
The soul more sharply than with points of steel
Her enemies to shun or to resist
And as those passions that converse with good
Are good themselves as Hope and Love and Joy
Among the fairest and the sweetest boons
Of life we rightly count so these which guard
Against invading evil still excite
Some pain some tumult these within the mind
Too oft admitted or too long retain'd
Shock their frail seat and by their uncurb'd rage
To savages more fell than Libya breeds
Transform themselves till human thought becomes
A gloomy ruin haunt of shapes unbless'd
Of self-tormenting fiends Horror Despair
Hatred and wicked Envy foes to all
The works of Nature and the gifts of Heaven
But when through blameless paths to righteous ends
Those keener passions urge the awaken'd soul
I would not as ungracious violence
Their sway describe nor from their free career
The fellowship of Pleasure quite exclude
For what can render to the self-approved
Their temper void of comfort though in pain
Who knows not with what majesty divine
The forms of Truth and Justice to the mind
Appear ennobling oft the sharpest woe
With triumph and rejoicing Who that bears
A human bosom hath not often felt
How dear are all those ties which bind our race
In gentleness together and how sweet
Their force let Fortune wayward hand the while
Be kind or cruel Ask the faithful youth
Why the cold urn of her whom long he loved
So often fills his arms so often draws
His lonely footsteps silent and unseen
To pay the mournful tribute of his tears
Oh he will tell thee that the wealth of worlds
Should ne'er seduce his bosom to forego
Those sacred hours when stealing from the noise
Of care and envy sweet remembrance soothes
With Virtue kindest looks his aching breast
And turns his tears to rapture Ask the crowd
Which flies impatient from the village walk
To climb the neighbouring cliffs when far below
The savage winds have hurl'd upon the coast
Some helpless bark while holy Pity melts
The general eye or Terror icy hand
Smites their distorted limbs and horrent hair
While every mother closer to her breast
Catcheth her child and pointing where the waves
Foam through the shatter'd vessel shrieks aloud
As one poor wretch who spreads his piteous arms
For succour swallow'd by the roaring surge
As now another dash'd against the rock
Drops lifeless down Oh deemest thou indeed
No pleasing influence here by Nature given
To mutual terror and compassion tears
No tender charm mysterious which attracts
O'er all that edge of pain the social powers
To this their proper action and their end
Ask thy own heart when at the midnight hour
Slow through that pensive gloom thy pausing eye
Led by the glimmering taper moves around
The reverend volumes of the dead the songs
Of Grecian bards and records writ by fame
For Grecian heroes where the sovereign Power
Of heaven and earth surveys the immortal page
Even as a father meditating all
The praises of his son and bids the rest
Of mankind there the fairest model learn
Of their own nature and the noblest deeds
Which yet the world hath seen If then thy soul
Join in the lot of those diviner men
Say when the prospect darkens on thy view
When sunk by many a wound heroic states
Mourn in the dust and tremble at the frown
Of hard Ambition when the generous band
Of youths who fought for freedom and their sires
Lie side by side in death when brutal Force
Usurps the throne of Justice turns the pomp
Of guardian power the majesty of rule
The sword the laurel and the purple robe
To poor dishonest pageants to adorn
A robber walk and glitter in the eyes
Of such as bow the knee when beauteous works
Rewards of virtue sculptured forms which deck'd
With more than human grace the warrior arch
Or patriot tomb now victims to appease
Tyrannic envy strew the common path
With awful ruins when the Muse haunt
The marble porch where Wisdom wont to talk
With Socrates or Tully hears no more
Save the hoarse jargon of contentious monks
Or female Superstition midnight prayer
When ruthless Havoc from the hand of Time
Tears the destroying scythe with surer stroke
To mow the monuments of Glory down
Till Desolation o'er the grass-grown street
Expands her raven wings and from the gate
Where senates once the weal of nations plann'd
Hisseth the gliding snake through hoary weeds
That clasp the mouldering column thus when all
The widely-mournful scene is fix'd within
Thy throbbing bosom when the patriot tear
Starts from thine eye and thy extended arm
In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jove
To fire the impious wreath on Philip brow
Or dash Octavius from the trophied car
Say doth thy secret soul repine to taste
The big distress Or wouldst thou then exchange
Those heart-ennobling sorrows for the lot
Of him who sits amid the gaudy herd
Of silent flatterers bending to his nod
And o'er them like a giant casts his eye
And says within himself 'I am a King
And wherefore should the clamorous voice of woe
Intrude upon mine ear' The dregs corrupt
Of barbarous ages that Circaean draught
Of servitude and folly have not yet
Bless'd be the Eternal Ruler of the world
Yet have not so dishonour'd so deform'd
The native judgment of the human soul
Nor so effaced the image of her Sire
What tongue then may explain the various fate
Which reigns o'er earth or who to mortal eyes
Illustrate this perplexing labyrinth
Of joy and woe through which the feet of man
Are doom'd to wander That Eternal Mind
From passions wants and envy far estranged
Who built the spacious universe and deck'd
Each part so richly with whate'er pertains
To life to health to pleasure why bade he
The viper Evil creeping in pollute
The goodly scene and with insidious rage
While the poor inmate looks around and smiles
Dart her fell sting with poison to his soul
Hard is the question and from ancient days
Hath still oppress'd with care the sage thought
Hath drawn forth accents from the poet lyre
Too sad too deeply plaintive nor did e'er
Those chiefs of human kind from whom the light
Of heavenly truth first gleam'd on barbarous lands
Forget this dreadful secret when they told
What wondrous things had to their favour'd eyes
And ears on cloudy mountain been reveal'd
Or in deep cave by nymph or power divine
Portentous oft and wild Yet one I know
Could I the speech of lawgivers assume
One old and splendid tale I would record
With which the Muse of Solon in sweet strains
Adorn'd this theme profound and render'd all
Its darkness all its terrors bright as noon
Or gentle as the golden star of eve
Who knows not Solon last and wisest far
Of those whom Greece triumphant in the height
Of glory styled her fathers him whose voice
Through Athens hush'd the storm of civil wrath
Taught envious Want and cruel Wealth to join
In friendship and with sweet compulsion tamed
Minerva eager people to his laws
Which their own goddess in his breast inspired
'Twas now the time when his heroic task
Seem'd but perform'd in vain when soothed by years
Of flattering service the fond multitude
Hung with their sudden counsels on the breath
Of great Pisistratus that chief renown'd
Whom Hermes and the Idalian queen had train'd
Even from his birth to every powerful art
Of pleasing and persuading from whose lips
Flow'd eloquence which like the vows of love
Could steal away suspicion from the hearts
Of all who listen'd Thus from day to day
He won the general suffrage and beheld
Each rival overshadow'd and depress'd
Beneath his ampler state yet oft complain'd
As one less kindly treated who had hoped
To merit favour but submits perforce
To find another services preferr'd
Nor yet relaxeth aught of faith or zeal
Then tales were scatter'd of his envious foes
Of snares that watch'd his fame of daggers aim'd
Against his life At last with trembling limbs
His hair diffused and wild his garments loose
And stain'd with blood from self-inflicted wounds
He burst into the public place as there
There only were his refuge and declared
In broken words with sighs of deep regret
The mortal danger he had scarce repell'd
Fired with his tragic tale the indignant crowd
To guard his steps forthwith a menial band
Array'd beneath his eye for deeds of war
Decree Oh still too liberal of their trust
And oft betray'd by over-grateful love
The generous people Now behold him fenced
By mercenary weapons like a king
Forth issuing from the city-gate at eve
To seek his rural mansion and with pomp
Crowding the public road The swain stops short
And sighs the officious townsmen stand at gaze
And shrinking give the sullen pageant room
Yet not the less obsequious was his brow
Nor less profuse of courteous words his tongue
Of gracious gifts his hand the while by stealth
Like a small torrent fed with evening showers
His train increased till at that fatal time
Just as the public eye with doubt and shame
Startled began to question what it saw
Swift as the sound of earthquakes rush'd a voice
Through Athens that Pisistratus had fill'd
The rocky citadel with hostile arms
Had barr'd the steep ascent and sate within
Amid his hirelings meditating death
To all whose stubborn necks his yoke refused
Where then was Solon After ten long years
Of absence full of haste from foreign shores
The sage the lawgiver had now arrived
Arrived alas to see that Athens that
Fair temple raised by him and sacred call'd
To Liberty and Concord now profaned
By savage hate or sunk into a den
Of slaves who crouch beneath the master scourge
And deprecate his wrath and court his chains
Yet did not the wise patriot grief impede
His virtuous will nor was his heart inclined
One moment with such woman-like distress
To view the transient storms of civil war
As thence to yield his country and her hopes
To all-devouring bondage His bright helm
Even while the traitor impious act is told
He buckles on his hoary head he girds
With mail his stooping breast the shield the spear
He snatcheth and with swift indignant strides
The assembled people seeks proclaims aloud
It was no time for counsel in their spears
Lay all their prudence now the tyrant yet
Was not so firmly seated on his throne
But that one shock of their united force
Would dash him from the summit of his pride
Headlong and grovelling in the dust 'What else
Can reassert the lost Athenian name
So cheaply to the laughter of the world
Betray'd by guile beneath an infant faith
So mock'd and scorn'd Away then Freedom now
And Safety dwell not but with Fame in arms
Myself will shew you where their mansion lies
And through the walks of Danger or of Death
Conduct you to them' While he spake through all
Their crowded ranks his quick sagacious eye
He darted where no cheerful voice was heard
Of social daring no stretch'd arm was seen
Hastening their common task but pale mistrust
Wrinkled each brow they shook their head and down
Their slack hands hung cold sighs and whisper'd doubts
From breath to breath stole round The sage meantime
Look'd speechless on while his big bosom heaved
Struggling with shame and sorrow till at last
A tear broke forth and 'O immortal shades
O Theseus' he exclaim'd 'O Codrus where
Where are ye now behold for what ye toil'd
Through life behold for whom ye chose to die
No more he added but with lonely steps
Weary and slow his silver beard depress'd
And his stern eyes bent heedless on the ground
Back to his silent dwelling he repair'd
There o'er the gate his armour as a man
Whom from the service of the war his chief
Dismisseth after no inglorious toil
He fix'd in general view One wishful look
He sent unconscious toward the public place
At parting then beneath his quiet roof
Without a word without a sigh retired
Scarce had the morrow sun his golden rays
From sweet Hymettus darted o'er the fanes
Of Cecrops to the Salaminian shores
When lo on Solon threshold met the feet
Of four Athenians by the same sad care
Conducted all than whom the state beheld
None nobler First came Megacles the son
Of great Alcmaeon whom the Lydian king
The mild unhappy Croesus in his days
Of glory had with costly gifts adorn'd
Fair vessels splendid garments tinctured webs
And heaps of treasured gold beyond the lot
Of many sovereigns thus requiting well
That hospitable favour which erewhile
Alcmaeon to his messengers had shown
Whom he with offerings worthy of the god
Sent from his throne in Sardis to revere
Apollo Delphic shrine With Megacles
Approach'd his son whom Agarista bore
The virtuous child of Clistheues whose hand
Of Grecian sceptres the most ancient far
In Sicyon sway'd but greater fame he drew
From arms controll'd by justice from the love
Of the wise Muses and the unenvied wreath
Which glad Olympia gave For thither once
His warlike steeds the hero led and there
Contended through the tumult of the course
With skilful wheels Then victor at the goal
Amid the applauses of assembled Greece
High on his car he stood and waved his arm
Silence ensued when straight the herald voice
Was heard inviting every Grecian youth
Whom Clisthenes content might call his son
To visit ere twice thirty days were pass'd
The towers of Sicyon There the chief decreed
Within the circuit of the following year
To join at Hymen altar hand in hand
With his fair daughter him among the guests
Whom worthiest he should deem Forthwith from all
The bounds of Greece the ambitious wooers came
From rich Hesperia from the Illyrian shore
Where Epidamnus over Adria surge
Looks on the setting sun from those brave tribes
Chaonian or Molossian whom the race
Of great Achilles governs glorying still
In Troy o'erthrown from rough Aetolia nurse
Of men who first among the Greeks threw off
The yoke of kings to commerce and to arms
Devoted from Thessalia fertile meads
Where flows Peneus near the lofty walls
Of Cranon old from strong Eretria queen
Of all Euboean cities who sublime
On the steep margin of Euripus views
Across the tide the Marathonian plain
Not yet the haunt of glory Athens too
Minerva care among her graceful sons
Found equal lovers for the princely maid
Nor was proud Argos wanting nor the domes
Of sacred Elis nor the Arcadian groves
That overshade Alpheus echoing oft
Some shepherd song But through the illustrious band
Was none who might with Megacles compare
In all the honours of unblemish'd youth
His was the beauteous bride and now their son
Young Clisthenes betimes at Solon gate
Stood anxious leaning forward on the arm
Of his great sire with earnest eyes that ask'd
When the slow hinge would turn with restless feet
And cheeks now pale now glowing for his heart
Throbb'd full of bursting passions anger grief
With scorn imbitter'd by the generous boy
Scarce understood but which like noble seeds
Are destined for his country and himself
In riper years to bring forth fruits divine
Of liberty and glory Next appear'd
Two brave companions whom one mother bore
To different lords but whom the better ties
Of firm esteem and friendship render'd more
Than brothers first Miltiades who drew
From godlike AEacus his ancient line
That AEacus whose unimpeach'd renown
For sanctity and justice won the lyre
Of elder bards to celebrate him throned
In Hades o'er the dead where his decrees
The guilty soul within the burning gates
Of Tartarus compel or send the good
To inhabit with eternal health and peace
The valleys of Elysium From a stem
So sacred ne'er could worthier scion spring
Than this Miltiades whose aid ere long
The chiefs of Thrace already on their ways
Sent by the inspired foreknowing maid who sits
Upon the Delphic tripod shall implore
To wield their sceptre and the rural wealth
Of fruitful Chersonesus to protect
With arms and laws But nothing careful now
Save for his injured country here he stands
In deep solicitude with Cimon join'd
Unconscious both what widely different lots
Await them taught by nature as they are
To know one common good one common ill
For Cimon not his valour not his birth
Derived from Codrus not a thousand gifts
Dealt round him with a wise benignant hand
No not the Olympic olive by himself
From his own brow transferr'd to soothe the mind
Of this Pisistratus can long preserve
From the fell envy of the tyrant sons
And their assassin dagger But if death
Obscure upon his gentle steps attend
Yet fate an ample recompense prepares
In his victorious son that other great
Miltiades who o'er the very throne
Of Glory shall with Time assiduous hand
In adamantine characters engrave
The name of Athens and by Freedom arm'd
'Gainst the gigantic pride of Asia king
Shall all the achievements of the heroes old
Surmount of Hercules of all who sail'd
From Thessaly with Jason all who fought
For empire or for fame at Thebes or Troy
Such were the patriots who within the porch
Of Solon had assembled But the gate
Now opens and across the ample floor
Straight they proceed into an open space
Bright with the beams of morn a verdant spot
Where stands a rural altar piled with sods
Cut from the grassy turf and girt with wreaths
Of branching palm Here Solon self they found
Clad in a robe of purple pure and deck'd
With leaves of olive on his reverend brow
He bow'd before the altar and o'er cakes
Of barley from two earthen vessels pour'd
Of honey and of milk a plenteous stream
Calling meantime the Muses to accept
His simple offering by no victim tinged
With blood nor sullied by destroying fire
But such as for himself Apollo claims
In his own Delos where his favourite haunt
Is thence the Altar of the Pious named
Unseen the guests drew near and silent view'd
That worship till the hero-priest his eye
Turn'd toward a seat on which prepared there lay
A branch of laurel Then his friends confess'd
Before him stood Backward his step he drew
As loath that care or tumult should approach
Those early rites divine but soon their looks
So anxious and their hands held forth with such
Desponding gesture bring him on perforce
To speak to their affliction 'Are ye come
He cried 'to mourn with me this common shame
Or ask ye some new effort which may break
Our fetters Know then of the public cause
Not for yon traitor cunning or his might
Do I despair nor could I wish from Jove
Aught dearer than at this late hour of life
As once by laws so now by strenuous arms
From impious violation to assert
The rights our fathers left us But alas
What arms or who shall wield them Ye beheld
The Athenian people Many bitter days
Must pass and many wounds from cruel pride
Be felt ere yet their partial hearts find room
For just resentment or their hands indure
To smite this tyrant brood so near to all
Their hopes so oft admired so long beloved
That time will come however Be it yours
To watch its fair approach and urge it on
With honest prudence me it ill beseems
Again to supplicate the unwilling crowd
To rescue from a vile deceiver hold
That envied power which once with eager zeal
They offer'd to myself nor can I plunge
In counsels deep and various nor prepare
For distant wars thus faltering as I tread
On life last verge ere long to join the shades
Of Minos and Lycurgus But behold
What care employs me now My vows I pay
To the sweet Muses teachers of my youth
And solace of my age If right I deem
Of the still voice that whispers at my heart
The immortal sisters have not quite withdrawn
Their old harmonious influence Let your tongues
With sacred silence favour what I speak
And haply shall my faithful lips be taught
To unfold celestial counsels which may arm
As with impenetrable steel your breasts
For the long strife before you and repel
The darts of adverse fate' He said and snatch'd
The laurel bough and sate in silence down
Fix'd wrapp'd in solemn musing full before
The sun who now from all his radiant orb
Drove the gray clouds and pour'd his genial light
Upon the breast of Solon Solon raised
Aloft the leafy rod and thus began 
'Ye beauteous offspring of Olympian Jove
And Memory divine Pierian maids
Hear me propitious In the morn of life
When hope shone bright and all the prospect smiled
To your sequester'd mansion oft my steps
Were turn'd O Muses and within your gate
My offerings paid Ye taught me then with strains
Of flowing harmony to soften war's
Dire voice or in fair colours that might charm
The public eye to clothe the form austere
Of civil counsel Now my feeble age
Neglected and supplanted of the hope
On which it lean'd yet sinks not but to you
To your mild wisdom flies refuge beloved
Of solitude and silence Ye can teach
The visions of my bed whate'er the gods
In the rude ages of the world inspired
Or the first heroes acted ye can make
The morning light more gladsome to my sense
Than ever it appear'd to active youth
Pursuing careless pleasure ye can give
To this long leisure these unheeded hours
A labour as sublime as when the sons
Of Athens throng'd and speechless round me stood
To hear pronounced for all their future deeds
The bounds of right and wrong Celestial powers
I feel that ye are near me and behold
To meet your energy divine I bring
A high and sacred theme not less than those
Which to the eternal custody of Fame
Your lips intrusted when of old ye deign'd
With Orpheus or with Homer to frequent
The groves of Haemus or the Chian shore
'Ye know harmonious maids for what of all
My various life was e'er from you estranged
Oft hath my solitary song to you
Reveal'd that duteous pride which turn'd my steps
To willing exile earnest to withdraw
From envy and the disappointed thirst
Of lucre lest the bold familiar strife
Which in the eye of Athens they upheld
Against her legislator should impair
With trivial doubt the reverence of his laws
To Egypt therefore through the AEgean isles
My course I steer'd and by the banks of Nile
Dwelt in Canopus Thence the hallow'd domes
Of Sals and the rites to Isis paid
I sought and in her temple silent courts
Through many changing moons attentive heard
The venerable Sonchis while his tongue
At morn or midnight the deep story told
Of her who represents whate'er has been
Or is or shall be whose mysterious veil
No mortal hand hath ever yet removed
By him exhorted southward to the walls
Of On I pass'd the city of the sun
The ever-youthful god Twas there amid
His priests and sages who the livelong night
Watch the dread movements of the starry sphere
Or who in wondrous fables half disclose
The secrets of the elements 'twas there
That great Paenophis taught my raptured ears
The fame of old Atlantis of her chiefs
And her pure laws the first which earth obey'd
Deep in my bosom sunk the noble tale
And often while I listen'd did my mind
Foretell with what delight her own free lyre
Should sometime for an Attic audience raise
Anew that lofty scene and from their tombs
Call forth those ancient demigods to speak
Of Justice and the hidden Providence
That walks among mankind But yet meantime
The mystic pomp of Ammon gloomy sons
Became less pleasing With contempt I gazed
On that tame garb and those unvarying paths
To which the double yoke of king and priest
Had cramp'd the sullen race At last with hymns
Invoking our own Pallas and the gods
Of cheerful Greece a glad farewell I gave
To Egypt and before the southern wind
Spread my full sails What climes I then survey'd
What fortunes I encounter'd in the realm
Of Croesus or upon the Cyprian shore
The Muse who prompts my bosom doth not now
Consent that I reveal But when at length
Ten times the sun returning from the south
Had strow'd with flowers the verdant earth and fill'd
The groves with music pleased I then beheld
The term of those long errors drawing nigh
Nor yet I said will I sit down within
The walls of Athens till my feet have trod
The Cretan soil have pierced those reverend haunts
Whence Law and Civil Concord issued forth
As from their ancient home and still to Greece
Their wisest loftiest discipline proclaim
Straight where Amnisus mart of wealthy ships
Appears beneath famed Cnossus and her towers
Like the fair handmaid of a stately queen
I check'd my prow and thence with eager steps
The city of Minos enter'd O ye gods
Who taught the leaders of the simpler time
By written words to curb the untoward will
Of mortals how within that generous isle
Have ye the triumphs of your power display'd
Munificent Those splendid merchants lords
Of traffic and the sea with what delight
I saw them at their public meal like sons
Of the same household join the plainer sort
Whose wealth was only freedom whence to these
Vile envy and to those fantastic pride
Alike was strange but noble concord still
Cherish'd the strength untamed the rustic faith
Of their first fathers Then the growing race
How pleasing to behold them in their schools
Their sports their labours ever placed within
O shade of Minos thy controlling eye
Here was a docile band in tuneful tones
Thy laws pronouncing or with lofty hymns
Praising the bounteous gods or to preserve
Their country heroes from oblivious night
Resounding what the Muse inspired of old
There on the verge of manhood others met
In heavy armour through the heats of noon
To march the rugged mountain height to climb
With measured swiftness from the hard-bent bow
To send resistless arrows to their mark
Or for the fame of prowess to contend
Now wrestling now with fists and staves opposed
Now with the biting falchion and the fence
Of brazen shields while still the warbling flute
Presided o'er the combat breathing strains
Grave solemn soft and changing headlong spite
To thoughtful resolution cool and clear
Such I beheld those islanders renown'd
So tutor'd from their birth to meet in war
Each bold invader and in peace to guard
That living flame of reverence for their laws
Which nor the storms of fortune nor the flood
Of foreign wealth diffused o'er all the land
Could quench or slacken First of human names
In every Cretan heart was Minos still
And holiest far of what the sun surveys
Through his whole course were those primeval seats
Which with religious footsteps he had taught
Their sires to approach the wild Dictaean cave
Where Jove was born the ever verdant meads
Of Ida and the spacious grotto where
His active youth he pass'd and where his throne
Yet stands mysterious whither Minos came
Each ninth returning year the king of gods
And mortals there in secret to consult
On justice and the tables of his law
To inscribe anew Oft also with like zeal
Great Rhea mansion from the Cnossian gates
Men visit nor less oft the antique fane
Built on that sacred spot along the banks
Of shady Theron where benignant Jove
And his majestic consort join'd their hands
And spoke their nuptial vows Alas 'twas there
That the dire fame of Athens sunk in bonds
I first received what time an annual feast
Had summon'd all the genial country round
By sacrifice and pomp to bring to mind
That first great spousal while the enamour'd youths
And virgins with the priest before the shrine
Observe the same pure ritual and invoke
The same glad omens There among the crowd
Of strangers from those naval cities drawn
Which deck like gems the island northern shore
A merchant of AEgina I descried
My ancient host but forward as I sprung
To meet him he with dark dejected brow
Stopp'd half averse and O Athenian guest
He said art thou in Crete these joyful rites
Partaking Know thy laws are blotted out
Thy country kneels before a tyrant throne
He added names of men with hostile deeds
Disastrous which obscure and indistinct
I heard for while he spake my heart grew cold
And my eyes dim the altars and their train
No more were present to me how I fared
Or whither turn'd I know not nor recall
Aught of those moments other than the sense
Of one who struggles in oppressive sleep
And from the toils of some distressful dream
To break away with palpitating heart
Weak limbs and temples bathed in death-like dew
Makes many a painful effort When at last
The sun and nature face again appear'd
Not far I found me where the public path
Winding through cypress groves and swelling meads
From Cnossus to the cave of Jove ascends
Heedless I follow'd on till soon the skirts
Of Ida rose before me and the vault
Wide opening pierced the mountain rocky side
Entering within the threshold on the ground
I flung me sad faint overworn with toil
One effort more one cheerful sally more
Our destined course will finish and in peace
Then for an offering sacred to the powers
Who lent us gracious guidance we will then
Inscribe a monument of deathless praise
O my adventurous song With steady speed
Long hast thou on an untried voyage bound
Sail'd between earth and heaven hast now survey'd
Stretch'd out beneath thee all the mazy tracts
Of Passion and Opinion like a waste
Of sands and flowery lawns and tangling woods
Where mortals roam bewilder'd and hast now
Exulting soar'd among the worlds above
Or hover'd near the eternal gates of heaven
If haply the discourses of the gods
A curious but an unpresuming guest
Thou mightst partake and carry back some strain
Of divine wisdom lawful to repeat
And apt to be conceived of man below
A different task remains the secret paths
Of early genius to explore to trace
Those haunts where Fancy her predestined sons
Like to the demigods of old doth nurse
Remote from eyes profane Ye happy souls
Who now her tender discipline obey
Where dwell ye What wild river brink at eve
Imprint your steps What solemn groves at noon
Use ye to visit often breaking forth
In rapture 'mid your dilatory walk
Or musing as in slumber on the green 
Would I again were with you-O ye dales
Of Tyne and ye most ancient woodlands where
Oft as the giant flood obliquely strides
And his banks open and his lawns extend
Stops short the pleased traveller to view
Presiding o'er the scene some rustic tower
Founded by Norman or by Saxon hands
O ye Northumbrian shades which overlook
The rocky pavement and the mossy falls
Of solitary Wensbeck limpid stream
How gladly I recall your well-known seats
Beloved of old and that delightful time
When all alone for many a summer day
I wander'd through your calm recesses led
In silence by some powerful hand unseen
Nor will I e'er forget you nor shall e'er
The graver tasks of manhood or the advice
Of vulgar wisdom move me to disclaim
Those studies which possess'd me in the dawn
Of life and fix'd the colour of my mind
For every future year whence even now
From sleep I rescue the clear hours of morn
And while the world around lies overwhelm'd
In idle darkness am alive to thoughts
Of honourable fame of truth divine
Or moral and of minds to virtue won
By the sweet magic of harmonious verse
The themes which now expect us For thus far
On general habits and on arts which grow
Spontaneous in the minds of all mankind
Hath dwelt our argument and how self-taught
Though seldom conscious of their own employ
In Nature or in Fortune changeful scene
Men learn to judge of Beauty and acquire
Those forms set up as idols in the soul
For love and zealous praise Yet indistinct
In vulgar bosoms and unnoticed lie
These pleasing stores unless the casual force
Of things external prompt the heedless mind
To recognise her wealth But some there are
Conscious of Nature and the rule which man
O'er Nature holds some who within themselves
Retiring from the trivial scenes of chance
And momentary passion can at will
Call up these fair exemplars of the mind
Review their features scan the secret laws
Which bind them to each other and display
By forms or sounds or colours to the sense
Of all the world their latent charms display
Even as in Nature frame if such a word
If such a word so bold may from the lips
Of man proceed as in this outward frame
Of things the great Artificer portrays
His own immense idea Various names
These among mortals bear as various signs
They use and by peculiar organs speak
To human sense There are who by the flight
Of air through tubes with moving stops distinct
Or by extended chords in measure taught
To vibrate can assemble powerful sounds
Expressing every temper of the mind
From every cause and charming all the soul
With passion void of care Others mean time
The rugged mass of metal wood or stone
Patiently taming or with easier hand
Describing lines and with more ample scope
Uniting colours can to general sight
Produce those permanent and perfect forms
Those characters of heroes and of gods
Which from the crude materials of the world
Their own high minds created But the chief
Are poets eloquent men who dwell on earth
To clothe whate'er the soul admires or loves
With language and with numbers Hence to these
A field is open'd wide as Nature sphere
Nay wider various as the sudden acts
Of human wit and vast as the demands
Of human will The bard nor length nor depth
Nor place nor form controls To eyes to ears
To every organ of the copious mind
He offereth all its treasures Him the hours
The seasons him obey and changeful Time
Sees him at will keep measure with his flight
At will outstrip it To enhance his toil
He summoneth from the uttermost extent
Of things which God hath taught him every form
Auxiliar every power and all beside
Excludes imperious His prevailing hand
Gives to corporeal essence life and sense
And every stately function of the soul
The soul itself to him obsequious lies
Like matter passive heap and as he wills
To reason and affection he assigns
Their just alliances their just degrees
Whence his peculiar honours whence the race
Of men who people his delightful world
Men genuine and according to themselves
Transcend as far the uncertain sons of earth
As earth itself to his delightful world
The palm of spotless Beauty doth resign
If yet regardful of your native land
Old Shakspeare tongue you deign to understand
Lo from the blissful bowers where heaven rewards
Instructive sages and unblemish'd bards
I come the ancient founder of the stage
Intent to learn in this discerning age
What form of wit your fancies have embraced
And whither tends your elegance of taste
That thus at length our homely toils you spurn
That thus to foreign scenes you proudly turn
That from my brow the laurel wreath you claim
To crown the rivals of your country fame
What though the footsteps of my devious Muse
The measured walks of Grecian art refuse
Or though the frankness of my hardy style
Mock the nice touches of the critic file
Yet what my age and climate held to view
Impartial I survey'd and fearless drew
And say ye skilful in the human heart
Who know to prize a poet noblest part
What age what clime could e'er an ampler field
For lofty thought for daring fancy yield
I saw this England break the shameful bands
Forged for the souls of men by sacred hands
I saw each groaning realm her aid implore
Her sons the heroes of each warlike shore
Her naval standard the dire Spaniard bane
Obey'd through all the circuit of the main
Then too great Commerce for a late found world
Around your coast her eager sails unfurl'd
New hopes new passions thence the bosom fired
New plans new arts the genius thence inspired
Thence every scene which private fortune knows
In stronger life with bolder spirit rose
Disgraced I this full prospect which I drew
My colours languid or my strokes untrue
Have not your sages warriors swains and kings
Confess'd the living draught of men and things
What other bard in any clime appears
Alike the master of your smiles and tears
Yet have I deign'd your audience to entice
With wretched bribes to luxury and vice
Or have my various scenes a purpose known
Which freedom virtue glory might not own
Such from the first was my dramatic plan
It should be yours to crown what I began
And now that England spurns her Gothic chain
And equal laws and social science reign
I thought Now surely shall my zealous eyes
View nobler bards and juster critics rise
Intent with learned labour to refine
The copious ore of Albion native mine
Our stately Muse more graceful airs to teach
And form her tongue to more attractive speech
Till rival nations listen at her feet
And own her polish'd as they own her great
But do you thus my favourite hopes fulfil
Is France at last the standard of your skill
Alas for you that so betray a mind
Of art unconscious and to beauty blind
Say does her language your ambition raise
Her barren trivial unharmonious phrase
Which fetters eloquence to scantiest bounds
And maims the cadence of poetic sounds
Say does your humble admiration choose
The gentle prattle of her Comic Muse
While wits plain-dealers fops and fools appear
Charged to say nought but what the king may hear
Or rather melt your sympathising hearts
Won by her tragic scene romantic arts
Where old and young declaim on soft desire
And heroes never but for love expire
No Though the charms of novelty a while
Perhaps too fondly win your thoughtless smile
Yet not for you design'd indulgent fate
The modes or manners of the Bourbon state
And ill your minds my partial judgment reads
And many an augury my hope misleads
If the fair maids of yonder blooming train
To their light courtship would an audience deign
Or those chaste matrons a Parisian wife
Choose for the model of domestic life
Or if one youth of all that generous band
The strength and splendour of their native land
Would yield his portion of his country fame
And quit old freedom patrimonial claim
With lying smiles oppression pomp to see
And judge of glory by a king decree
O bless'd at home with justly-envied laws
O long the chiefs of Europe general cause
Whom heaven hath chosen at each dangerous hour
To check the inroads of barbaric power
The rights of trampled nations to reclaim
And guard the social world from bonds and shame
Oh let not luxury fantastic charms
Thus give the lie to your heroic arms
Nor for the ornaments of life embrace
Dishonest lessons from that vaunting race
Whom fate dread laws for in eternal fate
Despotic rule was heir to freedom hate
Whom in each warlike each commercial part
In civil council and in pleasing art
The judge of earth predestined for your foes
And made it fame and virtue to oppose
When Learning triumph o'er her barb'rous foes
First rear'd the stage immortal Shakespear rose
Each change of many-colour'd life he drew
Exhausted worlds and then imagin'd new
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain
His pow'rful strokes presiding Truth impress'd
And unresisted Passion storm'd the breast
Then Jonson came instructed from the school
To please in method and invent by rule
His studious patience and laborious art
By regular approach essay'd the heart
Cold Approbation gave the ling'ring bays
For those who durst not censure scarce could praise
A mortal born he met the general doom
But left like Egypt kings a lasting tomb
The Wits of Charles found easier ways to fame
Nor wish'd for Jonson art or Shakespear flame
Themselves they studied as they felt they writ
Intrigue was plot obscenity was wit
Vice always found a sympathetic friend
They pleas'd their age and did not aim to mend
Yet bards like these aspir'd to lasting praise
And proudly hop'd to pimp in future days
Their cause was gen'ral their supports were strong
Their slaves were willing and their reign was long
Till Shame regain'd the post that Sense betray'd
And Virtue call'd Oblivion to her aid
Then crush'd by rules and weaken'd as refin'd
For years the pow'r of tragedy declin'd
From bard to bard the frigid caution crept
Till Declamation roar'd while Passion slept
Yet still did Virtue deign the stage to tread
Philosophy remain'd though Nature fled
But forc'd at length her ancient reign to quit
She saw great Faustus lay the ghost of wit
Exulting Folly hail'd the joyful day
And pantomime and song confirm'd her sway
But who the coming changes can presage
And mark the future periods of the stage 
Perhaps if skill could distant times explore
New Behns new Durfoys yet remain in store
Perhaps where Lear has rav'd and Hamlet died
On flying cars new sorcerers may ride
Perhaps for who can guess th' effects of chance
Here Hunt may box or Mahomet may dance
Hard is his lot that here by Fortune plac'd
Must watch the wild vicissitudes of taste
With ev'ry meteor of caprice must play
And chase the new-blown bubbles of the day
Ah let not censure term our fate our choice
The stage but echoes back the public voice
The drama laws the drama patrons give
For we that live to please must please to live
Then prompt no more the follies you decry
As tyrants doom their tools of guilt to die
'Tis yours this night to bid the reign commence
Of rescu'd Nature and reviving Sense
To chase the charms of Sound the pomp of Show
For useful Mirth and salutary Woe
Bid scenic Virtue form the rising age
And Truth diffuse her radiance from the stage
Thou who survey'st these walls with curious eye
Pause at this tomb where Hanmer ashes lie
His various worth through varied life attend
And learn his virtues while thou mourn'st his end
His force of genius burn'd in early youth
With thirst of knowledge and with love of truth
His learning joined with each endearing art
Charm'd every ear and gain'd every heart
Thus early wise the endanger'd real to aid
His country call'd him from the studious shade
In life first bloom his public toils began
At once commenced the senator and man
In business dexterous weighty in debate
Thrice ten long years he labour'd for the state
In every speech persuasive wisdom flow'd
In every act refulgent virtue glow'd
Suspended faction ceased from rage and strife
To hear his eloquence and praise his life
Resistless merit fix'd the senate choice
Who hail'd him Speaker with united voice
Illustrious age how bright thy glories shone
When Hanmer fill'd the chair - and Anne the throne
Then when dark art obscured each fierce debate
When mutual frauds perplex'd the maze of state
The Moderator firmly mild appear'd -
Beheld with love - with veneration heard
This task perform'd - he sought no gainful post
Nor wish'd to glitter at his country cost
Strict on the right he fix'd his stedfast eye
With temperate zeal and wise anxiety
Nor e'er from Virtue paths was lured aside
To pluck the flowers of pleasure or of pride
Her gifts despis'd Corruption blush'd and fled
And Fame pursued him where Conviction led
Age call'd at length his active mind to rest
With honour sated and with cares oppress'd
To letter'd ease retired and honest mirth
To rural grandeur and domestic worth
Delighted still to please mankind or mend
The patriot fire yet sparkled in the friend
Calm Conscience then his former life survey'd
And recollected toils endeared the shade
Till Nature call'd him to the general doom
And Virtue sorrow dignified his tomb
The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated
Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind from China to Peru
Remark each anxious toil each eager strife
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life
Then say how hope and fear desire and hate
O'erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate
Where wav'ring man betray'd by vent'rous pride
To tread the dreary paths without a guide
As treach'rous phantoms in the mist delude
Shuns fancied ills or chases airy good
How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice
Rules the bold hand or prompts the suppliant voice
How nations sink by darling schemes oppress'd
When vengeance listens to the fool request
Fate wings with ev'ry wish th' afflictive dart
Each gift of nature and each grace of art
With fatal heat impetuous courage glows
With fatal sweetness elocution flows
Impeachment stops the speaker pow'rful breath
And restless fire precipitates on death
But scarce observ'd the knowing and the bold
Fall in the gen'ral massacre of gold
Wide-wasting pest that rages unconfin'd
And crowds with crimes the records of mankind
For gold his sword the hireling ruffian draws
For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws
Wealth heap'd on wealth nor truth nor safety buys
The dangers gather as the treasures rise
Let hist'ry tell where rival kings command
And dubious title shakes the madded land
When statutes glean the refuse of the sword
How much more safe the vassal than the lord
Low sculks the hind beneath the rage of pow'r
And leaves the wealthy traitor in the Tow'r
Untouch'd his cottage and his slumbers sound
Tho' confiscation vultures hover round
The needy traveller serene and gay
Walks the wild heath and sings his toil away
Does envy seize thee crush th' upbraiding joy
Increase his riches and his peace destroy
New fears in dire vicissitude invade
The rustling brake alarms and quiv'ring shade
Nor light nor darkness bring his pain relief
One shews the plunder and one hides the thief
Yet still one gen'ral cry the skies assails
And gain and grandeur load the tainted gales
Few know the toiling statesman fear or care
Th' insidious rival and the gaping heir
Once more Democritus arise on earth
With cheerful wisdom and instructive mirth
See motley life in modern trappings dress'd
And feed with varied fools th' eternal jest
Thou who couldst laugh where want enchain'd caprice
Toil crush'd conceit and man was of a piece
Where wealth unlov'd without a mourner died
And scarce a sycophant was fed by pride
Where ne'er was known the form of mock debate
Or seen a new-made mayor unwieldy state
Where change of fav'rites made no change of laws
And senates heard before they judg'd a cause
How wouldst thou shake at Britain modish tribe
Dart the quick taunt and edge the piercing gibe
Attentive truth and nature to decry
And pierce each scene with philosophic eye
To thee were solemn toys or empty show
The robes of pleasure and the veils of woe
All aid the farce and all thy mirth maintain
Whose joys are causeless or whose griefs are vain
Such was the scorn that fill'd the sage mind
Renew'd at ev'ry glance on humankind
How just that scorn ere yet thy voice declare
Search every state and canvas ev'ry pray'r
Unnumber'd suppliants crowd Preferment gate
Athirst for wealth and burning to be great
Delusive Fortune hears th' incessant call
They mount they shine evaporate and fall
On ev'ry stage the foes of peace attend
Hate dogs their flight and insult mocks their end
Love ends with hope the sinking statesman door
Pours in the morning worshiper no more
For growing names the weekly scribbler lies
To growing wealth the dedicator flies
From every room descends the painted face
That hung the bright Palladium of the place
And smok'd in kitchens or in auctions sold
To better features yields the frame of gold
For now no more we trace in ev'ry line
Heroic worth benevolence divine
The form distorted justifies the fall
And detestation rids th' indignant wall
When first the college rolls receive his name
The young enthusiast quits his ease for fame
Through all his veins the fever of renown
Spreads from the strong contagion of the gown
O'er Bodley dome his future labours spread
And Bacon mansion trembles o'er his head
Are these thy views proceed illustrious youth
And virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth
Yet should thy soul indulge the gen'rous heat
Till captive Science yields her last retreat
Should Reason guide thee with her brightest ray
And pour on misty Doubt resistless day
Should no false Kindness lure to loose delight
Nor Praise relax nor Difficulty fright
Should tempting Novelty thy cell refrain
And Sloth effuse her opiate fumes in vain
Should Beauty blunt on fops her fatal dart
Nor claim the triumph of a letter'd heart
Should no disease thy torpid veins invade
Nor Melancholy phantoms haunt thy shade
Yet hope not life from grief or danger free
Nor think the doom of man revers'd for thee
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes
And pause awhile from letters to be wise
There mark what ills the scholar life assail
Toil envy want the patron and the jail
See nations slowly wise and meanly just
To buried merit raise the tardy bust
If dreams yet flatter once again attend
Hear Lydiat life and Galileo end
Nor deem when learning her last prize bestows
The glitt'ring eminence exempt from foes
See when the vulgar 'scape despis'd or aw'd
Rebellion vengeful talons seize on Laud
From meaner minds tho' smaller fines content
The plunder'd palace or sequester'd rent
Mark'd out by dangerous parts he meets the shock
And fatal Learning leads him to the block
Around his tomb let Art and Genius weep
But hear his death ye blockheads hear and sleep
Enlarge my life with multitude of days
In health in sickness thus the suppliant prays
Hides from himself his state and shuns to know
That life protracted is protracted woe
Time hovers o'er impatient to destroy
And shuts up all the passages of joy
In vain their gifts the bounteous seasons pour
The fruit autumnal and the vernal flow'r
With listless eyes the dotard views the store
He views and wonders that they please no more
Now pall the tasteless meats and joyless wines
And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns
Approach ye minstrels try the soothing strain
And yield the tuneful lenitives of pain
No sounds alas would touch th' impervious ear
Though dancing mountains witness'd Orpheus near
Nor lute nor lyre his feeble pow'rs attend
Nor sweeter music of a virtuous friend
But everlasting dictates crowd his tongue
Perversely grave or positively wrong
The still returning tale and ling'ring jest
Perplex the fawning niece and pamper'd guest
While growing hopes scarce awe the gath'  sneer
And scarce a legacy can bribe to hear
The watchful guests still hint the last offence
The daughter petulance the son expense
Improve his heady rage with treach'rous skill
And mould his passions till they make his will
Unnumber'd maladies his joints invade
Lay siege to life and press the dire blockade
But unextinguish'd Av'rice still remains
And dreaded losses aggravate his pains
He turns with anxious heart and crippled hands
His bonds of debt and mortgages of lands
Or views his coffers with suspicious eyes
Unlocks his gold and counts it till he dies
But grant the virtues of a temp'rate prime
Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime
An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay
And glides in modest innocence away
Whose peaceful day Benevolence endears
Whose night congratulating Conscience cheers
The gen'ral fav'rite as the gen'ral friend
Such age there is and who could wish its end
Yet ev'n on this her load Misfortune flings
To press the weary minutes' flagging wings
New sorrow rises as the day returns
A sister sickens or a daughter mourns
Now kindred Merit fills the sable bier
Now lacerated Friendship claims a tear
Year chases year decay pursues decay
Still drops some joy from with'  life away
New forms arise and diff'rent views engage
Superfluous lags the vet'ran on the stage
Till pitying Nature signs the last release
And bids afflicted worth retire to peace
But few there are whom hours like these await
Who set unclouded in the gulfs of fate
From Lydia monarch should the search descend
By Solon caution'd to regard his end
In life last scene what prodigies surprise
Fears of the brave and follies of the wise
From Marlb'rough eyes the streams of dotage flow
And Swift expires a driv'ler and a show
The teeming mother anxious for her race
Begs for each birth the fortune of a face
Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring
And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd a king
Ye nymphs of rosy lips and radiant eyes
Whom Pleasure keeps too busy to be wise
Whom Joys with soft varieties invite
By day the frolic and the dance by night
Who frown with vanity who smile with art
And ask the latest fashion of the heart
What care what rules your heedless charms shall save
Each nymph your rival and each youth your slave
Against your fame with fondness hate combines
The rival batters and the lover mines
With distant voice neglected Virtue calls
Less heard and less the faint remonstrance falls
Tir'd with contempt she quits the slipp'ry reign
And Pride and Prudence take her seat in vain
In crowd at once where none the pass defend
The harmless freedom and the private friend
The guardians yield by force superior plied
By Int'rest Prudence and by Flatt'ry Pride
Now Beauty falls betray'd despis'd distress'd
And hissing Infamy proclaims the rest
Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find
Must dull Suspense corrupt the stagnant mind
Must helpless man in ignorance sedate
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate
Must no dislike alarm no wishes rise
No cries attempt the mercies of the skies
Enquirer cease petitions yet remain
Which Heav'n may hear nor deem religion vain
Still raise for good the supplicating voice
But leave to Heav'n the measure and the choice
Safe in his pow'r whose eyes discern afar
The secret ambush of a specious pray'r
Implore his aid in his decisions rest
Secure whate'er he gives he gives the best
Yet when the sense of sacred presence fires
And strong devotion to the skies aspires
Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind
Obedient passions and a will resign'd
For love which scarce collective man can fill
For patience sov'reign o'er transmuted ill
For faith that panting for a happier seat
Counts death kind Nature signal of retreat
These goods for man the laws of Heav'n ordain
These goods he grants who grants the pow'r to gain
With these celestial wisdom calms the mind
And makes the happiness she does not find
When Scaliger whole years of labour past
Beheld his lexicon complete at last
And weary of his task with wond'ring eyes
Saw from words pil'd on words a fabric rise
He curs'd the industry inertly strong
In creeping toil that could persist so long
And if enrag'd he cried heav'n meant to shed
Its keenest vengeance on the guilty head
The drudgery of words the damn'd would know
Doom'd to write lexicons in endless woe
Yes you had cause great genius to repent
'You lost good days that might be better spent
You well might grudge the hours of ling'ring pain
And view your learned labours with disdain
To you were given the large expanded mind
The flame of genius and the taste refin'd
'Twas yours on eagle wings aloft to soar
And amidst rolling worlds the great first cause explore
To fix the aeras of recorded time
And live in ev'ry age and ev'ry clime
Record the chiefs who propt their country cause
Who founded empires and establish'd laws
To learn whate'er the sage with virtue fraught
Whate'er the muse of moral wisdom taught
These were your quarry these to you were known
And the world ample volume was your own
Yet warn'd by me ye pigmy wits beware
Nor with immortal Scaliger compare
For me though his example strike my view
Oh not for me his footsteps to pursue
Whether first nature unpropitious cold
This clay compounded in a ruder mould
Or the slow current loit'ring at my heart
No gleam of wit or fancy can impart
Whate'er the cause from me no numbers flow
No visions warm me and no raptures glow
A mind like Scaliger superior still
No grief could conquer no misfortune chill
Though for the maze of words his native skies
He seem'd to quit 'twas but again to rise
To mount once more to the bright source of day
And view the wonders of th' ethereal way
The love of fame his gen'rous bosom fir'd
Each science hail'd him and each muse inspir'd
For him the sons of learning trimm'd the bays
And nations grew harmonious in his praise
My task perform'd and all my labours o'er
For me what lot has fortune now in store
The listless will succeeds that worst disease
The rack of indolence the sluggish ease
Care grows on care and o'er my aching brain
Black melancholy pours her morbid train
No kind relief no lenitive at hand
I seek at midnight clubs the social band
But midnight clubs where wit with noise conspires
Where Comus revels and where wine inspires
Delight no more I seek my lonely bed
And call on sleep to sooth my languid head
But sleep from these sad lids flies far away
I mourn all night and dread the coming day
Exhausted tir'd I throw my eyes around
To find some vacant spot on classic ground
And soon vain hope I form a grand design
Languor succeeds and all my pow'rs decline
If science open not her richest vein
Without materials all our toil is vain
A form to rugged stone when Phidias gives 
Beneath his touch a new creation lives
Remove his marble and his genius dies
With nature then no breathing statue vies
Whate'er I plan I feel my pow'rs confin'd
By fortune frown and penury of mind
I boast no knowledge glean'd with toil and strife
That bright reward of a well acted life
I view myself while reason feeble light
Shoots a pale glimmer through the gloom of night
While passions error phantoms of the brain
And vain opinions fill the dark domain
A dreary void where fears with grief combin'd
Waste all within and desolate the mind
What then remains Must I in slow decline
To mute inglorious ease old age resign
Or bold ambition kindling in my breast
Attempt some arduous task Or were it best
Brooding o'er lexicons to pass the day
And in that labour drudge my life away
Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel
When injured Thales bids the town farewell
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend
I praise the hermit but regret the friend
Who now resolves from vice and London far
To breathe in distant fields a purer air
And fix'd on Cambria solitary shore
Give to St David one true Briton more
For who would leave unbribed Hibernia land
Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand
There none are swept by sudden fate away
But all whom hunger spares with age decay
Here malice rapine accident conspire
And now a rabble rages now a fire
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay
And here the fell attorney prowls for prey
Here falling houses thunder on your head
And here a female atheist talks you dead
While Thales waits the wherry that contains
Of dissipated wealth the small remains
On Thames banks in silent thought we stood
Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood
Struck with the seat that gave Eliza birth
We kneel and kiss the consecrated earth
In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew
And call Britannia glories back to view
Behold her cross triumphant on the main
The guard of commerce and the dread of Spain
Ere masquerades debauch'd excise oppress'd
Or English honour grew a standing jest
A transient calm the happy scenes bestow
And for a moment lull the sense of woe
At length awakening with contemptuous frown
Indignant Thales eyes the neighbouring town
'Since worth he cries in these degenerate days
Wants e'en the cheap reward of empty praise
In those curs'd walls devote to vice and gain
Since unrewarded science toils in vain
Since hope but soothes to double my distress
And every moment leaves my little less
While yet my steady steps no staff sustains
And life still vigorous revels in my veins
Grant me kind Heaven to find some happier place
Where honesty and sense are no disgrace
Some pleasing bank where verdant osiers play
Some peaceful vale with Nature painting gay
Where once the harrass'd Briton found repose
And safe in poverty defied his foes
Some secret cell ye powers indulgent give
Let   live here for   has learn'd to live
Here let those reign whom pensions can incite
To vote a patriot black a courtier white
Explain their country dear-bought rights away
And plead for pirates in the face of day
With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth
And lend a lie the confidence of truth
Let such raise palaces and manors buy
Collect a tax or farm a lottery
With warbling eunuchs fill a licensed stage
And lull to servitude a thoughtless age
Heroes proceed what bounds your pride shall hold
What check restrain your thirst of power and gold
Behold rebellious Virtue quite o'erthrown
Behold your fame our wealth our lives your own
To such a groaning nation spoils are given
When public crimes inflame the wrath of Heaven
But what my friend what hope remains for me
Who start at theft and blush at perjury
Who scarce forbear though Britain court he sing
To pluck a titled poet borrowed wing
A statesman logic unconvinc'd can hear
And dare to slumber o'er the Gazetteer
Despise a fool in half his pension dress'd
And strive in vain to laugh at H y jest
'Others with softer smiles and subtler art
Can sap the principles or taint the heart
With more address a lover note convey
Or bribe a virgin innocence away
Well may they rise while I whose rustic tongue
Ne'er knew to puzzle right or varnish wrong
Spurn'd as a beggar dreaded as a spy
Live unregarded unlamented die
'For what but social guilt the friend endears
Who shares Orgilio crimes his fortune shares
But thou should tempting villainy present
All Marlborough hoarded or all Villiers spent
Turn from the glittering bribe thy scornful eye
Nor sell for gold what gold could never buy
The peaceful slumber self-approving day
Unsullied fame and conscience ever gay
'The cheated nation happy favourites see
Mark whom the great caress who frown on me
London the needy villain general home
The common sewer of Paris and of Rome
With eager thirst by folly or by fate
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state
Forgive my transports on a theme like this
I cannot bear a French metropolis
'Illustrious Edward from the realms of day
The land of heroes and of saints survey
Nor hope the British lineaments to trace
The rustic grandeur or the surly grace
But lost in thoughtless ease and empty show
Behold the warrior dwindled to a beau
Sense freedom piety refined away
Of France the mimic and of Spain the prey
'All that at home no more can beg or steal
Or like a gibbet better than a wheel
Hiss'd from the stage or hooted from the court
Their air their dress their politics import
Obsequious artful voluble and gay
On Britain fond credulity they prey
No gainful trade their industry can 'scape
They sing they dance clean shoes or cure a clap
All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows
And bid him go to hell to hell he goes
'Ah what avails it that from slavery far
I drew the breath of life in English air
Was early taught a Briton right to prize
And lisp the tale of Henry victories
If the gull'd conqueror receives the chain
And flattery subdues when arms are vain
'Studious to please and ready to submit
The supple Gaul was born a parasite
Still to his interest true where'er he goes
Wit bravery worth his lavish'd tongue bestows
In every face a thousand graces shine
From every tongue flows harmony divine
These arts in vain our rugged natives try
Strain out with faltering diffidence a lie
And gain a kick for awkward flattery
'Besides with justice this discerning age
Admires their wondrous talents for the stage
Well may they venture on the mimic art
Who play from morn to night a borrow'd part
Practis'd their master notions to embrace
Repeat his maxims and reflect his face
With every wild absurdity comply
And view each object with another eye
To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear
To pour at will the counterfeited tear
And as their patron hints the cold or heat
To shake in dog-days in December sweat
How when competitors like these contend
Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend
Slaves that with serious impudence beguile
And lie without a blush without a smile
Exalt each trifle every vice adore
Your taste in snuff your judgement in a whore
Can Balbo eloquence applaud and swear
He gropes his breeches with a monarch air
'For arts like these preferr'd admired caress'd
They first invade your table then your breast
Explore your secrets with insidious art
Watch the weak hour and ransack all the heart
Then soon your ill-placed confidence repay
Commence your lords and govern or betray
'By numbers here from shame or censure free
All crimes are safe but hated poverty
This only this the rigid law pursues
This only this provokes the snarling muse
The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak
Wakes from his dream and labours for a joke
With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze
And turn the varied taunt of a thousand ways
Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart
Than when a blockhead insult points the dart
'Has Heaven reserved in pity to the poor
No pathless waste or undiscover'd shore
No secret island in the boundless main
No peaceful desert yet unclaim'd by Spain
Quick let us rise the happy seats explore
And bear oppression insolence no more
This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd
Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd
But here more slow where all are slaves to gold
Where looks are merchandise and smiles are sold
Where won by bribes by flatteries implored
The groom retails the favours of his lord
'But hark th' affrighted crowd tumultuous cries
Roll through the streets and thunder to the skies
Raised from some pleasing dream of wealth and power
Some pompous palace or some blissful bower
Aghast you start and scarce with aching sight
Sustain the approaching fire tremendous light
Swift from pursuing horrors take your way
And leave your little all to flames a prey
Then through the world a wretched vagrant roam
For where can starving merit find a home
In vain your mournful narrative disclose
While all neglect and most insult your woes
'Should Heaven just bolts Orgilio wealth confound
And spread his flaming palace on the ground
Swift o'er the land the dismal rumour flies
And public mournings pacify the skies
The laureate tribe in servile verse relate
How virtue wars with persecuting fate
With well-feign'd gratitude the pension'd band
Refund the plunder of the beggar'd land
See while he builds the gaudy vassals come
And crowd with sudden wealth the rising dome
The price of boroughs and of souls restore
And raise his treasures higher than before
Now bless'd with all the baubles of the great
The polish'd marble and the shining plate
Orgilio sees the golden pile aspire
And hopes from angry Heaven another fire
'Couldst thou resign the park and play content
For the fair banks of Severn or of Trent
There might'st thou find some elegant retreat
Some hireling senator deserted seat
And stretch thy prospects o'er the smiling land
For less than rent the dungeons of the Strand
There prune thy walks support thy drooping flowers
Direct thy rivulets and twine thy bowers
And while thy beds a cheap repast afford
Despise the dainties of a venal lord
There every bush with nature music rings
There every breeze bears health upon its wings
On all thy hours security shall smile
And bless thine evening walk and morning toil
'Prepare for death if here at night you roam
And sign your will before you sup from home
Some fiery fop with new commission vain
Who sleeps on brambles till he kills his man
Some frolic drunkard reeling from a feast
Provokes a broil and stabs you for a jest
'Yet even these heroes mischievously gay
Lords of the street and terrors of the way
Flush'd as they are with folly youth and wine
Their prudent insults to the poor confine
Afar they mark the flambeau bright approach
And shun the shining train and golden coach
'In vain these dangers past your doors you close
And hope the balmy blessings of repose
Cruel with guilt and daring with despair
The midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar
Invades the sacred hour of silent rest
And plants unseen a dagger in your breast
'Scarce can our fields such crowds at Tyburn die
With hemp gallows and the fleet supply
Propose your schemes ye senatorian band
Whose 'ways and means' support the sinking land
Lest ropes be wanting in the tempting spring
To rig another convoy for the king
'A single jail in Alfred golden reign
Could half the nation criminals contain
Fair justice then without constraint adored
Held high the steady scale but sheathed the sword
No spies were paid no special juries known
Bless'd age but ah how different from our own
'Much could I add - but see the boat at hand
The tide retiring calls me from the land
Farewell - When youth and health and fortune spent
Thou fly'st for refuge to the wilds of Kent
And tired like me with follies and with crimes
In angry numbers warn'st succeeding times
Then shall thy friend nor thou refuse his aid
Still foe to vice forsake his Cambrian shade
In virtue cause once more exert his rage
Thy satire point and animate thy page
Long hast thou borne the burden of the day
Thy task is ended venerable Grey
No more shall art thy dexterous hand require
To break the sleep of elemental fire
To rouse the powers that actuate Nature frame
The momentaneous shock th' electric flame
The flame which at first weak pupil of thy lore
I saw condemn'd alas to see no more
Now hoary sage pursue thy happy flight
With swifter motion haste to purer light
Where Bacon waits with Newton and with Boyle
To hail thy genius and applaud thy toil
Where intuition breathes through time and space
And mocks experiment successive race
See tardy science toil at Nature laws
And wonders how th' effect obscures the cause
Yet not to deep research or happy guess
Is view'd the life of hope the death of peace
Unbless'd the man whom philosophic rage
Shall tempt to lose the Christian in the sage
Not art but goodness pour'd the sacred ray
That cheer'd the parting hours of humble Grey
Ere shall they not who resolute explore
Times gloomy backward with judicious eyes
And scanning right the practice of yore
Shall deem our hoar progenitors unwise
They to the dome where smoke with curling play
Announced the dinner to the regions round
Summon'd the singer blithe and harper gay
And aided wine with dulcet-streaming sound
The better use of notes or sweet or shrill
By quivering string or modulated wind
Trumpet or lyre - to their harsh bosoms chill
Admission ne'er had sought or could not find
Oh send them to the sullen mansions dun
Her baleful eyes where sorrow rolls around
Where gloom-enamour'd mischief loves to dwell
And murder all blood-bolter'd schemes the wound
When cates luxuriant pile the spacious dish
And purple nectar glads the festive hour
The guest without a want without a wish
Can yield no room to music soothing power
She ceas'd then godlike Hector answer'd kind -
His various plumage sporting in the wind
'That post and all the rest shall be my care
But shall I then forsake the unfinish'd war
How would the Trojans brand great Hector name
And one base action sully all my fame
Acquired by wounds and battles bravely fought
Oh how my soul abhors so mean a thought
Long have I learnt to slight this feeble breath
And view with cheerful eyes approaching death
The inexorable sisters have decreed
That Priam house and Priam self shall bleed
The day shall come in which proud Troy shall yield
And spread its smoking ruins o'er the field
Yet Hecuba nor Priam hoary age
Whose blood shall quench some Grecian thirsty rage
Their souls dismiss'd through many a ghastly wound
Can in my bosom half that grief create
As the sad thought of your impending fate
When some proud Grecian dame shall tasks impose
Mimic your years and ridicule your woes
Beneath Hyperia waters shall you sweat
And fainting scarce support the liquid weight
Then shall some Argive loud insulting cry
'Behold the wife of Hector guard of Troy
Tears at my name shall drown those beauteous eyes
And that fair bosom heave with rising sighs
Before that day by some brave hero hand
May I lie slain and spurn the bloody sand
When first the peasant long inclined to roam
Forsakes his rural sports and peaceful home
Pleas'd with the scene the smiling ocean yields
He scorns the verdant meads and flowery fields
Then dances jocund o'er the watery way
While the breeze whispers and the streamers play
Unbounded prospects in his bosom roll
And future millions lift his rising soul
In blissful dreams he digs the golden mine
And raptured sees the new-found ruby shine
Joys insincere thick clouds invade the skies
Loud roar the billows high the waves arise
Sickening with fear he longs to view the shore
And vows to trust the faithless deep no more
So the Young Author panting after fame
And the long honours of a lasting name
Intrusts his happiness to human kind
More false more cruel than the seas or wind
'Toil on dull crowd' in ecstasies he cries
'For wealth or title perishable prize
While I those transitory blessings scorn
Secure of praise from ages yet unborn' -
This thought once form'd all counsel comes too late
He flies to press and hurries on his fate
Swiftly he sees the imagined laurels spread
And feels the unfading wreath surround his head
Warn'd by another fate vain youth be wise
Those dreams were Settle once and Ogilby's
The pamphlet spreads incessant hisses rise
To some retreat the baffled writer flies
Where no sour critics snarl no sneers molest
Safe from the tart lampoon and stinging jest
There begs of Heaven a less distinguish'd lot
Glad to be hid and proud to be forgot
This tributary verse receive my fair
Warm with an ardent lover fondest prayer
May this returning day for ever find
Thy form more lovely more adorn'd thy mind
All pains all cares may favouring heaven remove
All but the sweet solicitudes of love
May powerful nature join with grateful art
To point each glance and force it to the heart
O then when conquer'd crowds confess thy sway
When even proud wealth and prouder wit obey
My fair be mindful of the mighty trust
Alas 'tis hard for beauty to be just
Those sovereign charms with strictest care employ
Nor give the generous pain the worthless joy
With his own form acquaint the forward fool
Shown in the mimic glass of ridicule
Teach mimic censure her own faults to find
No more let coquettes to themselves be blind
So shall Belinda charms improve mankind
Bright Stella form'd for universal reign
Too well you know to keep the slaves you gain
When in your eyes resistless lightnings play
Awed into love our conquer'd hearts obey
And yield reluctant to despotic sway
But when your music soothes the raging pain
We bid propitious heaven prolong your reign
We bless the tyrant and we hug the chain
When old Timotheus struck the vocal string
Ambition fury fired the Grecian king
Unbounded projects labouring in his mind
He pants for room in one poor world confined
Thus waked to rage by music dreadful power
He bids the sword destroy the flame devour
Had Stella gentle touches moved the lyre
Soon had the monarch felt the nobler fire
No more delighted with destructive war
Ambitious only now to please the fair
Resign'd his thirst of empire to her charms
And found a thousand worlds in Stella arms
Grown old in courts thou art not surely one
Who keeps the rigid rules of ancient honour
Well skill'd to soothe a foe with looks of kindness
To sink the fatal precipice before him
And then lament his fall with seeming friendship
Open to all true only to thyself
Thou know'st the arts which blast with envious praise
Which aggravate a fault with feign'd excuses
And drive discountenanced virtue from the throne
That leave the blame of rigour to the prince
And of his every gift usurp the merit
That hide in seeming zeal a wicked purpose
And only build upon another ruin
Hail lovely flower first honour of the year
Hail beautious earnest of approaching spring
Whose early buds unusual glories wear
And of a fruitfull year fair omens bring
Be thou the favorite of the indulgent sky
Nor feel the inclemencies of wintry air
May no rude blasts thy sacred bloom destroy
May storms howl gently o'er and learn to spare
May lambent zephyrs gently wave thy head
And balmy spirits thro' thy foliage play
May the morn earliest tears on thee be shed
And thou impearl'd with dew appear more gay
May throngs of beautious virgins 'round thee crowd
And view thy charms with no malignant eyes
Then scorn those flowers to which the Aegyptians bow'd
Which prostrate Memphis own'd her deities
If mix'd with these divine Cleora smile
Cleora smiles a genial warmth dispense
New verdure ev'ry fading leaf shall fill
And thou shalt flourish by her influence
But while I sing the nimble moments fly
See Sol bright chariot seeks the western main
And ah behold the shriveling blossoms die
So late admir'd and prais'd alas in vain
With grief this emblem of mankind I see
Like one awaken'd from a pleasing dream
Cleora self fair flower shall fade like thee
Alike must fall the poet and his theme
The banefull weeds spring up and choak the grain
Now each parterre with thorny brakes is fill'd
Where late the lilies mix'd with violets smil'd
Ye swains bestrow the ground with leaves and spread
O'er all the warbling founts a cooling shade
On his dead body let a tomb be plac'd
And be the stone with this inscription grac'd
Here fairer than his flock the shepherd lyes
Whose fame from earth resounded to the skies
Now beauteous Daphnis cloath'  with heav'nly light
Shuns Pluto kingdoms and the realms of night
Beneath his feet admires each shining star
And sees the motions of th' harmonious sphere
Pleasure in ev'ry nymph and shepherd reigns
And banish'd sorrow flies the joyous plains
The harmless wolves no more our cattle fear
No toils shall intercept the nimble deer
Rocks send their acclamations to the skie
And woods and mountains hail the deity
Attend my prayers propitious hear my vow
Here have I rais'd four sacred altars two
To great Latona son and two to you
Two bowls with oyl and milk I'll yearly crown
And pour them on the consecrated stone
Then we with wine will drown our troubles laid
If winter by the fire if summer in the shade
While boars the rocks while fish the rivers love
soon as the chief approach'd the Scaean Gate
About to rush into the field of fate
He met Andromache his beauteous wife
Far dearer than his own or father life
Whose sire Eetion in Cilicia reign'd
Where Hypoplacus' lofty shades extend
The nurse attending bore a lovely boy
Pledge of their love and source of all their joy
By Hector call'd Scamandrius from the god
That laves proud Ilion with his rapid flood
But call'd Astyanax because his sire
Alone preserv'd the town from Grecian fire
From Hector breast each gloomy trouble flies
And secret pleasures sparkled in his eyes
Mournfull Andromache the silence broke
Her tears in show'rs descending as she spoke
Why gen'rous warriour will you rashly run
On dangers which your safety bids you shun
Forgetfull of your wife forgetfull of your son
Soon shall you fall by num'rous hosts opprest
And Grecian spears shall quiver in your breast
But ah before arise that hapless day
May I lye cold beneath a load of clay
While Hector lives I tast of ev'ry joy
With Hector life away my pleasures fly
My father fell by fierce Achilles' hand
Whose direfull rage destroy'd my native land
Pleas'd with the conquest he forebore the spoil
And burnt him decent on a funerall pile
The nymphs bewail'd his fall with loud lament
And planted elms around his monument
By that dire sword my sev'n brave brothers dy'd
All stemm'd in one sad day the Stygian tyde
Among their flocks the blooming heroes fell
And stain'd with blood Pelides' vengefull steel
My mother who alone escap'd the grave
The victor hither brought a royall slave
Soon as with gold appeas'd he set her free
To tast again the sweets of liberty
Provok'd Diana with a vengefull dart
Ended her wretched life and pierc'd her heart
But dearest Hector while thou liv'st I see
A father brother husband all in thee
Rush not impetuous to the bloody fray
Nor tempt the dangers of this deathfull day
Think shouldst thou fall how wretched shall we be
A widow I an helpless orphan he
Within the town assemble all thy powers
And man the walls and fortifie the tow'rs
Where the wild fig trees join their darksom shade
The bravest of the Greeks the wall invade
Th' Atridae there and Tydeus' mighty son
Idomeneus and godlike Telamon
Thrice to the wall their dreadfull hosts have led
And thrice to mount the battlements assay'd
Whether urg'd on by seers from heav'n inspir'd
Or their own souls with hopes of vict'ry fir'd
She ceas'd then godlike Hector answer'd kind
His various plumage sporting in the wind
That post and all the rest shall be my care
But shall I then forsake th' unfinish'd war
How would the Trojans brand great Hector name
And one base action sully all my fame
Acquir'd by wounds and battles bravely fought
Oh how my soul abhors so mean a thought
Long since I learn'd to slight this fleeting breath
And view with chearfull eyes approaching death
Th' inexorable Sisters have decreed
That Priam house and Priam self shall bleed
The day will come in which proud Troy shall yield
And spread its smoaking ruins o'er the field
Yet Hecuba nor Priam hoary age
Whose blood shall quench some Grecian thirsty rage
Nor my brave brothers that have bit the ground
Their souls dismiss'd through many a ghastly wound
Can in my bosom half that grief create
As the sad thought of your impending fate
When some proud Grecian dame shall tasks impose
Mimick your tears and ridicule your woes
Beneath Hyperia waters shall you sweat
And fainting scarce support the liquid weight
Then shall some Argive loud insulting cry
'Behold the wife of Hector guard of Troy'
Tears at my name shall drown those beauteous eyes
And that fair bosom heave with rising sighs
Before that day by some brave heroe hand
May I lye slain and spurn the bloody sand
Hector this speaking with extended hands
From the fair nurse Astyanax demands
The child starts back affrighted at the blaze
Of light reflected from the polish'd brass
And in his nurse bosom hides his face
The parents smil'd the chief his helm unbound
And plac'd the beamy terror on the ground
Then kist his son and raising to the skies
In fervent prayer addrest the deities
Immortal Gods and thou allmighty Jove
That reign'st supreme among the pow'rs above
Propitious hear my prayers protect the boy
Grant him like me to guard the walls of Troy
Let distant regions echo with his name
And his more glorious acts eclipse his father fame
May then his mother heart with joys o'erflow
And may she ne'er returning sorrows know
The chief this spoke into the mother arms
Returns his child she views his infant charms
Tumultuous passions strugle in her breast
And joy and sorrow stand by turns confest
This Hector saw his soul was touch'd with grief
He grasp'd her hand endeav'ring kind relief
Ah let not tears down that fair count'nance rowl
Restrain your sorrows calm your troubled soul
Your sighs are spent in vain if fates withstand
Hector shall perish by no warriour hand
But if by their irrevocable doom
My death is now decreed my death will come
The bravest hero and the fearfull'st slave
Shall sink alike into the gloomy grave
Hence to the palace and your maids repair
There let the web and distaff be your care
To men belongs the dreadfull work of war
Then on his brow the mighty soldier plac'd
Then on his brow the mighty soldier plac'd
His shining helm with nodding horse hair grac'd
Swifter than lightning to the fight he flies
Andromache looks back with weeping eyes
Then sought the palace where the menial train
Shed floods of tears and sympathiz'd in pain
With dolefull cries their living lord they mourn
Nor from the battle look for his return
Feather'd battalions squadrons on the wing
And the sad fate of Pygmie realms I sing
Direct O Goddess my advent'rous song
In warring colours shew the warring throng
Teach me to range my troopes in just array
Whilst beaks and swords engage in bloody fray
And paint the horrors of the dreadfull day
In pompous numbers ancient heroes rise
Their growing fame re'echoes to the skies
Who hath not heard of Argo valiant crew
How great Achilles godlike Hector slew
How Turnus by Aeneas' sword expir'd
Or how before Nassau the Gallick troops retir'd
Who has not read the Theban brothers' hate
And wept unhappy Pompey hapless fate
I first attempt in never-dying lays
To propagate the Pygmie heroes' praise
While in my verse the shrilling trumpets sound
I'll sing the chiefs dispensing fate around
In vain from heaven black concave like a cloud
Fresh foes descending glut their swords with blood
Where radiant Phoebus rising from the sea
Dispells the darkness with his golden ray
In a low vale by rocks that pierce the skies
Guarded from all but winged enemies
In former ages while upheld by fate
Securely flourish'd the Pygmiean state
The fruitfull fields th' industrious people till'd
And with laborious crouds the plains were fill'd
Now wand'ring o'er the cliffs the traveller
Small bones and mangled bodies scatter'd there
Affrighted views and looking o'er the plain
With horrour counts the number of the slain
The victor Cranes the conquer'd realms possess
Scream in the nests and brood their young in peace
Not so while long th' undaunted race maintain'd
Against th' invading birds their native land
Whatever Crane confiding in his might
Dar'd have provok'd a foe to single fight
Soon forth in arms had some bold soldier stood
Soon had the wrathfull faulchion drank his blood
Oft from behind they wounded them with darts
Or fix'd the pointed arrows in their hearts
Whene'er the lab'ring bird with anxious care
Had form'd her nest and plac'd her burthen there
Some furious soldier would approach that bore
Death in his look and hands imbru'd in gore
Who to the ground the shatter'd building flung
And crush'd the yet unanimated young
From hence the seeds of discord first arose
The Pygmies thus exasp'rated their foes
Hence men and birds promiscuous press'd the sand
And Death exulting stalk'd along the land
Not the Maeonian Bard in lofty strain
Sung such a war when in a miry fen
Fiercely contending two vast armies stood
And dy'd their bulrush-spears in mutual blood
Here with dead mice the marsh was strew'd around
There frogs crept croaking o'er the swampy ground
Wounded and spent in vain they strive to rise
Or lift themselves into the wonted skies
But now alass the fatall hour drew nigh
In which the Pygmie wept his cruelty
The injur'd Cranes their murther'd offspring mourn
And with fell rage and secret anguish burn
When all conspiring leave Maeon lake
And warm Cayster flowing banks forsake
To Mareotis' fen the rumour flies
From Isther flood unnumber'd flocks arise
Which whet their beaks for flight their wings prepare
Sharpen their claws and meditate the war
These when o'er winter sway prevail'd the spring
Together rise and shoot upon the wing
Astonish'd nations view with wild affright
The dark horizon ravish'd from their sight
Meantime the Pygmies with undaunted hearts
Temper their swords and point their missive darts
The steely troops embodied closely stand
Their wings extend themselves across the land
Then rises the brave leader of their hosts
Who matchless strength and bulk gygantick boasts
Of aspect stern for in his face he wears
The prints of claws and honourable scars
With rage implacable he still persue'd
The feather'd race and thirsted for their blood
Soon as their young began to draw their breath
He tore them down and trampled them to death
This forc'd the Cranes to utter dolefull moans
And Strymon hollow banks resounded with their groans
But now their cruel enemies draw near
And first a sound invades th' astonish'd ear
Quickly the Cranes appear before their eyes
Thick clouds of hostile birds obscure the skies
Above their heads th' embattled squadrons hung
And scarce the lab'ring air sustains the throng
The fearless Pygmies view them from afar
Rage with disdain and hope th' approaching war
Not long they stood when stooping from their height
The Cranes with beaks and claws provoke the fight
Thick from their wounded wings the feathers fly
Beneath Pygmean steel what numbers dye
Breathless at length they leave th' unfinished war
And hang aloft suspended in the air
But their lost strength and vigour soon return
They clap their wings and with new fury burn
Then swift as thought by headlong anger driv'n
Descend impetuous from the vault of heav'n
Their foes the shock sustain in battle skill'd
And victory hangs doubtfull o'er the field
Here lies a fowl transfix'd with many a wound
That struggling pants and rowls her eye-balls round
There a stout warriour fainting gasps for breath
And grasps the bloody sand involv'd in death
Swords arms and wings are scatter'd o'er the plain
On ev'ry side rise mountains of the slain
Whose mortal wounds pour forth a purple flood
The plain contested flows with mingled blood
The valiant Prince with unresisted force
Where'er the battle rages bends his course
That day what legions by his faulchion bled
His arm alone rais'd bulwarks of the dead
Before his face the frighted Cranes gave way
He turn'd awhile the fortune of the day
Till thither an huge bird the tumult drew
Who caught the chief ev'n in his soldiers' view
In his fell claws then into th' air he springs
The joyfull Cranes triumphant clap their wings
While the sad Pygmies mourn with weeping eyes
Their godlike hero strugling in the skies
Now bleeds the war afresh the Crane from high
Forcefull descending strikes his enemy
Then flies aloft th' astonish'd warriours feel
The wound and furious wave the shining steel
The birds elude the stroke with cautious care
Its useless force the weapon spends in air
Such was the horrour of the dreadfull fight
As when great Briareus with matchless might
Hurling vast mounts against the realms above
Shook headlong from his throne imperial Jove
In rat'ling storms huge promontories flie
And bolts and rocks encounter in the skie
At length deform'd with many a grisly wound
Th' enormous gyants smoke upon the ground
O'erpower'd and faint the Pygmies scarce sustain
Their foe attacks and wield their arms with pain
Part turn their backs part seiz'd with wild surprise
Utter sad groans and lamentable cries
Impending death they strive to 'scape in vain
For fear retards their flight the cruell Crane
Scatters their breathless bodies o'er the plain
Thus fell the Pygmie state which long had stood
Secure and triumph'd oft' in hostile blood
To ev'ry empire bounds the gods ordain
The limits fix'd they strive to pass in vain
So by their great decree Assyria fell
And Persia felt the force of Grecian steel
Not Rome itself that held the world in awe
Could cancell their irrevocable law
Now in the realms below the Pygmie shades
Mix'd with old heroes trace the flow'ry meads
And wander sportive o'er th' Elysian plain
Or if old women tales may credit gain
When pale-fac'd Cynthia sheds her silver light
Dispelling the black horrors of the night
The shepherds oft' see little ghosts glide by
And shades of Pygmies swim before their eye
They call them fairies these now free from care
And giv'n to mirth the Cranes no longer fear
But move their num'rous arms to musick sound
And tread in mystick rings the mossie ground
Ye blooming train who give despair or joy
Bless with a smile or with a frown destroy
In whose fair cheeks destructive Cupids wait
And with unerring shafts distribute fate
Whose snowy breasts whose animated eyes
Each youth admires tho' each admirer dies
Whilst you deride their pangs in barb'rous play
Unpitying see them weep and hear them pray
And unrelenting sport ten thousand lives away
For you ye fair I quit the gloomy plains
Where sable night in all her horror reigns
No fragrant bow'rs no delightful glades
Receive th' unhappy ghosts of scornful maids
For kind for tender nymphs the myrtle blooms
And weaves her bending boughs in pleasing glooms
Perennial roses deck each purple vale
And scents ambrosial breathe in every gale
Far hence are banish'd vapours spleen and tears
Tea scandal ivory teeth and languid airs
No pug nor favourite Cupid there enjoys
The balmy kiss for which poor Thyrsis dies
Form'd to delight they use no foreign arms
Nor tort'ring whalebones pinch them into charms
No conscious blushes there their cheeks inflame
For those who feel no guilt can know no shame
Unfaded still their former charms they shew
Around them pleasures wait and joys for ever new
But cruel virgins meet severer fates
Expell'd and exil'd from the blissful seats
To dismal realms and regions void of peace
Where furies ever howl and serpents hiss
O'er the sad plains perpetual tempests sigh
And pois'nous vapours black'ning all the sky
With livid hue the fairest face o'ercast
And every beauty withers at the blast
Where e'er they fly their lovers' ghosts persue
Inflicting all those ills which once they knew
Vexation Fury Jealousy Despair
Vex every eye and every bosom tear
Their foul deformities by all descry'd
No maid to flatter and no paint to hide
Then melt ye fair while crouds around you sigh
Nor let disdain sit low'ring in your eye
With pity soften every awful grace
And beauty smile auspicious in each face
To ease their pains exert your milder power
So shall you guiltless reign and all mankind adore
Ye glitt'ring train and velvet bless
Suspend the soft sollicitudes of dress
From grov'ling business and superfluous care
Ye sons of avarice a moment spare
Vot'ries of fame and worshippers of pow'r
Dismiss the pleasing phantoms for an hour
Our daring bard with spirit unconfin'd
Spreads wide the mighty moral for mankind
Learn here how Heav'n supports the virtuous mind
Daring tho' calm and vigorous tho' resign'd
Learn here what anguish racks the guilty breast
In pow'r dependent in success deprest
Learn here that peace from innocence must flow
All else is empty sound and idle show
If truths like these with pleasing language join
Ennobled yet unchang'd if nature shine
If no wild draught depart from reason rules
Nor gods his heroes nor his lovers fools
Intriguing wits his artless plot forgive
And spare him beauties tho' his lovers live
Be this at least his praise be this his pride
To force applause no modern arts are try'd
Shou'd partial cat-calls all his hopes confound
He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound
Shou'd welcome sleep relieve the weary wit
He rolls no thunders o'er the drowsy pit
No snares to captivate the judgment spreads -
Nor bribes your eyes to prejudice your heads
Unmov'd tho' witlings sneer and rivals rail
Studious to please yet not asham'd to fail
He scorns the meek address the suppliant strain
With merit needless and without it vain
In reason nature truth he dares to trust
Ye fops be silent and ye wits be just
And is it thus Demetrius meets his friend
Hid in the mean disguise of Turkish robes
With servile secrecy to lurk in shades
And vent our suff'rings in clandestine groans
Till breathless fury rested from destruction
These groans were fatal these disguises vain
But now our Turkish conquerors have quench'd -
Their rage and pall'd their appetite of murder
No more the glutted sabre thirsts for blood
And weary cruelty remits her tortures
Yet Greece enjoys no gleam of transient hope
No soothing interval of peaceful sorrow
The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest
The lust of gold unfeeling and remorseless
The last corruption of degenerate man
Urg'd by th' imperious soldier fierce command
The groaning Greeks break up their golden caverns 
Pregnant with stores that India mines might envy
Th' accumulated wealth of toiling ages
That wealth too sacred for their country use
That wealth too pleasing to be lost for freedom
That wealth which granted to their weeping prince
Had rang'd embattled nations at our gates
But thus reserv'd to lure the wolves of Turkey
Adds shame to grief and infamy to ruin
Lamenting Av'rice now too late discovers -
Her own neglected in the publick safety
Reproach not misery The sons of Greece -
Ill-fated race So oft besieg'd in vain
With false security beheld invasion
Why should they fear That power that kindly spreads
The clouds a signal of impending show'rs
To warn the wand'ring linnet to the shade
A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it -
A feeble government eluded laws
A factious populace luxurious nobles
And all the maladies of sinking states
When publick villainy too strong for justice
Shows his bold front the harbinger of ruin
Can brave Leontius call for airy wonders
Which cheats interpret and which fools regard
When some neglected fabrick nods beneath -
The weight of years and totters to the tempest
Must Heaven dispatch the messengers of light -
Or wake the dead to warn us of its fall
Well might the weakness of our Empire sink
Before such foes of more than human force
Some pow'r invisible from heav'n or hell
Conducts their armies and asserts their cause
And yet my friend what miracles were wrought
Beyond the power of constancy and courage
Did unresisted lightning aid their cannon -
Did roaring whirlwinds sweep us from the ramparts
'Twas vice that shook our nerves 'twas vice Leontius -
That froze our veins and wither'd all our powers
What e'er our crimes our woes demand compassion
Each night protected by the friendly darkness
Quitting my close retreat I range the city-
And weeping kiss the venerable ruins
With silent pangs I view the tow'ring domes
Sacred to prayer and wander thro' the streets
Where Commerce lavish'd unexhausted plenty
And Jollity maintain'd eternal revels 
 How chang'd alas Now ghastly Desolation -
In triumph sits upon our shatter'd spires
From ev'ry palace burst a mingled clamour
The dreadful dissonance of barb'rous triumph
Shrieks of affright and wailings of distress
Oft when the cries of violated beauty -
Arose to heav'n and pierc'd my bleeding breast
I felt thy pains and trembled for Aspasia
Aspasia spare that lov'd that mournful name
Dear hapless maid tempestuous grief o'erbears
My reasoning pow'rs Dear hapless lost Aspasia
Awake Demetrius from this dismal dream
Sink not beneath imaginary sorrows
Call to your aid your courage and your wisdom
Think on the sudden change of human scenes
Think on the various accidents of war
Think on the mighty pow'r of awful virtue
Think on that Providence that guards the good
And weak philosophy denies her succours
Sure some kind sabre in the heat of battle
Ere yet the foe found leisure to be cruel
Perhaps enamour'd of resembling virtue
With gentle hand restrain'd the streams of life
And snatch'd her timely from her country fate
From those bright regions of eternal day
Where now thou shin'st among thy fellow-saints
Array'd in purer light look down on me
In pleasing visions and assuasive dreams
O sooth my soul and teach me how to lose thee
Enough of unavailing tears Demetrius
I came obedient to thy friendly summons
And hop'd to share thy counsels not thy sorrows
While thus we mourn the fortune of Aspasia
The chief whose wisdom guides the Turkish counsels
He tir'd of slav'ry tho' the highest slave
Projects at once our freedom and his own
And bids us thus disguis'd await him here
Can he restore the state he could not save
In vain when Turkey troops assail'd our walls
His kind intelligence betray'd their measures
Their arms prevail'd though Cali was our friend
When the tenth sun had set upon our sorrows
At midnight private hour a voice unknown
Sounds in my sleeping ear Awake Demetrius
Awake and follow me to better fortunes
Surpriz'd I start and bless the happy dream
Then rouzing know the fiery chief Abdalla
Whose quick impatience seiz'd my doubtful hand
And led me to the shore where Cali stood
Pensive and listning to the beating surge
There in soft hints and in ambiguous phrase
With all the diffidence of long experience
That oft' had practis'd fraud and oft' detected
The vet'ran courtier half reveal'd his project
By his command equipp'd for speedy flight
Deep in a winding creek a galley lies
Mann'd with the bravest of our fellow captives
Selected by my care a hardy band
Now summon all thy soul illustrious Christian
Awake each faculty that sleeps within thee
The courtier policy the sage firmness
The warrior ardour and the patriot zeal
If chasing past events with vain pursuit
Or wand'ring in the wilds of future being
A single thought now rove recall it home
But can thy friend sustain the glorious cause
The cause of liberty the cause of nations
Observe him closely with a statesman eye
Thou that hast long perus'd the draughts of nature
And know'st the characters of vice and virtue
Left by the hand of Heav'n on human clay
His mien is lofty his demeanour great
Nor sprightly folly wantons in his air
Nor dull serenity becalms his eyes
Such had I trusted once as soon as seen
But cautious age suspects the flatt'ring form
And only credits what experience tells
Has silence press'd her seal upon his lips
Does adamantine faith invest his heart
Will he not bend beneath a tyrant frown
Will he not melt before ambition fire
Will he not soften in a friend embrace
Or flow dissolving in a woman tears
Sooner these trembling leaves shall find a voice -
And tell the secrets of their conscious walks
Sooner the breeze shall catch the flying sounds
And shock the tyrant with a tale of treason
Your slaughter'd multitudes that swell the shore
With monuments of death proclaim his courage
Virtue and liberty engross his soul
And leave no place for perfidy or fear
Demetrius will not lead me to dishonour
Consult in private call me when your scheme
Is ripe for action and demands the sword
When unsuccessful wars and civil factions -
Embroil'd the Turkish state our Sultan father
Great Amurath at my request forsook
The cloister ease resum'd the tott'ring throne
And snatch'd the reins of abdicated pow'r
From giddy Mahomet unskilful hand
This fir'd the youthful king ambitious breast
He murmurs vengeance at the name of Cali
And dooms my rash fidelity to ruin
Such are the woes when arbitrary pow'r
And lawless passion hold the sword of justice
If there be any land as fame reports
Where common laws restrain the prince and subject
A happy land where circulating pow'r
Flows through each member of th' embodied state
Sure not unconscious of the mighty blessing
Her grateful sons shine bright with ev'ry virtue
Untainted with the lust of innovation
Sure all unite to hold her league of rule
Unbroken as the sacred chain of Nature
That links the jarring elements in peace
Young and unsettled in his father kingdoms
Fierce as he was he dreaded to destroy
The Empire darling and the soldier boast
But now confirm'd and swelling with his conquests
Secure he tramples my declining fame
Frowns unrestrain'd and dooms me with his eyes
This hour I'll beg with unsuspecting face
Leave to perform my pilgrimage to Mecca
Which granted hides my purpose from the world
And though refus'd conceals it from the Sultan
Forgetful of command with captive beauties
Far from his troops he toys his hours away
A roving soldier seiz'd in Sophia temple
A virgin shining with distinguish'd charms
And brought his beauteous plunder to the Sultan
What hopes what terrors rush upon my soul
O lead me quickly to the scene of fate
Break through the politician tedious forms
Aspasia calls me let me fly to save her
His offers oft repeated still refus'd
At length rekindled his accustom'd fury
And chang'd th' endearing smile and am'rous whisper
To threats of torture death and violation
These tedious narratives of frozen age
Distract my soul dispatch thy lingring tale
Say did a voice from Heav'n restrain the tyrant
Did interposing angels guard her from him
Just in the moment of impending fate
Another plund'rer brought the bright Irene
Of equal beauty but of softer mien
Fear in her eye submission on her tongue
Her mournful charms attracted his regards
Disarm'd his rage and in repeated visits
Gain'd all his heart at length his eager love
To her transferr'd the offer of a crown
Trembling to grant nor daring to refuse
While Heav'n and Mahomet divide her fears
With coy caresses and with pleasing wiles
She feeds his hopes and sooths him to delay
For her repose is banish'd from the night
And business from the day In her apartments
At least this day be calm If we succeed
Aspasia thine and all thy life is rapture 
See Mustapha the tyrant minion comes
Invest Leontius with his new command -
And wait Abdalla unsuspected visits
Remember freedom glory Greece and love
By what enchantment does this lovely Greek
Hold in her chains the captivated Sultan
He tires his fav'rites with Irene praise
And seeks the shades to muse upon Irene
Irene steals unheeded from his tongue
And mingles unperceiv'd with ev'ry thought
Why should the Sultan shun the joys of beauty
Or arm his breast against the force of love
Love that with sweet vicissitude relieves
The warrior labours and the monarch cares
But will she yet receive the faith of Mecca
Those pow'rful tyrants of the female breast
Fear and ambition urge her to compliance
Dress'd in each charm of gay magnificence
Alluring grandeur courts her to his arms
Soon will th' unequal contest be decided
Prospects obscur'd by distance faintly strike
Each pleasure brightens at its near approach
And every danger shocks with double horror
But Cali let Irene share thy prayers
For what is length of days without Irene
I come from empty noise and tasteless pomp -
From crouds that hide a monarch from himself
To prove the sweets of privacy and friendship
And dwell upon the beauties of Irene
Each realm where beauty turns the graceful shape  
Swells the fair breast or animates the glance
Adorns my palace with its brightest virgins
Yet unacquainted with these soft emotions -
I walk'd superior through the blaze of charms
Prais'd without rapture left without regret
Why rove I now when absent from my fair
Remote from tumult in th' adjoining palace -
Thy care shall guard this treasure of my soul
There let Aspasia since my fair entreats it
With converse chase the melancholy moments
Sure chill'd with sixty winter camps thy blood -
At sight of female charms will glow no more
What think of peace while haughty Scanderbeg -
Elate with conquest in his native mountains
Prowls o'er the wealthy spoils of bleeding Turkey
While fair Hungaria unexhausted vallies
Pour forth their legions and the roaring Danube
Rolls half his floods unheard through shouting camps
Nor couldst thou more support a life of sloth
For those who could not please by nobler service 
Our warlike Prophet loves an active faith -
The holy flame of enterprizing virtue
Mocks the dull vows of solitude and penance
And scorns the lazy hermit cheap devotion
Shine thou distinguish'd by superior merit -
With wonted zeal pursue the task of war
Till every nation reverence the Koran -
And ev'ry suppliant lift his eyes to Mecca
Preach thy dull politics to vulgar kings
Thou know'st not yet thy master future greatness
His vast designs his plans of boundless pow'r
When ev'ry storm in my domain shall roar -
When ev'ry wave shall beat a Turkish shore
Then Cali shall the toils of battle cease
Then dream of prayer and pilgrimage and peace
And teach me to repell the Sultan passion
Still at Aspasia voice a sudden rapture
Exalts my soul and fortifies my heart
The glitt'ring vanities of empty greatness -
The hopes and fears the joys and pains of life
Dissolve in air and vanish into nothing
Death rises to my view with all his terrors
Then visions horrid as a murd'rer dreams -
Chill my resolves and blast my blooming virtue
Stern Torture shakes his bloody scourge before me
And Anguish gnashes on the fatal wheel
Since fear predominates in every thought
And sways thy breast with absolute dominion
Think on th' insulting scorn the conscious pangs
The future miseries that wait th' apostate
So shall timidity assist thy reason
And wisdom into virtue turn thy frailty
The weakness we lament our selves create
Instructed from our infant years to court -
With counterfeited fears the aid of man
We learn to shudder at the rustling breeze
Start at the light and tremble in the dark
Till Affectation rip'ning to belief
And Folly frighted at her own chimeras
Habitual cowardice usurps the soul
Not all like thee can brave the shocks of fate
Thy soul by nature great enlarg'd by knowledge
Soars unencumber'd with our idle cares
And all Aspasia but her beauty man
Each generous sentiment is thine Demetrius
Whose soul perhaps yet mindful of Aspasia
Now hovers o'er this melancholy shade
Well pleas'd to find thy precepts not forgotten
O could the grave restore the pious hero
Soon would his art or valour set us free
And bear us far from servitude and crimes
Well may those eyes that view these heav'nly charms
Reject the daughters of contending kings
For what are pompous titles proud alliance
Empire or wealth to excellence like thine
Receive th' impatient Sultan to thy arms
And may a long posterity of monarchs -
The pride and terror of succeeding days 
Rise from the happy bed and future queens
Diffuse Irene beauty through the world
Can Mahomet imperial hand descend
To clasp a slave or can a soul like mine
Unus'd to power and form'd for humbler scenes
Support the splendid miseries of greatness
Born to command as thou to charm mankind
The Sultan from himself derives his greatness
Observe bright maid as his resistless voice 
Drives on the tempest of destructive war
How nation after nation falls before him
At his dread name the distant mountains shake -
Their cloudy summits and the sons of fierceness
That range unciviliz'd from rock to rock
Distrust th' eternal fortresses of nature
And wish their gloomy caverns more obscure
Forbear this lavish pomp of dreadful praise
The horrid images of war and slaughter
Renew our sorrows and awake our fears
How Heav'n in scorn of human arrogance -
Commits to trivial chance the fate of nations
While with incessant thought laborious man
Extends his mighty schemes of wealth and pow'r
And tow'rs and triumphs in ideal greatness
Some accidental gust of opposition
Blasts all the beauties of his new creation
O'erturns the fabrick of presumptuous reason
And whelms the swelling architect beneath it
Had not the breeze untwin'd the meeting boughs
And through the parted shade disclos'd the Greeks
Th' important hour had pass'd unheeded by 
In all the sweet oblivion of delight
In all the fopperies of meeting lovers
In sighs and tears in transports and embraces
In soft complaints and idle protestations
My doom confirm'd establishes my purpose
Calmly he heard till Amurath resumption
Rose to his thought and set his soul on fire
When from his lips the fatal name burst out
A sudden pause th' imperfect sense suspended
Like the dread stillness of condensing storms
The loudest cries of nature urge us forward
Despotick rage pursues the life of Cali
His groaning country claims Leontius' aid
And yet another voice forgive me Greece
The pow'rful voice of love inflames Demetrius -
Each ling'ring hour alarms me for Aspasia
What passions reign among thy crew Leontius
Does chearless diffidence oppress their hearts
Or sprightly hope exalt their kindling spirits
Do they with pain repress the struggling shout
And listen eager to the rising wind
All there is hope and gaiety and courage
No cloudy doubts or languishing delays
Ere I could range them on the crowded deck
At once a hundred voices thunder'd round me
And every voice was liberty and Greece
I see the gloom that low'rs upon thy brow
These days of love and pleasure charm not thee
Too slow these gentle constellations roll
Thou long'st for stars that frown on human kind
And scatter discord from their baleful beams
Sure by some wond'rous sympathy of souls
My heart still beats responsive to the Sultan's
I share by secret instinct all his joys
And feel no sorrow while my sov'reign smiles
The Sultan comes impatient for his love
Conduct her hither let no rude intrusion -
Molest these private walks or care invade
These hours assign'd to pleasure and Irene
Can Cali dare the stroke of heav'nly justice
In the dark precincts of the gaping grave
And load with perjuries his parting soul
Was it for this that sick'ning in Epirus
My father call'd me to his couch of death
Join'd Cali hand to mine and falt'ring cry'd
Restrain the fervour of impetuous youth
With venerable Cali faithful counsels
Are these the counsels This the faith of Cali
Were all our favours lavish'd on a villain
In his last agonies the gasping coward
Amidst the tortures of the burning steel
Still fond of life groan'd out the dreadful secret
Held forth this fatal scroll then sunk to nothing
His correspondence with our foes of Greece
His hand His seal The secrets of my soul
Conceal'd from all but him All all conspire
To banish doubt and brand him for a villain
Our schemes for ever cross'd our mines discover'd -
Betray'd some traytor lurking near my bosom
Oft have I rag'd when their wide-wasting cannon
Lay pointed at our batt'ries yet unform'd
And broke the meditated lines of war
Detested Cali too with artful wonder
Shall feel the vengeance of an injur'd king
Go seize him load him with reproachful chains
Before th' assembled troops proclaim his crimes
Then leave him stretch'd upon the ling'ring rack
Amidst the camp to howl his life away
Should we before the troops proclaim his crimes -
I dread his arts of seeming innocence
His bland address and sorcery of tongue
And should he fall unheard by sudden justice
Th' adoring soldiers would revenge their idol
Cali this day with hypocritick zeal -
Implor'd my leave to visit Mecca temple
Struck with the wonder of a statesman goodness
I rais'd his thoughts to more sublime devotion
Now let him go pursu'd by silent wrath
Meet unexpected daggers in his way 
And in some distant land obscurely die
There will his boundless wealth the spoil of Asia -
Heap'd by your father ill-plac'd bounties on him
Disperse rebellion through the Eastern World
Bribe to his cause and list beneath his banners
Arabia roving troops the sons of swiftness
And arm the Persian heretick against thee
There shall he waste thy frontiers check thy conquests
And though at length subdued elude thy vengeance
Elude my vengeance no My troops shall range  
Th' eternal snows that freeze beyond Meotis
And Afric torrid sands in search of Cali
Should the fierce North upon his frozen wings
Bear him aloft above the wond'ring clouds
And seat him in the Pleiad golden chariots
Thence should my fury drag him down to tortures
Wherever guilt can fly revenge can follow
Let not th' unbounded greatness of his mind -
Betray my king to negligence of danger
Perhaps the clouds of dark conspiracy
Now roll full fraught with thunder o'er your head
Twice since the morning rose I saw the Bassa
Like a fell adder swelling in a brake
Beneath the covert of this verdant arch
In private conference beside him stood  
Two men unknown the partners of his bosom
I mark'd them well and trac'd in either face
The gloomy resolution horrid greatness
And stern composure of despairing heroes
And to confirm my thought at sight of me
As blasted by my presence they withdrew
With all the speed of terror and of guilt
The strong emotions of my troubled soul
Allow no pause for art or for contrivance
And dark perplexity distracts my counsels
Do thou resolve For see Irene comes -
At her approach each ruder gust of thought
Sinks like the sighing of a tempest spent
And gales of softer passion fan my bosom
Wilt thou descend fair daughter of perfection  
To hear my vows and give mankind a queen
Ah cease Irene cease those flowing sorrows
That melt a heart impregnable till now -
And turn thy thoughts henceforth to love and empire
How will the matchless beauties of Irene
Thrice with a prophet voice and prophet power
The Muse was called in a poetic hour
And insolently thrice the slighted maid
Dared to suspend her unregarded aid
Then with that grief we form in spirits divine
Pleads for her own neglect and thus reproaches mine
Once highly honoured false is the pretence
You make to truth retreat and innocence
Who to pollute my shades bring'st with thee down
The most ungenerous vices of the town
Ne'er sprung a youth from out this isle before
I once esteem'd and loved and favour'd more
Nor ever maid endured such courtlike scorn
So much in mode so very city-born
'Tis with a foul design the Muse you send
Like a cast mistress to your wicked friend
But find some new address some fresh deceit
Nor practise such an antiquated cheat
These are the beaten methods of the stews
Stale forms of course all mean deceivers use
Who barbarously think to 'scape reproach
By prostituting her they first debauch
Thus did the Muse severe unkindly blame
This offering long design'd to Congreve fame
First chid the zeal as unpoetic fire
Which soon his merit forced her to inspire
Then call this verse that speaks her largest aid
The greatest compliment she ever made
And wisely judge no power beneath divine
Could leap the bounds which part your world and mine
For youth believe to you unseen is fix'd
A mighty gulf unpassable betwixt
Nor tax the goddess of a mean design
To praise your parts by publishing of mine
That be my thought when some large bulky writ
Shows in the front the ambition of my wit
There to surmount what bears me up and sing
Like the victorious wren perch'd on the eagle wing
This could I do and proudly o'er him tower
Were my desires but heighten'd to my power
Godlike the force of my young Congreve bays
Softening the Muse thunder into praise
Sent to assist an old unvanquish'd pride
That looks with scorn on half mankind beside
A pride that well suspends poor mortals' fate
Gets between them and my resentment weight
Stands in the gap 'twixt me and wretched men
T'avert th'  judgments of my pen
Thus I look down with mercy on the age
By hopes my Congreve will reform the stage
For never did poetic mind before
Produce a richer vein or cleaner ore
The bullion stamp'd in your refining mind
Serves by retail to furnish half mankind
With indignation I behold your wit
Forced on me crack'd and clipp'd and counterfeit
By vile pretenders who a stock maintain
From broken scraps and filings of your brain
Through native dross your share is hardly known
And by short views mistook for all their own
So small the gains those from your wit do reap
Who blend it into folly larger heap
Like the sun scatter'd beams which loosely pass
When some rough hand breaks the assembling glass
Yet want your critics no just cause to rail
Since knaves are ne'er obliged for what they steal
These pad on wit high road and suits maintain
With those they rob by what their trade does gain
Thus censure seems that fiery froth which breeds
O'er the sun face and from his heat proceeds
Crusts o'er the day shadowing its partent beam
As ancient nature modern masters dream
This bids some curious praters here below
Call Titan sick because their sight is so
And well methinks does this allusion fit
To scribblers and the god of light and wit
Those who by wild delusions entertain
A lust of rhyming for a poet vein
Raise envy clouds to leave themselves in night
But can no more obscure my Congreve light
Than swarms of gnats that wanton in a ray
Which gave them birth can rob the world of day
What northern hive pour'd out these foes to wit
Whence came these Goths to overrun the pit
How would you blush the shameful birth to hear
Of those you so ignobly stoop to fear
For ill to them long have I travell'd since
Round all the circles of impertinence
Search'd in the nest where every worm did lie
Before it grew a city butterfly
I'm sure I found them other kind of things
Than those with backs of silk and golden wings
A search no doubt as curious and as wise
As virtuosoes' in dissecting flies
For could you think the fiercest foes you dread
And court in prologues all are country bred
Bred in my scene and for the poet sins
Adjourn'd from tops and grammar to the inns
Those beds of dung where schoolboys sprout up beaux
Far sooner than the nobler mushroom grows
These are the lords of the poetic schools
Who preach the saucy pedantry of rules
Those powers the critics who may boast the odds
O'er Nile with all its wilderness of gods
Nor could the nations kneel to viler shapes
Which worshipp'd cats and sacrificed to apes
And can you think the wise forbear to laugh
At the warm zeal that breeds this golden calf
Haply you judge these lines severely writ
Against the proud usurpers of the pit
Stay while I tell my story short and true
To draw conclusions shall be left to you
Nor need I ramble far to force a rule
But lay the scene just here at Farnham school
Last year a lad hence by his parents sent
With other cattle to the city went
Where having cast his coat and well pursued
The methods most in fashion to be lewd
Return'd a finish'd spark this summer down
Stock'd with the freshest gibberish of the town
A jargon form'd from the lost language wit
Confounded in that Babel of the pit
Form'd by diseased conceptions weak and wild
Sick lust of souls and an abortive child
Born between whores and fops by lewd compacts
Before the play or else between the acts
Nor wonder if from such polluted minds
Should spring such short and transitory kinds
Or crazy rules to make us wits by rote
Last just as long as every cuckoo note
What bungling rusty tools are used by fate
'Twas in an evil hour to urge my hate
My hate whose lash just Heaven has long decreed
Shall on a day make sin and folly bleed
When man ill genius to my presence sent
This wretch to rouse my wrath for ruin meant
Who in his idiom vile with Gray's-Inn grace
Squander'd his noisy talents to my face
Named every player on his fingers' ends
Swore all the wits were his peculiar friends
Talk'd with that saucy and familiar ease
Of Wycherly and you and Mr Bayes
Said how a late report your friends had vex'd
Who heard you meant to write heroics next
For tragedy he knew would lose you quite
And told you so at Will but t'other night
Thus are the lives of fools a sort of dreams
Rendering shades things and substances of names
Such high companions may delusion keep
Lords are a footboy cronies in his sleep
As a fresh miss by fancy face and gown
Render'd the topping beauty of the town
Draws every rhyming prating dressing sot
To boast of favours that he never got
Of which whoe'er lacks confidence to prate
Brings his good parts and breeding in debate
And not the meanest coxcomb you can find
But thanks his stars that Phillis has been kind
Thus prostitute my Congreve name is grown
To every lewd pretender of the town
Troth I could pity you but this is it
You find to be the fashionable wit
These are the slaves whom reputation chains
Whose maintenance requires no help from brains
For should the vilest scribbler to the pit
Whom sin and want e'er furnish'd out a wit
Whose name must not within my lines be shown
Lest here it live when perish'd with his own
Should such a wretch usurp my Congreve place
And choose out wits who ne'er have seen his face
I'll bet my life but the dull cheat would pass
Nor need the lion skin conceal the ass
Yes that beau look that vice those critic ears
Must needs be right so well resembling theirs
Perish the Muse hour thus vainly spent
In satire to my Congreve praises meant
In how ill season her resentments rule
What that to her if mankind be a fool
Happy beyond a private Muse fate
In pleasing all that good among the great
Where though her elder sisters crowding throng
She still is welcome with her innocent song
Whom were my Congreve blest to see and know
What poor regards would merit all below
How proudly would he haste the joy to meet
And drop his laurel at Apollo feet
Here by a mountain side a reverend cave
Gives murmuring passage to a lasting wave
'Tis the world watery hour-glass streaming fast
Time is no more when th'  drop is past
Here on a better day some druid dwelt
And the young Muse early favour felt
Druid a name she does with pride repeat
Confessing Albion once her darling seat
Far in this primitive cell might we pursue
Our predecessors' footsteps still in view
Here would we sing But ah you think I dream
And the bad world may well believe the same
Yes you are all malicious slanders by
While two fond lovers prate the Muse and I
Since thus I wander from my first intent
Nor am that grave adviser which I meant
Take this short lesson from the god of bays
And let my friend apply it as he please
Beat not the dirty paths where vulgar feet have trod
Nor shall the bubbled virtuoso find
More than fade insipid mixture left behind
While thus I write vast shoals of critics come
And on my verse pronounce their saucy doom
The Muse like some bright country virgin shows
Fallen by mishap among a knot of beaux
They in their lewd and fashionable prate
Rally her dress her language and her gait
Spend their base coin before the bashful maid
Current like copper and as often paid
She who on shady banks has joy'd to sleep
Near better animals her father sheep
Shamed and amazed beholds the chattering throng
To think what cattle she is got among
But with the odious smell and sight annoy'd
In haste she does th'  herd avoid
'Tis time to bid my friend a long farewell
The muse retreats far in yon crystal cell
Faint inspiration sickens as she flies
Like distant echo spent the spirit dies
In this descending sheet you'll haply find
Some short refreshment for your weary mind
Nought it contains is common or unclean
And once drawn up is ne'er let down again
Our set of strollers wandering up and down
Hearing the house was empty came to town
And with a license from our good lord mayor
Went to one Griffith formerly a player
Him we persuaded with a moderate bribe
To speak to Elrington and all the tribe
To let our company supply their places
And hire us out their scenes and clothes and faces
Is not the truth the truth Look full on me
I am not Elrington nor Griffith he
When we perform look sharp among our crew
There not a creature here you ever knew
The former folks were servants to the king
We humble strollers always on the wing
Now for my part I think upon the whole
Rather than starve a better man would stroll
Stay let me see Three hundred pounds a-year
For leave to act in town 'Tis plaguy dear
Now here a warrant gallants please to mark
For three thirteens and sixpence to the clerk
Three hundred pounds Were I the price to fix
The public should bestow the actors six
A score of guineas given underhand
For a good word or so we understand
To help an honest lad that out of place
May cost a crown or so a common case
And in a crew 'tis no injustice thought
To ship a rogue and pay him not a groat
But in the chronicles of former ages
Who ever heard of servants paying wages
I pity Elrington with all my heart
Would he were here this night to act my part
I told him what it was to be a stroller
How free we acted and had no comptroller
In every town we wait on Mr Mayor
First get a license then produce our ware
We sound a trumpet or we beat a drum
Huzza the schoolboys roar the players are come
And then we cry to spur the bumpkins on
Gallants by Tuesday next we must be gone
I told him in the smoothest way I could
All this and more yet it would do no good
But Elrington tears falling from his cheeks
He that has shone with Betterton and Wilks
To whom our country has been always dear
Who chose to leave his dearest pledges here
Owns all your favours here intends to stay
And as a stroller act in every play
And the whole crew this resolution takes
To live and die all strollers for your sakes
Not frighted with an ignominious name
For your displeasure is their only shame
A pox on Elrington majestic tone
Now to a word of business in our own
Gallants next Thursday night will be our last
Then without fail we pack up for Belfast
Lose not your time nor our diversion miss
The next we act shall be as good as this
I SING the Sofa I who lately sang
Truth Hope and Charity and touched with awe
The solemn chords and with a trembling hand
Escaped with pain from that advent'rous flight
Now seek repose upon a humbler theme
The theme though humble yet august and proud
The occasion for the Fair commands the song
Time was when clothing sumptuous or for use
Save their own painted skins our sires had none
As yet black breeches were not satin smooth
Or velvet soft or plush with shaggy pile
The hardy chief upon the rugged rock
Washed by the sea or on the gravelly bank
Thrown up by wintry torrents roaring loud
Fearless of wrong reposed his weary strength
Those barbarous ages past succeeded next
The birthday of invention weak at first
Dull in design and clumsy to perform
Joint-stools were then created on three legs
Upborne they stood Three legs upholding firm
A massy slab in fashion square or round
On such a stool immortal Alfred sat
And swayed the sceptre of his infant realms
And such in ancient halls and mansions drear
May still be seen but perforated sore
And drilled in holes the solid oak is found
By worms voracious eating through and through
At length a generation more refined
Improved the simple plan made three legs four
Gave them a twisted form vermicular
And o'er the seat with plenteous wadding stuffed
Induced a splendid cover green and blue
Yellow and red of tapestry richly wrought
And woven close or needlework sublime
There might ye see the peony spread wide
The full-blown rose the shepherd and his lass
Lapdog and lambkin with black staring eyes
And parrots with twin cherries in their beak
Now came the cane from India smooth and bright
With Nature varnish severed into stripes
That interlaced each other these supplied
Of texture firm a lattice-work that braced
The new machine and it became a chair
But restless was the chair the back erect
Distressed the weary loins that felt no ease
The slippery seat betrayed the sliding part
That pressed it and the feet hung dangling down
Anxious in vain to find the distant floor
These for the rich the rest whom fate had placed
In modest mediocrity content
With base materials sat on well-tanned hides
Obdurate and unyielding glassy smooth
With here and there a tuft of crimson yarn
Or scarlet crewel in the cushion fixed
If cushion might be called what harder seemed
Than the firm oak of which the frame was formed
No want of timber then was felt or feared
In Albion happy isle The lumber stood
Ponderous and fixed by its own massy weight
But elbows still were wanting these some say
An alderman of Cripplegate contrived
And some ascribe the invention to a priest
Burly and big and studious of his ease
But rude at first and not with easy slope
Receding wide they pressed against the ribs
And bruised the side and elevated high
Taught the raised shoulders to invade the ears
Long time elapsed or e'er our rugged sires
Complained though incommodiously pent in
And ill at ease behind The ladies first
Gan murmur as became the softer sex
Ingenious fancy never better pleased
Than when employed to accommodate the fair
Heard the sweet moan with pity and devised
The soft settee one elbow at each end
And in the midst an elbow it received
United yet divided twain at once
So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne
And so two citizens who take the air
Close packed and smiling in a chaise and one
But relaxation of the languid frame
By soft recumbency of outstretched limbs
Was bliss reserved for happier days so slow
The growth of what is excellent so hard
To attain perfection in this nether world
Thus first necessity invented stools
Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs
And luxury the accomplished Sofa last
The nurse sleeps sweetly hired to watch the sick
Whom snoring she disturbs As sweetly he
Who quits the coach-box at the midnight hour
To sleep within the carriage more secure
His legs depending at the open door
Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk
The tedious rector drawling o'er his head
And sweet the clerk below but neither sleep
Of lazy nurse who snores the sick man dead
Nor his who quits the box at midnight hour
To slumber in the carriage more secure
Nor sleep enjoyed by curate in his desk
Nor yet the dozings of the clerk are sweet
Compared with the repose the Sofa yields
Oh may I live exempted while I live
Guiltless of pampered appetite obscene
From pangs arthritic that infest the toe
Of libertine excess The Sofa suits
The gouty limb 'tis true but gouty limb
Though on a Sofa may I never feel
For I have loved the rural walk through lanes
Of grassy swarth close cropped by nibbling sheep
And skirted thick with intertexture firm
Of thorny boughs have loved the rural walk
O'er hills through valleys and by river brink
E'er since a truant boy I passed my bounds
To enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames
And still remember nor without regret
Of hours that sorrow since has much endeared
How oft my slice of pocket store consumed
Still hungering penniless and far from home
I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws
Or blushing crabs or berries that emboss
The bramble black as jet or sloes austere
Hard fare but such as boyish appetite
Disdains not nor the palate undepraved
By culinary arts unsavoury deems
No Sofa then awaited my return
No Sofa then I needed Youth repairs
His wasted spirits quickly by long toil
Incurring short fatigue and though our years
As life declines speed rapidly away
And not a year but pilfers as he goes
Some youthful grace that age would gladly keep
A tooth or auburn lock and by degrees
Their length and colour from the locks they spare
The elastic spring of an unwearied foot
That mounts the stile with ease or leaps the fence
That play of lungs inhaling and again
Respiring freely the fresh air that makes
Swift pace or steep ascent no toil to me
Mine have not pilfered yet nor yet impaired
My relish of fair prospect scenes that soothed
Or charmed me young no longer young I find
Still soothing and of power to charm me still
And witness dear companion of my walks
Whose arm this twentieth winter I perceive
Fast locked in mine with pleasure such as love
Confirmed by long experience of thy worth
And well-tried virtues could alone inspire 
Witness a joy that thou hast doubled long
Thou know'st my praise of Nature most sincere
And that my raptures are not conjured up
To serve occasions of poetic pomp
But genuine and art partner of them all
How oft upon yon eminence our pace
Has slackened to a pause and we have borne
The ruffling wind scarce conscious that it blew
While admiration feeding at the eye
And still unsated dwelt upon the scene
Thence with what pleasure have we just discerned
The distant plough slow-moving and beside
His labouring team that swerved not from the track
The sturdy swain diminished to a boy
Here Ouse slow winding through a level plain
Of spacious meads with cattle sprinkled o'er
Conducts the eye along his sinuous course
Delighted There fast rooted in his bank
Stand never overlooked our favourite elms
That screen the herdsman solitary hut
While far beyond and overthwart the stream
That as with molten glass inlays the vale
The sloping land recedes into the clouds
Displaying on its varied side the grace
Of hedgerow beauties numberless square tower
Tall spire from which the sound of cheerful bells
Just undulates upon the listening ear
Groves heaths and smoking villages remote
Scenes must be beautiful which daily viewed
Please daily and whose novelty survives
Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years
Praise justly due to those that I describe
Nor rural sights alone but rural sounds
Exhilarate the spirit and restore
The tone of languid Nature Mighty winds
That sweep the skirt of some far-spreading wood
Of ancient growth make music not unlike
The dash of ocean on his winding shore
And lull the spirit while they fill the mind
Unnumbered branches waving in the blast
And all their leaves fast fluttering all at once
Nor less composure waits upon the roar
Of distant floods or on the softer voice
Of neighbouring fountain or of rills that slip
Through the cleft rock and chiming as they fall
Upon loose pebbles lose themselves at length
In matted grass that with a livelier green
Betrays the secret of their silent course
Nature inanimate employs sweet sounds
But animated Nature sweeter still
To soothe and satisfy the human ear
Ten thousand warblers cheer the day and one
The livelong night nor these alone whose notes
Nice-fingered art must emulate in vain
But cawing rooks and kites that swim sublime
In still repeated circles screaming loud
The jay the pie and even the boding owl
That hails the rising moon have charms for me
Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh
Yet heard in scenes where peace for ever reigns
And only there please highly for their sake
Peace to the artist whose ingenious thought
Devised the weather-house that useful toy
Fearless of humid air and gathering rains
Forth steps the man an emblem of myself
More delicate his timorous mate retires
When Winter soaks the fields and female feet
Too weak to struggle with tenacious clay
Or ford the rivulets are best at home
The task of new discoveries falls on me
At such a season and with such a charge
Once went I forth and found till then unknown
A cottage whither oft we since repair
'Tis perched upon the green hill-top but close
Environed with a ring of branching elms
That overhang the thatch itself unseen
Peeps at the vale below so thick beset
With foliage of such dark redundant growth
I called the low-roofed lodge the peasant nest
And hidden as it is and far remote
From such unpleasing sounds as haunt the ear
In village or in town the bay of curs
Incessant clinking hammers grinding wheels
And infants clamorous whether pleased or pained
Oft have I wished the peaceful covert mine
Here I have said at least I should possess
The poet treasure silence and indulge
The dreams of fancy tranquil and secure
Vain thought the dweller in that still retreat
Dearly obtains the refuge it affords
Its elevated site forbids the wretch
To drink sweet waters of the crystal well
He dips his bowl into the weedy ditch
And heavy-laden brings his beverage home
Far-fetched and little worth nor seldom waits
Dependent on the baker punctual call
To hear his creaking panniers at the door
Angry and sad and his last crust consumed
So farewell envy of the peasant nest
If solitude make scant the means of life
Society for me Thou seeming sweet
Be still a pleasing object in my view
My visit still but never mine abode
Not distant far a length of colonnade
Invites us monument of ancient taste
Now scorned but worthy of a better fate
Our fathers knew the value of a screen
From sultry suns and in their shaded walks
And long-protracted bowers enjoyed at noon
The gloom and coolness of declining day
We bear our shades about us self-deprived
Of other screen the thin umbrella spread
And range an Indian waste without a tree
Thanks to Benevolus he spares me yet
These chestnuts ranged in corresponding lines
And though himself so polished still reprieves
The obsolete prolixity of shade
Descending now but cautious lest too fast
A sudden steep upon a rustic bridge
We pass a gulf in which the willows dip
Their pendent boughs stooping as if to drink
Hence ankle-deep in moss and flowery thyme
We mount again and feel at every step
Our foot half sunk in hillocks green and soft
Raised by the mole the miner of the soil
He not unlike the great ones of mankind
Disfigures earth and plotting in the dark
Toils much to earn a monumental pile
That may record the mischiefs he has done
The summit gained behold the proud alcove
That crowns it yet not all its pride secures
The grand retreat from injuries impressed
By rural carvers who with knives deface
The panels leaving an obscure rude name
In characters uncouth and spelt amiss
So strong the zeal to immortalise himself
Beats in the breast of man that even a few
Few transient years won from the abyss abhorred
Of blank oblivion seem a glorious prize
And even to a clown Now roves the eye
And posted on this speculative height
Exults in its command The sheepfold here
Pours out its fleecy tenants o'er the glebe
At first progressive as a stream they seek
The middle field but scattered by degrees
Each to his choice soon whiten all the land
There from the sunburnt hay-field homeward creeps
The loaded wain while lightened of its charge
The wain that meets it passes swiftly by
The boorish driver leaning o'er his team
Vociferous and impatient of delay
Nor less attractive is the woodland scene
Diversified with trees of every growth
Alike yet various Here the gray smooth trunks
Of ash or lime or beech distinctly shine
Within the twilight of their distant shades
There lost behind a rising ground the wood
Seems sunk and shortened to its topmost boughs
No tree in all the grove but has its charms
Though each its hue peculiar paler some
And of a wannish gray the willow such
And poplar that with silver lines his leaf
And ash far-stretching his umbrageous arm
Of deeper green the elm and deeper still
Lord of the woods the long-surviving oak
Some glossy-leaved and shining in the sun
The maple and the beech of oily nuts
Prolific and the lime at dewy eve
Diffusing odours nor unnoted pass
The sycamore capricious in attire
Now green now tawny and ere autumn yet
Have changed the woods in scarlet honours bright
O'er these but far beyond a spacious map
Of hill and valley interposed between
The Ouse dividing the well-watered land
Now glitters in the sun and now retires
As bashful yet impatient to be seen
Hence the declivity is sharp and short
And such the re-ascent between them weeps
A little Naiad her impoverished urn
All summer long which winter fills again
The folded gates would bar my progress now
But that the lord of this enclosed demesne
Communicative of the good he owns
Admits me to a share the guiltless eye
Commits no wrong nor wastes what it enjoys
Refreshing change where now the blazing sun
By short transition we have lost his glare
And stepped at once into a cooler clime
Ye fallen avenues once more I mourn
Your fate unmerited once more rejoice
That yet a remnant of your race survives
How airy and how light the graceful arch
Yet awful as the consecrated roof
Re-echoing pious anthems while beneath
The chequered earth seems restless as a flood
Brushed by the wind So sportive is the light
Shot through the boughs it dances as they dance
Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick
And darkening and enlightening as the leaves
Play wanton every moment every spot
And now with nerves new-braced and spirits cheered
We tread the wilderness whose well-rolled walks
With curvature of slow and easy sweep 
Deception innocent give ample space
To narrow bounds The grove receives us next
Between the upright shafts of whose tall elms
We may discern the thresher at his task
Thump after thump resounds the constant flail
That seems to swing uncertain and yet falls
Full on the destined ear Wide flies the chaff
The rustling straw sends up a frequent mist
Of atoms sparkling in the noonday beam
Come hither ye that press your beds of down
And sleep not see him sweating o'er his bread
Before he eats it 'Tis the primal curse
But softened into mercy made the pledge
Of cheerful days and nights without a groan
By ceaseless action all that is subsists
Constant rotation of the unwearied wheel
That Nature rides upon maintains her health
Her beauty her fertility She dreads
An instant pause and lives but while she moves
Its own revolvency upholds the world
Winds from all quarters agitate the air
And fit the limpid element for use
Else noxious oceans rivers lakes and streams
All feel the freshening impulse and are cleansed
By restless undulation even the oak
Thrives by the rude concussion of the storm
He seems indeed indignant and to feel
The impression of the blast with proud disdain
Frowning as if in his unconscious arm
He held the thunder But the monarch owes
His firm stability to what he scorns
More fixed below the more disturbed above
The law by which all creatures else are bound
Binds man the lord of all Himself derives
No mean advantage from a kindred cause
From strenuous toil his hours of sweetest ease
The sedentary stretch their lazy length
When custom bids but no refreshment find
For none they need the languid eye the cheek
Deserted of its bloom the flaccid shrunk
And withered muscle and the vapid soul
Reproach their owner with that love of rest
To which he forfeits even the rest he loves
Not such the alert and active Measure life
By its true worth the comforts it affords
And theirs alone seems worthy of the name
Good health and its associate in the most
Good temper spirits prompt to undertake
And not soon spent though in an arduous task
The powers of fancy and strong thought are theirs
Even age itself seems privileged in them
With clear exemption from its own defects
A sparkling eye beneath a wrinkled front
The veteran shows and gracing a gray beard
With youthful smiles descends towards the grave
Sprightly and old almost without decay
Like a coy maiden Ease when courted most
Farthest retires an idol at whose shrine
Who oftenest sacrifice are favoured least
The love of Nature and the scene she draws
Is Nature dictate Strange there should be found
Who self-imprisoned in their proud saloons
Renounce the odours of the open field
For the unscented fictions of the loom
Who satisfied with only pencilled scenes
Prefer to the performance of a God
The inferior wonders of an artist hand
Lovely indeed the mimic works of Art
But Nature works far lovelier I admire
None more admires the painter magic skill
Who shows me that which I shall never see
Conveys a distant country into mine
And throws Italian light on English walls
But imitative strokes can do no more
Than please the eye sweet Nature every sense
The air salubrious of her lofty hills
The cheering fragrance of her dewy vales
And music of her woods no works of man
May rival these these all bespeak a power
Peculiar and exclusively her own
Beneath the open sky she spreads the feast
'Tis free to all 'tis ev'ry day renewed
Who scorns it starves deservedly at home
He does not scorn it who imprisoned long
In some unwholesome dungeon and a prey
To sallow sickness which the vapours dank
And clammy of his dark abode have bred
Escapes at last to liberty and light
His cheek recovers soon its healthful hue
His eye relumines its extinguished fires
He walks he leaps he runs is winged with joy
And riots in the sweets of every breeze
He does not scorn it who has long endured
A fever agonies and fed on drugs
Nor yet the mariner his blood inflamed
With acrid salts his very heart athirst
To gaze at Nature in her green array
Upon the ship tall side he stands possessed
With visions prompted by intense desire
Fair fields appear below such as he left
Far distant such as he would die to find 
He seeks them headlong and is seen no more
The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns
The lowering eye the petulance the frown
And sullen sadness that o'ershade distort
And mar the face of beauty when no cause
For such immeasurable woe appears
These Flora banishes and gives the fair
Sweet smiles and bloom less transient than her own
It is the constant revolution stale
And tasteless of the same repeated joys
That palls and satiates and makes languid life
A pedlar pack that bows the bearer down
Health suffers and the spirits ebb the heart
Recoils from its own choice at the full feast
Is famished finds no music in the song
No smartness in the jest and wonders why
Yet thousands still desire to journey on
Though halt and weary of the path they tread
The paralytic who can hold her cards
But cannot play them borrows a friend hand
To deal and shuffle to divide and sort
Her mingled suits and sequences and sits
Spectatress both and spectacle a sad
And silent cipher while her proxy plays
Others are dragged into the crowded room
Between supporters and once seated sit
Through downright inability to rise
Till the stout bearers lift the corpse again
These speak a loud memento Yet even these
Themselves love life and cling to it as he
That overhangs a torrent to a twig
They love it and yet loathe it fear to die
Yet scorn the purposes for which they live
Then wherefore not renounce them No the dread
The slavish dread of solitude that breeds
Reflection and remorse the fear of shame
And their inveterate habits all forbid
Whom call we gay That honour has been long
The boast of mere pretenders to the name
The innocent are gay the lark is gay
That dries his feathers saturate with dew
Beneath the rosy cloud while yet the beams
Of day-spring overshoot his humble nest
The peasant too a witness of his song
Himself a songster is as gay as he
But save me from the gaiety of those
Whose headaches nail them to a noonday bed
And save me too from theirs whose haggard eyes
Flash desperation and betray their pangs
For property stripped off by cruel chance
From gaiety that fills the bones with pain
The mouth with blasphemy the heart with woe
The earth was made so various that the mind
Of desultory man studious of change
And pleased with novelty might be indulged
Prospects however lovely may be seen
Till half their beauties fade the weary sight
Too well acquainted with their smiles slides off
Fastidious seeking less familiar scenes
Then snug enclosures in the sheltered vale
Where frequent hedges intercept the eye
Delight us happy to renounce a while
Not senseless of its charms what still we love
That such short absence may endear it more
Then forests or the savage rock may please
That hides the sea-mew in his hollow clefts
Above the reach of man his hoary head
Conspicuous many a league the mariner
Bound homeward and in hope already there
Greets with three cheers exulting At his waist
A girdle of half-withered shrubs he shows
And at his feet the baffled billows die
The common overgrown with fern and rough
With prickly gorse that shapeless and deformed
And dangerous to the touch has yet its bloom
And decks itself with ornaments of gold
Yields no unpleasing ramble there the turf
Smells fresh and rich in odoriferous herbs
And fungous fruits of earth regales the sense
With luxury of unexpected sweets
There often wanders one whom better days
Saw better clad in cloak of satin trimmed
With lace and hat with splendid ribbon bound
A serving-maid was she and fell in love
With one who left her went to sea and died
Her fancy followed him through foaming waves
To distant shores and she would sit and weep
At what a sailor suffers fancy too
Delusive most where warmest wishes are
Would oft anticipate his glad return
And dream of transports she was not to know
She heard the doleful tidings of his death
And never smiled again And now she roams
The dreary waste there spends the livelong day
And there unless when charity forbids
The livelong night A tattered apron hides
Worn as a cloak and hardly hides a gown
More tattered still and both but ill conceal
A bosom heaved with never-ceasing sighs
She begs an idle pin of all she meets
And hoards them in her sleeve but needful food
Though pressed with hunger oft or comelier clothes
Though pinched with cold asks never Kate is crazed
I see a column of slow-rising smoke
O'ertop the lofty wood that skirts the wild
A vagabond and useless tribe there eat
Their miserable meal A kettle slung
Between two poles upon a stick transverse
Receives the morsel flesh obscene of dog
Or vermin or at best of cock purloined
From his accustomed perch Hard-faring race
They pick their fuel out of every hedge
Which kindled with dry leaves just saves unquenched
The spark of life The sportive wind blows wide
Their fluttering rags and shows a tawny skin
The vellum of the pedigree they claim
Great skill have they in palmistry and more
To conjure clean away the gold they touch
Conveying worthless dross into its place
Loud when they beg dumb only when they steal
Strange that a creature rational and cast
In human mould should brutalise by choice
His nature and though capable of arts
By which the world might profit and himself
Self-banished from society prefer
Such squalid sloth to honourable toil
Yet even these though feigning sickness oft
They swathe the forehead drag the limping limb
And vex their flesh with artificial sores
Can change their whine into a mirthful note
When safe occasion offers and with dance
And music of the bladder and the bag
Beguile their woes and make the woods resound
Such health and gaiety of heart enjoy
The houseless rovers of the sylvan world
And breathing wholesome air and wandering much
Need other physic none to heal the effects
Of loathsome diet penury and cold
Blest he though undistinguished from the crowd
By wealth or dignity who dwells secure
Where man by nature fierce has laid aside
His fierceness having learnt though slow to learn
The manners and the arts of civil life
His wants indeed are many but supply
Is obvious placed within the easy reach
Of temperate wishes and industrious hands
Here virtue thrives as in her proper soil
Not rude and surly and beset with thorns
And terrible to sight as when she springs
If e'er she spring spontaneous in remote
And barbarous climes where violence prevails
And strength is lord of all but gentle kind
By culture tamed by liberty refreshed
And all her fruits by radiant truth matured
War and the chase engross the savage whole
War followed for revenge or to supplant
The envied tenants of some happier spot
The chase for sustenance precarious trust
His hard condition with severe constraint
Binds all his faculties forbids all growth
Of wisdom proves a school in which he learns
Sly circumvention unrelenting hate
Mean self-attachment and scarce aught beside
Thus fare the shivering natives of the north
And thus the rangers of the western world
Where it advances far into the deep
Towards the Antarctic Even the favoured isles
So lately found although the constant sun
Cheer all their seasons with a grateful smile
Can boast but little virtue and inert
Through plenty lose in morals what they gain
In manners victims of luxurious ease
These therefore I can pity placed remote
From all that science traces art invents
Or inspiration teaches and enclosed
In boundless oceans never to be passed
By navigators uninformed as they
Or ploughed perhaps by British bark again
But far beyond the rest and with most cause
Thee gentle savage whom no love of thee
Or thine but curiosity perhaps
Or else vain-glory prompted us to draw
Forth from thy native bowers to show thee here
With what superior skill we can abuse
The gifts of Providence and squander life
The dream is past And thou hast found again
Thy cocoas and bananas palms and yams
And homestall thatched with leaves But hast thou found
Their former charms And having seen our state
Our palaces our ladies and our pomp
Of equipage our gardens and our sports
And heard our music are thy simple friends
Thy simple fare and all thy plain delights
As dear to thee as once And have thy joys
Lost nothing by comparison with ours
Rude as thou art for we returned thee rude
And ignorant except of outward show
I cannot think thee yet so dull of heart
And spiritless as never to regret
Sweets tasted here and left as soon as known
Methinks I see thee straying on the beach
And asking of the surge that bathes the foot
If ever it has washed our distant shore
I see thee weep and thine are honest tears
A patriot for his country Thou art sad
At thought of her forlorn and abject state
From which no power of thine can raise her up
Thus fancy paints thee and though apt to err
Perhaps errs little when she paints thee thus
She tells me too that duly every morn
Thou climb'st the mountain-top with eager eye
Exploring far and wide the watery waste
For sight of ship from England Every speck
Seen in the dim horizon turns thee pale
With conflict of contending hopes and fears
But comes at last the dull and dusky eve
And sends thee to thy cabin well prepared
To dream all night of what the day denied
Alas expect it not We found no bait
To tempt us in thy country Doing good
Disinterested good is not our trade
We travel far 'tis true but not for naught
And must be bribed to compass earth again
By other hopes and richer fruits than yours
But though true worth and virtue in the mild
And genial soil of cultivated life
Thrive most and may perhaps thrive only there
Yet not in cities oft In proud and gay
And gain-devoted cities thither flow
As to a common and most noisome sewer
The dregs and feculence of every land
In cities foul example on most minds
Begets its likeness Rank abundance breeds
In gross and pampered cities sloth and lust
And wantonness and gluttonous excess
In cities vice is hidden with most ease
Or seen with least reproach and virtue taught
By frequent lapse can hope no triumph there
Beyond the achievement of successful flight
I do confess them nurseries of the arts
In which they flourish most where in the beams
Of warm encouragement and in the eye
Of public note they reach their perfect size
Such London is by taste and wealth proclaimed
The fairest capital in all the world
By riot and incontinence the worst
There touched by Reynolds a dull blank becomes
A lucid mirror in which nature sees
All her reflected features Bacon there
Gives more than female beauty to a stone
And Chatham eloquence to marble lips
Nor does the chisel occupy alone
The powers of sculpture but the style as much
Each province of her art her equal care
With nice incision of her guided steel
She ploughs a brazen field and clothes a soil
So sterile with what charms soe'er she will
The richest scenery and the loveliest forms
Where finds philosophy her eagle eye
With which she gazes at yon burning disk
Undazzled and detects and counts his spots
In London Where her implements exact
With which she calculates computes and scans
All distance motion magnitude and now
Measures an atom and now girds a world
In London Where has commerce such a mart
So rich so thronged so drained and so supplied
As London opulent enlarged and still
Increasing London Babylon of old
Not more the glory of the earth than she
A more accomplished world chief glory now
She has her praise Now mark a spot or two
That so much beauty would do well to purge
And show this queen of cities that so fair
May yet be foul so witty yet not wise
It is not seemly nor of good report
That she is slack in discipline more prompt
To avenge than to prevent the breach of law
That she is rigid in denouncing death
On petty robbers and indulges life
And liberty and ofttimes honour too
To peculators of the public gold
That thieves at home must hang but he that puts
Into his overgorged and bloated purse
The wealth of Indian provinces escapes
Nor is it well nor can it come to good
That through profane and infidel contempt
Of holy writ she has presumed to annul
And abrogate as roundly as she may
The total ordinance and will of God
Advancing fashion to the post of truth
And centring all authority in modes
And customs of her own till Sabbath rites
Have dwindled into unrespected forms
And knees and hassocks are wellnigh divorced
God made the country and man made the town
What wonder then that health and virtue gifts
That can alone make sweet the bitter draught
That life holds out to all should most abound
And least be threatened in the fields and groves
Possess ye therefore ye who borne about
In chariots and sedans know no fatigue
But that of idleness and taste no scenes
But such as art contrives possess ye still
Your element there only ye can shine
There only minds like yours can do no harm
Our groves were planted to console at noon
The pensive wanderer in their shades At eve
The moonbeam sliding softly in between
The sleeping leaves is all the light they wish
Birds warbling all the music We can spare
The splendour of your lamps they but eclipse
Our softer satellite Your songs confound
Our more harmonious notes The thrush departs
Scared and the offended nightingale is mute
There is a public mischief in your mirth
It plagues your country Folly such as yours
Graced with a sword and worthier of a fan
Has made which enemies could ne'er have done
Our arch of empire steadfast but for you
A mutilated structure soon to fall
OH for a lodge in some vast wilderness
Some boundless contiguity of shade
Where rumour of oppression and deceit
Of unsuccessful or successful war
Might never reach me more My ear is pained
My soul is sick with every day report
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled
There is no flesh in man obdurate heart
It does not feel for man The natural bond
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own and having power
To enforce the wrong for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one
Thus man devotes his brother and destroys
And worse than all and most to be deplored
As human nature broadest foulest blot
Chains him and tasks him and exacts his sweat
With stripes that mercy with a bleeding heart
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast
Then what is man And what man seeing this
And having human feelings does not blush
And hang his head to think himself a man
I would not have a slave to till my ground
To carry me to fan me while I sleep
And tremble when I wake for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned
No dear as freedom is and in my heart's
Just estimation prized above all price
I had much rather be myself the slave
And wear the bonds than fasten them on him
We have no slaves at home then why abroad
And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
That parts us are emancipate and loosed
Slaves cannot breathe in England if their lungs
Receive our air that moment they are free
They touch our country and their shackles fall
That noble and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing Spread it then
And let it circulate through every vein
Of all your empire that where Britain power
Is felt mankind may feel her mercy too
Sure there is need of social intercourse
Benevolence and peace and mutual aid
Between the nations in a world that seems
To toll the death-bell to its own decease
And by the voice of all its elements
To preach the general doom When were the winds
Let slip with such a warrant to destroy
When did the waves so haughtily o'erleap
Their ancient barriers deluging the dry
Fires from beneath and meteors from above
Portentous unexampled unexplained
Have kindled beacons in the skies and the old
And crazy earth has had her shaking fits
More frequent and foregone her usual rest
Is it a time to wrangle when the props
And pillars of our planet seem to fail
And nature with a dim and sickly eye
To wait the close of all But grant her end
More distant and that prophecy demands
A longer respite unaccomplished yet
Still they are frowning signals and bespeak
Displeasure in His breast who smites the earth
Or heals it makes it languish or rejoice
And 'tis but seemly that where all deserve
And stand exposed by common peccancy
To what no few have felt there should be peace
And brethren in calamity should love
Alas for Sicily rude fragments now
Lie scattered where the shapely column stood
Her palaces are dust In all her streets
The voice of singing and the sprightly chord
Are silent Revelry and dance and show
Suffer a syncope and solemn pause
While God performs upon the trembling stage
Of His own works His dreadful part alone
How does the earth receive Him With what signs
Of gratulation and delight her King
Pours she not all her choicest fruits abroad
Her sweetest flowers her aromatic gums
Disclosing paradise where'er He treads
She quakes at His approach Her hollow womb
Conceiving thunders through a thousand deeps
And fiery caverns roars beneath His foot
The hills move lightly and the mountains smoke
For He has touched them From the extremest point
Of elevation down into the abyss
His wrath is busy and His frown is felt
The rocks fall headlong and the valleys rise
The rivers die into offensive pools
And charged with putrid verdure breathe a gross
And mortal nuisance into all the air
What solid was by transformation strange
Grows fluid and the fixed and rooted earth
Tormented into billows heaves and swells
Or with vortiginous and hideous whirl
Sucks down its prey insatiable Immense
The tumult and the overthrow the pangs
And agonies of human and of brute
Multitudes fugitive on every side
And fugitive in vain The sylvan scene
Migrates uplifted and with all its soil
Alighting in far-distant fields finds out
A new possessor and survives the change
Ocean has caught the frenzy and upwrought
To an enormous and o'erbearing height
Not by a mighty wind but by that voice
Which winds and waves obey invades the shore
Resistless Never such a sudden flood
Upridged so high and sent on such a charge
Possessed an inland scene Where now the throng
That pressed the beach and hasty to depart
Looked to the sea for safety They are gone
Gone with the refluent wave into the deep
A prince with half his people Ancient towers
And roofs embattled high the gloomy scenes
Where beauty oft and lettered worth consume
Life in the unproductive shades of death
Fall prone the pale inhabitants come forth
And happy in their unforeseen release
From all the rigours of restraint enjoy
The terrors of the day that sets them free
Who then that has thee would not hold thee fast
Freedom whom they that lose thee so regret
That even a judgment making way for thee
Seems in their eyes a mercy for thy sake
Such evil sin hath wrought and such a flame
Kindled in heaven that it burns down to earth
And in the furious inquest that it makes
On God behalf lays waste His fairest works
The very elements though each be meant
The minister of man to serve his wants
Conspire against him With his breath he draws
A plague into his blood and cannot use
Life necessary means but he must die
Storms rise to o'erwhelm him or if stormy winds
Rise not the waters of the deep shall rise
And needing none assistance of the storm
Shall roll themselves ashore and reach him there
The earth shall shake him out of all his holds
Or make his house his grave nor so content
Shall counterfeit the motions of the flood
And drown him in her dry and dusty gulfs
What then were they the wicked above all
And we the righteous whose fast-anchored isle
Moved not while theirs was rocked like a light skiff
The sport of every wave No none are clear
And none than we more guilty But where all
Stand chargeable with guilt and to the shafts
Of wrath obnoxious God may choose His mark
May punish if He please the less to warn
The more malignant If He spared not them
Tremble and be amazed at thine escape
Far guiltier England lest He spare not thee
Happy the man who sees a God employed
In all the good and ill that chequer life
Resolving all events with their effects
And manifold results into the will
And arbitration wise of the Supreme
Did not His eye rule all things and intend
The least of our concerns since from the least
The greatest oft originate could chance
Find place in His dominion or dispose
One lawless particle to thwart His plan
Then God might be surprised and unforeseen
Contingence might alarm Him and disturb
The smooth and equal course of His affairs
This truth philosophy though eagle-eyed
In nature tendencies oft overlooks
And having found His instrument forgets
Or disregards or more presumptuous still
Denies the power that wields it God proclaims
His hot displeasure against foolish men
That live an Atheist life involves the heaven
In tempests quits His grasp upon the winds
And gives them all their fury bids a plague
Kindle a fiery boil upon the skin
And putrefy the breath of blooming health
He calls for Famine and the meagre fiend
Blows mildew from between his shrivelled lips
And taints the golden ear He springs His mines
And desolates a nation at a blast
Forth steps the spruce philosopher and tells
Of homogeneal and discordant springs
And principles of causes how they work
By necessary laws their sure effects
Of action and reaction He has found
The source of the disease that nature feels
And bids the world take heart and banish fear
Thou fool will thy discovery of the cause
Suspend the effect or heal it Has not God
Still wrought by means since first He made the world
And did He not of old employ His means
To drown it What is His creation less
Than a capacious reservoir of means
Formed for His use and ready at His will
Go dress thine eyes with eye-salve ask of Him
Or ask of whomsoever He has taught
And learn though late the genuine cause of all
England with all thy faults I love thee still 
My country and while yet a nook is left
Where English minds and manners may be found
Shall be constrained to love thee Though thy clime
Be fickle and thy year most part deformed
With dripping rains or withered by a frost
I would not yet exchange thy sullen skies
And fields without a flower for warmer France
With all her vines nor for Ausonia groves
Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bowers
To shake thy senate and from heights sublime
Of patriot eloquence to flash down fire
Upon thy foes was never meant my task
But I can feel thy fortune and partake
Thy joys and sorrows with as true a heart
As any thunderer there And I can feel
Thy follies too and with a just disdain
Frown at effeminates whose very looks
Reflect dishonour on the land I love
How in the name of soldiership and sense
Should England prosper when such things as smooth
And tender as a girl all essenced o'er
With odours and as profligate as sweet
Who sell their laurel for a myrtle wreath
And love when they should fight when such as these
Presume to lay their hand upon the ark
Of her magnificent and awful cause
Time was when it was praise and boast enough
In every clime and travel where we might
That we were born her children Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man
That Chatham language was his mother tongue
And Wolfe great name compatriot with his own
Farewell those honours and farewell with them
The hope of such hereafter They have fallen
Each in his field of glory one in arms
And one in council Wolfe upon the lap
Of smiling victory that moment won
And Chatham heart-sick of his country shame
They made us many soldiers Chatham still
Consulting England happiness at home
Secured it by an unforgiving frown
If any wronged her Wolfe where'er he fought
Put so much of his heart into his act
That his example had a magnet force
And all were swift to follow whom all loved
Those suns are set Oh rise some other such
Or all that we have left is empty talk
Of old achievements and despair of new
Now hoist the sail and let the streamers float
Upon the wanton breezes Strew the deck
With lavender and sprinkle liquid sweets
That no rude savour maritime invade
The nose of nice nobility Breathe soft
Ye clarionets and softer still ye flutes
That winds and waters lulled by magic sounds
May bear us smoothly to the Gallic shore
True we have lost an empire let it pass
True we may thank the perfidy of France
That picked the jewel out of England crown
With all the cunning of an envious shrew
And let that pass 'twas but a trick of state
A brave man knows no malice but at once
Forgets in peace the injuries of war
And gives his direst foe a friend embrace
And shamed as we have been to the very beard
Braved and defied and in our own sea proved
Too weak for those decisive blows that once
Insured us mastery there we yet retain
Some small pre-eminence we justly boast
At least superior jockeyship and claim
The honours of the turf as all our own
Go then well worthy of the praise ye seek
And show the shame ye might conceal at home
In foreign eyes be grooms and win the plate
Where once your nobler fathers won a crown 
'Tis generous to communicate your skill
To those that need it Folly is soon learned
And under such preceptors who can fail
There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know The shifts and turns
The expedients and inventions multiform
To which the mind resorts in chase of terms
Though apt yet coy and difficult to win 
To arrest the fleeting images that fill
The mirror of the mind and hold them fast
And force them sit till he has pencilled off
A faithful likeness of the forms he views
Then to dispose his copies with such art
That each may find its most propitious light
And shine by situation hardly less
Than by the labour and the skill it cost
Are occupations of the poet mind
So pleasing and that steal away the thought
With such address from themes of sad import
That lost in his own musings happy man
He feels the anxieties of life denied
Their wonted entertainment all retire
Such joys has he that sings But ah not such
Or seldom such the hearers of his song
Fastidious or else listless or perhaps
Aware of nothing arduous in a task
They never undertook they little note
His dangers or escapes and haply find
There least amusement where he found the most
But is amusement all studious of song
And yet ambitious not to sing in vain
I would not trifle merely though the world
Be loudest in their praise who do no more
Yet what can satire whether grave or gay
It may correct a foible may chastise
The freaks of fashion regulate the dress
Retrench a sword-blade or displace a patch
But where are its sublimer trophies found
What vice has it subdued whose heart reclaimed
By rigour or whom laughed into reform
Alas Leviathan is not so tamed
Laughed at he laughs again and stricken hard
Turns to the stroke his adamantine scales
That fear no discipline of human hands
The pulpit therefore and I name it filled
With solemn awe that bids me well beware
With what intent I touch that holy thing 
The pulpit when the satirist has at last
Strutting and vapouring in an empty school
Spent all his force and made no proselyte 
I say the pulpit in the sober use
Of its legitimate peculiar powers
Must stand acknowledged while the world shall stand
The most important and effectual guard
Support and ornament of virtue cause
There stands the messenger of truth there stands
The legate of the skies his theme divine
His office sacred his credentials clear
By him the violated Law speaks out
Its thunders and by him in strains as sweet
As angels use the Gospel whispers peace
He stablishes the strong restores the weak
Reclaims the wanderer binds the broken heart
And armed himself in panoply complete
Of heavenly temper furnishes with arms
Bright as his own and trains by every rule
Of holy discipline to glorious war
The sacramental host of God elect
Are all such teachers would to heaven all were
But hark the Doctor voice fast wedged between
Two empirics he stands and with swollen cheeks
Inspires the news his trumpet Keener far
Than all invective is his bold harangue
While through that public organ of report
He hails the clergy and defying shame
Announces to the world his own and theirs
He teaches those to read whom schools dismissed
And colleges untaught sells accents tone
And emphasis in score and gives to prayer
The adagio and andante it demands
He grinds divinity of other days
Down into modern use transforms old print
To zigzag manuscript and cheats the eyes
Of gallery critics by a thousand arts 
Are there who purchase of the Doctor ware
Oh name it not in Gath it cannot be
That grave and learned Clerks should need such aid
He doubtless is in sport and does but droll
Assuming thus a rank unknown before
Grand caterer and dry-nurse of the Church
I venerate the man whose heart is warm
Whose hands are pure whose doctrine and whose life
Coincident exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause
To such I render more than mere respect
Whose actions say that they respect themselves
But loose in morals and in manners vain
In conversation frivolous in dress
Extreme at once rapacious and profuse
Frequent in park with lady at his side
Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes
But rare at home and never at his books
Or with his pen save when he scrawls a card
Constant at routs familiar with a round
Of ladyships a stranger to the poor
Ambitions of preferment for its gold
And well prepared by ignorance and sloth
By infidelity and love o' the world
To make God work a sinecure a slave
To his own pleasures and his patron pride 
From such apostles O ye mitred heads
Preserve the Church and lay not careless hands
On skulls that cannot teach and will not learn
Would I describe a preacher such as Paul
Were he on earth would hear approve and own
Paul should himself direct me I would trace
His master-strokes and draw from his design
I would express him simple grave sincere
In doctrine uncorrupt in language plain
And plain in manner decent solemn chaste
And natural in gesture much impressed
Himself as conscious of his awful charge
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too affectionate in look
And tender in address as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men
Behold the picture Is it like Like whom
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip
And then skip down again pronounce a text
Cry Hem and reading what they never wrote
Just fifteen minutes huddle up their work
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene
In man or woman but far most in man
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar in my soul I loathe
All affectation 'Tis my perfect scorn
Object of my implacable disgust
What will a man play tricks will he indulge
A silly fond conceit of his fair form
And just proportion fashionable mien
And pretty face in presence of his God
Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes
As with the diamond on his lily hand
And play his brilliant parts before my eyes
When I am hungry for the Bread of Life
He mocks his Maker prostitutes and shames
His noble office and instead of truth
Displaying his own beauty starves his flock
Therefore avaunt all attitude and stare
And start theatric practised at the glass
I seek divine simplicity in him
Who handles things divine and all beside
Though learned with labour and though much admired
By curious eyes and judgments ill-informed
To me is odious as the nasal twang
Heard at conventicle where worthy men
Misled by custom strain celestial themes
Through the prest nostril spectacle-bestrid
Some decent in demeanour while they preach
That task performed relapse into themselves
And having spoken wisely at the close
Grow wanton and give proof to every eye 
Whoe'er was edified themselves were not
Forth comes the pocket mirror First we stroke
An eyebrow next compose a straggling lock
Then with an air most gracefully performed
Fall back into our seat extend an arm
And lay it at its ease with gentle care
With handkerchief in hand depending low
The better hand more busy gives the nose
Its bergamot or aids the indebted eye
With opera glass to watch the moving scene
And recognise the slow-retiring fair
Now this is fulsome and offends me more
Than in a Churchman slovenly neglect
And rustic coarseness would A heavenly mind
May be indifferent to her house of clay
And slight the hovel as beneath her care
But how a body so fantastic trim
And quaint in its deportment and attire
Can lodge a heavenly mind demands a doubt
He that negotiates between God and man
As God ambassador the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy should beware
Of lightness in his speech 'Tis pitiful
To court a grin when you should woo a soul
To break a jest when pity would inspire
Pathetic exhortation and to address
The skittish fancy with facetious tales
When sent with God commission to the heart
So did not Paul Direct me to a quip
Or merry turn in all he ever wrote
And I consent you take it for your text
Your only one till sides and benches fail
No he was serious in a serious cause
And understood too well the weighty terms
That he had ta'en in charge He would not stoop
To conquer those by jocular exploits
Whom truth and soberness assailed in vain
Oh popular applause what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms
The wisest and the best feel urgent need
Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales
But swelled into a gust who then alas
With all his canvas set and inexpert
And therefore heedless can withstand thy power
Praise from the riveled lips of toothless bald
Decrepitude and in the looks of lean
And craving poverty and in the bow
Respectful of the smutched artificer
Is oft too welcome and may much disturb
The bias of the purpose How much more
Poured forth by beauty splendid and polite
In language soft as adoration breathes
Ah spare your idol think him human still
Charms he may have but he has frailties too
Dote not too much nor spoil what ye admire
All truth is from the sempiternal source
Of light divine But Egypt Greece and Rome
Drew from the stream below More favoured we
Drink when we choose it at the fountain head
To them it flowed much mingled and defiled
With hurtful error prejudice and dreams
Illusive of philosophy so called
But falsely Sages after sages strove
In vain to filter off a crystal draught
Pure from the lees which often more enhanced
The thirst than slaked it and not seldom bred
Intoxication and delirium wild
In vain they pushed inquiry to the birth
And spring-time of the world asked Whence is man
Why formed at all and wherefore as he is
Where must he find his Maker With what rites
Adore Him Will He hear accept and bless
Or does He sit regardless of His works
Has man within him an immortal seed
Or does the tomb take all If he survive
His ashes where and in what weal or woe
Knots worthy of solution which alone
A Deity could solve Their answers vague
And all at random fabulous and dark
Left them as dark themselves Their rules of life
Defective and unsanctioned proved too weak
To bind the roving appetite and lead
Blind nature to a God not yet revealed
'Tis Revelation satisfies all doubts
Explains all mysteries except her own
And so illuminates the path of life
That fools discover it and stray no more
Now tell me dignified and sapient sir
My man of morals nurtured in the shades
Of Academus is this false or true
Is Christ the abler teacher or the schools
If Christ then why resort at every turn
To Athens or to Rome for wisdom short
Of man occasions when in Him reside
Grace knowledge comfort an unfathomed store
How oft when Paul has served us with a text
Has Epictetus Plato Tully preached
Men that if now alive would sit content
And humble learners of a Saviour worth
Preach it who might Such was their love of truth
Their thirst of knowledge and their candour too
And thus it is The pastor either vain
By nature or by flattery made so taught
To gaze at his own splendour and to exalt
Absurdly not his office but himself
Or unenlightened and too proud to learn
Or vicious and not therefore apt to teach
Perverting often by the stress of lewd
And loose example whom he should instruct
Exposes and holds up to broad disgrace
The noblest function and discredits much
The brightest truths that man has ever seen
For ghostly counsel if it either fall
Below the exigence or be not backed
With show of love at least with hopeful proof
Of some sincerity on the giver part
Or be dishonoured in the exterior form
And mode of its conveyance by such tricks
As move derision or by foppish airs
And histrionic mummery that let down
The pulpit to the level of the stage
Drops from the lips a disregarded thing
The weak perhaps are moved but are not taught
While prejudice in men of stronger minds
Takes deeper root confirmed by what they see
A relaxation of religion hold
Upon the roving and untutored heart
Soon follows and the curb of conscience snapt
The laity run wild But do they now
Note their extravagance and be convinced
As nations ignorant of God contrive
A wooden one so we no longer taught
By monitors that Mother Church supplies
Now make our own Posterity will ask
If e'er posterity sees verse of mine
Some fifty or a hundred lustrums hence
What was a monitor in George days
My very gentle reader yet unborn
Of whom I needs must augur better things
Since Heaven would sure grow weary of a world
Productive only of a race like us
A monitor is wood plank shaven thin
We wear it at our backs There closely braced
And neatly fitted it compresses hard
The prominent and most unsightly bones
And binds the shoulders flat We prove its use
Sovereign and most effectual to secure
A form not now gymnastic as of yore
From rickets and distortion else our lot
But thus admonished we can walk erect
One proof at least of manhood while the friend
Sticks close a Mentor worthy of his charge
Our habits costlier than Lucullus wore
And by caprice as multiplied as his
Just please us while the fashion is at full
But change with every moon The sycophant
That waits to dress us arbitrates their date
Surveys his fair reversion with keen eye
Finds one ill made another obsolete
This fits not nicely that is ill conceived
And making prize of all that he condemns
With our expenditure defrays his own
Variety the very spice of life
That gives it all its flavour We have run
Through every change that fancy at the loom
Exhausted has had genius to supply
And studious of mutation still discard
A real elegance a little used
For monstrous novelty and strange disguise
We sacrifice to dress till household joys
And comforts cease Dress drains our cellar dry
And keeps our larder lean puts out our fires
And introduces hunger frost and woe
Where peace and hospitality might reign
What man that lives and that knows how to live
Would fail to exhibit at the public shows
A form as splendid as the proudest there
Though appetite raise outcries at the cost
A man o' the town dines late but soon enough
With reasonable forecast and despatch
To ensure a side-box station at half-price
You think perhaps so delicate his dress
His daily fare as delicate Alas
He picks clean teeth and busy as he seems
With an old tavern quill is hungry yet
The rout is folly circle which she draws
With magic wand So potent is the spell
That none decoyed into that fatal ring
Unless by Heaven peculiar grace escape
There we grow early gray but never wise
There form connections and acquire no friend
Solicit pleasure hopeless of success
Waste youth in occupations only fit
For second childhood and devote old age
To sports which only childhood could excuse
There they are happiest who dissemble best
Their weariness and they the most polite
Who squander time and treasure with a smile
Though at their own destruction She that asks
Her dear five hundred friends contemns them all
And hates their coming They what can they less
Make just reprisals and with cringe and shrug
And bow obsequious hide their hate of her
All catch the frenzy downward from her Grace
Whose flambeaux flash against the morning skies
And gild our chamber ceilings as they pass
To her who frugal only that her thrift
May feed excesses she can ill afford
Is hackneyed home unlackeyed who in haste
Alighting turns the key in her own door
And at the watchman lantern borrowing light
Finds a cold bed her only comfort left
Wives beggar husbands husbands starve their wives
On Fortune velvet altar offering up
Their last poor pittance Fortune most severe
Of goddesses yet known and costlier far
Than all that held their routs in Juno heaven 
So fare we in this prison-house the world
And 'tis a fearful spectacle to see
So many maniacs dancing in their chains
They gaze upon the links that hold them fast
With eyes of anguish execrate their lot
Then shake them in despair and dance again
Now basket up the family of plagues
That waste our vitals Peculation sale
Of honour perjury corruption frauds
By forgery by subterfuge of law
By tricks and lies as numerous and as keen
As the necessities their authors feel
Then cast them closely bundled every brat
At the right door Profusion is its sire
Profusion unrestrained with all that base
In character has littered all the land
And bred within the memory of no few
A priesthood such as Baal was of old
A people such as never was till now
It is a hungry vice it eats up all
That gives society its beauty strength
Convenience and security and use
Makes men mere vermin worthy to be trapped
And gibbeted as fast as catchpole claws
Can seize the slippery prey unties the knot
Of union and converts the sacred band
That holds mankind together to a scourge
Profusion deluging a state with lusts
Of grossest nature and of worst effects
Prepares it for its ruin hardens blinds
And warps the consciences of public men
Till they can laugh at virtue mock the fools
That trust them and in the end disclose a face
That would have shocked credulity herself
Unmasked vouchsafing this their sole excuse 
Since all alike are selfish why not they
This does Profusion and the accursed cause
Of such deep mischief has itself a cause
In colleges and halls in ancient days
When learning virtue piety and truth
Were precious and inculcated with care
There dwelt a sage called Discipline His head
Not yet by time completely silvered o'er
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth
But strong for service still and unimpaired
His eye was meek and gentle and a smile
Played on his lips and in his speech was heard
Paternal sweetness dignity and love
The occupation dearest to his heart
Was to encourage goodness He would stroke
The head of modest and ingenuous worth
That blushed at its own praise and press the youth
Close to his side that pleased him Learning grew
Beneath his care a thriving vigorous plant
The mind was well informed the passions held
Subordinate and diligence was choice
If e'er it chanced as sometimes chance it must
That one among so many overleaped
The limits of control his gentle eye
Grew stern and darted a severe rebuke
His frown was full of terror and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe
As left him not till penitence had won
Lost favour back again and closed the breach
But Discipline a faithful servant long
Declined at length into the vale of years
A palsy struck his arm his sparkling eye
Was quenched in rheums of age his voice unstrung
Grew tremulous and moved derision more
Than reverence in perverse rebellious youth
So colleges and halls neglected much
Their good old friend and Discipline at length
O'erlooked and unemployed fell sick and died
Then study languished emulation slept
And virtue fled The schools became a scene
Of solemn farce where ignorance in stilts
His cap well lined with logic not his own
With parrot tongue performed the scholar part
Proceeding soon a graduated dunce
Then compromise had place and scrutiny
Became stone-blind precedence went in truck
And he was competent whose purse was so
A dissolution of all bonds ensued
The curbs invented for the mulish mouth
Of headstrong youth were broken bars and bolts
Grew rusty by disuse and massy gates
Forgot their office opening with a touch
Till gowns at length are found mere masquerade
The tasselled cap and the spruce band a jest
A mockery of the world What need of these
For gamesters jockeys brothellers impure
Spendthrifts and booted sportsmen oftener seen
With belted waist and pointers at their heels
Than in the bounds of duty What was learned
If aught was learned in childhood is forgot
And such expense as pinches parents blue
And mortifies the liberal hand of love
Is squandered in pursuit of idle sports
And vicious pleasures buys the boy a name
That sits a stigma on his father house
And cleaves through life inseparably close
To him that wears it What can after-games
Of riper joys and commerce with the world
The lewd vain world that must receive him soon
Add to such erudition thus acquired
Where science and where virtue are professed
They may confirm his habits rivet fast
His folly but to spoil him is a task
That bids defiance to the united powers
Of fashion dissipation taverns stews
Now blame we most the nurselings or the nurse
The children crooked and twisted and deformed
Through want of care or her whose winking eye
And slumbering oscitancy mars the brood
The nurse no doubt Regardless of her charge
She needs herself correction needs to learn
That it is dangerous sporting with the world
With things so sacred as a nation trust
The nurture of her youth her dearest pledge
All are not such I had a brother once 
Peace to the memory of a man of worth
A man of letters and of manners too 
Of manners sweet as virtue always wears
When gay good-nature dresses her in smiles
He graced a college in which order yet
Was sacred and was honoured loved and wept
By more than one themselves conspicuous there
Some minds are tempered happily and mixt
With such ingredients of good sense and taste
Of what is excellent in man they thirst
With such a zeal to be what they approve
That no restraints can circumscribe them more
Than they themselves by choice for wisdom sake
Nor can example hurt them What they see
Of vice in others but enhancing more
The charms of virtue in their just esteem
If such escape contagion and emerge
Pure from so foul a pool to shine abroad
And give the world their talents and themselves
Small thanks to those whose negligence or sloth
Exposed their inexperience to the snare
And left them to an undirected choice
See then the quiver broken and decayed
In which are kept our arrows Rusting there
In wild disorder and unfit for use
What wonder if discharged into the world
They shame their shooters with a random flight
Their points obtuse and feathers drunk with wine
Well may the Church wage unsuccessful war
With such artillery armed Vice parries wide
The undreaded volley with a sword of straw
And stands an impudent and fearless mark
Have we not tracked the felon home and found
His birthplace and his dam The country mourns 
Mourns because every plague that can infest
Society that saps and worms the base
Of the edifice that Policy has raised
Swarms in all quarters meets the eye the ear
And suffocates the breath at every turn
Profusion breeds them And the cause itself
Of that calamitous mischief has been found
Found too where most offensive in the skirts
Of the robed pedagogue Else let the arraigned
Stand up unconscious and refute the charge
So when the Jewish leader stretched his arm
And waved his rod divine a race obscene
Spawned in the muddy beds of Nile came forth
Polluting Egypt Gardens fields and plains
Were covered with the pest The streets were filled
The croaking nuisance lurked in every nook
Nor palaces nor even chambers 'scaped
And the land stank so numerous was the fry
AS one who long in thickets and in brakes
Entangled winds now this way and now that
His devious course uncertain seeking home
Or having long in miry ways been foiled
And sore discomfited from slough to slough
Plunging and half despairing of escape
If chance at length he find a greensward smooth
And faithful to the foot his spirits rise
He chirrups brisk his ear-erecting steed
And winds his way with pleasure and with ease
So I designing other themes and called
To adorn the Sofa with eulogium due
To tell its slumbers and to paint its dreams
Have rambled wide In country city seat
Of academic fame howe'er deserved
Long held and scarcely disengaged at last
But now with pleasant pace a cleanlier road
I mean to tread I feel myself at large
Courageous and refreshed for future toil
If toil await me or if dangers new
Since pulpits fail and sounding-boards reflect
Most part an empty ineffectual sound
What chance that I to fame so little known
Nor conversant with men or manners much
Should speak to purpose or with better hope
Crack the satiric thong 'Twere wiser far
For me enamoured of sequestered scenes
And charmed with rural beauty to repose
Where chance may throw me beneath elm or vine
My languid limbs when summer sears the plains
Or when rough winter rages on the soft
And sheltered Sofa while the nitrous air
Feeds a blue flame and makes a cheerful hearth
There undisturbed by folly and apprised
How great the danger of disturbing her
To muse in silence or at least confine
Remarks that gall so many to the few
My partners in retreat Disgust concealed
Is ofttimes proof of wisdom when the fault
Is obstinate and cure beyond our reach
Domestic happiness thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall
Though few now taste thee unimpaired and pure
Or tasting long enjoy thee too infirm
Or too incautious to preserve thy sweets
Unmixed with drops of bitter which neglect
Or temper sheds into thy crystal cup
Thou art the nurse of virtue In thine arms
She smiles appearing as in truth she is
Heaven-born and destined to the skies again
Thou art not known where Pleasure is adored
That reeling goddess with the zoneless waist
And wandering eyes still leaning on the arm
Of Novelty her fickle frail support
For thou art meek and constant hating change
And finding in the calm of truth-tried love
Joys that her stormy raptures never yield
Forsaking thee what shipwreck have we made
Of honour dignity and fair renown
Till prostitution elbows us aside
In all our crowded streets and senates seem
Convened for purposes of empire less
Than to release the adult'ress from her bond
The adult'ress what a theme for angry verse
What provocation to the indignant heart
That feels for injured love but I disdain
The nauseous task to paint her as she is
Cruel abandoned glorying in her shame
No let her pass and charioted along
In guilty splendour shake the public ways
The frequency of crimes has washed them white
And verse of mine shall never brand the wretch
Whom matrons now of character unsmirched
And chaste themselves are not ashamed to own
Virtue and vice had boundaries in old time
Not to be passed and she that had renounced
Her sex honour was renounced herself
By all that prized it not for prudery sake
But dignity resentful of the wrong
'Twas hard perhaps on here and there a waif
Desirous to return and not received
But was a wholesome rigour in the main
And taught the unblemished to preserve with care
That purity whose loss was loss of all
Men too were nice in honour in those days
And judged offenders well Then he that sharped
And pocketed a prize by fraud obtained
Was marked and shunned as odious He that sold
His country or was slack when she required
His every nerve in action and at stretch
Paid with the blood that he had basely spared
The price of his default But now yes now
We are become so candid and so fair
So liberal in construction and so rich
In Christian charity good-natured age
That they are safe sinners of either sex
Transgress what laws they may Well dressed well bred
Well equipaged is ticket good enough
To pass us readily through every door
Hypocrisy detest her as we may
And no man hatred ever wronged her yet
May claim this merit still that she admits
The worth of what she mimics with such care
And thus gives virtue indirect applause
But she has burnt her mask not needed here
Where vice has such allowance that her shifts
And specious semblances have lost their use
I was a stricken deer that left the herd
Long since with many an arrow deep infixt
My panting side was charged when I withdrew
To seek a tranquil death in distant shades
There was I found by one who had himself
Been hurt by the archers In his side he bore
And in his hands and feet the cruel scars
With gentle force soliciting the darts
He drew them forth and healed and bade me live
Since then with few associates in remote
And silent woods I wander far from those
My former partners of the peopled scene
With few associates and not wishing more
Here much I ruminate as much I may
With other views of men and manners now
Than once and others of a life to come
I see that all are wanderers gone astray
Each in his own delusions they are lost
In chase of fancied happiness still woo'd
And never won Dream after dream ensues
And still they dream that they shall still succeed
And still are disappointed rings the world
With the vain stir I sum up half mankind
And add two-thirds of the remaining half
And find the total of their hopes and fears
Dreams empty dreams The million flit as gay
As if created only like the fly
That spreads his motley wings in the eye of noon
To sport their season and be seen no more
The rest are sober dreamers grave and wise
And pregnant with discoveries new and rare
Some write a narrative of wars and feats
Of heroes little known and call the rant
A history describe the man of whom
His own coevals took but little note
And paint his person character and views
As they had known him from his mother womb
They disentangle from the puzzled skein
In which obscurity has wrapped them up
The threads of politic and shrewd design
That ran through all his purposes and charge
His mind with meanings that he never had
Or having kept concealed Some drill and bore
The solid earth and from the strata there
Extract a register by which we learn
That He who made it and revealed its date
To Moses was mistaken in its age
Some more acute and more industrious still
Contrive creation travel nature up
To the sharp peak of her sublimest height
And tell us whence the stars why some are fixt
And planetary some what gave them first
Rotation from what fountain flowed their light
Great contest follows and much learned dust
Involves the combatants each claiming truth
And truth disclaiming both And thus they spend
The little wick of life poor shallow lamp
In playing tricks with nature giving laws
To distant worlds and trifling in their own
Is't not a pity now that tickling rheums
Should ever tease the lungs and blear the sight
Of oracles like these Great pity too
That having wielded the elements and built
A thousand systems each in his own way
They should go out in fume and be forgot
Ah what is life thus spent and what are they
But frantic who thus spend it all for smoke 
Eternity for bubbles proves at last
A senseless bargain When I see such games
Played by the creatures of a Power who swears
That He will judge the earth and call the fool
To a sharp reckoning that has lived in vain
And when I weigh this seeming wisdom well
And prove it in the infallible result
So hollow and so false I feel my heart
Dissolve in pity and account the learned
If this be learning most of all deceived
Great crimes alarm the conscience but it sleeps
While thoughtful man is plausibly amused
Defend me therefore common sense say I
From reveries so airy from the toil
Of dropping buckets into empty wells
And growing old in drawing nothing up
'Twere well says one sage erudite profound
Terribly arched and aquiline his nose
And overbuilt with most impending brows
'Twere well could you permit the world to live
As the world pleases What the world to you 
Much I was born of woman and drew milk
As sweet as charity from human breasts
I think articulate I laugh and weep
And exercise all functions of a man
How then should I and any man that lives
Be strangers to each other Pierce my vein
Take of the crimson stream meandering there
And catechise it well Apply your glass
Search it and prove now if it be not blood
Congenial with thine own and if it be
What edge of subtlety canst thou suppose
Keen enough wise and skilful as thou art
To cut the link of brotherhood by which
One common Maker bound me to the kind
True I am no proficient I confess
In arts like yours I cannot call the swift
And perilous lightnings from the angry clouds
And bid them hide themselves in the earth beneath
I cannot analyse the air nor catch
The parallax of yonder luminous point
That seems half quenched in the immense abyss
Such powers I boast not neither can I rest
A silent witness of the headlong rage
Or heedless folly by which thousands die
Bone of my bone and kindred souls to mine
God never meant that man should scale the heavens
By strides of human wisdom In His works
Though wondrous He commands us in His Word
To seek Him rather where His mercy shines
The mind indeed enlightened from above
Views Him in all ascribes to the grand cause
The grand effect acknowledges with joy
His manner and with rapture tastes His style
But never yet did philosophic tube
That brings the planets home into the eye
Of observation and discovers else
Not visible His family of worlds
Discover Him that rules them such a veil
Hangs over mortal eyes blind from the birth
And dark in things divine Full often too
Our wayward intellect the more we learn
Of nature overlooks her Author more
From instrumental causes proud to draw
Conclusions retrograde and mad mistake
But if His Word once teach us shoot a ray
Through all the heart dark chambers and reveal
Truths undiscerned but by that holy light
Then all is plain Philosophy baptised
In the pure fountain of eternal love
Has eyes indeed and viewing all she sees
As meant to indicate a God to man
Gives Him His praise and forfeits not her own
Learning has borne such fruit in other days
On all her branches Piety has found
Friends in the friends of science and true prayer
Has flowed from lips wet with Castalian dews
Such was thy wisdom Newton childlike sage
Sagacious reader of the works of God
And in His Word sagacious Such too thine
Milton whose genius had angelic wings
And fed on manna And such thine in whom
Our British Themis gloried with just cause
Immortal Hale for deep discernment praised
And sound integrity not more than famed
For sanctity of manners undefiled
All flesh is grass and all its glory fades
Like the fair flower dishevelled in the wind
Riches have wings and grandeur is a dream
The man we celebrate must find a tomb
And we that worship him ignoble graves
Nothing is proof against the general curse
Of vanity that seizes all below
The only amaranthine flower on earth
Is virtue the only lasting treasure truth
But what is truth 'twas Pilate question put
To truth itself that deigned him no reply
And wherefore will not God impart His light
To them that ask it Freely 'tis His joy
His glory and His nature to impart
But to the proud uncandid insincere
Or negligent inquirer not a spark
What that which brings contempt upon a book
And him that writes it though the style be neat
The method clear and argument exact
That makes a minister in holy things
The joy of many and the dread of more
His name a theme for praise and for reproach 
That while it gives us worth in God account
Depreciates and undoes us in our own
What pearl is it that rich men cannot buy
That learning is too proud to gather up
But which the poor and the despised of all
Seek and obtain and often find unsought
Tell me and I will tell thee what is truth
Oh friendly to the best pursuits of man
Friendly to thought to virtue and to peace
Domestic life in rural leisure passed
Few know thy value and few taste thy sweets
Though many boast thy favours and affect
To understand and choose thee for their own
But foolish man foregoes his proper bliss
Even as his first progenitor and quits
Though placed in paradise for earth has still
Some traces of her youthful beauty left
Substantial happiness for transient joy
Scenes formed for contemplation and to nurse
The growing seeds of wisdom that suggest
By every pleasing image they present
Reflections such as meliorate the heart
Compose the passions and exalt the mind
Scenes such as these 'tis his supreme delight
To fill with riot and defile with blood
Should some contagion kind to the poor brutes
We persecute annihilate the tribes
That draw the sportsman over hill and dale
Fearless and rapt away from all his cares
Should never game-fowl hatch her eggs again
Nor baited hook deceive the fish eye
Could pageantry and dance and feast and song
Be quelled in all our summer months' retreats
How many self-deluded nymphs and swains
Who dream they have a taste for fields and groves
Would find them hideous nurseries of the spleen
And crowd the roads impatient for the town
They love the country and none else who seek
For their own sake its silence and its shade
Delights which who would leave that has a heart
Susceptible of pity or a mind
Cultured and capable of sober thought
For all the savage din of the swift pack
And clamours of the field Detested sport
That owes its pleasures to another pain
That feeds upon the sobs and dying shrieks
Of harmless nature dumb but yet endued
With eloquence that agonies inspire
Of silent tears and heart-distending sighs
Vain tears alas and sighs that never find
A corresponding tone in jovial souls
Well one at least is safe One sheltered hare
Has never heard the sanguinary yell
Of cruel man exulting in her woes
Innocent partner of my peaceful home
Whom ten long years' experience of my care
Has made at last familiar she has lost
Much of her vigilant instinctive dread
Not needful here beneath a roof like mine
Yes thou mayst eat thy bread and lick the hand
That feeds thee thou mayst frolic on the floor
At evening and at night retire secure
To thy straw-couch and slumber unalarmed
For I have gained thy confidence have pledged
All that is human in me to protect
Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love
If I survive thee I will dig thy grave
And when I place thee in it sighing say
I knew at least one hare that had a friend
How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too
Friends books a garden and perhaps his pen
Delightful industry enjoyed at home
And nature in her cultivated trim
Dressed to his taste inviting him abroad 
Can he want occupation who has these
Will he be idle who has much to enjoy
Me therefore studious of laborious ease
Not slothful happy to deceive the time
Not waste it and aware that human life
Is but a loan to be repaid with use
When He shall call His debtors to account
From whom are all our blessings business finds
Even here while sedulous I seek to improve
At least neglect not or leave unemployed
The mind He gave me driving it though slack
Too oft and much impeded in its work
By causes not to be divulged in vain
To its just point the service of mankind
He that attends to his interior self
That has a heart and keeps it has a mind
That hungers and supplies it and who seeks
A social not a dissipated life
Has business feels himself engaged to achieve
No unimportant though a silent task
A life all turbulence and noise may seem
To him that leads it wise and to be praised
But wisdom is a pearl with most success
Sought in still water and beneath clear skies
He that is ever occupied in storms
Or dives not for it or brings up instead
Vainly industrious a disgraceful prize
The morning finds the self-sequestered man
Fresh for his task intend what task he may
Whether inclement seasons recommend
His warm but simple home where he enjoys
With her who shares his pleasures and his heart
Sweet converse sipping calm the fragrant lymph
Which neatly she prepares then to his book
Well chosen and not sullenly perused
In selfish silence but imparted oft
As aught occurs that she may smile to hear
Or turn to nourishment digested well
Or if the garden with its many cares
All well repaid demand him he attends
The welcome call conscious how much the hand
Of lubbard labour needs his watchful eye
Oft loitering lazily if not o'erseen
Or misapplying his unskilful strength
Nor does he govern only or direct
But much performs himself no works indeed
That ask robust tough sinews bred to toil
Servile employ but such as may amuse
Not tire demanding rather skill than force
Proud of his well-spread walls he views his trees
That meet no barren interval between
With pleasure more than even their fruits afford
Which save himself who trains them none can feel
These therefore are his own peculiar charge
No meaner hand may discipline the shoots
None but his steel approach them What is weak
Distempered or has lost prolific powers
Impaired by age his unrelenting hand
Dooms to the knife Nor does he spare the soft
And succulent that feeds its giant growth
But barren at the expense of neighbouring twigs
Less ostentatious and yet studded thick
With hopeful gems The rest no portion left
That may disgrace his art or disappoint
Large expectation he disposes neat
At measured distances that air and sun
Admitted freely may afford their aid
And ventilate and warm the swelling buds
Hence Summer has her riches Autumn hence
And hence even Winter fills his withered hand
With blushing fruits and plenty not his own
Fair recompense of labour well bestowed
And wise precaution which a clime so rude
Makes needful still whose Spring is but the child
Of churlish Winter in her froward moods
Discovering much the temper of her sire
For oft as if in her the stream of mild
Maternal nature had reversed its course
She brings her infants forth with many smiles
But once delivered kills them with a frown
He therefore timely warned himself supplies
Her want of care screening and keeping warm
The plenteous bloom that no rough blast may sweep
His garlands from the boughs Again as oft
As the sun peeps and vernal airs breathe mild
The fence withdrawn he gives them ev'ry beam
And spreads his hopes before the blaze of day
To raise the prickly and green-coated gourd
So grateful to the palate and when rare
So coveted else base and disesteemed 
Food for the vulgar merely is an art
That toiling ages have but just matured
And at this moment unessayed in song
Yet gnats have had and frogs and mice long since
Their eulogy those sang the Mantuan bard
And these the Grecian in ennobling strains
And in thy numbers Philips shines for aye
The solitary Shilling Pardon then
Ye sage dispensers of poetic fame
The ambition of one meaner far whose powers
Presuming an attempt not less sublime
Pant for the praise of dressing to the taste
Of critic appetite no sordid fare
A cucumber while costly yet and scarce
The stable yields a stercoraceous heap
Impregnated with quick fermenting salts
And potent to resist the freezing blast
For ere the beech and elm have cast their leaf
Deciduous and when now November dark
Checks vegetation in the torpid plant
Exposed to his cold breath the task begins
Warily therefore and with prudent heed
He seeks a favoured spot that where he builds
The agglomerated pile his frame may front
The sun meridian disk and at the back
Enjoy close shelter wall or reeds or hedge
Impervious to the wind First he bids spread
Dry fern or littered hay that may imbibe
The ascending damps then leisurely impose
And lightly shaking it with agile hand
From the full fork the saturated straw
What longest binds the closest forms secure
The shapely side that as it rises takes
By just degrees an overhanging breadth
Sheltering the base with its projected eaves
The uplifted frame compact at every joint
And overlaid with clear translucent glass
He settles next upon the sloping mount
Whose sharp declivity shoots off secure
From the dashed pane the deluge as it falls
He shuts it close and the first labour ends
Thrice must the voluble and restless earth
Spin round upon her axle ere the warmth
Slow gathering in the midst through the square mass
Diffused attain the surface When behold
A pestilent and most corrosive steam
Like a gross fog Boeotian rising fast
And fast condensed upon the dewy sash
Asks egress which obtained the overcharged
And drenched conservatory breathes abroad
In volumes wheeling slow the vapour dank
And purified rejoices to have lost
Its foul inhabitant But to assuage
The impatient fervour which it first conceives
Within its reeking bosom threatening death
To his young hopes requires discreet delay
Experience slow preceptress teaching oft
The way to glory by miscarriage foul
Must prompt him and admonish how to catch
The auspicious moment when the tempered heat
Friendly to vital motion may afford
Soft fermentation and invite the seed
The seed selected wisely plump and smooth
And glossy he commits to pots of size
Diminutive well filled with well-prepared
And fruitful soil that has been treasured long
And drunk no moisture from the dripping clouds
These on the warm and genial earth that hides
The smoking manure and o'erspreads it all
He places lightly and as time subdues
The rage of fermentation plunges deep
In the soft medium till they stand immersed
Then rise the tender germs upstarting quick
And spreading wide their spongy lobes at first
Pale wan and livid but assuming soon
If fanned by balmy and nutritious air
Strained through the friendly mats a vivid green
Two leaves produced two rough indented leaves
Cautious he pinches from the second stalk
A pimple that portends a future sprout
And interdicts its growth Thence straight succeed
The branches sturdy to his utmost wish
Prolific all and harbingers of more
The crowded roots demand enlargement now
And transplantation in an ampler space
Indulged in what they wish they soon supply
Large foliage overshadowing golden flowers
Blown on the summit of the apparent fruit
These have their sexes and when summer shines
The bee transports the fertilising meal
From flower to flower and even the breathing air
Wafts the rich prize to its appointed use
Not so when winter scowls Assistant art
Then acts in nature office brings to pass
The glad espousals and insures the crop
Grudge not ye rich since luxury must have
His dainties and the world more numerous half
Lives by contriving delicates for you
Grudge not the cost Ye little know the cares
The vigilance the labour and the skill
That day and night are exercised and hang
Upon the ticklish balance of suspense
That ye may garnish your profuse regales
With summer fruits brought forth by wintry suns
Ten thousand dangers lie in wait to thwart
The process Heat and cold and wind and steam
Moisture and drought mice worms and swarming flies
Minute as dust and numberless oft work
Dire disappointment that admits no cure
And which no care can obviate It were long
Too long to tell the expedients and the shifts
Which he that fights a season so severe
Devises while he guards his tender trust
And oft at last in vain The learned and wise
Sarcastic would exclaim and judge the song
Cold as its theme and like its theme the fruit
Of too much labour worthless when produced
Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too
Unconscious of a less propitious clime
There blooms exotic beauty warm and snug
While the winds whistle and the snows descend
The spiry myrtle with unwithering leaf
Shines there and flourishes The golden boast
Of Portugal and Western India there
The ruddier orange and the paler lime
Peep through their polished foliage at the storm
And seem to smile at what they need not fear
The amomum there with intermingling flowers
And cherries hangs her twigs Geranium boasts
Her crimson honours and the spangled beau
Ficoides glitters bright the winter long
All plants of every leaf that can endure
The winter frown if screened from his shrewd bite
Live there and prosper Those Ausonia claims
Levantine regions these the Azores send
Their jessamine her jessamine remote
Caffraria foreigners from many lands
They form one social shade as if convened
By magic summons of the Orphean lyre
Yet such arrangement rarely brought to pass
But by a master hand disposing well
The gay diversities of leaf and flower
Must lend its aid to illustrate all their charms
And dress the regular yet various scene
Plant behind plant aspiring in the van
The dwarfish in the rear retired but still
Sublime above the rest the statelier stand
So once were ranged the sons of ancient Rome
A noble show while Roscius trod the stage
And so while Garrick as renowned as he
The sons of Albion fearing each to lose
Some note of Nature music from his lips
And covetous of Shakespeare beauty seen
In every flash of his far-beaming eye
Nor taste alone and well-contrived display
Suffice to give the marshalled ranks the grace
Of their complete effect Much yet remains
Unsung and many cares are yet behind
And more laborious cares on which depends
Their vigour injured soon not soon restored
The soil must be renewed which often washed
Loses its treasure of salubrious salts
And disappoints the roots the slender roots
Close interwoven where they meet the vase
Must smooth be shorn away the sapless branch
Must fly before the knife the withered leaf
Must be detached and where it strews the floor
Swept with a woman neatness breeding else
Contagion and disseminating death
Discharge but these kind offices and who
Would spare that loves them offices like these
Well they reward the toil The sight is pleased
The scent regaled each odoriferous leaf
Each opening blossom freely breathes abroad
Its gratitude and thanks him with its sweets
So manifold all pleasing in their kind
All healthful are the employs of rural life
Reiterated as the wheel of time
Runs round still ending and beginning still
Nor are these all To deck the shapely knoll
That softly swelled and gaily dressed appears
A flowery island from the dark green lawn
Emerging must be deemed a labour due
To no mean hand and asks the touch of taste
Here also grateful mixture of well-matched
And sorted hues each giving each relief
And by contrasted beauty shining more
Is needful Strength may wield the ponderous spade
May turn the clod and wheel the compost home
But elegance chief grace the garden shows
And most attractive is the fair result
Of thought the creature of a polished mind
Without it all is Gothic as the scene
To which the insipid citizen resorts
Near yonder heath where industry misspent
But proud of his uncouth ill-chosen task
Has made a heaven on earth with suns and moons
Of close-rammed stones has charged the encumbered soil
And fairly laid the zodiac in the dust
He therefore who would see his flowers disposed
Sightly and in just order ere he gives
The beds the trusted treasure of their seeds
Forecasts the future whole that when the scene
Shall break into its preconceived display
Each for itself and all as with one voice
Conspiring may attest his bright design
Nor even then dismissing as performed
His pleasant work may he suppose it done
Few self-supported flowers endure the wind
Uninjured but expect the upholding aid
Of the smooth-shaven prop and neatly tied
Are wedded thus like beauty to old age
For interest sake the living to the dead
Some clothe the soil that feeds them far diffused
And lowly creeping modest and yet fair
Like virtue thriving most where little seen
Some more aspiring catch the neighbour shrub
With clasping tendrils and invest his branch
Else unadorned with many a gay festoon
And fragrant chaplet recompensing well
The strength they borrow with the grace they lend
All hate the rank society of weeds
Noisome and very greedy to exhaust
The impoverished earth an overbearing race
That like the multitude made faction-mad
Disturb good order and degrade true worth
Oh blest seclusion from a jarring world
Which he thus occupied enjoys Retreat
Cannot indeed to guilty man restore
Lost innocence or cancel follies past
But it has peace and much secures the mind
From all assaults of evil proving still
A faithful barrier not o'erleaped with ease
By vicious custom raging uncontrolled
Abroad and desolating public life
When fierce temptation seconded within
By traitor appetite and armed with darts
Tempered in hell invades the throbbing breast
To combat may be glorious and success
Perhaps may crown us but to fly is safe
Had I the choice of sublunary good
What could I wish that I possess not here
Health leisure means to improve it friendship peace
No loose or wanton though a wandering muse
And constant occupation without care
Thus blest I draw a picture of that bliss
Hopeless indeed that dissipated minds
And profligate abusers of a world
Created fair so much in vain for them
Should seek the guiltless joys that I describe
Allured by my report but sure no less
That self-condemned they must neglect the prize
And what they will not taste must yet approve
What we admire we praise and when we praise
Advance it into notice that its worth
Acknowledged others may admire it too
I therefore recommend though at the risk
Of popular disgust yet boldly still
The cause of piety and sacred truth
And virtue and those scenes which God ordained
Should best secure them and promote them most
Scenes that I love and with regret perceive
Forsaken or through folly not enjoyed
Pure is the nymph though liberal of her smiles
And chaste though unconfined whom I extol
Not as the prince in Shushan when he called
Vain-glorious of her charms his Vashti forth
To grace the full pavilion His design
Was but to boast his own peculiar good
Which all might view with envy none partake
My charmer is not mine alone my sweets
And she that sweetens all my bitters too
Nature enchanting Nature in whose form
And lineaments divine I trace a hand
That errs not and find raptures still renewed
Is free to all men universal prize
Strange that so fair a creature should yet want
Admirers and be destined to divide
With meaner objects even the few she finds
Stript of her ornaments her leaves and flowers
She loses all her influence Cities then
Attract us and neglected Nature pines
Abandoned as unworthy of our love
But are not wholesome airs though unperfumed
By roses and clear suns though scarcely felt
And groves if unharmonious yet secure
From clamour and whose very silence charms
To be preferred to smoke to the eclipse
That Metropolitan volcanoes make
Whose Stygian throats breathe darkness all day long
And to the stir of commerce driving slow
And thundering loud with his ten thousand wheels
They would be were not madness in the head
And folly in the heart were England now
What England was plain hospitable kind
And undebauched But we have bid farewell
To all the virtues of those better days
And all their honest pleasures Mansions once
Knew their own masters and laborious hands
That had survived the father served the son
Now the legitimate and rightful lord
Is but a transient guest newly arrived
And soon to be supplanted He that saw
His patrimonial timber cast its leaf
Sells the last scantling and transfers the price
To some shrewd sharper ere it buds again
Estates are landscapes gazed upon awhile
Then advertised and auctioneered away
The country starves and they that feed the o'er-charged
And surfeited lewd town with her fair dues
By a just judgment strip and starve themselves
The wings that waft our riches out of sight
Grow on the gamester elbows and the alert
And nimble motion of those restless joints
That never tire soon fans them all away
Improvement too the idol of the age
Is fed with many a victim Lo he comes 
The omnipotent magician Brown appears
Down falls the venerable pile the abode
Of our forefathers a grave whiskered race
But tasteless Springs a palace in its stead
But in a distant spot where more exposed
It may enjoy the advantage of the North
And aguish East till time shall have transformed
Those naked acres to a sheltering grove
He speaks The lake in front becomes a lawn
Woods vanish hills subside and valleys rise
And streams as if created for his use
Pursue the track of his directed wand
Sinuous or straight now rapid and now slow
Now murmuring soft now roaring in cascades
Even as he bids The enraptured owner smiles
'Tis finished And yet finished as it seems
Still wants a grace the loveliest it could show
A mine to satisfy the enormous cost
Drained to the last poor item of his wealth
He sighs departs and leaves the accomplished plan
That he has touched and retouched many a day
Laboured and many a night pursued in dreams
Just when it meets his hopes and proves the heaven
He wanted for a wealthier to enjoy
And now perhaps the glorious hour is come
When having no stake left no pledge to endear
Her interests or that gives her sacred cause
A moment operation on his love
He burns with most intense and flagrant zeal
To serve his country Ministerial grace
Deals him out money from the public chest
Or if that mine be shut some private purse
Supplies his need with an usurious loan
To be refunded duly when his vote
Well-managed shall have earned its worthy price
Oh innocent compared with arts like these
Crape and cocked pistol and the whistling ball
Sent through the traveller temples He that finds
One drop of heaven sweet mercy in his cup
Can dig beg rot and perish well-content
So he may wrap himself in honest rags
At his last gasp but could not for a world
Fish up his dirty and dependent bread
From pools and ditches of the commonwealth
Sordid and sickening at his own success
Ambition avarice penury incurred
By endless riot vanity the lust
Of pleasure and variety despatch
As duly as the swallows disappear
The world of wandering knights and squires to town
London engulfs them all The shark is there
And the shark prey the spendthrift and the leech
That sucks him There the sycophant and he
That with bare-headed and obsequious bows
Begs a warm office doomed to a cold jail
And groat per diem if his patron frown
The levee swarms as if in golden pomp
Were charactered on every statesman door
These are the charms that sully and eclipse
The charms of nature 'Tis the cruel gripe
That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts
The hope of better things the chance to win
The wish to shine the thirst to be amused
That at the sound of Winter hoary wing
Unpeople all our counties of such herds
Of fluttering loitering cringing begging loose
And wanton vagrants as make London vast
And boundless as it is a crowded coop
Oh thou resort and mart of all the earth
Chequered with all complexions of mankind
And spotted with all crimes in whom I see
Much that I love and more that I admire
And all that I abhor thou freckled fair
That pleases and yet shocks me I can laugh
And I can weep can hope and can despond
Feel wrath and pity when I think on thee
Ten righteous would have saved a city once
And thou hast many righteous Well for thee 
That salt preserves thee more corrupted else
And therefore more obnoxious at this hour
Than Sodom in her day had power to be
For whom God heard his Abram plead in vain
HARK 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge
That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the wintry flood in which the moon
Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright 
He comes the herald of a noisy world
With spattered boots strapped waist and frozen locks
News from all nations lumbering at his back
True to his charge the close-packed load behind
Yet careless what he brings his one concern
Is to conduct it to the destined inn
And having dropped the expected bag pass on
He whistles as he goes light-hearted wretch
Cold and yet cheerful messenger of grief
Perhaps to thousands and of joy to some
To him indifferent whether grief or joy
Houses in ashes and the fall of stocks
Births deaths and marriages epistles wet
With tears that trickled down the writer cheeks
Fast as the periods from his fluent quill
Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains
Or nymphs responsive equally affect
His horse and him unconscious of them all
But oh the important budget ushered in
With such heart-shaking music who can say
What are its tidings have our troops awaked
Or do they still as if with opium drugged
Snore to the murmurs of the Atlantic wave
Is India free and does she wear her plumed
And jewelled turban with a smile of peace
Or do we grind her still The grand debate
The popular harangue the tart reply
The logic and the wisdom and the wit
And the loud laugh I long to know them all
I burn to set the imprisoned wranglers free
And give them voice and utterance once again
Now stir the fire and close the shutters fast
Let fall the curtains wheel the sofa round
And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate wait on each
So let us welcome peaceful evening in
Not such his evening who with shining face
Sweats in the crowded theatre and squeezed
And bored with elbow-points through both his sides
Outscolds the ranting actor on the stage
Nor his who patient stands till his feet throb
And his head thumps to feed upon the breath
Of patriots bursting with heroic rage
Or placemen all tranquillity and smiles
This folio of four pages happy work
Which not even critics criticise that holds
Inquisitive attention while I read
Fast bound in chains of silence which the fair
Though eloquent themselves yet fear to break
What is it but a map of busy life
Its fluctuations and its vast concerns
Here runs the mountainous and craggy ridge
That tempts ambition On the summit see
The seals of office glitter in his eyes
He climbs he pants he grasps them At his heels
Close at his heels a demagogue ascends
And with a dextrous jerk soon twists him down
And wins them but to lose them in his turn
Here rills of oily eloquence in soft
Meanders lubricate the course they take
The modest speaker is ashamed and grieved
To engross a moment notice and yet begs
Begs a propitious ear for his poor thoughts
However trivial all that he conceives
Sweet bashfulness it claims at least this praise
The dearth of information and good sense
That it foretells us always comes to pass
Cataracts of declamation thunder here
There forests of no meaning spread the page
In which all comprehension wanders lost
While fields of pleasantry amuse us there
With merry descants on a nation woes
The rest appears a wilderness of strange
But gay confusion roses for the cheeks
And lilies for the brows of faded age
Teeth for the toothless ringlets for the bald
Heaven earth and ocean plundered of their sweets
Nectareous essences Olympian dews
Sermons and city feasts and favourite airs
Ethereal journeys submarine exploits
And Katterfelto with his hair on end
At his own wonders wondering for his bread
'Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat
To peep at such a world to see the stir
Of the great Babel and not feel the crowd
To hear the roar she sends through all her gates
At a safe distance where the dying sound
Falls a soft murmur on the uninjured ear
Thus sitting and surveying thus at ease
The globe and its concerns I seem advanced
To some secure and more than mortal height
That liberates and exempts me from them all
It turns submitted to my view turns round
With all its generations I behold
The tumult and am still The sound of war
Has lost its terrors ere it reaches me
Grieves but alarms me not I mourn the pride
And avarice that makes man a wolf to man
Hear the faint echo of those brazen throats
By which he speaks the language of his heart
And sigh but never tremble at the sound
He travels and expatiates as the bee
From flower to flower so he from land to land
The manners customs policy of all
Pay contribution to the store he gleans
He sucks intelligence in every clime
And spreads the honey of his deep research
At his return a rich repast for me
He travels and I too I tread his deck
Ascend his topmast through his peering eyes
Discover countries with a kindred heart
Suffer his woes and share in his escapes
While fancy like the finger of a clock
Runs the great circuit and is still at home
Oh Winter ruler of the inverted year
Thy scattered hair with sleet-like ashes filled
Thy breath congealed upon thy lips thy cheeks
Fringed with a beard made white with other snows
Than those of age thy forehead wrapped in clouds
A leafless branch thy sceptre and thy throne
A sliding car indebted to no wheels
But urged by storms along its slippery way
I love thee all unlovely as thou seem'st
And dreaded as thou art Thou hold'st the sun
A prisoner in the yet undawning East
Shortening his journey between morn and noon
And hurrying him impatient of his stay
Down to the rosy west but kindly still
Compensating his loss with added hours
Of social converse and instructive ease
And gathering at short notice in one group
The family dispersed and fixing thought
Not less dispersed by daylight and its cares
I crown thee king of intimate delights
Fire-side enjoyments home-born happiness
And all the comforts that the lowly roof
Of undisturbed retirement and the hours
Of long uninterrupted evening know
No rattling wheels stop short before these gates
No powdered pert proficients in the art
Of sounding an alarm assault these doors
Till the street rings no stationary steeds
Cough their own knell while heedless of the sound
The silent circle fan themselves and quake
But here the needle plies its busy task
The pattern grows the well-depicted flower
Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn
Unfolds its bosom buds and leaves and sprigs
And curly tendrils gracefully disposed
Follow the nimble finger of the fair
A wreath that cannot fade of flowers that blow
With most success when all besides decay
The poet or historian page by one
Made vocal for the amusement of the rest
The sprightly lyre whose treasure of sweet sounds
The touch from many a trembling chord shakes out
And the clear voice symphonious yet distinct
And in the charming strife triumphant still
Beguile the night and set a keener edge
On female industry the threaded steel
Flies swiftly and unfelt the task proceeds
The volume closed the customary rites
Of the last meal commence a Roman meal
Such as the mistress of the world once found
Delicious when her patriots of high note
Perhaps by moonlight at their humble doors
And under an old oak domestic shade
Enjoyed spare feast a radish and an egg
Discourse ensues not trivial yet not dull
Nor such as with a frown forbids the play
Of fancy or proscribes the sound of mirth
Nor do we madly like an impious world
Who deem religion frenzy and the God
That made them an intruder on their joys
Start at His awful name or deem His praise
A jarring note themes of a graver tone
Exciting oft our gratitude and love
While we retrace with memory pointing wand
That calls the past to our exact review
The dangers we have scaped the broken snare
The disappointed foe deliverance found
Unlooked for life preserved and peace restored
Fruits of omnipotent eternal love 
Oh evenings worthy of the gods exclaimed
The Sabine bard Oh evenings I reply
More to be prized and coveted than yours
As more illumined and with nobler truths
That I and mine and those we love enjoy
Is Winter hideous in a garb like this
Needs he the tragic fur the smoke of lamps
The pent-up breath of an unsavoury throng
To thaw him into feeling or the smart
And snappish dialogue that flippant wits
Call comedy to prompt him with a smile
The self-complacent actor when he views
Stealing a sidelong glance at a full house
The slope of faces from the floor to the roof
As if one master-spring controlled them all
Relaxed into an universal grin
Sees not a countenance there that speaks a joy
Half so refined or so sincere as ours
Cards were superfluous here with all the tricks
That idleness has ever yet contrived
To fill the void of an unfurnished brain
To palliate dulness and give time a shove
Time as he passes us has a dove wing
Unsoiled and swift and of a silken sound
But the world time is time in masquerade
Theirs should I paint him has his pinions fledged
With motley plumes and where the peacock shows
His azure eyes is tinctured black and red
With spots quadrangular of diamond form
Ensanguined hearts clubs typical of strife
And spades the emblem of untimely graves
What should be and what was an hour-glass once
Becomes a dice-box and a billiard mast
Well does the work of his destructive scythe
Thus decked he charms a world whom fashion blinds
To his true worth most pleased when idle most
Whose only happy are their wasted hours
Even misses at whose age their mothers wore
The back-string and the bib assume the dress
Of womanhood sit pupils in the school
Of card-devoted time and night by night
Placed at some vacant corner of the board
Learn every trick and soon play all the game
But truce with censure Roving as I rove
Where shall I find an end or how proceed
As he that travels far oft turns aside
To view some rugged rock or mouldering tower
Which seen delights him not then coming home
Describes and prints it that the world may know
How far he went for what was nothing worth
So I with brush in hand and pallet spread
With colours mixed for a far different use
Paint cards and dolls and every idle thing
That fancy finds in her excursive flights
Come Evening once again season of peace
Return sweet Evening and continue long
Methinks I see thee in the streaky west
With matron-step slow moving while the night
Treads on thy sweeping train one hand employed
In letting fall the curtain of repose
On bird and beast the other charged for man
With sweet oblivion of the cares of day
Not sumptuously adorned nor needing aid
Like homely-featured night of clustering gems
A star or two just twinkling on thy brow
Suffices thee save that the moon is thine
No less than hers not worn indeed on high
With ostentatious pageantry but set
With modest grandeur in thy purple zone
Resplendent less but of an ampler round
Come then and thou shalt find thy votary calm
Or make me so Composure is thy gift
And whether I devote thy gentle hours
To books to music or to poet toil
To weaving nets for bird-alluring fruit
Or twining silken threads round ivory reels
When they command whom man was born to please
I slight thee not but make thee welcome still
Just when our drawing-rooms begin to blaze
With lights by clear reflection multiplied
From many a mirror in which he of Gath
Goliath might have seen his giant bulk
Whole without stooping towering crest and all
My pleasures too begin But me perhaps
The glowing hearth may satisfy a while
With faint illumination that uplifts
The shadow to the ceiling there by fits
Dancing uncouthly to the quivering flame
Not undelightful is an hour to me
So spent in parlour twilight such a gloom
Suits well the thoughtful or unthinking mind
The mind contemplative with some new theme
Pregnant or indisposed alike to all
Laugh ye who boast your more mercurial powers
That never feel a stupor know no pause
Nor need one I am conscious and confess
Fearless a soul that does not always think
Me oft has fancy ludicrous and wild
Soothed with a waking dream of houses towers
Trees churches and strange visages expressed
In the red cinders while with poring eye
I gazed myself creating what I saw
Nor less amused have I quiescent watched
The sooty films that play upon the bars
Pendulous and foreboding in the view
Of superstition prophesying still
Though still deceived some stranger near approach
'Tis thus the understanding takes repose
In indolent vacuity of thought
And sleeps and is refreshed Meanwhile the face
Conceals the mood lethargic with a mask
Of deep deliberation as the man
Were tasked to his full strength absorbed and lost
Thus oft reclined at ease I lose an hour
At evening till at length the freezing blast
That sweeps the bolted shutter summons home
The recollected powers and snapping short
The glassy threads with which the fancy weaves
Her brittle toys restores me to myself
How calm is my recess and how the frost
Raging abroad and the rough wind endear
The silence and the warmth enjoyed within
I saw the woods and fields at close of day
A variegated show the meadows green
Though faded and the lands where lately waved
The golden harvest of a mellow brown
Upturned so lately by the forceful share
I saw far off the weedy fallows smile
With verdure not unprofitable grazed
By flocks fast feeding and selecting each
His favourite herb while all the leafless groves
That skirt the horizon wore a sable hue
Scarce noticed in the kindred dusk of eve
To-morrow brings a change a total change
Which even now though silently performed
And slowly and by most unfelt the face
Of universal nature undergoes
Fast falls a fleecy shower the downy flakes
Descending and with never-ceasing lapse
Softly alighting upon all below
Assimilate all objects Earth receives
Gladly the thickening mantle and the green
And tender blade that feared the chilling blast
Escapes unhurt beneath so warm a veil
In such a world so thorny and where none
Finds happiness unblighted or if found
Without some thistly sorrow at its side
It seems the part of wisdom and no sin
Against the law of love to measure lots
With less distinguished than ourselves that thus
We may with patience bear our moderate ills
And sympathise with others suffering more
Ill fares the traveller now and he that stalks
In ponderous boots beside his reeking team
The wain goes heavily impeded sore
By congregating loads adhering close
To the clogged wheels and in its sluggish pace
Noiseless appears a moving hill of snow
The toiling steeds expand the nostril wide
While every breath by respiration strong
Forced downward is consolidated soon
Upon their jutting chests He formed to bear
The pelting brunt of the tempestuous night
With half-shut eyes and puckered cheeks and teeth
Presented bare against the storm plods on
One hand secures his hat save when with both
He brandishes his pliant length of whip
Resounding oft and never heard in vain
Oh happy and in my account denied
That sensibility of pain with which
Refinement is endued thrice happy thou
Thy frame robust and hardy feels indeed
The piercing cold but feels it unimpaired
The learned finger never need explore
Thy vigorous pulse and the unhealthful East
That breathes the spleen and searches every bone
Of the infirm is wholesome air to thee
Thy days roll on exempt from household care
Thy waggon is thy wife and the poor beasts
That drag the dull companion to and fro
Thine helpless charge dependent on thy care
Ah treat them kindly rude as thou appearest
Yet show that thou hast mercy which the great
With needless hurry whirled from place to place
Humane as they would seem not always show
Poor yet industrious modest quiet neat
Such claim compassion in a night like this
And have a friend in every feeling heart
Warmed while it lasts by labour all day long
They brave the season and yet find at eve
Ill clad and fed but sparely time to cool
The frugal housewife trembles when she lights
Her scanty stock of brushwood blazing clear
But dying soon like all terrestrial joys
The few small embers left she nurses well
And while her infant race with outspread hands
And crowded knees sit cowering o'er the sparks
Retires content to quake so they be warmed
The man feels least as more inured than she
To winter and the current in his veins
More briskly moved by his severer toil
Yet he too finds his own distress in theirs
The taper soon extinguished which I saw
Dangled along at the cold finger end
Just when the day declined and the brown loaf
Lodged on the shelf half-eaten without sauce
Of sav'ry cheese or butter costlier still
Sleep seems their only refuge For alas
Where penury is felt the thought is chained
And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few
With all this thrift they thrive not All the care
Ingenious parsimony takes but just
Saves the small inventory bed and stool
Skillet and old carved chest from public sale
They live and live without extorted alms
From grudging hands but other boast have none
To soothe their honest pride that scorns to beg
Nor comfort else but in their mutual love
I praise you much ye meek and patient pair
For ye are worthy choosing rather far
A dry but independent crust hard-earned
And eaten with a sigh than to endure
The rugged frowns and insolent rebuffs
Of knaves in office partial in their work
Of distribution liberal of their aid
To clamorous importunity in rags
But ofttimes deaf to suppliants who would blush
To wear a tattered garb however coarse
Whom famine cannot reconcile to filth
These ask with painful shyness and refused
Because deserving silently retire
But be ye of good courage Time itself
Shall much befriend you Time shall give increase
And all your numerous progeny well trained
But helpless in few years shall find their hands
And labour too Meanwhile ye shall not want
What conscious of your virtues we can spare
Nor what a wealthier than ourselves may send
I mean the man who when the distant poor
Need help denies them nothing but his name
But poverty with most who whimper forth
Their long complaints is self-inflicted woe
The effect of laziness or sottish waste
Now goes the nightly thief prowling abroad
For plunder much solicitous how best
He may compensate for a day of sloth
By works of darkness and nocturnal wrong
Woe to the gardener pale the farmer hedge
Plashed neatly and secured with driven stakes
Deep in the loamy bank Uptorn by strength
Resistless in so bad a cause but lame
To better deeds he bundles up the spoil 
An ass burden and when laden most
And heaviest light of foot steals fast away
Nor does the boarded hovel better guard
The well-stacked pile of riven logs and roots
From his pernicious force Nor will he leave
Unwrenched the door however well secured
Where chanticleer amidst his harem sleeps
In unsuspecting pomp twitched from the perch
He gives the princely bird with all his wives
To his voracious bag struggling in vain
And loudly wondering at the sudden change
Nor this to feed his own 'Twere some excuse
Did pity of their sufferings warp aside
His principle and tempt him into sin
For their support so destitute but they
Neglected pine at home themselves as more
Exposed than others with less scruple made
His victims robbed of their defenceless all
Cruel is all he does 'Tis quenchless thirst
Of ruinous ebriety that prompts
His every action and imbrutes the man
Oh for a law to noose the villain neck
Who starves his own who persecutes the blood
He gave them in his children veins and hates
And wrongs the woman he has sworn to love
Pass where we may through city or through town
Village or hamlet of this merry land
Though lean and beggared every twentieth pace
Conducts the unguarded nose to such a whiff
Of stale debauch forth-issuing from the styes
That law has licensed as makes temperance reel
There sit involved and lost in curling clouds
Of Indian fume and guzzling deep the boor
The lackey and the groom The craftsman there
Takes a Lethean leave of all his toil
Smith cobbler joiner he that plies the shears
And he that kneads the dough all loud alike
All learned and all drunk The fiddle screams
Plaintive and piteous as it wept and wailed
Its wasted tones and harmony unheard
Fierce the dispute whate'er the theme while she
Fell Discord arbitress of such debate
Perched on the sign-post holds with even hand
Her undecisive scales In this she lays
A weight of ignorance in that of pride
And smiles delighted with the eternal poise
Dire is the frequent curse and its twin sound
The cheek-distending oath not to be praised
As ornamental musical polite
Like those which modern senators employ
Whose oath is rhetoric and who swear for fame
Behold the schools in which plebeian minds
Once simple are initiated in arts
Which some may practise with politer grace
But none with readier skill 'Tis here they learn
The road that leads from competence and peace
To indigence and rapine till at last
Society grown weary of the load
Shakes her encumbered lap and casts them out
But censure profits little Vain the attempt
To advertise in verse a public pest
That like the filth with which the peasant feeds
His hungry acres stinks and is of use
The excise is fattened with the rich result
Of all this riot and ten thousand casks
For ever dribbling out their base contents
Touched by the Midas finger of the state
Bleed gold for Ministers to sport away
Drink and be mad then 'tis your country bids
Gloriously drunk obey the important call
Her cause demands the assistance of your throats 
Ye all can swallow and she asks no more
Would I had fallen upon those happier days
That poets celebrate those golden times
And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings
And Sidney warbler of poetic prose
Nymphs were Dianas then and swains had hearts
That felt their virtues Innocence it seems
From courts dismissed found shelter in the groves
The footsteps of simplicity impressed
Upon the yielding herbage so they sing
Then were not all effaced Then speech profane
And manners profligate were rarely found
Observed as prodigies and soon reclaimed
Vain wish those days were never airy dreams
Sat for the picture and the poet hand
Imparting substance to an empty shade
Imposed a gay delirium for a truth
Grant it I still must envy them an age
That favoured such a dream in days like these
Impossible when virtue is so scarce
That to suppose a scene where she presides
Is tramontane and stumbles all belief
No We are polished now The rural lass
Whom once her virgin modesty and grace
Her artless manners and her neat attire
So dignified that she was hardly less
Than the fair shepherdess of old romance
Is seen no more The character is lost
Her head adorned with lappets pinned aloft
And ribbons streaming gay superbly raised
And magnified beyond all human size
Indebted to some smart wig-weaver hand
For more than half the tresses it sustains
Her elbows ruffled and her tottering form
Ill propped upon French heels she might be deemed
But that the basket dangling on her arm
Interprets her more truly of a rank
Too proud for dairy-work or sale of eggs
Expect her soon with foot-boy at her heels
No longer blushing for her awkward load
Her train and her umbrella all her care
The town has tinged the country and the stain
Appears a spot upon a vestal robe
The worse for what it soils The fashion runs
Down into scenes still rural but alas
Scenes rarely graced with rural manners now
Time was when in the pastoral retreat
The unguarded door was safe men did not watch
To invade another right or guard their own
Then sleep was undisturbed by fear unscared
By drunken howlings and the chilling tale
Of midnight murder was a wonder heard
With doubtful credit told to frighten babes
But farewell now to unsuspicious nights
And slumbers unalarmed Now ere you sleep
See that your polished arms be primed with care
And drop the night-bolt Ruffians are abroad
And the first larum of the cock shrill throat
May prove a trumpet summoning your ear
To horrid sounds of hostile feet within
Even daylight has its dangers and the walk
Through pathless wastes and woods unconscious once
Of other tenants than melodious birds
Or harmless flocks is hazardous and bold
Lamented change to which full many a cause
Inveterate hopeless of a cure conspires
The course of human things from good to ill
From ill to worse is fatal never fails
Increase of power begets increase of wealth
Wealth luxury and luxury excess
Excess the scrofulous and itchy plague
That seizes first the opulent descends
To the next rank contagious and in time
Taints downward all the graduated scale
Of order from the chariot to the plough
The rich and they that have an arm to check
The licence of the lowest in degree
Desert their office and themselves intent
On pleasure haunt the capital and thus
To all the violence of lawless hands
Resign the scenes their presence might protect
Authority itself not seldom sleeps
Though resident and witness of the wrong
The plump convivial parson often bears
The magisterial sword in vain and lays
His reverence and his worship both to rest
On the same cushion of habitual sloth
Perhaps timidity restrains his arm
When he should strike he trembles and sets free
Himself enslaved by terror of the band
The audacious convict whom he dares not bind
Perhaps though by profession ghostly pure
He too may have his vice and sometimes prove
Less dainty than becomes his grave outside
In lucrative concerns Examine well
His milk-white hand The palm is hardly clean 
But here and there an ugly smutch appears
Foh 'twas a bribe that left it He has touched
Corruption Whoso seeks an audit here
Propitious pays his tribute game or fish
Wildfowl or venison and his errand speeds
But faster far and more than all the rest
A noble cause which none who bears a spark
Of public virtue ever wished removed
Works the deplored and mischievous effect
'Tis universal soldiership has stabbed
The heart of merit in the meaner class
Arms through the vanity and brainless rage
Of those that bear them in whatever cause
Seem most at variance with all moral good
And incompatible with serious thought
The clown the child of nature without guile
Blest with an infant ignorance of all
But his own simple pleasures now and then
A wrestling match a foot-race or a fair
Is balloted and trembles at the news
Sheepish he doffs his hat and mumbling swears
A Bible-oath to be whate'er they please
To do he knows not what The task performed
That instant he becomes the serjeant care
His pupil and his torment and his jest
His awkward gait his introverted toes
Bent knees round shoulders and dejected looks
Procure him many a curse By slow degrees
Unapt to learn and formed of stubborn stuff
He yet by slow degrees puts off himself
Grows conscious of a change and likes it well
He stands erect his slouch becomes a walk
He steps right onward martial in his air
His form and movement is as smart above
As meal and larded locks can make him wears
His hat or his plumed helmet with a grace
And his three years of heroship expired
Returns indignant to the slighted plough
He hates the field in which no fife or drum
Attends him drives his cattle to a march
And sighs for the smart comrades he has left
'Twere well if his exterior change were all 
But with his clumsy port the wretch has lost
His ignorance and harmless manners too
To swear to game to drink to show at home
By lewdness idleness and Sabbath-breach
The great proficiency he made abroad
To astonish and to grieve his gazing friends
To break some maiden and his mother heart
To be a pest where he was useful once
Are his sole aim and all his glory now
Man in society is like a flower
Blown in its native bed 'Tis there alone
His faculties expanded in full bloom
Shine out there only reach their proper use
But man associated and leagued with man
By regal warrant or self-joined by bond
For interest sake or swarming into clans
Beneath one head for purposes of war
Like flowers selected from the rest and bound
And bundled close to fill some crowded vase
Fades rapidly and by compression marred
Contracts defilement not to be endured
Hence chartered boroughs are such public plagues
And burghers men immaculate perhaps
In all their private functions once combined
Become a loathsome body only fit
For dissolution hurtful to the main
Hence merchants unimpeachable of sin
Against the charities of domestic life
Incorporated seem at once to lose
Their nature and disclaiming all regard
For mercy and the common rights of man
Build factories with blood conducting trade
At the sword point and dyeing the white robe
Of innocent commercial justice red
Hence too the field of glory as the world
Misdeems it dazzled by its bright array
With all the majesty of thundering pomp
Enchanting music and immortal wreaths
Is but a school where thoughtlessness is taught
On principle where foppery atones
For folly gallantry for every vice
But slighted as it is and by the great
Abandoned and which still I more regret
Infected with the manners and the modes
It knew not once the country wins me still
I never framed a wish or formed a plan
That flattered me with hopes of earthly bliss
But there I laid the scene There early strayed
My fancy ere yet liberty of choice
Had found me or the hope of being free
My very dreams were rural rural too
The first-born efforts of my youthful muse
Sportive and jingling her poetic bells
Ere yet her ear was mistress of their powers
No bard could please me but whose lyre was tuned
To Nature praises Heroes and their feats
Fatigued me never weary of the pipe
Of Tityrus assembling as he sang
The rustic throng beneath his favourite beech
Then Milton had indeed a poet charms
New to my taste his Paradise surpassed
The struggling efforts of my boyish tongue
To speak its excellence I danced for joy
I marvelled much that at so ripe an age
As twice seven years his beauties had then first
Engaged my wonder and admiring still
And still admiring with regret supposed
The joy half lost because not sooner found
Thee too enamoured of the life I loved
Pathetic in its praise in its pursuit
Determined and possessing it at last
With transports such as favoured lovers feel
I studied prized and wished that I had known
Ingenious Cowley and though now reclaimed
By modern lights from an erroneous taste
I cannot but lament thy splendid wit
Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools
I still revere thee courtly though retired
Though stretched at ease in Chertsey silent bowers
Not unemployed and finding rich amends
For a lost world in solitude and verse
'Tis born with all The love of Nature works
Is an ingredient in the compound man
Infused at the creation of the kind
And though the Almighty Maker has throughout
Discriminated each from each by strokes
And touches of His hand with so much art
Diversified that two were never found
Twins at all points yet this obtains in all
That all discern a beauty in His works
And all can taste them minds that have been formed
And tutored with a relish more exact
But none without some relish none unmoved
It is a flame that dies not even there
Where nothing feeds it Neither business crowds
Nor habits of luxurious city life
Whatever else they smother of true worth
In human bosoms quench it or abate
The villas with which London stands begirt
Like a swarth Indian with his belt of beads
Prove it A breath of unadulterate air
The glimpse of a green pasture how they cheer
The citizen and brace his languid frame
Even in the stifling bosom of the town
A garden in which nothing thrives has charms
That soothe the rich possessor much consoled
That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint
Of nightshade or valerian grace the well
He cultivates These serve him with a hint
That Nature lives that sight-refreshing green
Is still the livery she delights to wear
Though sickly samples of the exuberant whole
What are the casements lined with creeping herbs
The prouder sashes fronted with a range
Of orange myrtle or the fragrant weed
The Frenchman darling are they not all proofs
That man immured in cities still retains
His inborn inextinguishable thirst
Of rural scenes compensating his loss
By supplemental shifts the best he may
The most unfurnished with the means of life
And they that never pass their brick-wall bounds
To range the fields and treat their lungs with air
Yet feel the burning instinct over-head
Suspend their crazy boxes planted thick
And watered duly There the pitcher stands
A fragment and the spoutless tea-pot there
Sad witnesses how close-pent man regrets
The country with what ardour he contrives
A peep at nature when he can no more
Hail therefore patroness of health and ease
And contemplation heart-consoling joys
And harmless pleasures in the thronged abode
Of multitudes unknown hail rural life
Address himself who will to the pursuit
Of honours or emolument or fame
I shall not add myself to such a chase
Thwart his attempts or envy his success
Some must be great Great offices will have
Great talents And God gives to every man
The virtue temper understanding taste
That lifts him into life and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordained to fill
To the deliverer of an injured land
He gives a tongue to enlarge upon a heart
To feel and courage to redress her wrongs
To monarchs dignity to judges sense
To artists ingenuity and skill
To me an unambitious mind content
In the low vale of life that early felt
A wish for ease and leisure and ere long
Found here that leisure and that ease I wished
'TIS morning and the sun with ruddy orb
Ascending fires the horizon while the clouds
That crowd away before the driving wind
More ardent as the disk emerges more
Resemble most some city in a blaze
Seen through the leafless wood His slanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale
And tingeing all with his own rosy hue
From every herb and every spiry blade
Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field
Mine spindling into longitude immense
In spite of gravity and sage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting shade
Provokes me to a smile With eye askance
I view the muscular proportioned limb
Transformed to a lean shank the shapeless pair
As they designed to mock me at my side
Take step for step and as I near approach
The cottage walk along the plastered wall
Preposterous sight the legs without the man
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge and the bents
And coarser grass upspearing o'er the rest
Of late unsightly and unseen now shine
Conspicuous and in bright apparel clad
And fledged with icy feathers nod superb
The cattle mourn in corners where the fence
Screens them and seem half petrified to sleep
In unrecumbent sadness There they wait
Their wonted fodder not like hungering man
Fretful if unsupplied but silent meek
And patient of the slow-paced swain delay
He from the stack carves out the accustomed load
Deep-plunging and again deep-plunging oft
His broad keen knife into the solid mass
Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands
With such undeviating and even force
He severs it away no needless care
Lest storms should overset the leaning pile
Deciduous or its own unbalanced weight
Forth goes the woodman leaving unconcerned
The cheerful haunts of man to wield the axe
And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear
From morn to eve his solitary task
Shaggy and lean and shrewd with pointed ears
And tail cropped short half lurcher and half cur
His dog attends him Close behind his heel
Now creeps he slow and now with many a frisk
Wide-scampering snatches up the drifted snow
With ivory teeth or ploughs it with his snout
Then shakes his powdered coat and barks for joy
Heedless of all his pranks the sturdy churl
Moves right toward the mark nor stops for aught
But now and then with pressure of his thumb
To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube
That fumes beneath his nose the trailing cloud
Streams far behind him scenting all the air
Now from the roost or from the neighbouring pale
Where diligent to catch the first faint gleam
Of smiling day they gossiped side by side
Come trooping at the housewife well-known call
The feathered tribes domestic half on wing
And half on foot they brush the fleecy flood
Conscious and fearful of too deep a plunge
The sparrows peep and quit the sheltering eaves
To seize the fair occasion well they eye
The scattered grain and thievishly resolved
To escape the impending famine often scared
As oft return a pert voracious kind
Clean riddance quickly made one only care
Remains to each the search of sunny nook
Or shed impervious to the blast Resigned
To sad necessity the cock foregoes
His wonted strut and wading at their head
With well-considered steps seems to resent
His altered gait and stateliness retrenched
How find the myriads that in summer cheer
The hills and valleys with their ceaseless songs
Due sustenance or where subsist they now
Earth yields them naught the imprisoned worm is safe
Beneath the frozen clod all seeds of herbs
Lie covered close and berry-bearing thorns
That feed the thrush whatever some suppose
Afford the smaller minstrel no supply
The long-protracted rigour of the year
Thins all their numerous flocks In chinks and holes
Ten thousand seek an unmolested end
As instinct prompts self-buried ere they die
The very rooks and daws forsake the fields
Where neither grub nor root nor earth-nut now
Repays their labour more and perched aloft
By the way-side or stalking in the path
Lean pensioners upon the traveller track
Pick up their nauseous dole though sweet to them
Of voided pulse or half-digested grain
The streams are lost amid the splendid blank
O'erwhelming all distinction On the flood
Indurated and fixed the snowy weight
Lies undissolved while silently beneath
And unperceived the current steals away
Not so where scornful of a check it leaps
The mill-dam dashes on the restless wheel
And wantons in the pebbly gulf below
No frost can bind it there Its utmost force
Can but arrest the light and smoky mist
That in its fall the liquid sheet throws wide
And see where it has hung the embroidered banks
With forms so various that no powers of art
The pencil or the pen may trace the scene
Here glittering turrets rise upbearing high
Fantastic misarrangement on the roof
Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees
And shrubs of fairy land The crystal drops
That trickle down the branches fast congealed
Shoot into pillars of pellucid length
And prop the pile they but adorned before
Here grotto within grotto safe defies
The sunbeam There imbossed and fretted wild
The growing wonder takes a thousand shapes
Capricious in which fancy seeks in vain
The likeness of some object seen before
Thus nature works as if to mock at art
And in defiance of her rival powers
By these fortuitous and random strokes
Performing such inimitable feats
As she with all her rules can never reach
Less worthy of applause though more admired
Because a novelty the work of man
Imperial mistress of the fur-clad Russ
Thy most magnificent and mighty freak
The wonder of the North No forest fell
When thou wouldst build no quarry sent its stores
To enrich thy walls but thou didst hew the floods
And make thy marble of the glassy wave
In such a palace Aristaeus found
Cyrene when he bore the plaintive tale
Of his lost bees to her maternal ear
In such a palace poetry might place
The armoury of winter where his troops
The gloomy clouds find weapons arrowy sleet
Skin-piercing volley blossom-bruising hail
And snow that often blinds the traveller course
And wraps him in an unexpected tomb
Silently as a dream the fabric rose
No sound of hammer or of saw was there
Ice upon ice the well-adjusted parts
Were soon conjoined nor other cement asked
Than water interfused to make them one
Lamps gracefully disposed and of all hues
Illumined every side A watery light
Gleamed through the clear transparency that seemed
Another moon new-risen or meteor fallen
From heaven to earth of lambent flame serene
So stood the brittle prodigy though smooth
And slippery the materials yet frost-bound
Firm as a rock Nor wanted aught within
That royal residence might well befit
For grandeur or for use Long wavy wreaths
Of flowers that feared no enemy but warmth
Blushed on the panels Mirror needed none
Where all was vitreous but in order due
Convivial table and commodious seat
What seemed at least commodious seat were there
Sofa and couch and high-built throne august
The same lubricity was found in all
And all was moist to the warm touch a scene
Of evanescent glory once a stream
And soon to slide into a stream again
Alas 'twas but a mortifying stroke
Of undesigned severity that glanced
Made by a monarch on her own estate
On human grandeur and the courts of kings
'Twas transient in its nature as in show
'Twas durable as worthless as it seemed
Intrinsically precious to the foot
Treacherous and false it smiled and it was cold
Great princes have great playthings Some have played
At hewing mountains into men and some
At building human wonders mountain high
Some have amused the dull sad years of life
Life spent in indolence and therefore sad
With schemes of monumental fame and sought
By pyramids and mausoleum pomp
Short-lived themselves to immortalise their bones
Some seek diversion in the tented field
And make the sorrows of mankind their sport
But war a game which were their subjects wise
Kings should not play at Nations would do well
To extort their truncheons from the puny hands
Of heroes whose infirm and baby minds
Are gratified with mischief and who spoil
Because men suffer it their toy the world
When Babel was confounded and the great
Confederacy of projectors wild and vain
Was split into diversity of tongues
Then as a shepherd separates his flock
These to the upland to the valley those
God drave asunder and assigned their lot
To all the nations Ample was the boon
He gave them in its distribution fair
And equal and he bade them dwell in peace
Peace was a while their care They ploughed and sowed
And reaped their plenty without grudge or strife
But violence can never longer sleep
Than human passions please In every heart
Are sown the sparks that kindle fiery war
Occasion needs but fan them and they blaze
Cain had already shed a brother blood
The Deluge washed it out but left unquenched
The seeds of murder in the breast of man
Soon by a righteous judgment in the line
Of his descending progeny was found
The first artificer of death the shrewd
Contriver who first sweated at the forge
And forced the blunt and yet unblooded steel
To a keen edge and made it bright for war
Him Tubal named the Vulcan of old times
The sword and falchion their inventor claim
And the first smith was the first murderer son
His art survived the waters and ere long
When man was multiplied and spread abroad
In tribes and clans and had begun to call
These meadows and that range of hills his own
The tasted sweets of property begat
Desire of more and industry in some
To improve and cultivate their just demesne
Made others covet what they saw so fair
Thus wars began on earth These fought for spoil
And those in self-defence Savage at first
The onset and irregular At length
One eminent above the rest for strength
For stratagem or courage or for all
Was chosen leader Him they served in war
And him in peace for sake of warlike deeds
Reverenced no less Who could with him compare
Or who so worthy to control themselves
As he whose prowess had subdued their foes
Thus war affording field for the display
Of virtue made one chief whom times of peace
Which have their exigencies too and call
For skill in government at length made king
King was a name too proud for man to wear
With modesty and meekness and the crown
So dazzling in their eyes who set it on
Was sure to intoxicate the brows it bound
It is the abject property of most
That being parcel of the common mass
And destitute of means to raise themselves
They sink and settle lower than they need
They know not what it is to feel within
A comprehensive faculty that grasps
Great purposes with ease that turns and wields
Almost without an effort plans too vast
For their conception which they cannot move
Conscious of impotence they soon grow drunk
With gazing when they see an able man
Step forth to notice and besotted thus
Build him a pedestal and say Stand there
And be our admiration and our praise
They roll themselves before him in the dust
Then most deserving in their own account
When most extravagant in his applause
As if exalting him they raised themselves
Thus by degrees self-cheated of their sound
And sober judgment that he is but man
They demi-deify and fume him so
That in due season he forgets it too
Inflated and astrut with self-conceit
He gulps the windy diet and ere long
Adopting their mistake profoundly thinks
The world was made in vain if not for him
Thenceforth they are his cattle drudges born
To bear his burdens drawing in his gears
And sweating in his service His caprice
Becomes the soul that animates them all
He deems a thousand or ten thousand lives
Spent in the purchase of renown for him
An easy reckoning and they think the same
Thus kings were first invented and thus kings
Were burnished into heroes and became
The arbiters of this terraqueous swamp
Storks among frogs that have but croaked and died
Strange that such folly as lifts bloated man
To eminence fit only for a god
Should ever drivel out of human lips
Even in the cradled weakness of the world
Still stranger much that when at length mankind
Had reached the sinewy firmness of their youth
And could discriminate and argue well
On subjects more mysterious they were yet
Babes in the cause of freedom and should fear
And quake before the gods themselves had made
But above measure strange that neither proof
Of sad experience nor examples set
By some whose patriot virtue has prevailed
Can even now when they are grown mature
In wisdom and with philosophic deeps
Familiar serve to emancipate the rest
Such dupes are men to custom and so prone
To reverence what is ancient and can plead
A course of long observance for its use
That even servitude the worst of ills
Because delivered down from sire to son
Is kept and guarded as a sacred thing
But is it fit or can it bear the shock
Of rational discussion that a man
Compounded and made up like other men
Of elements tumultuous in whom lust
And folly in as ample measure meet
As in the bosoms of the slaves he rules
Should be a despot absolute and boast
Himself the only freeman of his land
Should when he pleases and on whom he will
Wage war with any or with no pretence
Of provocation given or wrong sustained
And force the beggarly last doit by means
That his own humour dictates from the clutch
Of poverty that thus he may procure
His thousands weary of penurious life
A splendid opportunity to die
Say ye who with less prudence than of old
Jotham ascribed to his assembled trees
In politic convention put your trust
I' th' shadow of a bramble and recline
In fancied peace beneath his dangerous branch
Rejoice in him and celebrate his sway
Where find ye passive fortitude Whence springs
Your self-denying zeal that holds it good
To stroke the prickly grievance and to hang
His thorns with streamers of continual praise
We too are friends to loyalty we love
The king who loves the law respects his bounds
And reigns content within them him we serve
Freely and with delight who leaves us free
But recollecting still that he is man
We trust him not too far King though he be
And king in England too he may be weak
And vain enough to be ambitious still
May exercise amiss his proper powers
Or covet more than freemen choose to grant
Beyond that mark is treason He is ours
To administer to guard to adorn the state
But not to warp or change it We are his
To serve him nobly in the common cause
True to the death but not to be his slaves
Mark now the difference ye that boast your love
Of kings between your loyalty and ours
We love the man the paltry pageant you
We the chief patron of the commonwealth
You the regardless author of its woes
We for the sake of liberty a king
You chains and bondage for a tyrant sake
Our love is principle and has its root
In reason is judicious manly free
Yours a blind instinct crouches to the rod
And licks the foot that treads it in the dust
Were kingship as true treasure as it seems
Sterling and worthy of a wise man wish
I would not be a king to be beloved
Causeless and daubed with undiscerning praise
Where love is more attachment to the throne
Not to the man who fills it as he ought
Whose freedom is by sufferance and at will
Of a superior he is never free
Who lives and is not weary of a life
Exposed to manacles deserves them well
The state that strives for liberty though foiled
And forced to abandon what she bravely sought
Deserves at least applause for her attempt
And pity for her loss But that a cause
Not often unsuccessful power usurped
Is weakness when opposed conscious of wrong
'Tis pusillanimous and prone to flight
But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought
Of freedom in that hope itself possess
All that the contest calls for spirit strength
The scorn of danger and united hearts
The surest presage of the good they seek 
Then shame to manhood and opprobrious more
To France than all her losses and defeats
Old or of later date by sea or land
Her house of bondage worse than that of old
Which God avenged on Pharaoh the Bastille
Ye horrid towers the abode of broken hearts
Ye dungeons and ye cages of despair
That monarchs have supplied from age to age
With music such as suits their sovereign ears
The sighs and groans of miserable men
There not an English heart that would not leap
To hear that ye were fallen at last to know
That even our enemies so oft employed
In forging chains for us themselves were free
For he that values liberty confines
His zeal for her predominance within
No narrow bounds her cause engages him
Wherever pleaded 'Tis the cause of man
There dwell the most forlorn of humankind
Immured though unaccused condemned untried
Cruelly spared and hopeless of escape
There like the visionary emblem seen
By him of Babylon life stands a stump
And filleted about with hoops of brass
Still lives though all its pleasant boughs are gone
To count the hour bell and expect no change
And ever as the sullen sound is heard
Still to reflect that though a joyless note
To him whose moments all have one dull pace
Ten thousand rovers in the world at large
Account it music that it summons some
To theatre or jocund feast or ball
The wearied hireling finds it a release
From labour and the lover that has chid
Its long delay feels every welcome stroke
Upon his heart-strings trembling with delight 
To fly for refuge from distracting thought
To such amusements as ingenious woe
Contrives hard-shifting and without her tools 
To read engraven on the mouldy walls
In staggering types his predecessor tale
A sad memorial and subjoin his own 
To turn purveyor to an overgorged
And bloated spider till the pampered pest
Is made familiar watches his approach
Comes at his call and serves him for a friend 
To wear out time in numbering to and fro
The studs that thick emboss his iron door
Then downward and then upward then aslant
And then alternate with a sickly hope
By dint of change to give his tasteless task
Some relish till the sum exactly found
In all directions he begins again 
Oh comfortless existence hemmed around
With woes which who that suffers would not kneel
And beg for exile or the pangs of death
That man should thus encroach on fellow-man
Abridge him of his just and native rights
Eradicate him tear him from his hold
Upon the endearments of domestic life
And social nip his fruitfulness and use
And doom him for perhaps a heedless word
To barrenness and solitude and tears
Moves indignation makes the name of king
Of king whom such prerogative can please
As dreadful as the Manichean god
Adored through fear strong only to destroy
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume
And we are weeds without it All constraint
Except what wisdom lays on evil men
Is evil hurts the faculties impedes
Their progress in the road of science blinds
The eyesight of discovery and begets
In those that suffer it a sordid mind
Bestial a meagre intellect unfit
To be the tenant of man noble form
Thee therefore still blameworthy as thou art
With all thy loss of empire and though squeezed
By public exigence till annual food
Fails for the craving hunger of the state
Thee I account still happy and the chief
Among the nations seeing thou art free
My native nook of earth Thy clime is rude
Replete with vapours and disposes much
All hearts to sadness and none more than mine
Thine unadulterate manners are less soft
And plausible than social life requires
And thou hast need of discipline and art
To give thee what politer France receives
From Nature bounty that humane address
And sweetness without which no pleasure is
In converse either starved by cold reserve
Or flushed with fierce dispute a senseless brawl
Yet being free I love thee for the sake
Of that one feature can be well content
Disgraced as thou hast been poor as thou art
To seek no sublunary rest beside
But once enslaved farewell I could endure
Chains nowhere patiently and chains at home
Where I am free by birthright not at all
Then what were left of roughness in the grain
Of British natures wanting its excuse
That it belongs to freemen would disgust
And shock me I should then with double pain
Feel all the rigour of thy fickle clime
And if I must bewail the blessing lost
For which our Hampdens and our Sidneys bled
I would at least bewail it under skies
Milder among a people less austere
In scenes which having never known me free
Would not reproach me with the loss I felt
Do I forebode impossible events
And tremble at vain dreams Heaven grant I may
But the age of virtuous politics is past
And we are deep in that of cold pretence
Patriots are grown too shrewd to be sincere
And we too wise to trust them He that takes
Deep in his soft credulity the stamp
Designed by loud declaimers on the part
Of liberty themselves the slaves of lust
Incurs derision for his easy faith
And lack of knowledge and with cause enough
For when was public virtue to be found
Where private was not Can he love the whole
Who loves no part he be a nation friend
Who is in truth the friend of no man there
Can he be strenuous in his country cause
Who slights the charities for whose dear sake
That country if at all must be beloved
 'Tis therefore sober and good men are sad
For England glory seeing it wax pale
And sickly while her champions wear their hearts
So loose to private duty that no brain
Healthful and undisturbed by factious fumes
Can dream them trusty to the general weal
Such were not they of old whose tempered blades
Dispersed the shackles of usurped control
And hewed them link from link Then Albion sons
Were sons indeed They felt a filial heart
Beat high within them at a mother wrongs
And shining each in his domestic sphere
Shone brighter still once called to public view
'Tis therefore many whose sequestered lot
Forbids their interference looking on
Anticipate perforce some dire event
And seeing the old castle of the state
That promised once more firmness so assailed
That all its tempest-beaten turrets shake
Stand motionless expectants of its fall
All has its date below The fatal hour
Was registered in heaven ere time began
We turn to dust and all our mightiest works
Die too The deep foundations that we lay
Time ploughs them up and not a trace remains
We build with what we deem eternal rock
A distant age asks where the fabric stood
And in the dust sifted and searched in vain
The undiscoverable secret sleeps
But there is yet a liberty unsung
By poets and by senators unpraised
Which monarchs cannot grant nor all the power
Of earth and hell confederate take away
A liberty which persecution fraud
Oppression prisons have no power to bind
Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more
'Tis liberty of heart derived from heaven
Bought with His blood who gave it to mankind
And sealed with the same token It is held
By charter and that charter sanctioned sure
By the unimpeachable and awful oath
And promise of a God His other gifts
All bear the royal stamp that speaks them His
And are august but this transcends them all
His other works this visible display
Of all-creating energy and might
Are grand no doubt and worthy of the Word
That finding an interminable space
Unoccupied has filled the void so well
And made so sparkling what was dark before
But these are not His glory Man 'tis true
Smit with the beauty of so fair a scene
Might well suppose the Artificer Divine
Meant it eternal had He not Himself
Pronounced it transient glorious as it is
And still designing a more glorious far
Doomed it as insufficient for His praise
These therefore are occasional and pass
Formed for the confutation of the fool
Whose lying heart disputes against a God
That office served they must be swept away
Not so the labours of His love they shine
In other heavens than these that we behold
And fade not There is Paradise that fears
No forfeiture and of its fruits He sends
Large prelibation oft to saints below
Of these the first in order and the pledge
And confident assurance of the rest
Is liberty a flight into His arms
Ere yet mortality fine threads give way
A clear escape from tyrannising lust
And fill immunity from penal woe
Chains are the portion of revolted man
Stripes and a dungeon and his body serves
The triple purpose In that sickly foul
Opprobrious residence he finds them all
Propense his heart to idols he is held
In silly dotage on created things
Careless of their Creator And that low
And sordid gravitation of his powers
To a vile clod so draws him with such force
Resistless from the centre he should seek
That he at last forgets it All his hopes
Tend downward his ambition is to sink
To reach a depth profounder still and still
Profounder in the fathomless abyss
Of folly plunging in pursuit of death
But ere he gain the comfortless repose
He seeks and acquiescence of his soul
In heaven renouncing exile he endures
What does he not from lusts opposed in vain
And self-reproaching conscience He foresees
The fatal issue to his health fame peace
Fortune and dignity the loss of all
That can ennoble man and make frail life
Short as it is supportable Still worse
Far worse than all the plagues with which his sins
Infect his happiest moments he forebodes
Ages of hopeless misery future death
And death still future not a hasty stroke
Like that which sends him to the dusty grave
But unrepealable enduring death
Scripture is still a trumpet to his fears
What none can prove a forgery may be true
What none but bad men wish exploded must
That scruple checks him Riot is not loud
Nor drunk enough to drown it In the midst
Of laughter his compunctions are sincere
And he abhors the jest by which he shines
Remorse begets reform His master-lust
Falls first before his resolute rebuke
And seems dethroned and vanquished Peace ensues
But spurious and short-lived the puny child
Of self-congratulating Pride begot
On fancied Innocence Again he falls
And fights again but finds his best essay
A presage ominous portending still
Its own dishonour by a worse relapse
Till Nature unavailing Nature foiled
So oft and wearied in the vain attempt
Scoffs at her own performance Reason now
Takes part with appetite and pleads the cause
Perversely which of late she so condemned
With shallow shifts and old devices worn
And tattered in the service of debauch
Covering his shame from his offended sight
Hath God indeed given appetites to man
And stored the earth so plenteously with means
To gratify the hunger of His wish
And doth He reprobate and will He damn
The use of His own bounty making first
So frail a kind and then enacting laws
So strict that less than perfect must despair
Falsehood which whoso but suspects of truth
Dishonours God and makes a slave of man
Do they themselves who undertake for hire
The teacher office and dispense at large
Their weekly dole of edifying strains
Attend to their own music have they faith
In what with such solemnity of tone
And gesture they propound to our belief
Nay conduct hath the loudest tongue The voice
Is but an instrument on which the priest
May play what tune he pleases In the deed
The unequivocal authentic deed
We find sound argument we read the heart
Such reasonings if that name must needs belong
To excuses in which reason has no part
Serve to compose a spirit well inclined
To live on terms of amity with vice
And sin without disturbance Often urged
As often as libidinous discourse
Exhausted he resorts to solemn themes
Of theological and grave import
They gain at last his unreserved assent
Till hardened his heart temper in the forge
Of lust and on the anvil of despair
He slights the strokes of conscience Nothing moves
Or nothing much his constancy in ill
Vain tampering has but fostered his disease
'Tis desperate and he sleeps the sleep of death
Haste now philosopher and set him free
Charm the deaf serpent wisely Make him hear
Of rectitude and fitness moral truth
How lovely and the moral sense how sure
Consulted and obeyed to guide his steps
Directly to the FIRST AND ONLY FAIR
Spare not in such a cause Spend all the powers
Of rant and rhapsody in virtue praise
Be most sublimely good verbosely grand
And with poetic trappings grace thy prose
Till it outmantle all the pride of verse 
Ah tinkling cymbal and high-sounding brass
Smitten in vain such music cannot charm
The eclipse that intercepts truth heavenly beam
And chills and darkens a wide-wandering soul
The still small voice is wanted He must speak
Whose word leaps forth at once to its effect
Who calls for things that are not and they come
Grace makes the slave a freeman 'Tis a change
That turns to ridicule the turgid speech
And stately tone of moralists who boast
As if like him of fabulous renown
They had indeed ability to smooth
The shag of savage nature and were each
An Orpheus and omnipotent in song
But transformation of apostate man
From fool to wise from earthly to divine
Is work for Him that made him He alone
And He by means in philosophic eyes
Trivial and worthy of disdain achieves
The wonder humanising what is brute
In the lost kind extracting from the lips
Of asps their venom overpowering strength
By weakness and hostility by love
Patriots have toiled and in their country cause
Bled nobly and their deeds as they deserve
Receive proud recompense We give in charge
Their names to the sweet lyre The historic muse
Proud of the treasure marches with it down
To latest times and sculpture in her turn
Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass
To guard them and to immortalise her trust
But fairer wreaths are due though never paid
To those who posted at the shrine of truth
Have fallen in her defence A patriot blood
Well spent in such a strife may earn indeed
And for a time ensure to his loved land
The sweets of liberty and equal laws
But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize
And win it with more pain Their blood is shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth
To walk with God to be divinely free
To soar and to anticipate the skies
Yet few remember them They lived unknown
Till persecution dragged them into fame
And chased them up to heaven Their ashes flew
 No marble tells us whither With their names
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song
And history so warm on meaner themes
Is cold on this She execrates indeed
The tyranny that doomed them to the fire
But gives the glorious sufferers little praise
He is the freeman whom the truth makes free
And all are slaves beside There not a chain
That hellish foes confederate for his harm
Can wind around him but he casts it off
With as much ease as Samson his green withes
He looks abroad into the varied field
Of Nature and though poor perhaps compared
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight
Calls the delightful scenery all his own
His are the mountains and the valleys his
And the resplendent river His to enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel
But who with filial confidence inspired
Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye
And smiling say My Father made them all
Are they not his by a peculiar right
And by an emphasis of interest his
Whose eye they fill with tears of holy joy
Whose heart with praise and whose exalted mind
With worthy thoughts of that unwearied love
That planned and built and still upholds a world
So clothed with beauty for rebellious man
Yes ye may fill your garners ye that reap
The loaded soil and ye may waste much good
In senseless riot but ye will not find
In feast or in the chase in song or dance
A liberty like his who unimpeached
Of usurpation and to no man wrong
Appropriates nature as his Father work
And has a richer use of yours than you
He is indeed a freeman Free by birth
Of no mean city planned or e'er the hills
Were built the fountains opened or the sea
With all his roaring multitude of waves
His freedom is the same in every state
And no condition of this changeful life
So manifold in cares whose every day
Brings its own evil with it makes it less
For he has wings that neither sickness pain
Nor penury can cripple or confine
No nook so narrow but he spreads them there
With ease and is at large The oppressor holds
His body bound but knows not what a range
His spirit takes unconscious of a chain
And that to bind him is a vain attempt
Whom God delights in and in whom He dwells
Acquaint thyself with God if thou wouldst taste
His works Admitted once to His embrace
Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before
Thine eye shall be instructed and thine heart
Made pure shall relish with divine delight
Till then unfelt what hands divine have wrought
Brutes graze the mountain-top with faces prone
And eyes intent upon the scanty herb
It yields them or recumbent on its brow
Ruminate heedless of the scene outspread
Beneath beyond and stretching far away
From inland regions to the distant main
Man views it and admires but rests content
With what he views The landscape has his praise
But not its Author Unconcerned who formed
The paradise he sees he finds it such
And such well pleased to find it asks no more
Not so the mind that has been touched from heaven
And in the school of sacred wisdom taught
To read His wonders in whose thought the world
Fair as it is existed ere it was
Nor for its own sake merely but for His
Much more who fashioned it he gives it praise
Praise that from earth resulting as it ought
To earth acknowledged Sovereign finds at once
Its only just proprietor in Him
The soul that sees Him or receives sublimed
New faculties or learns at least to employ
More worthily the powers she owned before
Discerns in all things what with stupid gaze
Of ignorance till then she overlooked
A ray of heavenly light gilding all forms
Terrestrial in the vast and the minute
The unambiguous footsteps of the God
Who gives its lustre to an insect wing
And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds
Much conversant with heaven she often holds
With those fair ministers of light to man
That fill the skies nightly with silent pomp
Sweet conference inquires what strains were they
With which heaven rang when every star in haste
To gratulate the new-created earth
Sent forth a voice and all the sons of God
Shouted for joy Tell me ye shining hosts
That navigate a sea that knows no storms
Beneath a vault unsullied with a cloud
If from your elevation whence ye view
Distinctly scenes invisible to man
And systems of whose birth no tidings yet
Have reached this nether world ye spy a race
Favoured as ours transgressors from the womb
And hasting to a grave yet doomed to rise
And to possess a brighter heaven than yours
As one who long detained on foreign shores
Pants to return and when he sees afar
His country weather-bleached and battered rocks
From the green wave emerging darts an eye
Radiant with joy towards the happy land
So I with animated hopes behold
And many an aching wish your beamy fires
That show like beacons in the blue abyss
Ordained to guide the embodied spirit home
From toilsome life to never-ending rest
Love kindles as I gaze I feel desires
That give assurance of their own success
And that infused from heaven must thither tend
So reads he Nature whom the lamp of truth
Illuminates Thy lamp mysterious Word
Which whoso sees no longer wanders lost
With intellect bemazed in endless doubt
But runs the road of wisdom Thou hast built
With means that were not till by Thee employed
Worlds that had never been hadst Thou in strength
Been less or less benevolent than strong
They are Thy witnesses who speak Thy power
And goodness infinite but speak in ears
That hear not or receive not their report
In vain Thy creatures testify of Thee
Till Thou proclaim Thyself Theirs is indeed
A teaching voice but 'tis the praise of Thine
That whom it teaches it makes prompt to learn
And with the boon gives talents for its use
Till Thou art heard imaginations vain
Possess the heart and fables false as hell
Yet deemed oracular lure down to death
The uninformed and heedless souls of men
We give to chance blind chance ourselves as blind
The glory of Thy work which yet appears
Perfect and unimpeachable of blame
Challenging human scrutiny and proved
Then skilful most when most severely judged
But chance is not or is not where Thou reign'st
Thy providence forbids that fickle power
If power she be that works but to confound
To mix her wild vagaries with Thy laws
Yet thus we dote refusing while we can
Instruction and inventing to ourselves
Gods such as guilt makes welcome gods that sleep
Or disregard our follies or that sit
Amused spectators of this bustling stage
Thee we reject unable to abide
Thy purity till pure as Thou art pure
Made such by Thee we love Thee for that cause
For which we shunned and hated Thee before
Then we are free then liberty like day
Breaks on the soul and by a flash from heaven
Fires all the faculties with glorious joy
A voice is heard that mortal ears hear not
Till Thou hast touched them 'tis the voice of song
A loud Hosanna sent from all Thy works
Which he that hears it with a shout repeats
And adds his rapture to the general praise
In that blest moment Nature throwing wide
Her veil opaque discloses with a smile
The Author of her beauties who retired
Behind His own creation works unseen
By the impure and hears His power denied
Thou art the source and centre of all minds
Their only point of rest eternal Word
From Thee departing they are lost and rove
At random without honour hope or peace
From Thee is all that soothes the life of man
His high endeavour and his glad success
His strength to suffer and his will to serve
But oh Thou Bounteous Giver of all good
Thou art of all Thy gifts Thyself the crown
Give what Thou canst without Thee we are poor
And with Thee rich take what Thou wilt away
THERE is in souls a sympathy with sounds
And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased
With melting airs or martial brisk or grave
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touched within us and the heart replies
How soft the music of those village bells
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet now dying all away
Now pealing loud again and louder still
Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where memory slept Wherever I have heard
A kindred melody the scene recurs
And with it all its pleasures and its pains
Such comprehensive views the spirit takes
That in a few short moments I retrace
As in a map the voyager his course
The windings of my way through many years
Short as in retrospect the journey seems
It seemed not always short the rugged path
And prospect oft so dreary and forlorn
Moved many a sigh at its disheartening length
Yet feeling present evils while the past
Faintly impress the mind or not at all
How readily we wish time spent revoked
That we might try the ground again where once
Through inexperience as we now perceive
We missed that happiness we might have found
Some friend is gone perhaps his son best friend
A father whose authority in show
When most severe and mustering all its force
Was but the graver countenance of love
Whose favour like the clouds of spring might lower
And utter now and then an awful voice
But had a blessing in its darkest frown
Threatening at once and nourishing the plant
We loved but not enough the gentle hand
That reared us At a thoughtless age allured
By every gilded folly we renounced
His sheltering side and wilfully forewent
That converse which we now in vain regret
How gladly would the man recall to life
The boy neglected sire a mother too
That softer friend perhaps more gladly still
Might he demand them at the gates of death
Sorrow has since they went subdued and tamed
The playful humour he could now endure
Himself grown sober in the vale of tears
And feel a parent presence no restraint
But not to understand a treasure worth
Till time has stolen away the slighted good
Is cause of half the poverty we feel
And makes the world the wilderness it is
The few that pray at all pray oft amiss
And seeking grace to improve the prize they hold
Would urge a wiser suit than asking more
The night was winter in his roughest mood
The morning sharp and clear but now at noon
Upon the southern side of the slant hills
And where the woods fence off the northern blast
The season smiles resigning all its rage
And has the warmth of May The vault is blue
Without a cloud and white without a speck
The dazzling splendour of the scene below
Again the harmony comes o'er the vale
And through the trees I view the embattled tower
Whence all the music I again perceive
The soothing influence of the wafted strains
And settle in soft musings as I tread
The walk still verdant under oaks and elms
Whose outspread branches overarch the glade
The roof though movable through all its length
As the wind sways it has yet well sufficed
And intercepting in their silent fall
The frequent flakes has kept a path for me
No noise is here or none that hinders thought
The redbreast warbles still but is content
With slender notes and more than half suppressed
Pleased with his solitude and flitting light
From spray to spray where'er he rests he shakes
From many a twig the pendant drops of ice
That tinkle in the withered leaves below
Stillness accompanied with sounds so soft
Charms more than silence Meditation here
May think down hours to moments Here the heart
May give an useful lesson to the head
And learning wiser grow without his books
Knowledge and wisdom far from being one
Have ofttimes no connection Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own
Knowledge a rude unprofitable mass
The mere materials with which wisdom builds
Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place
Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more
Books are not seldom talismans and spells
By which the magic art of shrewder wits
Holds an unthinking multitude enthralled
Some to the fascination of a name
Surrender judgment hoodwinked Some the style
Infatuates and through labyrinths and wilds
Of error leads them by a tune entranced
While sloth seduces more too weak to bear
The insupportable fatigue of thought
And swallowing therefore without pause or choice
The total grist unsifted husks and all
But trees and rivulets whose rapid course
Defies the check of winter haunts of deer
And sheep-walks populous with bleating lambs
And lanes in which the primrose ere her time
Peeps through the moss that clothes the hawthorn root
Deceive no student Wisdom there and truth
Not shy as in the world and to be won
By slow solicitation seize at once
The roving thought and fix it on themselves
What prodigies can power divine perform
More grand than it produces year by year
And all in sight of inattentive man
Familiar with the effect we slight the cause
And in the constancy of Nature course
The regular return of genial months
And renovation of a faded world
See nought to wonder at Should God again
As once in Gibeon interrupt the race
Of the undeviating and punctual sun
How would the world admire but speaks it less
An agency divine to make him know
His moment when to sink and when to rise
Age after age than to arrest his course
All we behold is miracle but seen
So duly all is miracle in vain
Where now the vital energy that moved
While summer was the pure and subtle lymph
Through the imperceptible meandering veins
Of leaf and flower It sleeps and the icy touch
Of unprolific winter has impressed
A cold stagnation on the intestine tide
But let the months go round a few short months
And all shall be restored These naked shoots
Barren as lances among which the wind
Makes wintry music sighing as it goes
Shall put their graceful foliage on again
And more aspiring and with ampler spread
Shall boast new charms and more than they have lost
Then each in its peculiar honours clad
Shall publish even to the distant eye
Its family and tribe Laburnum rich
In streaming gold syringa ivory pure
The scented and the scentless rose this red
And of a humbler growth the other tall
And throwing up into the darkest gloom
Of neighbouring cypress or more sable yew
Her silver globes light as the foamy surf
That the wind severs from the broken wave
The lilac various in array now white
Now sanguine and her beauteous head now set
With purple spikes pyramidal as if
Studious of ornament yet unresolved
Which hue she most approved she chose them all
Copious of flowers the woodbine pale and wan
But well compensating their sickly looks
With never-cloying odours early and late
Hypericum all bloom so thick a swarm
Of flowers like flies clothing her slender rods
That scarce a leaf appears mezereon too
Though leafless well attired and thick beset
With blushing wreaths investing every spray
Althaea with the purple eye the broom
Yellow and bright as bullion unalloyed
Her blossoms and luxuriant above all
The jasmine throwing wide her elegant sweets
The deep dark green of whose unvarnished leaf
Makes more conspicuous and illumines more
The bright profusion of her scattered stars 
These have been and these shall be in their day
And all this uniform uncoloured scene
Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load
And flush into variety again
From dearth to plenty and from death to life
Is Nature progress when she lectures man
In heavenly truth evincing as she makes
The grand transition that there lives and works
A soul in all things and that soul is God
The beauties of the wilderness are His
That make so gay the solitary place
Where no eye sees them And the fairer forms
That cultivation glories in are His
He sets the bright procession on its way
And marshals all the order of the year
He marks the bounds which Winter may not pass
And blunts his pointed fury In its case
Russet and rude folds up the tender germ
Uninjured with inimitable art
And ere one flowery season fades and dies
Designs the blooming wonders of the next
Some say that in the origin of things
When all creation started into birth
The infant elements received a law
From which they swerve not since that under force
Of that controlling ordinance they move
And need not His immediate hand who first
Prescribed their course to regulate it now
Thus dream they and contrive to save a God
The encumbrance of His own concerns and spare
The great Artificer of all that moves
The stress of a continual act the pain
Of unremitted vigilance and care
As too laborious and severe a task
So man the moth is not afraid it seems
To span Omnipotence and measure might
That knows no measure by the scanty rule
And standard of his own that is to-day
And is not ere to-morrow sun go down
But how should matter occupy a charge
Dull as it is and satisfy a law
So vast in its demands unless impelled
To ceaseless service by a ceaseless force
And under pressure of some conscious cause
The Lord of all Himself through all diffused
Sustains and is the life of all that lives
Nature is but a name for an effect
Whose cause is God He feeds the secret fire
By which the mighty process is maintained
Who sleeps not is not weary in whose sight
Slow-circling ages are as transient days
Whose work is without labour whose designs
No flaw deforms no difficulty thwarts
And whose beneficence no charge exhausts
Him blind antiquity profaned not served
With self-taught rites and under various names
Female and male Pomona Pales Pan
And Flora and Vertumnus peopling earth
With tutelary goddesses and gods
That were not and commending as they would
To each some province garden field or grove
But all are under One One spirit His
Who bore the platted thorns with bleeding brows 
Rules universal nature Not a flower
But shows some touch in freckle streak or stain
Of His unrivalled pencil He inspires
Their balmy odours and imparts their hues
And bathes their eyes with nectar and includes
In grains as countless as the sea-side sands
The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth
Happy who walks with Him whom what he finds
Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower
Or what he views of beautiful or grand
In nature from the broad majestic oak
To the green blade that twinkles in the sun
Prompts with remembrance of a present God
His presence who made all so fair perceived
Makes all still fairer As with Him no scene
Is dreary so with Him all seasons please
Though winter had been none had man been true
And earth be punished for its tenant sake
Yet not in vengeance as this smiling sky
So soon succeeding such an angry night
And these dissolving snows and this clear stream
Recovering fast its liquid music prove
Who then that has a mind well strung and tuned
To contemplation and within his reach
A scene so friendly to his favourite task
Would waste attention at the chequered board
His host of wooden warriors to and fro
Marching and counter-marching with an eye
As fixt as marble with a forehead ridged
And furrowed into storms and with a hand
Trembling as if eternity were hung
In balance on his conduct of a pin
Nor envies he aught more their idle sport
Who pant with application misapplied
To trivial toys and pushing ivory balls
Across the velvet level feel a joy
Akin to rapture when the bauble finds
Its destined goal of difficult access
Nor deems he wiser him who gives his noon
To Miss the Mercer plague from shop to shop
Wandering and littering with unfolded silks
The polished counter and approving none
Or promising with smiles to call again
Nor him who by his vanity seduced
And soothed into a dream that he discerns
The difference of a Guido from a daub
Frequents the crowded auction Stationed there
As duly as the Langford of the show
With glass at eye and catalogue in hand
And tongue accomplished in the fulsome cant
And pedantry that coxcombs learn with ease
Oft as the price-deciding hammer falls
He notes it in his book then raps his box
Swears 'tis a bargain rails at his hard fate
That he has let it pass but never bids
Here unmolested through whatever sign
The sun proceeds I wander neither mist
Nor freezing sky nor sultry checking me
Nor stranger intermeddling with my joy
Even in the spring and play-time of the year
That calls the unwonted villager abroad
With all her little ones a sportive train
To gather king-cups in the yellow mead
And prank their hair with daisies or to pick
A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook
These shades are all my own The timorous hare
Grown so familiar with her frequent guest
Scarce shuns me and the stock-dove unalarmed
Sits cooing in the pine-tree nor suspends
His long love-ditty for my near approach
Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm
That age or injury has hollowed deep
Where on his bed of wool and matted leaves
He has outslept the winter ventures forth
To frisk awhile and bask in the warm sun
The squirrel flippant pert and full of play
He sees me and at once swift as a bird
Ascends the neighbouring beech there whisks his brush
And perks his ears and stamps and scolds aloud
With all the prettiness of feigned alarm
And anger insignificantly fierce
The heart is hard in nature and unfit
For human fellowship as being void
Of sympathy and therefore dead alike
To love and friendship both that is not pleased
With sight of animals enjoying life
Nor feels their happiness augment his own
The bounding fawn that darts across the glade
When none pursues through mere delight of heart
And spirits buoyant with excess of glee
The horse as wanton and almost as fleet
That skims the spacious meadow at full speed
Then stops and snorts and throwing high his heels
Starts to the voluntary race again
The very kine that gambol at high noon
The total herd receiving first from one
That leads the dance a summons to be gay
Though wild their strange vagaries and uncouth
Their efforts yet resolved with one consent
To give such act and utterance as they may
To ecstasy too big to be suppressed 
These and a thousand images of bliss
With which kind nature graces every scene
Where cruel man defeats not her design
Impart to the benevolent who wish
All that are capable of pleasure pleased
A far superior happiness to theirs
The comfort of a reasonable joy
Man scarce had risen obedient to His call
Who formed him from the dust his future grave
When he was crowned as never king was since
God set His diadem upon his head
And angel choirs attended Wondering stood
The new-made monarch while before him passed
All happy and all perfect in their kind
The creatures summoned from their various haunts
To see their sovereign and confess his sway
Vast was his empire absolute his power
Or bounded only by a law whose force
'Twas his sublimest privilege to feel
And own the law of universal love
He ruled with meekness they obeyed with joy
No cruel purpose lurked within his heart
And no distrust of his intent in theirs
So Eden was a scene of harmless sport
Where kindness on his part who ruled the whole
Begat a tranquil confidence in all
And fear as yet was not nor cause for fear
But sin marred all and the revolt of man
That source of evils not exhausted yet
Was punished with revolt of his from him
Garden of God how terrible the change
Thy groves and lawns then witnessed every heart
Each animal of every name conceived
A jealousy and an instinctive fear
And conscious of some danger either fled
Precipitate the loathed abode of man
Or growled defiance in such angry sort
As taught him too to tremble in his turn
Thus harmony and family accord
Were driven from Paradise and in that hour
The seeds of cruelty that since have swelled
To such gigantic and enormous growth
Were sown in human nature fruitful soil
Hence date the persecution and the pain
That man inflicts on all inferior kinds
Regardless of their plaints To make him sport
To gratify the frenzy of his wrath
Or his base gluttony are causes good
And just in his account why bird and beast
Should suffer torture and the streams be dyed
With blood of their inhabitants impaled
Earth groans beneath the burden of a war
Waged with defenceless innocence while he
Not satisfied to prey on all around
Adds tenfold bitterness to death by pangs
Needless and first torments ere he devours
Now happiest they that occupy the scenes
The most remote from his abhorred resort
Whom once as delegate of God on earth
They feared and as His perfect image loved
The wilderness is theirs with all its caves
Its hollow glens its thickets and its plains
Unvisited by man There they are free
And howl and roar as likes them uncontrolled
Nor ask his leave to slumber or to play
Woe to the tyrant if he dare intrude
Within the confines of their wild domain
The lion tells him I am monarch here
And if he spares him spares him on the terms
Of royal mercy and through generous scorn
To rend a victim trembling at his foot
In measure as by force of instinct drawn
Or by necessity constrained they live
Dependent upon man those in his fields
These at his crib and some beneath his roof
They prove too often at how dear a rate
He sells protection Witness at his foot
The spaniel dying for some venial fault
Under dissection of the knotted scourge
Witness the patient ox with stripes and yells
Driven to the slaughter goaded as he runs
To madness while the savage at his heels
Laughs at the frantic sufferer fury spent
Upon the guiltless passenger o'erthrown
He too is witness noblest of the train
That wait on man the flight-performing horse
With unsuspecting readiness he takes
His murderer on his back and pushed all day
With bleeding sides and flanks that heave for life
To the far-distant goal arrives and dies
So little mercy shows who needs so much
Does law so jealous in the cause of man
Denounce no doom on the delinquent None
He lives and o'er his brimming beaker boasts
As if barbarity were high desert
The inglorious feat and clamorous in praise
Of the poor brute seems wisely to suppose
The honours of his matchless horse his own
But many a crime deemed innocent on earth
Is registered in heaven and these no doubt
Have each their record with a curse annexed
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart
But God will never When He charged the Jew
To assist his foe down-fallen beast to rise
And when the bush-exploring boy that seized
The young to let the parent bird go free
Proved He not plainly that His meaner works
Are yet His care and have an interest all
All in the universal Father love
On Noah and in him on all mankind
The charter was conferred by which we hold
The flesh of animals in fee and claim
O'er all we feed on power of life and death
But read the instrument and mark it well
The oppression of a tyrannous control
Can find no warrant there Feed then and yield
Thanks for thy food Carnivorous through sin
Feed on the slain but spare the living brute
The Governor of all Himself to all
So bountiful in whose attentive ear
The unfledged raven and the lion whelp
Plead not in vain for pity on the pangs
Of hunger unassuaged has interposed
Not seldom His avenging arm to smite
The injurious trampler upon nature law
That claims forbearance even for a brute
He hates the hardness of a Balaam heart
And prophet as he was he might not strike
The blameless animal without rebuke
On which he rode Her opportune offence
Saved him or the unrelenting seer had died
He sees that human equity is slack
To interfere though in so just a cause
And makes the task His own inspiring dumb
And helpless victims with a sense so keen
Of injury with such knowledge of their strength
And such sagacity to take revenge
That oft the beast has seemed to judge the man
An ancient not a legendary tale
By one of sound intelligence rehearsed
If such who plead for Providence may seem
In modern eyes shall make the doctrine clear
Where England stretched towards the setting sun
Narrow and long o'erlooks the western wave
Dwelt young Misagathus a scorner he
Of God and goodness atheist in ostent
Vicious in act in temper savage-fierce
He journeyed and his chance was as he went
To join a traveller of far different note 
Evander famed for piety for years
Deserving honour but for wisdom more
Fame had not left the venerable man
A stranger to the manners of the youth
Whose face too was familiar to his view
Their way was on the margin of the land
O'er the green summit of the rocks whose base
Beats back the roaring surge scarce heard so high
The charity that warmed his heart was moved
At sight of the man-monster With a smile
Gentle and affable and full of grace
As fearful of offending whom he wished
Much to persuade he plied his ear with truths
Not harshly thundered forth or rudely pressed
But like his purpose gracious kind and sweet
And dost thou dream the impenetrable man
Exclaimed that me the lullabies of age
And fantasies of dotards such as thou
Can cheat or move a moment fear in me
Mark now the proof I give thee that the brave
Need no such aids as superstition lends
To steel their hearts against the dread of death
He spoke and to the precipice at hand
Pushed with a madman fury Fancy shrinks
And the blood thrills and curdles at the thought
Of such a gulf as he designed his grave
But though the felon on his back could dare
The dreadful leap more rational his steed
Declined the death and wheeling swiftly round
Or ere his hoof had pressed the crumbling verge
Baffled his rider saved against his will
The frenzy of the brain may be redressed
By medicine well applied but without grace
The heart insanity admits no cure
Enraged the more by what might have reformed
His horrible intent again he sought
Destruction with a zeal to be destroyed
With sounding whip and rowels dyed in blood
But still in vain The Providence that meant
A longer date to the far nobler beast
Spared yet again the ignobler for his sake
And now his prowess proved and his sincere
Incurable obduracy evinced
His rage grew cool and pleased perhaps to have earned
So cheaply the renown of that attempt
With looks of some complacence he resumed
His road deriding much the blank amaze
Of good Evander still where he was left
Fixed motionless and petrified with dread
So on they fared discourse on other themes
Ensuing seemed to obliterate the past
And tamer far for so much fury shown
As is the course of rash and fiery men
The rude companion smiled as if transformed
But 'twas a transient calm A storm was near
An unsuspected storm His hour was come
The impious challenger of power divine
Was now to learn that Heaven though slow to wrath
Is never with impunity defied
His horse as he had caught his master mood
Snorting and starting into sudden rage
Unbidden and not now to be controlled
Rushed to the cliff and having reached it stood
At once the shock unseated him he flew
Sheer o'er the craggy barrier and immersed
Deep in the flood found when he sought it not
The death he had deserved and died alone
So God wrought double justice made the fool
The victim of his own tremendous choice
And taught a brute the way to safe revenge
I would not enter on my list of friends
Though graced with polished manners and fine sense
Yet wanting sensibility the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path
But he that has humanity forewarned
Will tread aside and let the reptile live
The creeping vermin loathsome to the sight
And charged perhaps with venom that intrudes
A visitor unwelcome into scenes
Sacred to neatness and repose the alcove
The chamber or refectory may die
A necessary act incurs no blame
Not so when held within their proper bounds
And guiltless of offence they range the air
Or take their pastime in the spacious field
There they are privileged and he that hunts
Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong
Disturbs the economy of Nature realm
Who when she formed designed them an abode
The sum is this if man convenience health
Or safety interfere his rights and claims
Are paramount and must extinguish theirs
Else they are all the meanest things that are 
As free to live and to enjoy that life
As God was free to form them at the first
Who in His sovereign wisdom made them all
Ye therefore who love mercy teach your sons
To love it too The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonoured and defiled in most
By budding ills that ask a prudent hand
To check them But alas none sooner shoots
If unrestrained into luxuriant growth
Than cruelty most devilish of them all
Mercy to him that shows it is the rule
And righteous limitation of its act
By which Heaven moves in pardoning guilty man
And he that shows none being ripe in years
And conscious of the outrage he commits
Shall seek it and not find it in his turn
Distinguished much by reason and still more
By our capacity of grace divine
From creatures that exist but for our sake
Which having served us perish we are held
Accountable and God some future day
Will reckon with us roundly for the abuse
Of what He deems no mean or trivial trust
Superior as we are they yet depend
Not more on human help than we on theirs
Their strength or speed or vigilance were given
In aid of our defects In some are found
Such teachable and apprehensive parts
That man attainments in his own concerns
Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs
Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind
Some show that nice sagacity of smell
And read with such discernment in the port
And figure of the man his secret aim
That oft we owe our safety to a skill
We could not teach and must despair to learn
But learn we might if not too proud to stoop
To quadruped instructors many a good
And useful quality and virtue too
Rarely exemplified among ourselves
Attachment never to be weaned or changed
By any change of fortune proof alike
Against unkindness absence and neglect
Fidelity that neither bribe nor threat
Can move or warp and gratitude for small
And trivial favours lasting as the life
And glistening even in the dying eye
Man praises man Desert in arts or arms
Wins public honour and ten thousand sit
Patiently present at a sacred song
Commemoration-mad content to hear
Oh wonderful effect of music power
Messiah eulogy for Handel sake
But less methinks than sacrilege might serve 
For was it less What heathen would have dared
To strip Jove statue of his oaken wreath
And hang it up in honour of a man
Much less might serve when all that we design
Is but to gratify an itching ear
And give the day to a musician praise
Remember Handel who that was not born
Deaf as the dead to harmony forgets
Or can the more than Homer of his age
Yes we remember him and while we praise
A talent so divine remember too
That His most holy Book from whom it came
Was never meant was never used before
To buckram out the memory of a man
But hush the muse perhaps is too severe
And with a gravity beyond the size
And measure of the offence rebukes a deed
Less impious than absurd and owing more
To want of judgment than to wrong design
So in the chapel of old Ely House
When wandering Charles who meant to be the third
Had fled from William and the news was fresh
The simple clerk but loyal did announce
And eke did rear right merrily two staves
Sung to the praise and glory of King George
 Man praises man and Garrick memory next
When time has somewhat mellowed it and made
The idol of our worship while he lived
The god of our idolatry once more
Shall have its altar and the world shall go
In pilgrimage to bow before his shrine
The theatre too small shall suffocate
Its squeezed contents and more than it admits
Shall sigh at their exclusion and return
Ungratified For there some noble lord
Shall stuff his shoulders with King Richard bunch
Or wrap himself in Hamlet inky cloak
And strut and storm and straddle stamp and stare
To show the world how Garrick did not act
For Garrick was a worshipper himself
He drew the liturgy and framed the rites
And solemn ceremonial of the day
And called the world to worship on the banks
Of Avon famed in song Ah pleasant proof
That piety has still in human hearts
Some place a spark or two not yet extinct
The mulberry-tree was hung with blooming wreaths
The mulberry-tree stood centre of the dance
The mulberry-tree was hymned with dulcet airs
And from his touchwood trunk the mulberry-tree
Supplied such relics as devotion holds
Still sacred and preserves with pious care
So 'twas a hallowed time decorum reigned
And mirth without offence No few returned
Doubtless much edified and all refreshed
 Man praises man The rabble all alive
From tippling benches cellars stalls and styes
Swarm in the streets The statesman of the day
A pompous and slow-moving pageant comes
Some shout him and some hang upon his car
To gaze in his eyes and bless him Maidens wave
Their kerchiefs and old women weep for joy
While others not so satisfied unhorse
The gilded equipage and turning loose
His steeds usurp a place they well deserve
Why what has charmed them Hath he saved the state
No Doth he purpose its salvation No
Enchanting novelty that moon at full
That finds out every crevice of the head
That is not sound and perfect hath in theirs
Wrought this disturbance But the wane is near
And his own cattle must suffice him soon
Thus idly do we waste the breath of praise
And dedicate a tribute in its use
And just direction sacred to a thing
Doomed to the dust or lodged already there
Encomium in old time was poet work
But poets having lavishly long since
Exhausted all materials of the art
The task now falls into the public hand
And I contented with a humble theme
Have poured my stream of panegyric down
The vale of Nature where it creeps and winds
Among her lovely works with a secure
And unambitious course reflecting clear
If not the virtues yet the worth of brutes
And I am recompensed and deem the toil
Of poetry not lost if verse of mine
May stand between an animal and woe
And teach one tyrant pity for his drudge
The groans of Nature in this nether world
Which Heaven has heard for ages have an end
Foretold by prophets and by poets sung
Whose fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp
The time of rest the promised Sabbath comes
Six thousand years of sorrow have well-nigh
Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world and what remains
Of this tempestuous state of human things
Is merely as the working of a sea
Before a calm that rocks itself to rest
For He whose car the winds are and the clouds
The dust that waits upon His sultry march
When sin hath moved Him and His wrath is hot
Shall visit earth in mercy shall descend
Propitious in His chariot paved with love
And what His storms have blasted and defaced
For man revolt shall with a smile repair
Sweet is the harp of prophecy too sweet
Not to be wronged by a mere mortal touch
Nor can the wonders it records be sung
To meaner music and not suffer loss
But when a poet or when one like me
Happy to rove among poetic flowers
Though poor in skill to rear them lights at last
On some fair theme some theme divinely fair
Such is the impulse and the spur he feels
To give it praise proportioned to its worth
That not to attempt it arduous as he deems
The labour were a task more arduous still
Oh scenes surpassing fable and yet true
Scenes of accomplished bliss which who can see
Though but in distant prospect and not feel
His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy
Rivers of gladness water all the earth
And clothe all climes with beauty the reproach
Of barrenness is past The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance and the land once lean
Or fertile only in its own disgrace
Exults to see its thistly curse repealed
The various seasons woven into one
And that one season an eternal spring
The garden fears no blight and needs no fence
For there is none to covet all are full
The lion and the libbard and the bear
Graze with the fearless flocks All bask at noon
Together or all gambol in the shade
Of the same grove and drink one common stream
Antipathies are none No foe to man
Lurks in the serpent now The mother sees
And smiles to see her infant playful hand
Stretched forth to dally with the crested worm
To stroke his azure neck or to receive
The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue
All creatures worship man and all mankind
One Lord one Father Error has no place
That creeping pestilence is driven away
The breath of heaven has chased it In the heart
No passion touches a discordant string
But all is harmony and love Disease
Is not The pure and uncontaminated blood
Holds its due course nor fears the frost of age
One song employs all nations and all cry
Worthy the Lamb for He was slain for us
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other and the mountain-tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy
Till nation after nation taught the strain
Each rolls the rapturous Hosanna round
Behold the measure of the promise filled
See Salem built the labour of a God
Bright as a sun the sacred city shines
All kingdoms and all princes of the earth
Flock to that light the glory of all lands
Flows into her unbounded is her joy
And endless her increase Thy rams are there
Nebaioth and the flocks of Kedar there
The looms of Ormus and the mines of Ind
And Saba spicy groves pay tribute there
Praise is in all her gates Upon her walls
And in her streets and in her spacious courts
Is heard salvation Eastern Java there
Kneels with the native of the farthest West
And AEthiopia spreads abroad the hand
And worships Her report has travelled forth
Into all lands From every clime they come
To see thy beauty and to share thy joy
O Sion an assembly such as earth
Saw never such as heaven stoops down to see
Thus heavenward all things tend For all were once
Perfect and all must be at length restored
So God has greatly purposed who would else
In His dishonoured works Himself endure
Dishonour and be wronged without redress
Haste then and wheel away a shattered world
Ye slow-revolving seasons We would see
A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet
A world that does not dread and hate His laws
And suffer for its crime would learn how fair
The creature is that God pronounces good
How pleasant in itself what pleases Him
Here every drop of honey hides a sting
Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers
And even the joy that haply some poor heart
Derives from heaven pure as the fountain is
Is sullied in the stream taking a taint
From touch of human lips at best impure
Oh for a world in principle as chaste
As this is gross and selfish over which
Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway
That govern all things here shouldering aside
The meek and modest Truth and forcing her
To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife
In nooks obscure far from the ways of men
Where violence shall never lift the sword
Nor cunning justify the proud man wrong
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears
Where he that fills an office shall esteem
The occasion it presents of doing good
More than the perquisite where laws shall speak
Seldom and never but as wisdom prompts
And equity not jealous more to guard
A worthless form than to decide aright
Where fashion shall not sanctify abuse
Nor smooth good-breeding supplemental grace
With lean performance ape the work of love
Come then and added to Thy many crowns
Receive yet one the crown of all the earth
Thou who alone art worthy it was Thine
By ancient covenant ere nature birth
And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since
And overpaid its value with Thy blood
Thy saints proclaim Thee King and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipt in the fountain of eternal love
Thy saints proclaim Thee King and Thy delay
Gives courage to their foes who could they see
The dawn of Thy last advent long-desired
Would creep into the bowels of the hills
And flee for safety to the falling rocks
The very spirit of the world is tired
Of its own taunting question asked so long
Where is the promise of your Lord approach
The infidel has shot his bolts away
Till his exhausted quiver yielding none
He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoiled
And aims them at the shield of truth again
The veil is rent rent too by priestly hands
That hides divinity from mortal eyes
And all the mysteries to faith proposed
Insulted and traduced are cast aside
As useless to the moles and to the bats
They now are deemed the faithful and are praised
Who constant only in rejecting Thee
Deny Thy Godhead with a martyr zeal
And quit their office for their error sake
Blind and in love with darkness yet even these
Worthy compared with sycophants who kneel
Thy Name adoring and then preach Thee man
So fares Thy Church But how Thy Church may fare
The world takes little thought who will may preach
And what they will All pastors are alike
To wandering sheep resolved to follow none
Two gods divide them all Pleasure and Gain
For these they live they sacrifice to these
And in their service wage perpetual war
With conscience and with Thee Lust in their hearts
And mischief in their hands they roam the earth
To prey upon each other stubborn fierce
High-minded foaming out their own disgrace
Thy prophets speak of such and noting down
The features of the last degenerate times
Exhibit every lineament of these
Come then and added to Thy many crowns
Receive yet one as radiant as the rest
Due to Thy last and most effectual work
Thy Word fulfilled the conquest of a world
He is the happy man whose life even now
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come
Who doomed to an obscure but tranquil state
Is pleased with it and were he free to choose
Would make his fate his choice whom peace the fruit
Of virtue and whom virtue fruit of faith
Prepare for happiness bespeak him one
Content indeed to sojourn while he must
Below the skies but having there his home
The world o'erlooks him in her busy search
Of objects more illustrious in her view
And occupied as earnestly as she
Though more sublimely he o'erlooks the world
She scorns his pleasures for she knows them not
He seeks not hers for he has proved them vain
He cannot skim the ground like summer birds
Pursuing gilded flies and such he deems
Her honours her emoluments her joys
Therefore in contemplation is his bliss
Whose power is such that whom she lifts from earth
She makes familiar with a heaven unseen
And shows him glories yet to be revealed
Not slothful he though seeming unemployed
And censured oft as useless Stillest streams
Oft water fairest meadows and the bird
That flutters least is longest on the wing
Ask him indeed what trophies he has raised
Or what achievements of immortal fame
He purposes and he shall answer None
His warfare is within There unfatigued
His fervent spirit labours There he fights
And there obtains fresh triumphs o'er himself
And never-withering wreaths compared with which
The laurels that a Caesar reaps are weeds
Perhaps the self-approving haughty world
That as she sweeps him with her whistling silks
Scarce deigns to notice him or if she see
Deems him a cipher in the works of God
Receives advantage from his noiseless hours
Of which she little dreams Perhaps she owes
Her sunshine and her rain her blooming spring
And plenteous harvest to the prayer he makes
When Isaac-like the solitary saint
Walks forth to meditate at eventide
And think on her who thinks not for herself
Forgive him then thou bustler in concerns
Of little worth and idler in the best
If author of no mischief and some good
He seeks his proper happiness by means
That may advance but cannot hinder thine
Nor though he tread the secret path of life
Engage no notice and enjoy much ease
Account him an encumbrance on the state
Receiving benefits and rendering none
His sphere though humble if that humble sphere
Shine with his fair example and though small
His influence if that influence all be spent
In soothing sorrow and in quenching strife
In aiding helpless indigence in works
From which at least a grateful few derive
Some taste of comfort in a world of woe
Then let the supercilious great confess
He serves his country recompenses well
The state beneath the shadow of whose vine
He sits secure and in the scale of life
Holds no ignoble though a slighted place
The man whose virtues are more felt than seen
Must drop indeed the hope of public praise
But he may boast what few that win it can
That if his country stand not by his skill
At least his follies have not wrought her fall
Polite refinement offers him in vain
Her golden tube through which a sensual world
Draws gross impurity and likes it well
The neat conveyance hiding all the offence
Not that he peevishly rejects a mode
Because that world adopts it If it bear
The stamp and clear impression of good sense
And be not costly more than of true worth
He puts it on and for decorum sake
Can wear it e'en as gracefully as she
She judges of refinement by the eye
He by the test of conscience and a heart
Not soon deceived aware that what is base
No polish can make sterling and that vice
Though well-perfumed and elegantly dressed
Like an unburied carcass tricked with flowers
Is but a garnished nuisance fitter far
For cleanly riddance than for fair attire
So life glides smoothly and by stealth away
More golden than that age of fabled gold
Renowned in ancient song not vexed with care
Or stained with guilt beneficent approved
Of God and man and peaceful in its end
So glide my life away and so at last
My share of duties decently fulfilled
May some disease not tardy to perform
Its destined office yet with gentle stroke
Dismiss me weary to a safe retreat
Beneath the turf that I have often trod
It shall not grieve me then that once when called
To dress a Sofa with the flowers of verse
I played awhile obedient to the fair
With that light task but soon to please her more
Whom flowers alone I knew would little please
Let fall the unfinished wreath and roved for fruit
Roved far and gathered much some harsh 'tis true
Picked from the thorns and briars of reproof
But wholesome well-digested grateful some
To palates that can taste immortal truth
Insipid else and sure to be despised
But all is in His hand whose praise I seek
In vain the poet sings and the world hears
If He regard not though divine the theme
'Tis not in artful measures in the chime
And idle tinkling of a minstrel lyre
To charm His ear whose eye is on the heart
Whose frown can disappoint the proudest strain
Whose approbation prosper even mine
A shepherd boy he seeks no better name
Led forth his flocks along the silver Thame
Where dancing sunbeams on the waters play'd
And verdant alders form'd a quivering shade
Soft as he mourn'd the streams forgot to flow
The flocks around a dumb compassion show
The Naiads wept in every watery bower
And Jove consented in a silent shower
Accept O Garth the Muse early lays
That adds this wreath of ivy to thy bays
Hear what from love unpractised hearts endure
From love the sole disease thou canst not cure
Ye shady beeches and ye cooling streams
Defence from Phoebus' not from Cupid beams
To you I mourn nor to the deaf I sing
'The woods shall answer and their echo ring'
The hills and rocks attend my doleful lay
Why art thou prouder and more hard than they
The bleating sheep with my complaints agree
They parch'd with heat and I inflamed by thee
The sultry Sirius burns the thirsty plains
While in thy heart eternal winter reigns
Where stray ye Muses in what lawn or grove
While your Alexis pines in hopeless love
In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides
Or else where Cam his winding vales divides
As in the crystal spring I view my face
Fresh rising blushes paint the watery glass
But since those graces please thy eyes no more
I shun the fountains which I sought before
Once I was skill'd in every herb that grew
And every plant that drinks the morning dew
Ah wretched shepherd what avails thy art
To cure thy lambs but not to heal thy heart
Let other swains attend the rural care
Feed fairer flocks or richer fleeces shear
But nigh yon mountain let me tune my lays
Embrace my love and bind my brows with bays
That flute is mine which Colin tuneful breath
Inspired when living and bequeath'  in death
He said 'Alexis take this pipe the same
That taught the groves my Rosalinda name
But now the reeds shall hang on yonder tree
For ever silent since despised by thee
Oh were I made by some transforming power
The captive bird that sings within thy bower
Then might my voice thy listening ears employ
And I those kisses he receives enjoy
And yet my numbers please the rural throng
Rough Satyrs dance and Pan applauds the song
The Nymphs forsaking every cave and spring
Their early fruit and milk-white turtles bring
Each amorous nymph prefers her gifts in vain
On you their gifts are all bestow'd again
For you the swains the fairest flowers design
And in one garland all their beauties join
Accept the wreath which you deserve alone
In whom all beauties are comprised in one
See what delights in sylvan scenes appear
Descending gods have found Elysium here
In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray'd
And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade
Come lovely nymph and bless the silent hours
When swains from shearing seek their nightly bowers
When weary reapers quit the sultry field
And crown'd with corn their thanks to Ceres yield
This harmless grove no lurking viper hides
But in my breast the serpent love abides
Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you
Oh deign to visit our forsaken seats
The mossy fountains and the green retreats
Where'er you walk cool gales shall fan the glade
Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade
Where'er you tread the blushing flowers shall rise
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes
Oh how I long with you to pass my days
Invoke the Muses and resound your praise
Your praise the birds shall chant in every grove
And winds shall waft it to the Powers above
But would you sing and rival Orpheus' strain
The wondering forests soon should dance again
The moving mountains hear the powerful call
And headlong streams hang listening in their fall
But see the shepherds shun the noonday heat
The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat
To closer shades the panting flocks remove
Ye gods and is there no relief for love
But soon the sun with milder rays descends
To the cool ocean where his journey ends
On me Love fiercer flames for ever prey
By night he scorches as he burns by day
Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays
Hylas and AEgon sung their rural lays
This mourn'd a faithless that an absent love
And Delia name and Doris' fill'd the grove
Ye Mantuan nymphs your sacred succour bring
Hylas and AEgon rural lays I sing
Thou whom the Nine with Plautus' wit inspire
The art of Terence and Menander fire
Whose sense instructs us and whose humour charms
Whose judgment sways us and whose spirit warms
Oh skill'd in Nature see the hearts of swains
Their artless passions and their tender pains
Now setting Phoebus shone serenely bright
And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light
When tuneful Hylas with melodious moan
Taught rocks to weep and made the mountains groan
Go gentle gales and bear my sighs away
To Delia ear the tender notes convey
As some sad turtle his lost love deplores
And with deep murmurs fills the sounding shores
Thus far from Delia to the winds I mourn
Alike unheard unpitied and forlorn
Go gentle gales and bear my sighs along
For her the feather'd choirs neglect their song
For her the limes their pleasing shades deny
For her the lilies hang their heads and die
Ye flowers that droop forsaken by the spring
Ye birds that left by summer cease to sing
Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove
Say is not absence death to those who love
Go gentle gales and bear my sighs away
Cursed be the fields that cause my Delia stay
Fade every blossom wither every tree
Die every flower and perish all but she
What have I said Where'er my Delia flies
Let spring attend and sudden flowers arise
Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn
And liquid amber drop from every thorn
Go gentle gales and bear my sighs along
The birds shall cease to tune their evening song
The winds to breathe the waving woods to move
And streams to murmur ere I cease to love
Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain
Not balmy sleep to labourers faint with pain
Not showers to larks or sunshine to the bee
Are half so charming as thy sight to me
Go gentle gales and bear my sighs away
Come Delia come ah why this long delay
Through rocks and caves the name of Delia sounds
Delia each care and echoing rock rebounds
Ye Powers what pleasing frenzy soothes my mind
Do lovers dream or is my Delia kind
She comes my Delia comes Now cease my lay
And cease ye gales to bear my sighs away
Next AEgon sung while Windsor groves admired
Rehearse ye Muses what yourselves inspired
Resound ye hills resound my mournful strain
Of perjured Doris dying I complain
Here where the mountains lessening as they rise
Lose the low vales and steal into the skies
While labouring oxen spent with toil and heat
In their loose traces from the field retreat
While curling smokes from village-tops are seen
And the fleet shades glide o'er the dusky green
Resound ye hills resound my mournful lay
Beneath yon poplar oft we pass'd the day
Oft on the rind I carved her amorous vows
While she with garlands hung the bending boughs
The garlands fade the vows are worn away
So dies her love and so my hopes decay
Resound ye hills resound my mournful strain
Now bright Arcturus glads the teeming grain
Now golden fruits on loaded branches shine
And grateful clusters swell with floods of wine
Now blushing berries paint the yellow grove
Just gods shall all things yield returns but love
Resound ye hills resound my mournful lay
The shepherds cry 'Thy flocks are left a prey' 
Ah what avails it me the flocks to keep
Who lost my heart while I preserved my sheep
Pan came and ask'd what magic caused my smart
Or what ill eyes malignant glances dart
What eyes but hers alas have power to move
And is there magic but what dwells in love
Resound ye hills resound my mournful strains
I'll fly from shepherds flocks and flowery plains
From shepherds flocks and plains I may remove
Forsake mankind and all the world but Love
I know thee Love on foreign mountains bred
Wolves gave thee suck and savage tigers fed
Thou wert from Etna burning entrails torn
Got by fierce whirlwinds and in thunder born
Resound ye hills resound my mournful lay
Farewell ye woods adieu the light of day
One leap from yonder cliff shall end my pains
No more ye hills no more resound my strains
Thus sung the shepherds till the approach of night
The skies yet blushing with departing light
When falling dews with spangles deck'd the glade
And the low sun had lengthen'd every shade
Thyrsis the music of that murmuring spring
Is not so mournful as the strains you sing
Nor rivers winding through the vales below
So sweetly warble or so smoothly flow
Now sleeping flocks on their soft fleeces lie
The moon serene in glory mounts the sky
While silent birds forget their tuneful lays
Oh sing of Daphne fate and Daphne praise
Behold the groves that shine with silver frost
Their beauty wither'd and their verdure lost
Here shall I try the sweet Alexis' strain
That call'd the listening Dryads to the plain
Thames heard the numbers as he flow'd along
And bade his willows learn the moving song
So may kind rains their vital moisture yield
And swell the future harvest of the field
Begin this charge the dying Daphne gave
And said 'Ye shepherds sing around my grave
Sing while beside the shaded tomb I mourn
And with fresh bays her rural shrine adorn
Ye gentle Muses leave your crystal spring
Let nymphs and sylvans cypress garlands bring
Ye weeping Loves the stream with myrtles hide
And break your bows as when Adonis died
And with your golden darts now useless grown
Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone
'Let Nature change let Heaven and Earth deplore
Fair Daphne dead and Love is now no more
'Tis done and Nature various charms decay
See gloomy clouds obscure the cheerful day
Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear
Their faded honours scatter'd on her bier
See where on earth the flowery glories lie
With her they flourish'd and with her they die
Ah what avail the beauties Nature wore
Fair Daphne dead and Beauty is no more
For her the flocks refuse their verdant food
The thirsty heifers shun the gliding flood
The silver swans her hapless fate bemoan
In notes more sad than when they sing their own
In hollow caves sweet Echo silent lies
Silent or only to her name replies
Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore
Now Daphne dead and Pleasure is no more
No grateful dews descend from evening skies
Nor morning odours from the flowers arise
No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field
Nor fragrant herbs their native incense yield
The balmy zephyrs silent since her death
Lament the ceasing of a sweeter breath
Th' industrious bees neglect their golden store
Fair Daphne dead and Sweetness is no more
No more the mounting larks while Daphne sings
Shall listening in mid air suspend their wings
No more the birds shall imitate her lays
Or hush'd with wonder hearken from the sprays
No more the streams their murmurs shall forbear
A sweeter music than their own to hear
But tell the reeds and tell the vocal shore
Fair Daphne dead and Music is no more
Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze
And told in sighs to all the trembling trees
The trembling trees in every plain and wood
Her fate remurmur to the silver flood
The silver flood so lately calm appears
Swell'd with new passion and o'erflows with tears
The winds and trees and floods her death deplore
Daphne our grief our glory now no more
But see where Daphne wondering mounts on high
Above the clouds above the starry sky
Eternal beauties grace the shining scene
Fields ever fresh and groves for ever green
There while you rest in amaranthine bowers
Or from those meads select unfading flowers
Behold us kindly who your name implore
Daphne our goddess and our grief no more
How all things listen while thy Muse complains
Such silence waits on Philomela strains
In some still evening when the whispering breeze
Pants on the leaves and dies upon the trees
To thee bright goddess oft a lamb shall bleed
If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed
While plants their shade or flowers their odours give
Thy name thy honour and thy praise shall live
But see Orion sheds unwholesome dews
Arise the pines a noxious shade diffuse
Sharp Boreas blows and Nature feels decay
Time conquers all and we must Time obey
Adieu ye vales ye mountains streams and groves
Adieu ye shepherds rural lays and loves
Adieu my flocks farewell ye sylvan crew
Daphne farewell and all the world adieu
Ye Nymphs of Solyma begin the song
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong
The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades
The dreams of Pindus and the Aonian maids
Delight no more O Thou my voice inspire
Who touch'd Isaiah hallow'd lips with fire
Rapt into future times the bard begun
A virgin shall conceive a virgin bear a son
From Jesse root behold the branch arise
Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies
The ethereal Spirit o'er its leaves shall move
And on its top descends the mystic Dove
Ye Heavens from high the dewy nectar pour
And in soft silence shed the kindly shower
The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid
From storms a shelter and from heat a shade
All crimes shall cease and ancient fraud shall fail
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend
And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend
Swift fly the years and rise the expected morn
Oh spring to light auspicious Babe be born
See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring
With all the incense of the breathing spring
See lofty Lebanon his head advance
See nodding forests on the mountains dance
See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise
And Carmel flowery top perfumes the skies
Hark a glad voice the lonely desert cheers
'Prepare the way a God a God appears
'A God a God' the vocal hills reply
The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity
Lo Earth receives him from the bending skies
Sink down ye mountains and ye valleys rise
With heads declined ye cedars homage pay
Be smooth ye rocks ye rapid floods give way
The Saviour comes by ancient bards foretold
Hear him ye deaf and all ye blind behold
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day
'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear
And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear
The dumb shall sing the lame his crutch forego
And leap exulting like the bounding roe
No sigh no murmur the wide world shall hear
From every face he wipes off every tear
In adamantine chains shall Death be bound
And Hell grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air
Explores the lost the wandering sheep directs
By day o'ersees them and by night protects
The tender lambs he raises in his arms
Feeds from his hand and in his bosom warms
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage
The promised Father of the future age
No more shall nation against nation rise
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more
But useless lances into scythes shall bend
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end
Then palaces shall rise the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield
And the same hand that sow'd shall reap the field
The swain in barren deserts with surprise
See lilies spring and sudden verdure rise
And start amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear
On rifted rocks the dragons' late abodes
The green reed trembles and the bulrush nods
Waste sandy valleys once perplex'd with thorn
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn
To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed
The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead
And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim feet
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake
Pleased the green lustre of the scales survey
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play
Rise crown'd with light imperial Salem rise
Exalt thy towery head and lift thy eyes
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn
See future sons and daughters yet unborn
In crowding ranks on every side arise
Demanding life impatient for the skies
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend
Walk in thy light and in thy temple bend
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings
And heap'd with products of Sabean springs
For thee Idume spicy forests blow
And seeds of gold in Ophir mountains glow
See Heaven its sparkling portals wide display
And break upon thee in a flood of day
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn
But lost dissolved in thy superior rays
One tide of glory one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts The Light himself shall shine
Reveal'd and God eternal day be thine
The seas shall waste the skies in smoke decay
Rocks fall to dust and mountains melt away
But fix'd his word his saving power remains
Thy realm for ever lasts thy own MESSIAH reigns
'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill
But of the two less dangerous is the offence
To tire our patience than mislead our sense
Some few in that but numbers err in this
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss
A fool might once himself alone expose
Now one in verse makes many more in prose
'Tis with our judgments as our watches none
Go just alike yet each believes his own
In poets as true genius is but rare
True taste as seldom is the critic share
Both must alike from Heaven derive their light
These born to judge as well as those to write
Let such teach others who themselves excel
And censure freely who have written well
Authors are partial to their wit 'tis true
But are not critics to their judgment too
Yet if we look more closely we shall find
Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind
Nature affords at least a glimmering light
The lines though touch'd but faintly are drawn right
But as the slightest sketch if justly traced
Is by ill colouring but the more disgraced
So by false learning is good sense defaced
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools
And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools
In search of wit these lose their common sense
And then turn critics in their own defence
Each burns alike who can or cannot write
Or with a rival or an eunuch spite
All fools have still an itching to deride
And fain would be upon the laughing side
If Maevius scribble in Apollo spite
There are who judge still worse than he can write
Some have at first for wits then poets pass'd
Turn'd critics next and proved plain fools at last
Some neither can for wits nor critics pass
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass
Those half-learn'd witlings numerous in our isle
As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile
Unfinished things one knows not what to call
Their generation so equivocal
To tell 'em would a hundred tongues require
Or one vain wit that might a hundred tire
But you who seek to give and merit fame
And justly bear a critic noble name
Be sure yourself and your own reach to know
How far your genius taste and learning go
Launch not beyond your depth but be discreet
And mark that point where sense and dulness meet
Nature to all things fix'd the limits fit
And wisely curb'd proud man pretending wit
As on the land while here the ocean gains
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains
Thus in the soul while memory prevails
The solid power of understanding fails
Where beams of warm imagination play
The memory soft figures melt away
One science only will one genius fit
So vast is art so narrow human wit
Not only bounded to peculiar arts
But oft in those confined to single parts
Like kings we lose the conquests gain'd before
By vain ambition still to make them more
Each might his several province well command
Would all but stoop to what they understand
First follow Nature and your judgment frame
By her just standard which is still the same
Unerring Nature still divinely bright
One clear unchanged and universal light
Life force and beauty must to all impart
At once the source and end and test of Art
Art from that fund each just supply provides
Works without show and without pomp presides
In some fair body thus the informing soul
With spirits feeds with vigour fills the whole
Each motion guides and every nerve sustains
Itself unseen but in the effects remains
Some to whom Heaven in wit has been profuse
Want as much more to turn it to its use
For wit and judgment often are at strife
Though meant each other aid like man and wife
'Tis more to guide than spur the Muse steed
Restrain his fury than provoke his speed
The winged courser like a generous horse
Shows most true mettle when you check his course
Those rules of old discover'd not devised
Are Nature still but Nature methodised
Nature like liberty is but restrain'd
By the same laws which first herself ordain'd
Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites
When to repress and when indulge our flights
High on Parnassus' top her sons she show'd
And pointed out those arduous paths they trod
Held from afar aloft the immortal prize
And urged the rest by equal steps to rise
Just precepts thus from great examples given
She drew from them what they derived from Heaven
The generous critic fann'd the poet fire
And taught the world with reason to admire
Then Criticism the Muse handmaid proved
To dress her charms and make her more beloved
But following wits from that intention stray'd
Who could not win the mistress woo'd the maid
Against the poets their own arms they turn'd
Sure to hate most the men from whom they learn'd
So modern 'pothecaries taught the art
By doctor bills to play the doctor part
Bold in the practice of mistaken rules
Prescribe apply and call their masters fools
Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey
Nor time nor moths e'er spoil'd so much as they
Some drily plain without invention aid
Write dull receipts how poems may be made
These leave the sense their learning to display
And those explain the meaning quite away
You then whose judgment the right course would steer
Know well each ancient proper character
His fable subject scope in every page
Religion country genius of his age
Without all these at once before your eyes
Cavil you may but never criticise
Be Homer works your study and delight
Read them by day and meditate by night
Thence form your judgment thence your maxims bring
And trace the Muses upward to their spring
Still with itself compared his text peruse
And let your comment be the Mantuan Muse
When first young Maro in his boundless mind
A work t' outlast immortal Rome design'd
Perhaps he seem'd above the critic law
And but from Nature fountains scorn'd to draw
But when t' examine every part he came
Nature and Homer were he found the same
Convinced amazed he checks the bold design
And rules as strict his labour'd work confine
As if the Stagyrite o'erlook'd each line
Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem
To copy nature is to copy them
Some beauties yet no precepts can declare
For there a happiness as well as care
Music resembles poetry in each
Are nameless graces which no methods teach
And which a master-hand alone can reach
If where the rules not far enough extend
Since rules were made but to promote their end
Some lucky license answer to the full
The intent proposed that license is a rule
Thus Pegasus a nearer way to take
May boldly deviate from the common track
Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend
And rise to faults true critics dare not mend
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art
Which without passing through the judgment gains
The heart and all its end at once attains
In prospects thus some objects please our eyes
Which out of nature common order rise
The shapeless rock or hanging precipice
But though the ancients thus their rules invade
As kings dispense with laws themselves have made
Moderns beware or if you must offend
Against the precept ne'er transgress its end
Let it be seldom and compell'd by need
And have at least their precedent to plead
The critic else proceeds without remorse
Seizes your fame and puts his laws in force
I know there are to whose presumptuous thoughts
Those freer beauties even in them seem faults
Some figures monstrous and misshaped appear
Consider'd singly or beheld too near
Which but proportion'd to their light or place
Due distance reconciles to form and grace
A prudent chief not always must display
His powers in equal ranks and fair array
But with the occasion and the place comply
Conceal his force nay seem sometimes to fly
Those oft are stratagems which errors seem
Nor is it Homer nods but we that dream
Still green with bays each ancient altar stands
Above the reach of sacrilegious hands
Secure from flames from envy fiercer rage
Destructive war and all-involving age
See from each clime the learn'd their incense bring
Hear in all tongues consenting paeans ring
In praise so just let every voice be join'd
And fill the general chorus of mankind
Hail Bards triumphant born in happier days
Immortal heirs of universal praise
Whose honours with increase of ages grow
As streams roll down enlarging as they flow
Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound
And worlds applaud that must not yet be found
Oh may some spark of your celestial fire
The last the meanest of your sons inspire
That on weak wings from far pursues your flights
Glows while he reads but trembles as he writes
To teach vain wits a science little known
T' admire superior sense and doubt their own
Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man erring judgment and misguide the mind
What the weak head with strongest bias rules
Is PRIDE the never-failing vice of fools
Whatever Nature has in worth denied
She gives in large recruits of needless pride
For as in bodies thus in souls we find
What wants in blood and spirits swell'd with wind
Pride where wit fails steps in to our defence
And fills up all the mighty void of sense
If once right reason drives that cloud away
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day
Trust not yourself but your defects to know
Make use of every friend and every foe
A little learning is a dangerous thing
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain
And drinking largely sobers us again
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take nor see the lengths behind
But more advanced behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try
Mount o'er the vales and seem to tread the sky
The eternal snows appear already past
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last
But those attain'd we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes
Hills peep o'er hills and Alps on Alps arise
A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ
Survey the WHOLE nor seek slight faults to find
Where nature moves and rapture warms the mind
Nor lose for that malignant dull delight
The generous pleasure to be charm'd with wit
But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow
Correctly cold and regularly low
That shunning faults one quiet tenor keep
We cannot blame indeed but we may sleep
In wit as nature what affects our hearts
Is not the exactness of peculiar parts
'Tis not a lip or eye we beauty call
But the joint force and full result of all
Thus when we view some well-proportion'd dome
The world just wonder and even thine O Rome
No single parts unequally surprise
All comes united to th' admiring eyes
No monstrous height or breadth or length appear
The whole at once is bold and regular
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see
Thinks what ne'er was nor is nor e'er shall be
In every work regard the writer end
Since none can compass more than they intend
And if the means be just the conduct true
Applause in spite of trivial faults is due
As men of breeding sometimes men of wit
To avoid great errors must the less commit
Neglect the rules each verbal critic lays
For not to know some trifles is a praise
Most critics fond of some subservient art
Still make the whole depend upon a part
They talk of principles but notions prize
And all to one loved folly sacrifice
Once on a time La Mancha knight they say
A certain bard encountering on the way
Discoursed in terms as just with looks as sage
As e'er could Dennis of the Grecian stage
Concluding all were desperate sots and fools
Who durst depart from Aristotle rules
Our author happy in a judge so nice
Produced his play and begg'd the knight advice
Made him observe the subject and the plot
The Manners Passions Unities what not
All which exact to rule were brought about
Were but a combat in the lists left out
'What leave the combat out' exclaims the knight
'Yes or we must renounce the Stagyrite
'Not so by Heaven' he answers in a rage
'Knights squires and steeds must enter on the stage
'So vast a throng the stage can ne'er contain
'Then build a new or act it in a plain
Thus critics of less judgment than caprice
Curious not knowing not exact but nice
Form short ideas and offend in arts
As most in manners by a love to parts
Some to conceit alone their taste confine
And glittering thoughts struck out at every line
Pleased with a work where nothing just or fit
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit
Poets like painters thus unskill'd to trace
The naked nature and the living grace
With gold and jewels cover every part
And hide with ornaments their want of art
True wit is nature to advantage dress'd
What oft was thought but ne'er so well express'd
Something whose truth convinced at sight we find
That gives us back the image of our mind
As shades more sweetly recommend the light
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit
For works may have more wit than does 'em good
As bodies perish through excess of blood
Others for language all their care express
And value books as women men for dress
Their praise is still 'The style is excellent
The sense they humbly take upon content
Words are like leaves and where they most abound
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found
False eloquence like the prismatic glass
Its gaudy colours spreads on every place
The face of Nature we no more survey
All glares alike without distinction gay
But true expression like the unchanging sun
Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon
It gilds all objects but it alters none
Expression is the dress of thought and still
Appears more decent as more suitable
A vile conceit in pompous words express'd
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd
For different styles with different subjects sort
As several garbs with country town and court
Some by old words to fame have made pretence
Ancients in phrase mere moderns in their sense
Such labour'd nothings in so strange a style
Amaze the unlearn'd and make the learned smile
Unlucky as Fungoso in the play
These sparks with awkward vanity display
What the fine gentleman wore yesterday
And but so mimic ancient wits at best
As apes our grandsires in their doublets dress'd
In words as fashions the same rule will hold
Alike fantastic if too new or old
Be not the first by whom the new are tried
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside
But most by numbers judge a poet song
And smooth or rough with them is right or wrong
In the bright Muse though thousand charms conspire
Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire
Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear
Not mend their minds as some to church repair
Not for the doctrine but the music there
These equal syllables alone require
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire
While expletives their feeble aid do join
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line
While they ring round the same unvaried chimes
With sure returns of still expected rhymes
Where'er you find 'the cooling western breeze
In the next line it 'whispers through the trees
If crystal streams 'with pleasing murmurs creep
The reader threaten'd not in vain with 'sleep
Then at the last and only couplet fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a thought
A needless Alexandrine ends the song
That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along
Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes and know
What roundly smooth or languishingly slow
And praise the easy vigour of a line
Where Denham strength and Waller sweetness join
True ease in writing comes from art not chance
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence
The sound must seem an echo to the sense
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar
When Ajax strives some rock vast weight to throw
The line too labours and the words move slow
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain
Flies o'er the unbending corn and skims along the main
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise
And bid alternate passions fall and rise
While at each change the son of Libyan Jove
Now burns with glory and then melts with love
Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow
Now sighs steal out and tears begin to flow
Persians and Greeks like turns of nature found
And the world victor stood subdued by sound
The power of music all our hearts allow
And what Timotheus was is Dryden now
Avoid extremes and shun the fault of such
Who still are pleased too little or too much
At every trifle scorn to take offence
That always shows great pride or little sense
Those heads as stomachs are not sure the best
Which nauseate all and nothing can digest
Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move
For fools admire but men of sense approve
As things seem large which we through mists descry
Dulness is ever apt to magnify
Some foreign writers some our own despise
The ancients only or the moderns prize
Thus wit like faith by each man is applied
To one small sect and all are damn'd beside
Meanly they seek the blessing to confine
And force that sun but on a part to shine
Which not alone the southern wit sublimes
But ripens spirits in cold northern climes
Which from the first has shone on ages past
Enlights the present and shall warm the last
Though each may feel increases and decays
And see now clearer and now darker days
Regard not then if wit be old or new
But blame the false and value still the true
Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own
But catch the spreading notion of the town
They reason and conclude by precedent
And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent
Some judge of authors' names not works and then
Nor praise nor blame the writings but the men
Of all this servile herd the worst is he
That in proud dulness joins with quality
A constant critic at the great man board
To fetch and carry nonsense for my lord
What woful stuff this madrigal would be
In some starved hackney sonnetteer or me
But let a lord once own the happy lines
How the wit brightens how the style refines
Before his sacred name flies every fault
And each exalted stanza teems with thought
The vulgar thus through imitation err
As oft the learn'd by being singular
So much they scorn the crowd that if the throng
By chance go right they purposely go wrong
So schismatics the plain believers quit
And are but damn'd for having too much wit
Some praise at morning what they blame at night
But always think the last opinion right
A Muse by these is like a mistress used
This hour she idolised the next abused
While their weak heads like towns unfortified
'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side
Ask them the cause they're wiser still they say
And still to-morrow wiser than to-day
We think our fathers fools so wise we grow
Our wiser sons no doubt will think us so
Once school-divines this zealous isle o'erspread
Who knew most sentences was deepest read
Faith Gospel all seem'd made to be disputed
And none had sense enough to be confuted
Scotists and Thomists now in peace remain
Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane
If Faith itself has different dresses worn
What wonder modes in wit should take their turn
Oft leaving what is natural and fit
The current folly proves the ready wit
And authors think their reputation safe
Which lives as long as fools are pleased to laugh
Some valuing those of their own side or mind
Still make themselves the measure of mankind
Fondly we think we honour merit then
When we but praise ourselves in other men
Parties in wit attend on those of state
And public faction doubles private hate
Pride malice folly against Dryden rose
In various shapes of parsons critics beaux
But sense survived when merry jests were past
For rising merit will buoy up at last
Might he return and bless once more our eyes
New Blackmores and new Milbourns must arise
Nay should great Homer lift his awful head
Zoilus again would start up from the dead
Envy will Merit as its shade pursue
But like a shadow proves the substance true
For envied wit like Sol eclipsed makes known
The opposing body grossness not its own
When first that sun too powerful beams displays
It draws up vapours which obscure its rays
But even those clouds at last adorn its way
Reflect new glories and augment the day
Be thou the first true merit to befriend
His praise is lost who stays till all commend
Short is the date alas of modern rhymes
And 'tis but just to let them live betimes
No longer now that golden age appears
When patriarch-wits survived a thousand years
Now length of fame our second life is lost
And bare threescore is all even that can boast
Our sons their fathers' failing language see
And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be
So when the faithful pencil has design'd
Some bright idea of the master mind
Where a new world leaps out at his command
And ready Nature waits upon his hand
When the ripe colours soften and unite
And sweetly melt into just shade and light
When mellowing years their full perfection give
And each bold figure just begins to live
The treacherous colours the fair art betray
And all the bright creation fades away
Unhappy wit like most mistaken things
Atones not for that envy which it brings
In youth alone its empty praise we boast
But soon the short-lived vanity is lost
Like some fair flower the early spring supplies
That gaily blooms but even in blooming dies
What is this wit which must our cares employ
The owner wife that other men enjoy
Then most our trouble still when most admired
And still the more we give the more required
Whose fame with pains we guard but lose with ease
Sure some to vex but never all to please
'Tis what the vicious fear the virtuous shun
By fools 'tis hated and by knaves undone
If wit so much from ignorance undergo
Ah let not learning too commence its foe
Of old those met rewards who could excel
And such were praised who but endeavour'd well
Though triumphs were to generals only due
Crowns were reserved to grace the soldiers too
Now they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown
Employ their pains to spurn some others down
And while self-love each jealous writer rules
Contending wits become the sport of fools
But still the worst with most regret commend
For each ill author is as bad a friend
To what base ends and by what abject ways
Are mortals urged through sacred lust of praise
Ah ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast
Nor in the critic let the man be lost
Good-nature and good-sense must ever join
To err is human to forgive divine
But if in noble minds some dregs remain
Not yet purged off of spleen and sour disdain
Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes
Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times
No pardon vile obscenity should find
Though wit and art conspire to move your mind
But dulness with obscenity must prove
As shameful sure as impotence in love
In the fat age of pleasure wealth and ease
Sprung the rank weed and thrived with large increase
When love was all an easy monarch care
Seldom at council never in a war
Jilts ruled the state and statesmen farces writ
Nay wits had pensions and young lords had wit
The fair sat panting at a courtier play
And not a mask went unimproved away
The modest fan was lifted up no more
And virgins smiled at what they blush'd before
The following license of a foreign reign
Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain
Then unbelieving priests reform'd the nation
And taught more pleasant methods of salvation
Where Heaven free subjects might their rights dispute
Lest God himself should seem too absolute
Pulpits their sacred satire learn'd to spare
And vice admired to find a flatterer there
Encouraged thus wit Titans braved the skies
And the press groan'd with licensed blasphemies
These monsters critics with your darts engage
Here point your thunder and exhaust your rage
Yet shun their fault who scandalously nice
Will needs mistake an author into vice
All seems infected that the infected spy
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye
Learn then what MORALS critics ought to show
For 'tis but half a judge task to know
'Tis not enough taste judgment learning join
In all you speak let truth and candour shine
That not alone what to your sense is due
All may allow but seek your friendship too
Be silent always when you doubt your sense
And speak though sure with seeming diffidence
Some positive persisting fops we know
Who if once wrong will needs be always so
But you with pleasure own your errors past
And make each day a critique on the last
'Tis not enough your counsel still be true
Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do
Men must be taught as if you taught them not
And things unknown proposed as things forgot
Without good-breeding truth is disapproved
That only makes superior sense beloved
Be niggards of advice on no pretence
For the worst avarice is that of sense
With mean complaisance ne'er betray your trust
Nor be so civil as to prove unjust
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise
Those best can bear reproof who merit praise
'Twere well might critics still this freedom take
But Appius reddens at each word you speak
And stares tremendous with a threatening eye
Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry
Fear most to tax an Honourable fool
Whose right it is uncensured to be dull
Such without wit are poets when they please
As without learning they can take degrees
Leave dangerous truths to unsuccessful satires
And flattery to fulsome dedicators
Whom when they praise the world believes no more
Than when they promise to give scribbling o'er
'Tis best sometimes your censure to restrain
And charitably let the dull be vain
Your silence there is better than your spite
For who can rail so long as they can write
Still humming on their drowsy course they keep
And lash'd so long like tops are lash'd asleep
False steps but help them to renew the race
As after stumbling jades will mend their pace
What crowds of these impenitently bold
In sounds and jingling syllables grown old
Still run on poets in a raging vein
Even to the dregs and squeezings of the brain
Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense
And rhyme with all the rage of impotence
Such shameless bards we have and yet 'tis true
There are as mad abandon'd critics too
The bookful blockhead ignorantly read
With loads of learned lumber in his head
With his own tongue still edifies his ears
And always listening to himself appears
All books he reads and all he reads assails
From Dryden Fables down to D'Urfey Tales
With him most authors steal their works or buy
Garth did not write his own Dispensary
Name a new play and he the poet friend
Nay show'd his faults but when would poets mend
No place so sacred from such fops is barr'd
Nor is Paul church more safe than Paul churchyard
Nay fly to altars there they'll talk you dead
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks
It still looks home and short excursions makes
But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks
And never shock'd and never turn'd aside
Bursts out resistless with a thundering tide
But where the man who counsel can bestow
Still pleased to teach and yet not proud to know
Unbiass'd or by favour or by spite
Not dully prepossess'd nor blindly right
Though learn'd well-bred and though well-bred sincere
Modestly bold and humanly severe
Who to a friend his faults can freely show
And gladly praise the merit of a foe
Bless'd with a taste exact yet unconfined
A knowledge both of books and human kind
Generous converse a soul exempt from pride
And love to praise with reason on his side
Such once were critics such the happy few
Athens and Rome in better ages knew
The mighty Stagyrite first left the shore
Spread all his sails and durst the deeps explore
He steer'd securely and discover'd far
Led by the light of the Maeonian star
Poets a race long unconfined and free
Still fond and proud of savage liberty
Received his laws and stood convinced 'twas fit
Who conquer'd Nature should preside o'er Wit
Horace still charms with graceful negligence
And without method talks us into sense
Will like a friend familiarly convey
The truest notions in the easiest way
He who supreme in judgment as in wit
Might boldly censure as he boldly writ
Yet judged with coolness though he sung with fire
His precepts teach but what his works inspire
Our critics take a contrary extreme
They judge with fury but they write with phlegm
Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations
By wits than critics in as wrong quotations
See Dionysius Homer thoughts refine
And call new beauties forth from every line
Fancy and art in gay Petronius please
The scholar learning with the courtier ease
In grave Quintilian copious work we find
The justest rules and clearest method join'd
Thus useful arms in magazines we place
All ranged in order and disposed with grace
But less to please the eye than arm the hand
Still fit for use and ready at command
Thee bold Longinus all the Nine inspire
And bless their critic with a poet fire
An ardent judge who zealous in his trust
With warmth gives sentence yet is always just
Whose own example strengthens all his laws
And is himself that Great Sublime he draws
Thus long succeeding critics justly reign'd
Licence repress'd and useful laws ordain'd
Learning and Rome alike in empire grew
And arts still follow'd where her eagles flew
From the same foes at last both felt their doom
And the same age saw Learning fall and Rome
With Tyranny then Superstition join'd
As that the body this enslaved the mind
Much was believed but little understood
And to be dull was construed to be good
A second deluge Learning thus o'errun
And the Monks finish'd what the Goths begun
At length Erasmus that great injured name
The glory of the priesthood and the shame
Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age
And drove those holy Vandals off the stage
But see each Muse in Leo golden days
Starts from her trance and trims her wither'd bays
Rome ancient Genius o'er its ruins spread
Shakes off the dust and rears his reverend head
Then Sculpture and her sister-arts revive
Stones leap'd to form and rocks began to live
With sweeter notes each rising temple rung
A Raphael painted and a Vida sung
Immortal Vida on whose honour'd brow
The poet bays and critic ivy grow
Cremona now shall ever boast thy name
As next in place to Mantua next in fame
But soon by impious arms from Latium chased
Their ancient bounds the banish'd Muses pass'd
Thence Arts o'er all the northern world advance
But critic-learning flourish'd most in France
The rules a nation born to serve obeys
And Boileau still in right of Horace sways
But we brave Britons foreign laws despised
And kept unconquer'd and uncivilised
Fierce for the liberties of wit and bold
We still defied the Romans as of old
Yet some there were among the sounder few
Of those who less presumed and better knew
Who durst assert the juster ancient cause
And here restored Wit fundamental laws
Such was the Muse whose rules and practice tell
'Nature chief masterpiece is writing well
Such was Roscommon not more learn'd than good
With manners generous as his noble blood
To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known
And every author merit but his own
Such late was Walsh the Muse judge and friend
Who justly knew to blame or to commend
To failings mild but zealous for desert
The clearest head and the sincerest heart
This humble praise lamented Shade receive
This praise at least a grateful Muse may give
The Muse whose early voice you taught to sing
Prescribed her heights and pruned her tender wing
Her guide now lost no more attempts to rise
But in low numbers short excursions tries
Content if hence the unlearn'd their wants may view
The learn'd reflect on what before they knew
Careless of censure nor too fond of fame
Still pleased to praise yet not afraid to blame
Averse alike to flatter or offend
Not free from faults nor yet too vain to mend
What dire offence from amorous causes springs
What mighty contests rise from trivial things
I sing This verse to Caryll Muse is due
This even Belinda may vouchsafe to view
Slight is the subject but not so the praise
If she inspire and he approve my lays
Say what strange motive Goddess could compel
A well-bred lord t'assault a gentle belle
Oh say what stranger cause yet unexplored
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord
In tasks so bold can little men engage
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage
Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray
And oped those eyes that must eclipse the day
Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake
And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake
Thrice rung the bell the slipper knock'd the ground
And the press'd watch return'd a silver sound
Belinda still her downy pillow press'd
Her guardian Sylph prolong'd the balmy rest
'Twas he had summon'd to her silent bed
The morning-dream that hover'd o'er her head
A youth more glittering than a birth-night beau
That even in slumber caused her cheek to glow
Seem'd to her ear his willing lips to lay
And thus in whispers said or seem'd to say
'Fairest of mortals thou distinguish'd care
Of thousand bright inhabitants of air
If e'er one vision touch thy infant thought
Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught
Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen
The silver token and the circled green
Or virgins visited by angel-powers
With golden crowns and wreaths of heavenly flowers
Hear and believe thy own importance know
Nor bound thy narrow views to things below
Some secret truths from learned pride conceal'd
To maids alone and children are reveal'd
What though no credit doubting wits may give
The fair and innocent shall still believe
Know then unnumber'd spirits round thee fly
The light militia of the lower sky
These though unseen are ever on the wing
Hang o'er the box and hover round the ring
Think what an equipage thou hast in air
And view with scorn two pages and a chair
As now your own our beings were of old
And once enclosed in woman beauteous mould
Thence by a soft transition we repair
From earthly vehicles to these of air
Think not when woman transient breath is fled
That all her vanities at once are dead
Succeeding vanities she still regards
And though she plays no more o'erlooks the cards
Her joy in gilded chariots when alive
And love of ombre after death survive
For when the fair in all their pride expire
To their first elements their souls retire
The sprites of fiery termagants in flame
Mount up and take a Salamander name
Soft yielding minds to water glide away
And sip with Nymphs their elemental tea
The graver prude sinks downward to a Gnome
In search of mischief still on earth to roam
The light coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair
And sport and flutter in the fields of air
'Know further yet whoever fair and chaste
Rejects mankind is by some Sylph embraced
For spirits freed from mortal laws with ease
Assume what sexes and what shapes they please
What guards the purity of melting maids
In courtly balls and midnight masquerades
Safe from the treacherous friend the daring spark
The glance by day the whisper in the dark
When kind occasion prompts their warm desires
When music softens and when dancing fires
'Tis but their Sylph the wise celestials know
Though honour is the word with men below
'Some nymphs there are too conscious of their face
For life predestined to the Gnomes' embrace
These swell their prospects and exalt their pride
When offers are disdain'd and love denied
Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain
While peers and dukes and all their sweeping train
And garters stars and coronets appear
And in soft sounds 'Your Grace' salutes their ear
'Tis these that early taint the female soul
Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll
Teach infant cheeks a bidden blush to know
And little hearts to flutter at a beau
'Oft when the world imagine women stray
The Sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way
Through all the giddy circle they pursue
And old impertinence expel by new
What tender maid but must a victim fall
To one man treat but for another ball
When Florio speaks what virgin could withstand
If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand
With varying vanities from every part
They shift the moving toyshop of their heart
Where wigs with wigs with sword-knots sword-knots strive
Beaux banish beaux and coaches coaches drive
This erring mortals levity may call
Oh blind to truth the Sylphs contrive it all
'Of these am I who thy protection claim
A watchful sprite and Ariel is my name
Late as I ranged the crystal wilds of air
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
I saw alas some dread event impend
Ere to the main this morning sun descend
But heaven reveals not what or how or where
Warn'd by the Sylph oh pious maid beware
This to disclose is all thy guardian can
Beware of all but most beware of man
He said when Shock who thought she slept too long
Leap'd up and waked his mistress with his tongue
'Twas then Belinda if report say true
Thy eyes first open'd on a billet-doux
Wounds charms and ardours were no sooner read
But all the vision vanish'd from thy head
And now unveil'd the toilet stands display'd
Each silver vase in mystic order laid
First robed in white the nymph intent adores
With head uncover'd the cosmetic powers
A heavenly image in the glass appears
To that she bends to that her eyes she rears
The inferior priestess at her altar side
Trembling begins the sacred rites of pride
Unnumber'd treasures ope at once and here
The various offerings of the world appear
From each she nicely culls with curious toil
And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil
This casket India glowing gems unlocks
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box
The tortoise here and elephant unite
Transform'd to combs the speckled and the white
Here files of pins extend their shining rows
Puffs powders patches Bibles billet-doux
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms
The fair each moment rises in her charms
Repairs her smiles awakens every grace
And calls forth all the wonders of her face
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise
And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes
The busy Sylphs surround their darling care
These set the head and those divide the hair
Some fold the sleeve whilst others plait the gown
And Betty praised for labours not her own
Not with more glories in the ethereal plain
The sun first rises o'er the purpled main
Than issuing forth the rival of his beams
Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames
Fair nymphs and well-dress'd youths around her shone
But every eye was fix'd on her alone
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore
Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose
Quick as her eyes and as unfix'd as those
Favours to none to all she smiles extends
Oft she rejects but never once offends
Bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike
And like the sun they shine on all alike
Yet graceful ease and sweetness void of pride
Might hide her faults if belles had faults to hide
If to her share some female errors fall
Look on her face and you'll forget 'em all
This nymph to the destruction of mankind
Nourish'd two locks which graceful hung behind
In equal curls and well conspired to deck
With shining ringlets the smooth ivory neck
Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains
And mighty hearts are held in slender chains
With hairy springes we the birds betray
Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey
Fair tresses man imperial race ensnare
And beauty draws us with a single hair
The adventurous Baron the bright locks admired
He saw he wished and to the prize aspired
Resolved to win he meditates the way
By force to ravish or by fraud betray
For when success a lover toil attends
Few ask if fraud or force attain'd his ends
For this ere Phoebus rose he had implored
Propitious Heaven and every power adored
But chiefly Love to Love an altar built
Of twelve vast French romances neatly gilt
There lay three garters half a pair of gloves
And all the trophies of his former loves
With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre
And breathes three amorous sighs to raise the fire
Then prostrate falls and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain and long possess the prize
The powers gave ear and granted half his prayer
The rest the winds dispersed in empty air
But now secure the painted vessel glides
The sunbeams trembling on the floating tides
While melting music steals upon the sky
And soften'd sounds along the waters die
Smooth flow the waves the zephyrs gently play
Belinda smiled and all the world was gay
All but the Sylph with careful thoughts oppress'd
The impending woe sat heavy on his breast
He summons straight his denizens of air
The lucid squadrons round the sails repair
Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe
That seem'd but zephyrs to the train beneath
Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold
Waft on the breeze or sink in clouds of gold
Transparent forms too fine for mortal sight
Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light
Loose to the wind their airy garments flew
Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew
Dipp'd in the richest tincture of the skies
Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes
While every beam new transient colours flings
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings
Amid the circle on the gilded mast
Superior by the head was Ariel placed
His purple pinions opening to the sun
He raised his azure wand and thus begun
'Ye Sylphs and Sylphids to your chief give ear
Fays fairies genii elves and demons hear
Ye know the spheres and various tasks assign'd
By laws eternal to the aerial kind
Some in the fields of purest ether play
And bask and whiten in the blaze of day
Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high
Or roll the planets through the boundless sky
Some less refined beneath the moon pale light
Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night
Or suck the mists in grosser air below
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow
Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main
Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain
Others on earth o'er human race preside
Watch all their ways and all their actions guide
Of these the chief the care of nations own
And guard with arms divine the British throne
'Our humbler province is to tend the fair
Not a less pleasing though less glorious care
To save the powder from too rude a gale
Nor let the imprison'd essences exhale
To draw fresh colours from the vernal flowers
To steal from rainbows ere they drop in showers
A brighter wash to curl their waving hairs
Assist their blushes and inspire their airs
Nay oft in dreams invention we bestow
To change a flounce or add a furbelow
'This day black omens threat the brightest fair
That e'er deserved a watchful spirit care
Some dire disaster or by force or flight
But what or where the Fates have wrapt in night
Whether the nymph shall break Diana law
Or some frail China jar receive a flaw
Or stain her honour or her new brocade
Forget her prayers or miss a masquerade
Or lose her heart or necklace at a ball
Or whether Heaven has doom'd that Shock must fall
Haste then ye spirits to your charge repair
The fluttering fan be Zephyretta care
The drops to thee Brillante we consign
And Momentilla let the watch be thine
Do thou Crispissa tend her favourite lock
Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock
'To fifty chosen Sylphs of special note
We trust the important charge the petticoat
Oft have we known that sevenfold fence to fail
Though stiff with hoops and arm'd with ribs of whale
Form a strong line about the silver bound
And guard the wide circumference around
'Whatever spirit careless of his charge
His post neglects or leaves the fair at large
Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins
Be stopp'd in vials or transfix'd with pins
Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie
Or wedged whole ages in a bodkin eye
Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain
While clogg'd he beats his silken wings in vain
Or alum styptics with contracting power
Shrink his thin essence like a rivell'd flower
Or as Ixion fix'd the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling mill
In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow
And tremble at the sea that froths below
He spoke the spirits from the sails descend
Some orb in orb around the nymph extend
Some thread the mazy ringlets of her hair
Some hang upon the pendants of her ear
With beating hearts the dire event they wait
Anxious and trembling for the birth of Fate
Close by those meads for ever crown'd with flowers
Where Thames with pride surveys his rising towers
There stands a structure of majestic frame
Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name
Here Britain statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants and of nymphs at home
Here thou great Anna whom three realms obey
Dost sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea
Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort
To taste awhile the pleasures of a court
In various talk the instructive hours they pass'd
Who gave the ball or paid the visit last
One speaks the glory of the British Queen
And one describes a charming Indian screen
A third interprets motions looks and eyes
At every word a reputation dies
Snuff or the fan supply each pause of chat
With singing laughing ogling and all that
Meanwhile declining from the noon of day
The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine
The merchant from the Exchange returns in peace
And the long labours of the toilet cease
Belinda now whom thirst of fame invites
Burns to encounter two adventurous knights
At ombre singly to decide their doom
And swells her breast with conquests yet to come
Straight the three bands prepare in arras to join
Each band the number of the sacred Nine
Soon as she spreads her hand the aerial guard
Descend and sit on each important card
First Ariel perch'd upon a Matadore
Then each according to the rank they bore
For Sylphs yet mindful of their ancient race
Are as when women wondrous fond of place
Behold four Kings in majesty revered
With hoary whiskers and a forky beard
And four fair Queens whose hands sustain a flower
Th' expressive emblem of their softer power
Four Knaves in garbs succinct a trusty band
Caps on their heads and halberts in their hand
And particolour'd troops a shining train
Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain
The skilful nymph reviews her force with care
'Let Spades be Trumps' she said and Trumps they were
Now move to war her sable Matadores
In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors
Spadillio first unconquerable lord
Led off two captive Trumps and swept the board
As many more Manillio forced to yield
And march'd a victor from the verdant field
Him Basto follow'd but his fate more hard
Gain'd but one Trump and one plebeian card
With his broad sabre next a chief in years
The hoary Majesty of Spades appears
Puts forth one manly leg to sight reveal'd
The rest his many-colour'd robe conceal'd
The rebel Knave who dares his prince engage
Proves the just victim of his royal rage
Even mighty Pam that Kings and Queens o'erthrew
And mow'd down armies in the fights of Loo
Sad chance of war now destitute of aid
Falls undistinguish'd by the victor Spade
Thus far both armies to Belinda yield
Now to the Baron fate inclines the field
His warlike Amazon her host invades
The imperial consort of the crown of Spades
The Club black tyrant first her victim died
Spite of his haughty mien and barbarous pride
What boots the regal circle on his head
His giant limbs in state unwieldy spread
That long behind he trails his pompous robe
And of all monarchs only grasps the globe
The Baron now his Diamonds pours apace
The embroider'd King who shows but half his face
And his refulgent Queen with powers combined
Of broken troops an easy conquest find
Clubs Diamonds Hearts in wild disorder seen
With throngs promiscuous strew the level green
Thus when dispersed a routed army runs
Of Asia troops and Afric sable sons
With like confusion different nations fly
Of various habit and of various dye
The pierced battalions disunited fall
In heaps on heaps one fate o'erwhelms them all
The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts
And wins oh shameful chance the Queen of Hearts
At this the blood the virgin cheek forsook
A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look
She sees and trembles at the approaching ill
Just in the jaws of ruin and Codille
And now as oft in some distemper'd state
On one nice trick depends the general fate
An Ace of Hearts steps forth the King unseen
Lurk'd in her hand and mourn'd his captive Queen
He springs to vengeance with an eager pace
And falls like thunder on the prostrate Ace
The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky
The walls the woods and long canals reply
O thoughtless mortals ever blind to fate
Too soon dejected and too soon elate
Sudden these honours shall be snatch'd away
And cursed for ever this victorious day
For lo the board with cups and spoons is crown'd
The berries crackle and the mill turns round
On shining altars of Japan they raise
The silver lamp the fiery spirits blaze
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide
While China earth receives the smoking tide
At once they gratify their scent and taste
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast
Straight hover round the fair her airy band
Some as she sipp'd the fuming liquor fann'd
Some o'er her lap their careful plumes display'd
Trembling and conscious of the rich brocade
Coffee which makes the politician wise
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes
Sent up in vapours to the Baron brain
New stratagems the radiant lock to gain
Ah cease rash youth desist ere 'tis too late
Fear the just gods and think of Scylla fate
Changed to a bird and sent to flit in air
She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair
But when to mischief mortals bend their will
How soon they find fit instruments of ill
Just then Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edged weapon from her shining case
So ladies in romance assist their knight
Present the spear and arm him for the fight
He takes the gift with reverence and extends
The little engine on his fingers' ends
This just behind Belinda neck he spread
As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head
Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair
A thousand wings by turns blow back the hair
And thrice they twitch'd the diamond in her ear
Thrice she look'd back and thrice the foe drew near
Just in that instant anxious Ariel sought
The close recesses of the virgin thought
As on the nosegay in her breast reclined
He watch'd the ideas rising in her mind
Sudden he view'd in spite of all her art
An earthly lover lurking at her heart
Amazed confused he found his power expired
Resign'd to fate and with a sigh retired
The Peer now spreads the glittering forfex wide
To inclose the lock now joins it to divide
Even then before the fatal engine closed
A wretched Sylph too fondly interposed
Fate urged the shears and cut the Sylph in twain
But airy substance soon unites again
The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From the fair head for ever and for ever
Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes
And screams of horror rend the affrighted skies
Not louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast
When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last
Or when rich China vessels fallen from high
In glittering dust and painted fragments lie
'Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine
The victor cried the glorious prize is mine
While fish in streams or birds delight in air
Or in a coach-and-six the British fair
As long as Atalantis shall be read
Or the small pillow grace a lady bed
While visits shall be paid on solemn days
When numerous wax-lights in bright order blaze
While nymphs take treats or assignations give
So long my honour name and praise shall live
What Time would spare from steel receives its date
And monuments like men submit to fate
Steel could the labour of the gods destroy
And strike to dust the imperial towers of Troy
Steel could the works of mortal pride confound
And hew triumphal arches to the ground
What wonder then fair nymph thy hairs should feel
The conquering force of unresisted steel
But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd
And secret passions labour'd in her breast
Not youthful kings in battle seized alive
Not scornful virgins who their charms survive
Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their bliss
Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die
Not Cynthia when her manteau pinn'd awry
E'er felt such rage resentment and despair
As thou sad virgin for thy ravish'd hair
For that sad moment when the Sylphs withdrew
And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew
Umbriel a dusky melancholy sprite
As ever sullied the fair face of light
Down to the central earth his proper scene
Repair'd to search the gloomy cave of Spleen
Swift on his sooty pinions flits the Gnome
And in a vapour reach'd the dismal dome
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows
The dreaded east is all the wind that blows
Here in a grotto shelter'd close from air
And screened in shades from day detested glare
She sighs for ever on her pensive bed
Pain at her side and Megrim at her head
Two handmaids wait the throne alike in place
But differing far in figure and in face
Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid
Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd
With store of prayers for mornings nights and noons
Her hand is fill'd her bosom with lampoons
There Affectation with a sickly mien
Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen
Practised to lisp and hang the head aside
Faints into airs and languishes with pride
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe
Wrapp'd in a gown for sickness and for show
The fair ones feel such maladies as these
When each new night-dress gives a new disease
A constant vapour o'er the palace flies
Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise
Dreadful as hermits' dreams in haunted shades
Or bright as visions of expiring maids
Now glaring fiends and snakes on rolling spires
Pale spectres gaping tombs and purple fires
Now lakes of liquid gold Elysian scenes
And crystal domes and angels in machines
Unnumber'd throngs on every side are seen
Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen
Here living teapots stand one arm held out
One bent the handle this and that the spout
A pipkin there like Homer tripod walks
Here sighs a jar and there a goose-pie talks
Men prove with child as powerful fancy works
And maids turn'd bottles call aloud for corks
Safe pass'd the Gnome through this fantastic band
A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand
Then thus address'd the power 'Hail wayward Queen
Who rule the sex to fifty from fifteen
Parent of vapours and of female wit
Who give the hysteric or poetic fit
On various tempers act by various ways
Make some take physic others scribble plays
Who cause the proud their visits to delay
And send the godly in a pet to pray
A nymph there is that all thy power disdains
And thousands more in equal mirth maintains
But oh if e'er thy Gnome could spoil a grace
Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face
Like citron-waters matrons' cheeks inflame
Or change complexions at a losing game
If e'er with airy horns I planted heads
Or rumpled petticoats or tumbled beds
Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude
Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude
Or e'er to costive lapdog gave disease
Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease
Hear me and touch Belinda with chagrin
That single act gives half the world the spleen
The goddess with a discontented air
Seems to reject him though she grants his prayer
A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds
Like that where once Ulysses held the winds
There she collects the force of female lungs
Sighs sobs and passions and the war of tongues
A vial next she fills with fainting fears
Soft sorrows melting griefs and flowing tears
The Gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away
Spreads his black wings and slowly mounts to day
Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found
Her eyes dejected and her hair unbound
Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent
And all the furies issued at the vent
Belinda burns with more than mortal ire
And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire
'O wretched maid' she spread her hands and cried
While Hampton echoes 'wretched maid' replied
'Was it for this you took such constant care
The bodkin comb and essence to prepare
For this your locks in paper durance bound
For this with torturing irons wreath'  around
For this with fillets strain'd your tender head
And bravely bore the double loads of lead
Gods shall the ravisher display your hair
While the fops envy and the ladies stare
Honour forbid at whose unrivall'd shrine
Ease pleasure virtue all our sex resign
Methinks already I your tears survey
Already hear the horrid things they say
Already see you a degraded toast
And all your honour in a whisper lost
How shall I then your helpless fame defend
'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend
And shall this prize the inestimable prize
Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes
And heighten'd by the diamond circling rays
On that rapacious hand for ever blaze
Sooner shall grass in Hyde-park Circus grow
And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow
Sooner let earth air sea to chaos fall
Men monkeys lapdogs parrots perish all
She said then raging to Sir Plume repairs
And bids her beau demand the precious hairs
Sir Plume of amber snuff-box justly vain
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane
With earnest eyes and round unthinking face
He first the snuff-box open'd then the case
And thus broke out 'My Lord why what the devil
Z ds damn the lock 'fore Gad you must be civil
Plague on't 'tis past a jest nay prithee pox
Give her the hair' he spoke and rapp'd his box
'It grieves me much' replied the Peer again
Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain
'But by this lock this sacred lock I swear
Which never more shall join its parted hair
Which never more its honours shall renew
Clipp'd from the lovely head where late it grew
That while my nostrils draw the vital air
This hand which won it shall for ever wear
He spoke and speaking in proud triumph spread
The long-contended honours of her head
But Umbriel hateful Gnome forbears not so
He breaks the vial whence the sorrows flow
Then see the nymph in beauteous grief appears
Her eyes half-languishing half-drown'd in tears
On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head
Which with a sigh she raised and thus she said
'For ever cursed be this detested day
Which snatch'd my best my favourite curl away
Happy ah ten times happy had I been
If Hampton Court these eyes had never seen
Yet am not I the first mistaken maid
By love of courts to numerous ills betray'd
Oh had I rather unadmired remain'd
In some lone isle or distant northern land
Where the gilt chariot never marks the way
Where none learn ombre none e'er taste bohea
There kept my charms conceal'd from mortal eye
Like roses that in deserts bloom and die
What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam
Oh had I stay'd and said my prayers at home
'Twas this the morning omens seem'd to tell
Thrice from my trembling hand the patch-box fell
The tottering china shook without a wind
Nay Poll sat mute and Shock was most unkind
A Sylph too warn'd me of the threats of Fate
In mystic visions now believed too late
See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs
My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares
These in two sable ringlets taught to break
Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck
The sister-lock now sits uncouth alone
And in its fellow fate foresees its own
Uncurl'd it hangs the fatal shears demands
And tempts once more thy sacrilegious hands
Oh hadst thou cruel been content to seize
Hairs less in sight or any hairs but these
She said the pitying audience melt in tears
But Fate and Jove had stopp'd the Baron ears
In vain Thalestris with reproach assails
For who can move when fair Belinda fails
Not half so fix'd the Trojan could remain
While Anna begg'd and Dido raged in vain
Then grave Clarissa graceful waved her fan
Silence ensued and thus the nymph began
'Say why are beauties praised and honour'd most
The wise man passion and the vain man toast
Why deck'd with all that land and sea afford
Why angels call'd and angel-like adored
Why round our coaches crowd the white-gloved beaux
Why bows the side-box from its inmost rows
How vain are all these glories all our pains
Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains
That men may say when we the front-box grace
Behold the first in virtue as in face
Oh if to dance all night and dress all day
Charm'd the small-pox or chased old-age away
Who would not scorn what housewife cares produce
Or who would learn one earthly thing of use
To patch nay ogle might become a saint
Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint
But since alas frail beauty must decay
Curl'd or uncurl'd since locks will turn to gray
Since painted or not painted all shall fade
And she who scorns a man must die a maid
What then remains but well our power to use
And keep good-humour still whate'er we lose
And trust me dear good-humour can prevail
When airs and flights and screams and scolding fail
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll
Charms strike the sight but merit wins the soul
So spoke the dame but no applause ensued
Belinda frown'd Thalestris call'd her prude
'To arms to arms' the fierce virago cries
And swift as lightning to the combat flies
All side in parties and begin the attack
Fans clap silks rustle and tough whalebones crack
Heroes' and heroines' shouts confusedly rise
And bass and treble voices strike the skies
No common weapons in their hands are found
Like gods they fight nor dread a mortal wound
So when bold Homer makes the gods engage
And heavenly breasts with human passions rage
'Gainst Pallas Mars Latona Hermes arms
And all Olympus rings with loud alarms
Jove thunder roars heaven trembles all around
Blue Neptune storms the bellowing deeps resound
Earth shakes her nodding towers the ground gives way
And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day
Triumphant Umbriel on a sconce height
Clapp'd his glad wings and sat to view the fight
Propp'd on their bodkin spears the sprites survey
The growing combat or assist the fray
While through the press enraged Thalestris flies
And scatters death around from both her eyes
A beau and witling perish'd in the throng
One died in metaphor and one in song
'O cruel nymph a living death I bear
Cried Dapperwit and sunk beside his chair
A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast
'Those eyes are made so killing' was his last
Thus on Maeander flowery margin lies
The expiring swan and as he sings he dies
When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down
Chloe stepped in and kill'd him with a frown
She smiled to see the doughty hero slain
But at her smile the beau revived again
Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air
Weighs the men wits against the lady hair
The doubtful beam long nods from side to side
At length the wits mount up the hairs subside
See fierce Belinda on the Baron flies
With more than usual lightning in her eyes
Nor fear'd the chief th' unequal fight to try
Who sought no more than on his foe to die
But this bold lord with manly strength endued
She with one finger and a thumb subdued
Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew
A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw
The Gnomes direct to every atom just
The pungent grains of titillating dust
Sudden with starting tears each eye o'erflows
And the high dome re-echoes to his nose
'Now meet thy fate' incensed Belinda cried
And drew a deadly bodkin from her side
The same his ancient personage to deck
Her great-great-grandsire wore about his neck
In three seal-rings which after melted down
Form'd a vast buckle for his widow gown
Her infant grandame whistle next it grew
The bells she jingled and the whistle blew
Then in a bodkin graced her mother hairs
Which long she wore and now Belinda wears
'Boast not my fall' he cried 'insulting foe
Thou by some other shalt be laid as low
Nor think to die dejects my lofty mind
All that I dread is leaving you behind
Rather than so ah let me still survive
And burn in Cupid flames but burn alive
'Restore the lock' she cries and all around
'Restore the lock' the vaulted roofs rebound
Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain
Roar'd for the handkerchief that caused his pain
But see how oft ambitious aims are cross'd
And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost
The lock obtain'd with guilt and kept with pain
In every place is sought but sought in vain
With such a prize no mortal must be blest
So Heaven decrees with Heaven who can contest
Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere
Since all things lost on earth are treasured there
There heroes' wits are kept in ponderous vases
And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases
There broken vows and death-bed alms are found
And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound
The courtier promises and sick man prayers
The smiles of harlots and the tears of heirs
Cages for gnats and chains to yoke a flea
Dried butterflies and tomes of casuistry
But trust the Muse she saw it upward rise
Though mark'd by none but quick poetic eyes
So Rome great founder to the heavens withdrew
To Proculus alone confess'd in view
A sudden star it shot through liquid air
And drew behind a radiant trail of hair
Not Berenice locks first rose so bright
The heaven bespangling with dishevell'd light
The Sylphs behold it kindling as it flies
And pleased pursue its progress through the skies
This the beau-monde shall from the Mall survey
And hail with music its propitious ray
This the bless'd lover shall for Venus take
And send up vows from Rosamonda lake
This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies
When next he looks through Galileo eyes
And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom
The fate of Louis and the fall of Rome
Then cease bright nymph to mourn thy ravish'd hair
Which adds new glory to the shining sphere
Not all the tresses that fair head can boast
Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost
For after all the murders of your eye
When after millions slain yourself shall die
When those fair suns shall set as set they must
And all those tresses shall be laid in dust
This lock the Muse shall consecrate to fame
And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda name
Thy forests Windsor and thy green retreats
At once the Monarch and the Muse seats
Invite my lays Be present sylvan Maids
Unlock your springs and open all your shades
Granville commands your aid O Muses bring
What Muse for Granville can refuse to sing
The groves of Eden vanish'd now so long
Live in description and look green in song
These were my breast inspired with equal flame
Like them in beauty should be like in fame
Here hills and vales the woodland and the plain
Here earth and water seem to strive again
Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruised
But as the world harmoniously confused
Where order in variety we see
And where though all things differ all agree
Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display
And part admit and part exclude the day
As some coy nymph her lover warm address
Nor quite indulges nor can quite repress
There interspersed in lawns and opening glades
Thin trees arise that shun each other shades
Here in full light the russet plains extend
There wrapt in clouds the bluish hills ascend
Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes
And 'midst the desert fruitful fields arise
That crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn
Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn
Let India boast her plants nor envy we
The weeping amber or the balmy tree
While by our oaks the precious loads are born
And realms commanded which those trees adorn
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler sight
Though gods assembled grace his towering height
Than what more humble mountains offer here
Where in their blessings all those gods appear
See Pan with flocks with fruits Pomona crown'd
Here blushing Flora paints the enamell'd ground
Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper hand
Rich industry sits smiling on the plains
And peace and plenty tell a Stuart reigns
Not thus the land appear'd in ages past
A dreary desert and a gloomy waste
To savage beasts and savage laws a prey
And kings more furious and severe than they
Who claim'd the skies dispeopled air and floods
The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods
Cities laid waste they storm'd the dens and caves
For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves
What could be free when lawless beasts obey'd
And even the elements a tyrant sway'd
In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain
Soft showers distill'd and suns grew warm in vain
The swain with tears his frustrate labour yields
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields
What wonder then a beast or subject slain
Were equal crimes in a despotic reign
Both doom'd alike for sportive tyrants bled
But while the subject starved the beast was fed
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began
A mighty hunter and his prey was man
Our haughty Norman boasts that barbarous name
And makes his trembling slaves the royal game
The fields are ravish'd from the industrious swains
From men their cities and from gods their fanes
The levell'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er
The hollow winds through naked temples roar
Round broken columns clasping ivy twined
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind
The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires
And savage howlings fill the sacred choirs
Awed by his Nobles by his Commons cursed
The oppressor ruled tyrannic where he durst
Stretch'd o'er the poor and Church his iron rod
And served alike his vassals and his God
Whom even the Saxon spared and bloody Dane
The wanton victims of his sport remain
But see the man who spacious regions gave
A waste for beasts himself denied a grave
Stretch'd on the lawn his second hope survey
At once the chaser and at once the prey
Lo Rufus tugging at the deadly dart
Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart
Succeeding monarchs heard the subjects' cries
Nor saw displeased the peaceful cottage rise
Then gathering flocks on unknown mountains fed
O'er sandy wilds were yellow harvests spread
The forests wonder'd at the unusual grain
And secret transport touch'd the conscious swain
Fair Liberty Britannia goddess rears
Her cheerful head and leads the golden years
Ye vigorous swains while youth ferments your blood
And purer spirits swell the sprightly flood
Now range the hills the gameful woods beset
Wind the shrill horn or spread the waving net
When milder autumn summer heat succeeds
And in the new-shorn field the partridge feeds
Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds
Panting with hope he tries the furrow'd grounds
But when the tainted gales the game betray
Couch'd close he lies and meditates the prey
Secure they trust the unfaithful field beset
Till hovering o'er 'em sweeps the swelling net
Thus if small things we may with great compare
When Albion sends her eager sons to war
Some thoughtless town with ease and plenty blest
Near and more near the closing lines invest
Sudden they seize the amazed defenceless prize
And high in air Britannia standard flies
See from the brake the whirring pheasant springs
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings
Short is his joy he feels the fiery wound
Flutters in blood and panting beats the ground
Ah what avail his glossy varying dyes
His purple crest and scarlet-circled eyes
The vivid green his shining plumes unfold
His painted wings and breast that flames with gold
Nor yet when moist Arcturus clouds the sky
The woods and fields their pleasing toils deny
To plains with well-breath'  beagles we repair
And trace the mazes of the circling hare
Beasts urged by us their fellow-beasts pursue
And learn of man each other to undo
With slaughtering gun the unwearied fowler roves
When frosts have whiten'd all the naked groves
Where doves in flocks the leafless trees o'ershade
And lonely woodcocks haunt the watery glade
He lifts the tube and levels with his eye
Straight a short thunder breaks the frozen sky
Oft as in airy rings they skim the heath
The clamorous lapwings feel the leaden death
Oft as the mounting larks their notes prepare
They fall and leave their little lives in air
In genial spring beneath the quivering shade
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead
The patient fisher takes his silent stand
Intent his angle trembling in his hand
With looks unmoved he hopes the scaly breed
And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed
Our plenteous streams a various race supply
The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye
The silver eel in shining volumes roll'd
The yellow carp in scales bedropp'd with gold
Swift trouts diversified with crimson stains
And pikes the tyrants of the watery plains
Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car
The youth rush eager to the sylvan war
Swarm o'er the lawns the forest walks surround
Rouse the fleet hart and cheer the opening hound
The impatient courser pants in every vein
And pawing seems to beat the distant plain
Hills vales and floods appear already cross'd
And ere he starts a thousand steps are lost
See the bold youth strain up the threatening steep
Rush through the thickets down the valleys sweep
Hang o'er their coursers' heads with eager speed
And earth rolls back beneath the flying steed
Let old Arcadia boast her ample plain
The immortal huntress and her virgin-train
Nor envy Windsor since thy shades have seen
As bright a goddess and as chaste a queen
Whose care like hers protects the sylvan reign
The earth fair light and empress of the main
Here too 'tis sung of old Diana stray'd
And Cynthus' top forsook for Windsor shade
Here was she seen o'er airy wastes to rove
Seek the clear spring or haunt the pathless grove
Here arm'd with silver bows in early dawn
Her buskin'd virgins traced the dewy lawn
Above the rest a rural nymph was famed
Thy offspring Thames the fair Lodona named
Lodona fate in long oblivion cast
The Muse shall sing and what she sings shall last
Scarce could the goddess from her nymph be known
But by the crescent and the golden zone
She scorn'd the praise of beauty and the care
A belt her waist a fillet binds her hair
A painted quiver on her shoulder sounds
And with her dart the flying deer she wounds
It chanced as eager of the chase the maid
Beyond the forest verdant limits stray'd
Pan saw and loved and burning with desire
Pursued her flight her flight increased his fire
Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky
Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves
When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves
As from the god she flew with furious pace
Or as the god more furious urged the chase
Now fainting sinking pale the nymph appears
Now close behind his sounding steps she hears
And now his shadow reach'd her as she run
His shadow lengthen'd by the setting sun
And now his shorter breath with sultry air
Pants on her neck and fans her parting hair
In vain on father Thames she calls for aid
Nor could Diana help her injured maid
Faint breathless thus she pray'd nor pray'd in vain
'Ah Cynthia ah though banish'd from thy train
Let me oh let me to the shades repair
My native shades there weep and murmur there
She said and melting as in tears she lay
In a soft silver stream dissolved away
The silver stream her virgin coldness keeps
For ever murmurs and for ever weeps
Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore
And bathes the forest where she ranged before
In her chaste current oft the goddess laves
And with celestial tears augments the waves
Oft in her glass the musing shepherd spies
The headlong mountains and the downward skies
The watery landscape of the pendent woods
And absent trees that tremble in the floods
In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen
And floating forests paint the waves with green
Through the fair scene roll slow the lingering streams
Then foaming pour along and rush into the Thames
Thou too great Father of the British floods
With joyful pride survey'st our lofty woods
Where towering oaks their growing honours rear
And future navies on thy shores appear
Not Neptune self from all her streams receives
A wealthier tribute than to thine he gives
No seas so rich so gay no banks appear
No lake so gentle and no spring so clear
Nor Po so swells the fabling poet lays
While led along the skies his current strays
As thine which visits Windsor famed abodes
To grace the mansion of our earthly gods
Nor all his stars above a lustre show
Like the bright beauties on thy banks below
Where Jove subdued by mortal passion still
Might change Olympus for a nobler hill
Happy the man whom this bright court approves
His sovereign favours and his country loves
Happy next him who to these shades retires
Whom Nature charms and whom the Muse inspires
Whom humbler joys of home-felt quiet please
Successive study exercise and ease
He gathers health from herbs the forest yields
And of their fragrant physic spoils the fields
With chemic art exalts the mineral powers
And draws the aromatic souls of flowers
Now marks the course of rolling orbs on high
O'er figured worlds now travels with his eye
Of ancient writ unlocks the learned store
Consults the dead and lives past ages o'er
Or wandering thoughtful in the silent wood
Attends the duties of the wise and good
To observe a mean be to himself a friend
To follow nature and regard his end
Or looks on Heaven with more than mortal eyes
Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies
Amid her kindred stars familiar roam
Survey the region and confess her home
Such was the life great Scipio once admired
Thus Atticus and Trumbull thus retired
Ye sacred Nine that all my soul possess
Whose raptures fire me and whose visions bless
Bear me oh bear me to sequester'd scenes
The bowery mazes and surrounding greens
To Thames banks which fragrant breezes fill
Or where ye Muses sport on Cooper Hill
On Cooper Hill eternal wreaths shall grow
While lasts the mountain or while Thames shall flow
I seem through consecrated walks to rove
I hear soft music die along the grove
Led by the sound I roam from shade to shade
By godlike poets venerable made
Here his first lays majestic Denham sung
There the last numbers flow'd from Cowley tongue
Oh early lost what tears the river shed
When the sad pomp along his banks was led
His drooping swans on every note expire
And on his willows hung each Muse lyre
Since fate relentless stopp'd their heavenly voice
No more the forests ring or groves rejoice
Who now shall charm the shades where Cowley strung
His living harp and lofty Denham sung
But hark the groves rejoice the forest rings
Are these revived or is it Granville sings
'Tis yours my lord to bless our soft retreats
And call the Muses to their ancient seats
To paint anew the flowery sylvan scenes
To crown the forest with immortal greens
Make Windsor hills in lofty numbers rise
And lift her turrets nearer to the skies
To sing those honours you deserve to wear
And add new lustre to her silver star
Here noble Surrey felt the sacred rage
Surrey the Granville of a former age
Matchless his pen victorious was his lance
Bold in the lists and graceful in the dance
In the same shades the Cupids tuned his lyre
To the same notes of love and soft desire
Fair Geraldine bright object of his vow
Then fill'd the groves as heavenly Mira now
Oh wouldst thou sing what heroes Windsor bore
What kings first breathed upon her winding shore
Or raise old warriors whose adored remains
In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains
With Edward acts adorn the shining page
Stretch his long triumphs down through every age
Draw monarchs chain'd and Cressy glorious field
The lilies blazing on the regal shield
Then from her roofs when Verrio colours fall
And leave inanimate the naked wall
Still in thy song should vanquish'd France appear
And bleed for ever under Britain spear
Let softer strains ill-fated Henry mourn
And palms eternal flourish round his urn
Here o'er the martyr-king the marble weeps
And fast beside him once-fear'd Edward sleeps
Whom not the extended Albion could contain
From old Belerium to the northern main
The grave unites where ev'n the great find rest
And blended lie the oppressor and the oppress'd
Make sacred Charles' tomb for ever known
Obscure the place and uninscribed the stone
Oh fact accursed what tears has Albion shed
Heavens what new wounds and how her old have bled
She saw her sons with purple deaths expire
Her sacred domes involved in rolling fire
A dreadful series of intestine wars
Inglorious triumphs and dishonest scars
At length great Anna said 'Let discord cease
She said the world obey'd and all was peace
In that blest moment from his oozy bed
Old Father Thames advanced his reverend head
His tresses dropp'd with dews and o'er the stream
His shining horns diffused a golden gleam
Graved on his urn appear'd the moon that guides
His swelling waters and alternate tides
The figured streams in waves of silver roll'd
And on their banks Augusta rose in gold
Around his throne the sea-born brothers stood
Who swell with tributary urns his flood
First the famed authors of his ancient name
The winding Isis and the fruitful Thame
The Kennet swift for silver eels renown'd
The Loddon slow with verdant alders crown'd
Cole whose dark streams his flowery islands lave
And chalky Wey that rolls a milky wave
The blue transparent Vandalis appears
The gulfy Lee his sedgy tresses rears
And sullen Mole that hides his diving flood
And silent Darent stain'd with Danish blood
High in the midst upon his urn reclined
His sea-green mantle waving with the wind
The god appear'd he turn'd his azure eyes
Where Windsor-domes and pompous turrets rise
Then bow'd and spoke the winds forget to roar
And the hush'd waves glide softly to the shore
Hail sacred Peace hail long-expected days
That Thames glory to the stars shall raise
Though Tiber streams immortal Rome behold
Though foaming Hermus swells with tides of gold
From heaven itself though sevenfold Nilus flows
And harvests on a hundred realms bestows
These now no more shall be the Muse themes
Lost in my fame as in the sea their streams
Let Volga banks with iron squadrons shine
And groves of lances glitter on the Rhine
Let barbarous Ganges arm a servile train
Be mine the blessings of a peaceful reign
No more my sons shall dye with British blood
Red Iber sands or Ister foaming flood
Safe on my shore each unmolested swain
Shall tend the flocks or reap the bearded grain
The shady empire shall retain no trace
Of war or blood but in the sylvan chase
The trumpet sleep while cheerful horns are blown
And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone
Behold the ascending villas on my side
Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide
Behold Augusta glittering spires increase
And temples rise the beauteous works of Peace
I see I see where two fair cities bend
Their ample bow a new Whitehall ascend
There mighty nations shall inquire their doom
The world great oracle in times to come
There kings shall sue and suppliant states be seen
Once more to bend before a British queen
Thy trees fair Windsor now shall leave their woods
And half thy forests rush into the floods
Bear Britain thunder and her cross display
To the bright regions of the rising day
Tempt icy seas where scarce the waters roll
Where clearer flames glow round the frozen pole
Or under southern skies exalt their sails
Led by new stars and borne by spicy gales
For me the balm shall bleed and amber flow
The coral redden and the ruby glow
The pearly shell its lucid globe infold
And Phoebus warm the ripening ore to gold
The time shall come when free as seas or wind
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind
Whole nations enter with each swelling tide
And seas but join the regions they divide
Earth distant ends our glory shall behold
And the new world launch forth to seek the old
Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide
And feather'd people crowd my wealthy side
And naked youths and painted chiefs admire
Our speech our colour and our strange attire
O stretch thy reign fair Peace from shore to shore
Till conquest cease and slavery be no more
Till the freed Indians in their native groves
Reap their own fruits and woo their sable loves
Peru once more a race of kings behold
And other Mexicos be roof'd with gold
Exiled by thee from earth to deepest hell
In brazen bonds shall barbarous Discord dwell
Gigantic Pride pale Terror gloomy Care
And mad Ambition shall attend her there
There purple Vengeance bathed in gore retires
Her weapons blunted and extinct her fires
There hateful Envy her own snakes shall feel
And Persecution mourn her broken wheel
There Faction roar Rebellion bite her chain
And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain
Here cease thy flight nor with unhallow'd lays
Touch the fair fame of Albion golden days
The thoughts of gods let Granville verse recite
And bring the scenes of opening fate to light
My humble Muse in unambitious strains
Paints the green forests and the flowery plains
Where Peace descending bids her olives spring
And scatters blessings from her dove-like wing
Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days
Pleased in the silent shade with empty praise
Enough for me that to the listening swains
First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains
What beckoning ghost along the moonlight shade
Invites my steps and points to yonder glade
'Tis she but why that bleeding bosom gored
Why dimly gleams the visionary sword
Oh ever beauteous ever friendly tell
Is it in heaven a crime to love too well
To bear too tender or too firm a heart
To act a lover or a Roman part
Is there no bright reversion in the sky
For those who greatly think or bravely die
Why bade ye else ye Powers her soul aspire
Above the vulgar flight of low desire
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes
The glorious fault of angels and of gods
Thence to their images on earth it flows
And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows
Most souls 'tis true but peep out once an age
Dull sullen prisoners in the body cage
Dim lights of life that burn a length of years
Useless unseen as lamps in sepulchres
Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep
And close confined to their own palace sleep
From these perhaps ere Nature bade her die
Fate snatch'd her early to the pitying sky
As into air the purer spirits flow
And separate from their kindred dregs below
So flew the soul to its congenial place
Nor left one virtue to redeem her race
But thou false guardian of a charge too good
Thou mean deserter of thy brother blood
See on these ruby lips the trembling breath
These cheeks now fading at the blast of death
Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before
And those love-darting eyes must roll no more
Thus if Eternal Justice rules the ball
Thus shall your wives and thus your children fall
On all the line a sudden vengeance waits
And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates
There passengers shall stand and pointing say
While the long funerals blacken all the way
'Lo these were they whose souls the Furies steel'd
And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield
Thus unlamented pass the proud away
The gaze of fools and pageant of a day
So perish all whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow
For others' good or melt at others' woe
What can atone O ever-injured Shade
Thy fate unpitied and thy rites unpaid
No friend complaint no kind domestic tear
Pleased thy pale ghost or graced thy mournful bier
By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd
By strangers honour'd and by strangers mourn'd
What though no friends in sable weeds appear
Grieve for an hour perhaps then mourn a year
And bear about the mockery of woe
To midnight dances and the public show
What though no weeping loves thy ashes grace
Nor polish'd marble emulate thy face
What though no sacred earth allow thee room
Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb
Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be dress'd
And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast
There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow
There the first roses of the year shall blow
While angels with their silver wings o'ershade
The ground now sacred by thy relics made
So peaceful rests without a stone a name
What once had beauty titles wealth and fame
How loved how honour'd once avails thee not
To whom related or by whom begot
A heap of dust alone remains of thee
'Tis all thou art and all the proud shall be
Poets themselves must fall like those they sung
Deaf the praised ear and mute the tuneful tongue
Even he whose soul now melts in mournful lays
Shall shortly want the generous tear he pays
Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part
And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart
Life idle business at one gasp be o'er
The Muse forgot and thou beloved no more
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art
To raise the genius and to mend the heart
To make mankind in conscious virtue bold
Live o'er each scene and be what they behold
For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage
Commanding tears to stream through every age
Tyrants no more their savage nature kept
And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept
Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move
The hero glory or the virgin love
In pitying love we but our weakness show
And wild ambition well deserves its woe
Here tears shall flow from a more generous cause
Such tears as patriots shed for dying laws
He bids your breasts with ancient ardour rise
And calls forth Roman drops from British eyes
Virtue confess'd in human shape he draws
What Plato thought and godlike Cato was
No common object to your sight displays
But what with pleasure Heaven itself surveys
A brave man struggling in the storms of fate
And greatly falling with a falling state
While Cato gives his little senate laws
What bosom beats not in his country cause
Who sees him act but envies every deed
Who hears him groan and does not wish to bleed
Even when proud Caesar 'midst triumphal cars
The spoils of nations and the pomp of wars
Ignobly vain and impotently great
Show'd Rome her Cato figure drawn in state
As her dead father reverend image pass'd
The pomp was darken'd and the day o'ercast
The triumph ceased tears gush'd from every eye
The world great victor pass'd unheeded by
Her last good man dejected Rome adored
And honour'd Caesar less than Cato sword
Britons attend be worth like this approved
And show you have the virtue to be moved
With honest scorn the first famed Cato view'd
Rome learning arts from Greece whom she subdued
Your scene precariously subsists too long
On French translation and Italian song
Dare to have sense yourselves assert the stage
Be justly warm'd with your own native rage
Such plays alone should win a British ear
As Cato self had not disdain'd to hear
Fain would my Muse the flowery treasures sing
And humble glories of the youthful Spring
Where opening roses breathing sweets diffuse
And soft carnations shower their balmy dews
Where lilies smile in virgin robes of white
The thin undress of superficial light
And varied tulips show so dazzling gay
Blushing in bright diversities of day
Each painted floweret in the lake below
Surveys its beauties whence its beauties grow
And pale Narcissus on the bank in vain
Transformed gazes on himself again
Here aged trees cathedral walks compose
And mount the hill in venerable rows
There the green infants in their beds are laid
The garden hope and its expected shade
Here orange-trees with blooms and pendants shine
And vernal honours to their autumn join
Exceed their promise in the ripen'd store
Yet in the rising blossom promise more
There in bright drops the crystal fountains play
By laurels shielded from the piercing day
Where Daphne now a tree as once a maid
Still from Apollo vindicates her shade
Still turns her beauties from the invading beam
Nor seeks in vain for succour to the stream
The stream at once preserves her virgin leaves
At once a shelter from her boughs receives
Where summer beauty midst of winter stays
And winter coolness spite of summer rays
In that soft season when descending showers
Call forth the greens and wake the rising flowers
When opening buds salute the welcome day
And earth relenting feels the genial ray
As balmy sleep had charm'd my cares to rest
And love itself was banish'd from my breast
What time the morn mysterious visions brings
While purer slumbers spread their golden wings
A train of phantoms in wild order rose
And join'd this intellectual scene compose
I stood methought betwixt earth seas and skies
The whole creation open to my eyes
In air self-balanced hung the globe below
Where mountains rise and circling oceans flow
Here naked rocks and empty wastes were seen
There towery cities and the forests green
Here sailing ships delight the wandering eyes
There trees and intermingled temples rise
Now a clear sun the shining scene displays
The transient landscape now in clouds decays
O'er the wide prospect as I gazed around
Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound
Like broken thunders that at distance roar
Or billows murmuring on the hollow shore
Then gazing up a glorious pile beheld
Whose towering summit ambient clouds conceal'd
High on a rock of ice the structure lay
Steep its ascent and slippery was the way
The wondrous rock like Parian marble shone
And seem'd to distant sight of solid stone
Inscriptions here of various names I view'd
The greater part by hostile time subdued
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past
And poets once had promised they should last
Some fresh engraved appear'd of wits renown'd
I look'd again nor could their trace be found
Critics I saw that other names deface
And fix their own with labour in their place
Their own like others soon their place resign'd
Or disappear'd and left the first behind
Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone
But felt the approaches of too warm a sun
For Fame impatient of extremes decays
Not more by envy than excess of praise
Yet part no injuries of heaven could feel
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel
The rock high summit in the temple shade
Nor heat could melt nor beating storm invade
Their names inscribed unnumber'd ages past
From time first birth with time itself shall last
These ever new nor subject to decays
Spread and grow brighter with the length of days
So Zembla rocks the beauteous work of frost
Rise white in air and glitter o'er the coast
Pale suns unfelt at distance roll away
And on the impassive ice the lightnings play
Eternal snows the growing mass supply
Till the bright mountains prop the incumbent sky
As Atlas fix'd each hoary pile appears
The gather'd winter of a thousand years
On this foundation Fame high temple stands
Stupendous pile not rear'd by mortal hands
Whate'er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld
Or elder Babylon its frame excell'd
Four faces had the dome and every face
Of various structure but of equal grace
Four brazen gates on columns lifted high
Salute the different quarters of the sky
Here fabled chiefs in darker ages born
Or worthies old whom arms or arts adorn
Who cities raised or tamed a monstrous race
The walls in venerable order grace
Heroes in animated marble frown
And legislators seem to think in stone
Westward a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd
On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd
Crown'd with an architrave of antique mould
And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold
In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld
And Perseus dreadful with Minerva shield
There great Alcides stooping with his toil
Rests on his club and holds th' Hesperian spoil
Here Orpheus sings trees moving to the sound
Start from their roots and form a shade around
Amphion there the loud creating lyre
Strikes and behold a sudden Thebes aspire
Cythaeron echoes answer to his call
And half the mountain rolls into a wall
There might you see the lengthening spires ascend
The domes swell up the widening arches bend
The growing towers like exhalations rise
And the huge columns heave into the skies
The eastern front was glorious to behold
With diamond flaming and barbaric gold
There Ninus shone who spread the Assyrian fame
And the great founder of the Persian name
There in long robes the royal Magi stand
Grave Zoroaster waves the circling wand
The sage Chaldeans robed in white appear'd
And Brachmans deep in desert woods revered
These stopp'd the moon and call'd the unbodied shades
To midnight banquets in the glimmering glades
Made visionary fabrics round them rise
And airy spectres skim before their eyes
Of talismans and sigils knew the power
And careful watch'd the planetary hour
Superior and alone Confucius stood
Who taught that useful science to be good
But on the south a long majestic race
Of Egypt priests the gilded niches grace
Who measured earth described the starry spheres
And traced the long records of lunar years
High on his car Sesostris struck my view
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold
His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold
Between the statues obelisks were placed
And the learn'd walls with hieroglyphics graced
Of Gothic structure was the northern side
O'erwrought with ornaments of barbarous pride
There huge Colosses rose with trophies crown'd
And Runic characters were graved around
There sat Zamolxis with erected eyes
And Odin here in mimic trances dies
There on rude iron columns smear'd with blood
The horrid forms of Seythian heroes stood
Druids and Bards their once loud harps unstrung
And youths that died to be by poets sung
These and a thousand more of doubtful fame
To whom old fables gave a lasting name
In ranks adorn'd the temple outward face
The wall in lustre and effect like glass
Which o'er each object casting various dyes
Enlarges some and others multiplies
Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall
For thus romantic Fame increases all
The temple shakes the sounding gates unfold
Wide vaults appear and roofs of fretted gold
Raised on a thousand pillars wreathed around
With laurel foliage and with eagles crown'd
Of bright transparent beryl were the walls
The friezes gold and gold the capitals
As heaven with stars the roof with jewels glows
And ever-living lamps depend in rows
Full in the passage of each spacious gate
The sage historians in white garments wait
Graved o'er their seats the form of Time was found
His scythe reversed and both his pinions bound
Within stood heroes who through loud alarms
In bloody fields pursued renown in arms
High on a throne with trophies charged I view'd
The youth that all things but himself subdued
His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod
And his horn'd head belied the Libyan god
There Caesar graced with both Minervas shone
Caesar the world great master and his own
Unmoved superior still in every state
And scarce detested in his country fate
But chief were those who not for empire fought
But with their toils their people safety bought
High o'er the rest Epaminondas stood
Timoleon glorious in his brother blood
Bold Scipio saviour of the Roman state
Great in his triumphs in retirement great
And wise Aurelius in whose well-taught mind
With boundless power unbounded virtue join'd
His own strict judge and patron of mankind
Much-suffering heroes next their honours claim
Those of less noisy and less guilty fame
Fair Virtue silent train supreme of these
Here ever shines the godlike Socrates
He whom ungrateful Athens could expel
At all times just but when he sign'd the shell
Here his abode the martyr'd Phocion claims
With Agis not the last of Spartan names
Unconquer'd Cato shows the wound he tore
And Brutus his ill Genius meets no more
But in the centre of the hallow'd choir
Six pompous columns o'er the rest aspire
Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand
Hold the chief honours and the fane command
High on the first the mighty Homer shone
Eternal adamant composed his throne
Father of verse in holy fillets dress'd
His silver beard waved gently o'er his breast
Though blind a boldness in his looks appears
In years he seem'd but not impair'd by years
The wars of Troy were round the pillar seen
Here fierce Tydides wounds the Cyprian Queen
Here Hector glorious from Patroclus' fall
Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall
Motion and life did every part inspire
Bold was the work and proved the master fire
A strong expression most he seem'd to affect
And here and there disclosed a brave neglect
A golden column next in rank appear'd
On which a shrine of purest gold was rear'd
Finish'd the whole and labour'd every part
With patient touches of unwearied art
The Mantuan there in sober triumph sate
Composed his posture and his look sedate
On Homer still he fix'd a reverend eye
Great without pride in modest majesty
In living sculpture on the sides were spread
The Latian wars and haughty Turnus dead
Eliza stretch'd upon the funeral pyre
AEneas bending with his aged sire
Troy flamed in burning gold and o'er the throne
ARMS AND THE MAN in golden cyphers shone
Four swans sustain a car of silver bright
With heads advanced and pinions stretch'd for flight
Here like some furious prophet Pindar rode
And seem'd to labour with the inspiring god
Across the harp a careless hand he flings
And boldly sinks into the sounding strings
The figured games of Greece the column grace
Neptune and Jove survey the rapid race
The youths hang o'er their chariots as they run
The fiery steeds seem starting from the stone
The champions in distorted postures threat
And all appear'd irregularly great
Here happy Horace tuned the Ausonian lyre
To sweeter sounds and temper'd Pindar fire
Pleased with Alcaeus' manly rage t' infuse
The softer spirit of the Sapphic Muse
The polish'd pillar different sculptures grace
A work outlasting monumental brass
Here smiling Loves and Bacchanals appear
The Julian star and great Augustus here
The doves that round the infant poet spread
Myrtles and bays hung hovering o'er his head
Here in a shrine that cast a dazzling light
Sat fix'd in thought the mighty Stagyrite
His sacred head a radiant zodiac crown'd
And various animals his side surround
His piercing eyes erect appear to view
Superior worlds and look all Nature through
With equal rays immortal Tully shone
The Roman rostra deck'd the Consul throne
Gathering his flowing robe he seem'd to stand
In act to speak and graceful stretch'd his hand
Behind Rome Genius waits with civic crowns
And the great Father of his country owns
These massy columns in a circle rise
O'er which a pompous dome invades the skies
Scarce to the top I stretch'd my aching sight
So large it spread and swell'd to such a height
Full in the midst proud Fame imperial seat
With jewels blazed magnificently great
The vivid emeralds there revive the eye
The flaming rubies show their sanguine dye
Bright azure rays from lively sapphires stream
And lucid amber casts a golden gleam
With various-colour'd light the pavement shone
And all on fire appear'd the glowing throne
The dome high arch reflects the mingled blaze
And forms a rainbow of alternate rays
When on the goddess first I cast my sight
Scarce seem'd her stature of a cubit height
But swell'd to larger size the more I gazed
Till to the roof her towering front she raised
With her the temple every moment grew
And ampler vistas open'd to my view
Upward the columns shoot the roofs ascend
And arches widen and long aisles extend
Such was her form as ancient bards have told
Wings raise her arms and wings her feet infold
A thousand busy tongues the goddess bears
A thousand open eyes and thousand listening ears
Beneath in order ranged the tuneful Nine
Her virgin handmaids still attend the shrine
With eyes on Fame for ever fix'd they sing
For Fame they raise the voice and tune the string
With Time first birth began the heavenly lays
And last eternal through the length of days
Around these wonders as I cast a look
The trumpet sounded and the temple shook
And all the nations summon'd at the call
From different quarters fill the crowded hall
Of various tongues the mingled sounds were heard
In various garbs promiscuous throngs appear'd
Thick as the bees that with the spring renew
Their flowery toils and sip the fragrant dew
When the wing'd colonies first tempt the sky
O'er dusky fields and shaded waters fly
Or settling seize the sweets the blossoms yield
And a low murmur runs along the field
Millions of suppliant crowds the shrine attend
And all degrees before the goddess bend
The poor the rich the valiant and the sage
And boasting youth and narrative old age
Their pleas were different their request the same
For good and bad alike are fond of Fame
Some she disgraced and some with honours crown'd
Unlike successes equal merits found
Thus her blind sister fickle Fortune reigns
And undiscerning scatters crowns and chains
First at the shrine the learned world appear
And to the goddess thus prefer their prayer
'Long have we sought to instruct and please mankind
With studies pale with midnight vigils blind
But thank'd by few rewarded yet by none
We here appeal to thy superior throne
On wit and learning the just prize bestow
For fame is all we must expect below
The goddess heard and bade the Muses raise
The golden trumpet of eternal praise
From pole to pole the winds diffuse the sound
That fills the circuit of the world around
Not all at once as thunder breaks the cloud
The notes at first were rather sweet than loud
By just degrees they every moment rise
Fill the wide earth and gain upon the skies
At every breath were balmy odours shed
Which still grew sweeter as they wider spread
Less fragrant scents the unfolding rose exhales
Or spices breathing in Arabian gales
Next these the good and just an awful train
Thus on their knees address the sacred fane
'Since living virtue is with envy cursed
And the best men are treated like the worst
Do thou just goddess call our merits forth
And give each deed the exact intrinsic worth
'Not with bare justice shall your act be crown'd
Said Fame 'but high above desert renown'd
Let fuller notes the applauding world amaze
And the loud clarion labour in your praise
This band dismiss'd behold another crowd
Preferr'd the same request and lowly bow'd
The constant tenor of whose well-spent days
No less deserved a just return of praise
But straight the direful trump of Slander sounds
Through the big dome the doubling thunder bounds
Loud as the burst of cannon rends the skies
The dire report through every region flies
In every ear incessant rumours rung
And gathering scandals grew on every tongue
From the black trumpet rusty concave broke
Sulphureous flames and clouds of rolling smoke
The poisonous vapour blots the purple skies
And withers all before it as it flies
A troop came next who crowns and armour wore
And proud defiance in their looks they bore
'For thee' they cried 'amidst alarms and strife
We sail'd in tempests down the stream of life
For thee whole nations fill'd with flames and blood
And swam to empire through the purple flood
Those ills we dared thy inspiration own
What virtue seem'd was done for thee alone
'Ambitious fools' the Queen replied and frown'd
'Be all your acts in dark oblivion drown'd
There sleep forgot with mighty tyrants gone
Your statues moulder'd and your names unknown
A sudden cloud straight snatch'd them from my sight
And each majestic phantom sunk in night
Then came the smallest tribe I yet had seen
Plain was their dress and modest was their mien
'Great idol of mankind we neither claim
The praise of merit nor aspire to fame
But safe in deserts from the applause of men
Would die unheard of as we lived unseen
'Tis all we beg thee to conceal from sight
Those acts of goodness which themselves requite
Oh let us still the secret joy partake
To follow virtue even for virtue sake
'And live there men who slight immortal Fame
Who then with incense shall adore our name
But mortals know 'tis still our greatest pride
To blaze those virtues which the good would hide
Rise Muses rise add all your tuneful breath
These must not sleep in darkness and in death
She said in air the trembling music floats
And on the winds triumphant swell the notes
So soft though high so loud and yet so clear
Even listening angels lean'd from heaven to hear
To furthest shores the ambrosial spirit flies
Sweet to the world and grateful to the skies
Next these a youthful train their vows express'd
With feathers crown'd with gay embroidery dress'd
'Hither' they cried 'direct your eyes and see
The men of pleasure dress and gallantry
Ours is the place at banquets balls and plays
Sprightly our nights polite are all our days
Courts we frequent where 'tis our pleasing care
To pay due visits and address the fair
In fact 'tis true no nymph we could persuade
But still in fancy vanquish'd every maid
Of unknown duchesses lewd tales we tell
Yet would the world believe us all were well
The joy let others have and we the name
And what we want in pleasure grant in fame
The Queen assents the trumpet rends the skies
And at each blast a lady honour dies
Pleased with the strange success vast numbers press'd
Around the shrine and made the same request
'What you' she cried 'unlearn'd in arts to please
Slaves to yourselves and even fatigued with ease
Who lose a length of undeserving days
Would you usurp the lover dear-bought praise
To just contempt ye vain pretenders fall
The people fable and the scorn of all
Straight the black clarion sends a horrid sound
Loud laughs burst out and bitter scoffs fly round
Whispers are heard with taunts reviling loud
And scornful hisses run through all the crowd
Last those who boast of mighty mischiefs done
Enslave their country or usurp a throne
Or who their glory dire foundation laid
On sovereigns ruin'd or on friends betray'd
Calm thinking villains whom no faith could fix
Of crooked counsels and dark politics
Of these a gloomy tribe surround the throne
And beg to make the immortal treasons known
The trumpet roars long flaky flames expire
With sparks that seem'd to set the world on fire
At the dread sound pale mortals stood aghast
And startled Nature trembled with the blast
This having heard and seen some Power unknown
Straight changed the scene and snatch'd me from the throne
Before my view appear'd a structure fair
Its site uncertain if in earth or air
With rapid motion turn'd the mansion round
With ceaseless noise the ringing walls resound
Not less in number were the spacious doors
Than leaves on trees or sands upon the shores
Which still unfolded stand by night by day
Pervious to winds and open every way
As flames by nature to the skies ascend
As weighty bodies to the centre tend
As to the sea returning rivers roll
And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole
Hither as to their proper place arise
All various sounds from earth and seas and skies
Or spoke aloud or whisper'd in the ear
Nor ever silence rest or peace is here
As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes
The sinking stone at first a circle makes
The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd
Spreads in a second circle then a third
Wide and more wide the floating rings advance
Fill all the watery plain and to the margin dance
Thus every voice and sound when first they break
On neighbouring air a soft impression make
Another ambient circle then they move
That in its turn impels the next above
Through undulating air the sounds are sent
And spread o'er all the fluid element
There various news I heard of love and strife
Of peace and war health sickness death and life
Of loss and gain of famine and of store
Of storms at sea and travels on the shore
Of prodigies and portents seen in air
Of fires and plagues and stars with blazing hair
Of turns of fortune changes in the state
The falls of favourites projects of the great
Of old mismanagements taxations new
All neither wholly false nor wholly true
Above below without within around
Confused unnumber'd multitudes are found
Who pass repass advance and glide away
Hosts raised by fear and phantoms of a day
Astrologers that future fates foreshow
Projectors quacks and lawyers not a few
And priests and party-zealots numerous bands
With home-born lies or tales from foreign lands
Each talk'd aloud or in some secret place
And wild impatience stared in every face
The flying rumours gather'd as they roll'd
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told
And all who told it added something new
And all who heard it made enlargements too
In every ear it spread on every tongue it grew
Thus flying east and west and north and south
News travell'd with increase from mouth to mouth
So from a spark that kindled first by chance
With gathering force the quickening flames advance
Till to the clouds their curling heads aspire
And towers and temples sink in floods of fire
When thus ripe lies are to perfection sprung
Full grown and fit to grace a mortal tongue
Through thousand vents impatient forth they flow
And rush in millions on the world below
Fame sits aloft and points them out their course
Their date determines and prescribes their force
Some to remain and some to perish soon
Or wane and wax alternate like the moon
Around a thousand winged wonders fly
Born by the trumpet blast and scatter'd through the sky
There at one passage oft you might survey
A lie and truth contending for the way
And long 'twas doubtful both so closely pent
Which first should issue through the narrow vent
At last agreed together out they fly
Inseparable now the truth and lie
The strict companions are for ever join'd
And this or that unmix'd no mortal e'er shall find
While thus I stood intent to see and hear
One came methought and whisper'd in my ear
'What could thus high thy rash ambition raise
Art thou fond youth a candidate for praise
''Tis true' said I 'not void of hopes I came
For who so fond as youthful bards of fame
But few alas the casual blessing boast
So hard to gain so easy to be lost
How vain that second life in others' breath
The estate which wits inherit after death
Ease health and life for this they must resign
Unsure the tenure but how vast the fine
The great man curse without the gains endure
Be envied wretched and be flatter'd poor
All luckless wits their enemies profess'd
And all successful jealous friends at best
Nor Fame I slight nor for her favours call
She comes unlook'd for if she comes at all
But if the purchase costs so dear a price
As soothing folly or exalting vice
Oh if the Muse must flatter lawless sway
And follow still where fortune leads the way
Or if no basis bear my rising name
But the fallen ruins of another fame
Then teach me Heaven to scorn the guilty bays
Drive from my breast that wretched lust of praise
Unblemish'd let me live or die unknown
Oh grant an honest fame or grant me none
In these deep solitudes and awful cells
Where heavenly-pensive Contemplation dwells
And ever-musing Melancholy reigns
What means this tumult in a vestal veins
Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat
Yet yet I love From Abelard it came
And Eloisa yet must kiss the name
Dear fatal name rest ever unreveal'd
Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd
Hide it my heart within that close disguise
Where mix'd with God his loved idea lies
Oh write it not my hand the name appears
Already written wash it out my tears
In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays
Her heart still dictates and her hand obeys
Relentless walls whose darksome round contains
Repentant sighs and voluntary pains
Ye rugged rocks which holy knees have worn
Ye grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid thorn
Shrines where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep
And pitying saints whose statues learn to weep
Though cold like you unmoved and silent grown
I have not yet forgot myself to stone
All is not Heaven while Abelard has part
Still rebel nature holds out half my heart
Nor prayers nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain
Nor tears for ages taught to flow in vain
Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose
That well-known name awakens all my woes
Oh name for ever sad for ever dear
Still breathed in sighs still usher'd with a tear
I tremble too where'er my own I find
Some dire misfortune follows close behind
Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow
Led through a sad variety of woe
Now warm in love now withering in my bloom
Lost in a convent solitary gloom
There stern religion quench'd the unwilling flame
There died the best of passions Love and Fame
Yet write oh write me all that I may join
Griefs to thy griefs and echo sighs to thine
Nor foes nor fortune take this power away
And is my Abelard less kind than they
Tears still are mine and those I need not spare
Love but demands what else were shed in prayer
No happier task these faded eyes pursue
To read and weep is all they now can do
Then share thy pain allow that sad relief
Ah more than share it give me all thy grief
Heaven first taught letters for some wretch aid
Some banish'd lover or some captive maid
They live they speak they breathe what love inspires
Warm from the soul and faithful to its fires
The virgin wish without her fears impart
Excuse the blush and pour out all the heart
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul
And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole
Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame
When Love approach'd me under Friendship name
My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind
Some emanation of the all-beauteous Mind
Those smiling eyes attempering every ray
Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day
Guiltless I gazed Heaven listen'd while you sung
And truths divine came mended from that tongue
From lips like those what precept fail'd to move
Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love
Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran
Nor wish'd an angel whom I loved a man
Dim and remote the joys of saints I see
Nor envy them that heaven I lose for thee
How oft when press'd to marriage have I said
Curse on all laws but those which Love has made
Love free as air at sight of human ties
Spreads his light wings and in a moment flies
Let wealth let honour wait the wedded dame
August her deed and sacred be her fame
Before true passion all those views remove
Fame wealth and honour what are you to Love
The jealous god when we profane his fires
Those restless passions in revenge inspires
And bids them make mistaken mortals groan
Who seek in love for aught but love alone
Should at my feet the world great master fall
Himself his throne his world I'd scorn them all
Not Caesar empress would I deign to prove
No make me mistress to the man I love
If there be yet another name more free
More fond than mistress make me that to thee
Oh happy state when souls each other draw
When love is liberty and nature law
All then is full possessing and possess'd
No craving void left aching in the breast
Even thought meets thought ere from the lips it part
And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart
This sure is bliss if bliss on earth there be
And once the lot of Abelard and me
Alas how changed what sudden horrors rise
A naked lover bound and bleeding lies
Where where was Eloise her voice her hand
Her poniard had opposed the dire command
Barbarian stay that bloody stroke restrain
The crime was common common be the pain
I can no more by shame by rage suppress'd
Let tears and burning blushes speak the rest
Canst thou forget that sad that solemn day
When victims at yon altar foot we lay
Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell
When warm in youth I bade the world farewell
As with cold lips I kiss'd the sacred veil
The shrines all trembled and the lamps grew pale
Heaven scarce believed the conquest it survey'd
And saints with wonder heard the vows I made
Yet then to those dread altars as I drew
Not on the cross my eyes were fix'd but you
Not grace or zeal love only was my call
And if I lose thy love I lose my all
Come with thy looks thy words relieve my woe
Those still at least are left thee to bestow
Still on that breast enamour'd let me lie
Still drink delicious poison from thy eye
Pant on thy lip and to thy heart be press'd
Give all thou canst and let me dream the rest
Ah no instruct me other joys to prize
With other beauties charm my partial eyes
Full in my view set all the bright abode
And make my soul quit Abelard for God
Ah think at least thy flock deserves thy care
Plants of thy hand and children of thy prayer
From the false world in early youth they fled
By thee to mountains wilds and deserts led
You raised these hallow'd walls the desert smiled
And Paradise was open'd in the wild
No weeping orphan saw his father stores
Our shrines irradiate or emblaze the floors
No silver saints by dying misers given
Here bribed the rage of ill-requited Heaven
But such plain roofs as Piety could raise
And only vocal with the Maker praise
In these lone walls their day eternal bound
These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crown'd
Where awful arches make a noonday night
And the dim windows shed a solemn light
Thy eyes diffused a reconciling ray
And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day
But now no face divine contentment wears
'Tis all blank sadness or continual tears
See how the force of others' prayers I try
Oh pious fraud of amorous charity
But why should I on others' prayers depend
Come thou my father brother husband friend
Ah let thy handmaid sister daughter move
And all those tender names in one thy love
The darksome pines that o'er yon rocks reclined
Wave high and murmur to the hollow wind
The wandering streams that shine between the hills
The grots that echo to the tinkling rills
The dying gales that pant upon the trees
The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze
No more these scenes my meditation aid
Or lull to rest the visionary maid
But o'er the twilight groves and dusky caves
Long-sounding aisles and intermingled graves
Black Melancholy sits and round her throws
A death-like silence and a dread repose
Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene
Shades every flower and darkens every green
Deepens the murmur of the falling floods
And breathes a browner horror on the woods
Yet here for ever ever must I stay
Sad proof how well a lover can obey
Death only death can break the lasting chain
And here even then shall my cold dust remain
Here all its frailties all its flames resign
And wait till 'tis no sin to mix with thine
Ah wretch believed the spouse of God in vain
Confess'd within the slave of love and man
Assist me Heaven but whence arose that prayer
Sprung it from piety or from despair
Even here where frozen chastity retires
Love finds an altar for forbidden fires
I ought to grieve but cannot what I ought
I mourn the lover not lament the fault
I view my crime but kindle at the view
Repent old pleasures and solicit new
Now turn'd to Heaven I weep my past offence
Now think of thee and curse my innocence
Of all affliction taught a lover yet
'Tis sure the hardest science to forget
How shall I lose the sin yet keep the sense
And love the offender yet detest the offence
How the dear object from the crime remove
Or how distinguish penitence from love
Unequal task a passion to resign
For hearts so touch'd so pierced so lost as mine
Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state
How often must it love how often hate
How often hope despair resent regret
Conceal disdain do all things but forget
But let Heaven seize it all at once 'tis fired
Not touch'd but rapt not waken'd but inspired
Oh come oh teach me nature to subdue
Renounce my love my life myself and you
Fill my fond heart with God alone for He
Alone can rival can succeed to thee
How happy is the blameless Vestal lot
The world forgetting by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Each prayer accepted and each wish resign'd
Labour and rest that equal periods keep
'Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep
Desires composed affections ever even
Tears that delight and sighs that waft to heaven
Grace shines around her with serenest beams
And whispering angels prompt her golden dreams
For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes
For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring
For her white virgins hymeneals sing
To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away
And melts in visions of eternal day
Far other dreams my erring soul employ
Far other raptures of unholy joy
When at the close of each sad sorrowing day
Fancy restores what vengeance snatch'd away
Then conscience sleeps and leaving nature free
All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee
O curst dear horrors of all-conscious night
How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight
Provoking demons all restraint remove
And stir within me every source of love
I hear thee view thee gaze o'er all thy charms
And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms
I wake no more I hear no more I view
The phantom flies me as unkind as you
I call aloud it hears not what I say
I stretch my empty arms it glides away
To dream once more I close my willing eyes
Ye soft illusions dear deceits arise
Alas no more methinks we wandering go
Through dreary wastes and weep each other woe
Where round some mouldering tower pale ivy creeps
And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps
Sudden you mount you beckon from the skies
Clouds interpose waves roar and winds arise
I shriek start up the same sad prospect find
And wake to all the griefs I left behind
For thee the Fates severely kind ordain
A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain
Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose
No pulse that riots and no blood that glows
Still as the sea ere winds were taught to blow
Or moving spirit bade the waters flow
Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiven
And mild as opening gleams of promised heaven
Come Abelard for what hast thou to dread
The torch of Venus burns not for the dead
Nature stands check'd Religion disapproves
Even thou art cold yet Eloisa loves
Ah hopeless lasting flames like those that burn
To light the dead and warm the unfruitful urn
What scenes appear where'er I turn my view
The dear ideas where I fly pursue
Rise in the grove before the altar rise
Stain all my soul and wanton in my eyes
I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee
Thy image steals between my God and me
Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear
With every bead I drop too soft a tear
When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll
And swelling organs lift the rising soul
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight
Priests tapers temples swim before my sight
In seas of flame my plunging soul is drown'd
While altars blaze and angels tremble round
While prostrate here in humble grief I lie
Kind virtuous drops just gathering in my eye
While praying trembling in the dust I roll
And dawning grace is opening on my soul
Come if thou dar'st all charming as thou art
Oppose thyself to heaven dispute my heart
Come with one glance of those deluding eyes
Blot out each bright idea of the skies
Take back that grace those sorrows and those tears
Take back my fruitless penitence and prayers
Snatch me just mounting from the blest abode
Assist the fiends and tear me from my God
No fly me fly me far as pole from pole
Rise Alps between us and whole oceans roll
Ah come not write not think not once of me
Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee
Thy oaths I quit thy memory resign
Forget renounce me hate whate'er was mine
Fair eyes and tempting looks which yet I view
Long loved adored ideas all adieu
O Grace serene O Virtue heavenly fair
Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care
Fresh blooming Hope gay daughter of the sky
And Faith our early immortality
Enter each mild each amicable guest
Receive and wrap me in eternal rest
See in her cell sad Eloisa spread
Propp'd on some tomb a neighbour of the dead
In each low wind methinks a spirit calls
And more than echoes talk along the walls
Here as I watch'd the dying lamps around
From yonder shrine I heard a hollow sound
'Come sister come' it said or seem'd to say
'Thy place is here sad sister come away
Once like thyself I trembled wept and pray'd
Love victim then though now a sainted maid
But all is calm in this eternal sleep
Here Grief forgets to groan and Love to weep
Even Superstition loses every fear
For God not man absolves our frailties here
I come I come prepare your roseate bowers
Celestial palms and ever-blooming flowers
Thither where sinners may have rest I go
Where flames refined in breasts seraphic glow
Thou Abelard the last sad office pay
And smooth my passage to the realms of day
See my lips tremble and my eyeballs roll
Suck my last breath and catch my flying soul
Ah no in sacred vestments may'st thou stand
The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand
Present the cross before my lifted eye
Teach me at once and learn of me to die
Ah then thy once-loved Eloisa see
It will be then no crime to gaze on me
See from my cheek the transient roses fly
See the last sparkle languish in my eye
Till every motion pulse and breath be o'er
And even my Abelard be loved no more
O Death all-eloquent you only prove
What dust we doat on when 'tis man we love
Then too when fate shall thy fair frame destroy
That cause of all my guilt and all my joy
In trance ecstatic may thy pangs be drown'd
Bright clouds descend and angels watch thee round
From opening skies may streaming glories shine
And saints embrace thee with a love like mine
May one kind grave unite each hapless name
And graft my love immortal on thy fame
Then ages hence when all my woes are o'er
When this rebellious heart shall beat no more
If ever chance two wandering lovers brings
To Paraclete white walls and silver springs
O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads
And drink the falling tears each other sheds
Then sadly say with mutual pity moved
'Oh may we never love as these have loved
From the full choir when loud hosannas rise
And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice
Amid that scene if some relenting eye
Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie
Devotion self shall steal a thought from heaven
One human tear shall drop and be forgiven
And sure if Fate some future bard shall join
In sad similitude of griefs to mine
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore
And image charms he must behold no more
Such if there be who love so long so well
Let him our sad our tender story tell
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost
He best can paint them who shall feel them most
Such were the notes thy once-loved Poet sung
Till Death untimely stopp'd his tuneful tongue
Oh just beheld and lost admired and mourn'd
With softest manners gentlest arts adorn'd
Blest in each science blest in every strain
Dear to the Muse to Harley dear in vain
For him thou oft hast bid the world attend
Fond to forget the statesman in the friend
For Swift and him despised the farce of state
The sober follies of the wise and great
Dext'rous the craving fawning crowd to quit
And pleased to 'scape from Flattery to Wit
Absent or dead still let a friend be dear
A sigh the absent claims the dead a tear
Recall those nights that closed thy toilsome days
Still hear thy Parnell in his living lays
Who careless now of interest fame or fate
Perhaps forgets that Oxford e'er was great
Or deeming meanest what we greatest call
Behold thee glorious only in thy fall
And sure if aught below the seats divine
Can touch immortals 'tis a soul like thine
A soul supreme in each hard instance tried
Above all pain all passion and all pride
The rage of power the blast of public breath
The lust of lucre and the dread of death
In vain to deserts thy retreat is made
The Muse attends thee to thy silent shade
'Tis hers the brave man latest steps to trace
Rejudge his acts and dignify disgrace
When interest calls off all her sneaking train
And all the obliged desert and all the vain
She waits or to the scaffold or the cell
When the last lingering friend has bid farewell
Even now she shades thy evening-walk with bays
No hireling she no prostitute to praise
Even now observant of the parting ray
Eyes the calm sunset of thy various day
Through Fortune cloud one truly great can see
Nor fears to tell that Mortimer is he
This verse be thine my friend nor thou refuse
This from no venal or ungrateful Muse
Whether thy hand strike out some free design
Where life awakes and dawns at every line
Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mass
And from the canvas call the mimic face
Read these instructive leaves in which conspire
Fresnoy close art and Dryden native fire
And reading wish like theirs our fate and fame
So mix'd our studies and so join'd our name
Like them to shine through long succeeding age
So just thy skill so regular my rage
Smit with the love of sister-arts we came
And met congenial mingling flame with flame
Like friendly colours found them both unite
And each from each contract new strength and light
How oft in pleasing tasks we wear the day
While summer suns roll unperceived away
How oft our slowly-growing works impart
While images reflect from art to art
How oft review each finding like a friend
Something to blame and something to commend
What flattering scenes our wandering fancy wrought
Rome pompous glories rising to our thought
Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly
Fired with ideas of fair Italy
With thee on Raphael monument I mourn
Or wait inspiring dreams at Maro urn
With thee repose where Tully once was laid
Or seek some ruin formidable shade
While fancy brings the vanish'd piles to view
And builds imaginary Rome anew
Here thy well-studied marbles fix our eye
A fading fresco here demands a sigh
Each heavenly piece unwearied we compare
Match Raphael grace with thy loved Guide air
Carracci strength Correggio softer line
Paulo free stroke and Titian warmth divine
How finish'd with illustrious toil appears
This small well-polish'd gem the work of years
Yet still how faint by precept is express'd
The living image in the painter breast
Thence endless streams of fair ideas flow
Strike in the sketch or in the picture glow
Thence Beauty waking all her forms supplies
An angel sweetness or Bridgewater eyes
Muse at that name thy sacred sorrows shed
Those tears eternal that embalm the dead
Call round her tomb each object of desire
Each purer frame inform'd with purer fire
Bid her be all that cheers or softens life
The tender sister daughter friend and wife
Bid her be all that makes mankind adore
Then view this marble and be vain no more
Yet still her charms in breathing paint engage
Her modest cheek shall warm a future age
Beauty frail flower that every season fears
Blooms in thy colours for a thousand years
Thus Churchill race shall other hearts surprise
And other beauties envy Worsley eyes
Each pleasing Blount shall endless smiles bestow
And soft Belinda blush for ever glow
Oh lasting as those colours may they shine
Free as thy stroke yet faultless as thy line
New graces yearly like thy works display
Soft without weakness without glaring gay
Led by some rule that guides but not constrains
And finish'd more through happiness than pains
The kindred arts shall in their praise conspire
One dip the pencil and one string the lyre
Yet should the Graces all thy figures place
And breathe an air divine on every face
Yet should the Muses bid my numbers roll
Strong as their charms and gentle as their soul
With Zeuxis' Helen thy Bridgewater vie
And these be sung till Granville Myra die
Alas how little from the grave we claim
Thou but preserv'st a face and I a name
In these gay thoughts the Loves and Graces shine
And all the writer lives in every line
His easy art may happy nature seem
Trifles themselves are elegant in him
Sure to charm all was his peculiar fate
Who without flattery pleased the fair and great
Still with esteem no less conversed than read
With wit well-natured and with books well-bred
His heart his mistress and his friend did share
His time the Muse the witty and the fair
Thus wisely careless innocently gay
Cheerful he play'd the trifle Life away
Till Fate scarce felt his gentle breath suppress'd
As smiling infants sport themselves to rest
Even rival wits did Voiture death deplore
And the gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before
The truest hearts for Voiture heaved with sighs
Voiture was wept by all the brightest eyes
The Smiles and Loves had died in Voiture death
But that for ever in his lines they breathe
Let the strict life of graver mortals be
A long exact and serious comedy
In every scene some moral let it teach
And if it can at once both please and preach
Let mine an innocent gay farce appear
And more diverting still than regular
Have humour wit a native ease and grace
Though not too strictly bound to time and place
Critics in wit or life are hard to please
Few write to those and none can live to these
Too much your sex is by their forms confined
Severe to all but most to womankind
Custom grown blind with age must be your guide
Your pleasure is a vice but not your pride
By nature yielding stubborn but for fame
Made slaves by honour and made fools by shame
Marriage may all those petty tyrants chase
But sets up one a greater in their place
Well might you wish for change by those accursed
But the last tyrant ever proves the worst
Still in constraint your suffering sex remains
Or bound in formal or in real chains
Whole years neglected for some months adored
The fawning servant turns a haughty lord
Ah quit not the free innocence of life
For the dull glory of a virtuous wife
Nor let false shows or empty titles please
Aim not at joy but rest content with ease
The gods to curse Pamela with her prayers
Gave the gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares
The shining robes rich jewels beds of state
And to complete her bliss a fool for mate
She glares in balls front boxes and the Ring
A vain unquiet glittering wretched thing
Pride pomp and state but reach her outward part
She sighs and is no duchess at her heart
But madam if the Fates withstand and you
Are destined Hymen willing victim too
Trust not too much your now resistless charms
Those age or sickness soon or late disarms
Good-humour only teaches charms to last
Still makes new conquests and maintains the past
Love raised on beauty will like that decay
Our hearts may bear its slender chain a day
As flowery bands in wantonness are worn
A morning pleasure and at evening torn
This binds in ties more easy yet more strong
The willing heart and only holds it long
Thus Voiture early care still shone the same
And Monthansier was only changed in name
By this even now they live even now they charm
Their wit still sparkling and their flames still warm
Now crown'd with myrtle on the Elysian coast
Amid those lovers joys his gentle ghost
Pleased while with smiles his happy lines you view
And finds a fairer Rambouillet in you
The brightest eyes of France inspired his Muse
The brightest eyes of Britain now peruse
And dead as living 'tis our author pride
Still to charm those who charm the world beside
As some fond virgin whom her mother care
Drags from the town to wholesome country air
Just when she learns to roll a melting eye
And hear a spark yet think no danger nigh
From the dear man unwilling she must sever
Yet takes one kiss before she parts for ever
Thus from the world fair Zephalinda flew
Saw others happy and with sighs withdrew
Not that their pleasures caused her discontent
She sigh'd not that they staid but that she went
She went to plain-work and to purling brooks
Old-fashion'd halls dull aunts and croaking rooks
She went from opera park assembly play
To morning-walks and prayers three hours a-day
To part her time 'twixt reading and bohea
To muse and spill her solitary tea
Or o'er cold coffee trifle with the spoon
Count the slow clock and dine exact at noon
Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire
Hum half a tune tell stories to the 'squire
Up to her godly garret after seven
There starve and pray for that the way to heaven
Some 'squire perhaps you take delight to rack
Whose game is whist whose treat a toast in sack
Who visits with a gun presents you birds
Then gives a smacking buss and cries No words
Or with his hound comes hallooing from the stable
Makes love with nods and knees beneath a table
Whose laughs are hearty though his jests are coarse
And loves you best of all things but his horse
In some fair evening on your elbow laid
You dream of triumphs in the rural shade
In pensive thought recall the fancied scene
See coronations rise on every green
Before you pass the imaginary sights
Of lords and earls and dukes and garter'd knights
While the spread fan o'ershades your closing eyes
Then give one flirt and all the vision flies
Thus vanish sceptres coronets and balls
And leave you in lone woods or empty walls
So when your slave at some dear idle time
Not plagued with headaches or the want of rhyme
Stands in the streets abstracted from the crew
And while he seems to study thinks of you
Just when his fancy paints your sprightly eyes
Or sees the blush of soft Parthenia rise
Gay pats my shoulder and you vanish quite
Streets chairs and coxcombs rush upon my sight
Vex'd to be still in town I knit my brow
Look sour and hum a tune as you do now
AWAKE my St John leave all meaner things
To low ambition and the pride of kings
Let us since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us and to die
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man
A mighty maze but not without a plan
A wild where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot
Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit
Together let us beat this ample field
Try what the open what the covert yield
The latent tracts the giddy heights explore
Of all who blindly creep or sightless soar
Eye Nature walks shoot folly as it flies
And catch the manners living as they rise
Laugh where we must be candid where we can
But vindicate the ways of God to Man
Say first of God above or Man below
What can we reason but from what we know
Of Man what see we but his station here
From which to reason or to which refer
Through worlds unnumber'd though the God be known
'Tis ours to trace him only in our own
He who through vast immensity can pierce
See worlds on worlds compose one universe
Observe how system into system runs
What other planets circle other suns
What varied being peoples every star
May tell why Heaven has made us as we are
But of this frame the bearings and the ties
The strong connexions nice dependencies
Gradations just has thy pervading soul
Look'd through or can a part contain the whole
Is the great chain that draws all to agree
And drawn supports upheld by God or thee
Presumptuous Man the reason wouldst thou find
Why form'd so weak so little and so blind
First if thou canst the harder reason guess
Why form'd no weaker blinder and no less
Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade
Or ask of yonder argent fields above
Why Jove satellites are less than Jove
Of systems possible if 'tis confess'd
That Wisdom infinite must form the best
Where all must full or not coherent be
And all that rises rise in due degree
Then in the scale of reasoning life 'tis plain
There must be somewhere such a rank as Man
And all the question wrangle e'er so long
Is only this if God has placed him wrong
Respecting Man whatever wrong we call
May must be right as relative to all
In human works though labour'd on with pain
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain
In God one single can its end produce
Yet serves to second too some other use
So Man who here seems principal alone
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown
Touches some wheel or verges to some goal
'Tis but a part we see and not a whole
When the proud steed shall know why Man restrains
His fiery course or drives him o'er the plains
When the dull ox why now he breaks the clod
Is now a victim and now Egypt god
Then shall man pride and dulness comprehend
His actions' passions' being use and end
Why doing suffering check'd impell'd and why
This hour a slave the next a deity
Then say not Man imperfect Heaven in fault
Say rather Man as perfect as he ought
His knowledge measured to his state and place
His time a moment and a point his space
If to be perfect in a certain sphere
What matter soon or late or here or there
The blest to-day is as completely so
As who began a thousand years ago
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate
All but the page prescribed their present state
From brutes what men from men what spirits know
Or who could suffer being here below
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day
Had he thy reason would he skip and play
Pleased to the last he crops the flowery food
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood
Oh blindness to the future kindly given
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven
Who sees with equal eye as God of all
A hero perish or a sparrow fall
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd
And now a bubble burst and now a world
Hope humbly then with trembling pinions soar
Wait the great teacher Death and God adore
What future bliss He gives not thee to know
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now
Hope springs eternal in the human breast
Man never Is but always To be blest
The soul uneasy and confined from home
Rests and expatiates in a life to come
Lo the poor Indian whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds or hears him in the wind
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky-way
Yet simple nature to his hope has given
Behind the cloud-topp'd hill an humbler heaven
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced
Some happier island in the watery waste
Where slaves once more their native land behold
No fiends torment no Christians thirst for gold
To be contents his natural desire
He asks no angel wing no seraph fire
But thinks admitted to that equal sky
His faithful dog shall bear him company
Go wiser thou and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such
Say here he gives too little there too much
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust
Yet cry If Man unhappy God unjust
If Man alone engross not Heaven high care
Alone made perfect here immortal there
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod
Re-judge his justice be the God of God
In pride in reasoning pride our error lies
All quit their sphere and rush into the skies
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes
Men would be angels angels would be gods
Aspiring to be gods if angels fell
Aspiring to be angels men rebel
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of ORDER sins against the Eternal Cause
Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine
Earth for whose use Pride answers ''Tis for mine
For me kind Nature wakes her genial power
Suckles each herb and spreads out every flower
Annual for me the grape the rose renew
The juice nectareous and the balmy dew
For me the mine a thousand treasures brings
For me health gushes from a thousand springs
Seas roll to waft me suns to light me rise
My footstool earth my canopy the skies
But errs not Nature from this gracious end
From burning suns when livid deaths descend
When earthquakes swallow or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave whole nations to the deep
'No' 'tis replied 'the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial but by general laws
Th' exceptions few some change since all began
And what created perfect' Why then Man
If the great end be human happiness
Then Nature deviates and can Man do less
As much that end a constant course requires
Of showers and sunshine as of Man desires
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies
As men for ever temperate calm and wise
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven design
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline
Who knows but He whose hand the lightning forms
Who heaves old Ocean and who wings the storms
Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar mind
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind
From pride from pride our very reasoning springs
Account for moral as for natural things
Why charge we Heaven in those in these acquit
In both to reason right is to submit
Better for us perhaps it might appear
Were there all harmony all virtue here
That never air or ocean felt the wind
That never passion discomposed the mind
But all subsists by elemental strife
And passions are the elements of life
The general order since the whole began
Is kept in Nature and is kept in Man
What would this Man Now upward will he soar
And little less than angel would be more
Now looking downwards just as grieved appears
To want the strength of bulls the fur of bears
Made for his use all creatures if he call
Say what their use had he the powers of all
Nature to these without profusion kind
The proper organs proper powers assign'd
Each seeming want compensated of course
Here with degrees of swiftness there of force
All in exact proportion to the state
Nothing to add and nothing to abate
Each beast each insect happy in its own
Is Heaven unkind to Man and Man alone
Shall he alone whom rational we call
Be pleased with nothing if not bless'd with all
The bliss of Man could pride that blessing find
Is not to act or think beyond mankind
No powers of body or of soul to share
But what his nature and his state can bear
Why has not Man a microscopic eye
For this plain reason Man is not a fly
Say what the use were finer optics given
T'inspect a mite not comprehend the heaven
Or touch if tremblingly alive all o'er
To smart and agonise at every pore
Or quick effluvia darting through the brain
Die of a rose in aromatic pain
If nature thunder'd in his opening ears
And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres
How would he wish that Heaven had left him still
The whispering zephyr and the purling rill
Who finds not Providence all good and wise
Alike in what it gives and what denies
Far as Creation ample range extends
The scale of sensual mental powers ascends
Mark how it mounts to Man imperial race
From the green myriads in the peopled grass
What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme
The mole dim curtain and the lynx beam
Of smell the headlong lioness between
And hound sagacious on the tainted green
Of hearing from the life that fills the flood
To that which warbles through the vernal wood
The spider touch how exquisitely fine
Feels at each thread and lives along the line
In the nice bee what sense so subtly true
From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew
How instinct varies in the grovelling swine
Compared half-reasoning elephant with thine
'Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier
For ever separate yet for ever near
Remembrance and reflection how allied
What thin partitions sense from thought divide
And middle natures how they long to join
Yet never pass th' insuperable line
Without this just gradation could they be
Subjected these to those or all to thee
The powers of all subdued by thee alone
Is not thy reason all these powers in one
See through this air this ocean and this earth
All matter quick and bursting into birth
Above how high progressive life may go
Around how wide how deep extend below
Vast chain of being which from God began
Natures ethereal human angel man
Beast bird fish insect what no eye can see
No glass can reach from Infinite to Thee
From Thee to Nothing On superior powers
Were we to press inferior might on ours
Or in the full creation leave a void
Where one step broken the great scale destroy'd
From Nature chain whatever link you strike
Tenth or ten thousandth breaks the chain alike
And if each system in gradation roll
Alike essential to th' amazing whole
The least confusion but in one not all
That system only but the whole must fall
Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd
Being on being wreck'd and world on world
Heaven whole foundations to their centre nod
And Nature trembles to the throne of God
All this dread order break for whom for thee
Vile worm oh madness pride impiety
What if the foot ordain'd the dust to tread
Or hand to toil aspired to be the head
What if the head the eye or ear repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another in this general frame
Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains
The great directing Mind of All ordains
All are but parts of one stupendous whole
Whose body Nature is and God the soul
That changed through all and yet in all the same
Great in the earth as in th' ethereal frame
Warms in the sun refreshes in the breeze
Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees
Lives through all life extends through all extent
Spreads undivided operates unspent
Breathes in our soul informs our mortal part
As full as perfect in a hair as heart
As full as perfect in vile Man that mourns
As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns
To Him no high no low no great no small
He fills He bounds connects and equals all
Cease then nor Order imperfection name
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame
Know thy own point this kind this due degree
Of blindness weakness Heaven bestows on thee
Submit in this or any other sphere
Secure to be as bless'd as thou canst bear
Safe in the hand of one disposing Power
Or in the natal or the mortal hour
All Nature is but Art unknown to thee
All chance direction which thou canst not see
All discord harmony not understood
All partial evil universal good
And spite of pride in erring reason spite
One truth is clear WHATEVER IS IS
KNOW then thyself presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is Man
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state
A being darkly wise and rudely great
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side
With too much weakness for the stoic pride
He hangs between in doubt to act or rest
In doubt to deem himself a god or beast
In doubt his mind or body to prefer
Born but to die and reasoning but to err
Alike in ignorance his reason such
Whether he thinks too little or too much
Chaos of thought and passion all confused
Still by himself abused or disabused
Created half to rise and half to fall
Great lord of all things yet a prey to all
Sole judge of truth in endless error hurl'd
The glory jest and riddle of the world
Go wondrous creature mount where science guides
Go measure earth weigh air and state the tides
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run
Correct old Time and regulate the sun
Go soar with Plato to the empyreal sphere
To the first Good first Perfect and first Fair
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod
And quitting sense call imitating God
As eastern priests in giddy circles run
And turn their heads to imitate the sun
Go teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule 
Then drop into thyself and be a fool
Superior beings when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all Nature law
Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape
And show'd a Newton as we show an ape
Could he whose rules the rapid comet bind
Describe or fix one movement of his mind
Who saw its fires here rise and there descend
Explain his own beginning or his end
Alas what wonder Man superior part
Uncheck'd may rise and climb from art to art
But when his own great work is but begun
What reason weaves by passion is undone
Trace Science then with modesty thy guide
First strip off all her equipage of pride
Deduct what is but vanity or dress
Or learning luxury or idleness
Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain
Mere curious pleasure or ingenious pain
Expunge the whole or lop th' excrescent parts
Of all our vices have created arts
Then see how little the remaining sum
Which served the past and must the times to come
Two principles in human nature reign 
Self-love to urge and reason to restrain
Nor this a good nor that a bad we call
Each works its end to move or govern all
And to their proper operation still
Ascribe all good to their improper ill
Self-love the spring of motion acts the soul
Reason comparing balance rules the whole
Man but for that no action could attend
And but for this were active to no end
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot
To draw nutrition propagate and rot
Or meteor-like flame lawless through the void
Destroying others by himself destroy'd
Most strength the moving principle requires
Active its task it prompts impels inspires
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies
Form'd but to check deliberate and advise
Self-love still stronger as its objects nigh
Reason at distance and in prospect lie
That sees immediate good by present sense
Reason the future and the consequence
Thicker than arguments temptations throng
At best more watchful this but that more strong
The action of the stronger to suspend
Reason still use to reason still attend
Attention habit and experience gains
Each strengthens reason and self-love restrains
Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight
More studious to divide than to unite
And grace and virtue sense and reason split
With all the rash dexterity of wit
Wits just like fools at war about a name
Have full as oft no meaning or the same
Self-love and reason to one end aspire
Pain their aversion pleasure their desire
But greedy that its object would devour
This taste the honey and not wound the flower
Pleasure or wrong or rightly understood
Our greatest evil or our greatest good
Modes of self-love the passions we may call
'Tis real good or seeming moves them all
But since not every good we can divide
And reason bids us for our own provide
Passions though selfish if their means be fair
List under reason and deserve her care
Those that imparted court a nobler aim
Exalt their kind and take some virtue name
In lazy apathy let Stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd 'tis fix'd as in a frost
Contracted all retiring to the breast
But strength of mind is exercise not rest
The rising tempest puts in act the soul
Parts it may ravage but preserves the whole
On life vast ocean diversely we sail
Reason the card but passion is the gale
Nor God alone in the still calm we find
He mounts the storm and walks upon the wind
Passions like elements though born to fight
Yet mix'd and soften'd in his work unite
These 'tis enough to temper and employ
But what composes Man can Man destroy
Suffice that reason keep to Nature road
Subject compound them follow her and God
Love Hope and Joy fair Pleasure smiling train
Hate Fear and Grief the family of Pain
These mix'd with art and to due bounds confined
Make and maintain the balance of the mind
The lights and shades whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes
And when in act they cease in prospect rise
Present to grasp and future still to find
The whole employ of body and of mind
All spread their charms but charm not all alike
On different senses different objects strike
Hence different passions more or less inflame
As strong or weak the organs of the frame
And hence one master passion in the breast
Like Aaron serpent swallows up the rest
As Man perhaps the moment of his breath
Receives the lurking principle of death
The young disease that must subdue at length
Grows with his growth and strengthens with his strength
So cast and mingled with his very frame
The mind disease its ruling passion came
Each vital humour which should feed the whole
Soon flows to this in body and in soul
Whatever warms the heart or fills the head
As the mind opens and its functions spread
Imagination plies her dangerous art
And pours it all upon the peccant part
Nature its mother habit is its nurse
Wit spirit faculties but make it worse
Reason itself but gives it edge and power
As Heaven blest beam turns vinegar more sour
We wretched subjects though to lawful sway
In this weak queen some favourite still obey
Ah if she lend not arms as well as rules
What can she more than tell us we are fools
Teach us to mourn our nature not to mend
A sharp accuser but a helpless friend
Or from a judge turn pleader to persuade
The choice we make or justify it made
Proud of an easy conquest all along
She but removes weak passions for the strong
So when small humours gather to a gout
The doctor fancies he has driven them out
Yes Nature road must ever be preferr'd
Reason is here no guide but still a guard
'Tis hers to rectify not overthrow
And treat this passion more as friend than foe
A mightier power the strong direction sends
And several men impels to several ends
Like varying winds by other passions tost
This drives them constant to a certain coast
Let power or knowledge gold or glory please
Or oft more strong than all the love of ease
Through life 'tis follow'd even at life expense
The merchant toil the sage indolence
The monk humility the hero pride
All all alike find reason on their side
Th' eternal Art educing good from ill
Grafts on this passion our best principle
'Tis thus the mercury of Man is fix'd
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd
The dross cements what else were too refined
And in one interest body acts with mind
As fruits ungrateful to the planter care
On savage stocks inserted learn to bear
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot
Wild nature vigour working at the root
What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen from obstinacy hate or fear
See anger zeal and fortitude supply
Even avarice prudence sloth philosophy
Lust through some certain strainers well refined
Is gentle love and charms all womankind
Envy to which th' ignoble mind a slave
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave
Nor virtue male or female can we name
But what will grow on pride or grow on shame
Thus Nature gives us let it check our pride
The virtue nearest to our vice allied
Reason the bias turns to good from ill
And Nero reigns a Titus if he will
The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline
In Decius charms in Curtius is divine
The same ambition can destroy or save
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave
This light and darkness in our chaos join'd
What shall divide the God within the mind
Extremes in Nature equal ends produce
In man they join to some mysterious use
Though each by turns the other bound invade
As in some well-wrought picture light and shade
And oft so mix the difference is too nice
Where ends the virtue or begins the vice
Fools who from hence into the notion fall
That vice or virtue there is none at all
If white and black blend soften and unite
A thousand ways is there no black or white
Ask your own heart and nothing is so plain
'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen
Yet seen too oft familiar with her face
We first endure then pity then embrace
But where th' extreme of vice was ne'er agreed
Ask where the north at York 'tis on the Tweed
In Scotland at the Orcades and there
At Greenland Zembla or the Lord knows where
No creature owns it in the first degree
But thinks his neighbour further gone than he
Even those who dwell beneath its very zone
Or never feel the rage or never own
What happier natures shrink at with affright
The hard inhabitant contends is right
Virtuous and vicious every man must be
Few in th' extreme but all in the degree
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise
And even the best by fits what they despise
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill
For vice or virtue self directs it still
Each individual seeks a several goal
But Heaven great view is one and that the whole
That counterworks each folly and caprice
That disappoints th' effect of every vice
That happy frailties to all ranks applied
Shame to the virgin to the matron pride
Fear to the statesman rashness to the chief
To kings presumption and to crowds belief
That virtue ends from vanity can raise
Which seeks no interest no reward but praise
And build on wants and on defects of mind
The joy the peace the glory of mankind
Heaven forming each on other to depend
A master or a servant or a friend
Bids each on other for assistance call
Till one man weakness grows the strength of all
Wants frailties passions closer still ally
The common interest or endear the tie
To these we owe true friendship love sincere
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here
Yet from the same we learn in its decline
Those joys those loves those interests to resign
Taught half by reason half by mere decay
To welcome death and calmly pass away
Whate'er the passion knowledge fame or pelf
Not one will change his neighbour with himself
The learn'd is happy Nature to explore
The fool is happy that he knows no more
The rich is happy in the plenty given
The poor contents him with the care of Heaven
See the blind beggar dance the cripple sing
The sot a hero lunatic a king
The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bless'd the poet in his Muse
See some strange comfort every state attend
And pride bestow'd on all a common friend
See some fit passion every age supply
Hope travels through nor quits us when we die
Behold the child by Nature kindly law
Pleased with a rattle tickled with a straw
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight
A little louder but as empty quite
Scarfs garters gold amuse his riper stage
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age
Pleased with this bauble still as that before
Till tired he sleeps and life poor play is o'er
Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days
Each want of happiness by hope supplied
And each vacuity of sense by pride
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy
In Folly cup still laughs the bubble joy
One prospect lost another still we gain
And not a vanity is given in vain
Even mean self-love becomes by force divine
The scale to measure others' wants by thine
See and confess one comfort still must rise
'Tis this Though Man a fool yet God is wise
Look round our world behold the chain of love
Combining all below and all above
See plastic Nature working to this end
The single atoms each to other tend
Attract attracted to the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace
See matter next with various life endued
Press to one centre still the general Good
See dying vegetables life sustain
See life dissolving vegetate again
All forms that perish other forms supply
By turns we catch the vital breath and die
Like bubbles on the sea of Matter born
They rise they break and to that sea return
Nothing is foreign parts relate to whole
One all-extending all-preserving Soul
Connects each being greatest with the least
Made beast in aid of man and man of beast
All served all serving nothing stands alone
The chain holds on and where it ends unknown
Has God thou fool work'd solely for thy good
Thy joy thy pastime thy attire thy food
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn
For him as kindly spread the flowery lawn
Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings
Joy tunes his voice joy elevates his wings
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat
Loves of his own and raptures swell the note
The bounding steed you pompously bestride
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain
Thine the full harvest of the golden year
Part pays and justly the deserving steer
The hog that ploughs not nor obeys thy call
Lives on the labours of this lord of all
Know Nature children all divide her care
The fur that warms a monarch warm'd a bear
While Man exclaims 'See all things for my use
'See man for mine' replies a pamper'd goose
And just as short of reason he must fall
Who thinks all made for one not one for all
Grant that the powerful still the weak control
Be Man the wit and tyrant of the whole
Nature that tyrant checks he only knows
And helps another creature wants and woes
Say will the falcon stooping from above
Smit with her varying plumage spare the dove
Admires the jay the insect gilded wings
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings
Man cares for all to birds he gives his woods
To beasts his pastures and to fish his floods
For some his interest prompts him to provide
For more his pleasure yet for more his pride
All feed on one vain patron and enjoy
Th' extensive blessing of his luxury
That very life his learned hunger craves
He saves from famine from the savage saves
Nay feasts the animal he dooms his feast
And till he ends the being makes it blest
Which sees no more the stroke or feels the pain
Than favour'd Man by touch ethereal slain
The creature had his feast of life before
Thou too must perish when thy feast is o'er
To each unthinking being Heaven a friend
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end
To Man imparts it but with such a view
As while he dreads it makes him hope it too
The hour conceal'd and so remote the fear
Death still draws nearer never seeming near
Great standing miracle that Heaven assign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind
Whether with reason or with instinct blest
Know all enjoy that power which suits them best
To bliss alike by that direction tend
And find the means proportion'd to their end
Say where full instinct is th' unerring guide
What pope or council can they need beside
Reason however able cool at best
Cares not for service or but serves when press'd
Stays till we call and then not often near
But honest instinct comes a volunteer
Sure never to o'ershoot but just to hit
While still too wide or short is human wit
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain
Which heavier reason labours at in vain
This too serves always reason never long
One must go right the other may go wrong
See then the acting and comparing powers
One in their nature which are two in ours
And reason raise o'er instinct as you can
In this 'tis God directs in that 'tis Man
Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To shun their poison and to choose their food
Prescient the tides or tempests to withstand
Build on the wave or arch beneath the sand
Who made the spider parallels design
Sure as De Moivre without rule or line
Who bid the stork Columbus-like explore
Heavens not his own and worlds unknown before
Who calls the council states the certain day
Who forms the phalanx and who points the way
God in the nature of each being founds
Its proper bliss and sets its proper bounds
But as he framed a whole the whole to bless
On mutual wants built mutual happiness
So from the first eternal Order ran
And creature link'd to creature man to man
Whate'er of life all-quickening ether keeps
Or breathes through air or shoots beneath the deeps
Or pours profuse on earth one nature feeds
The vital flame and swells the genial seeds
Not Man alone but all that roam the wood
Or wing the sky or roll along the flood
Each loves itself but not itself alone
Each sex desires alike till two are one
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace
They love themselves a third time in their race
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend
The mothers nurse it and the sires defend
The young dismiss'd to wander earth or air
There stops the instinct and there ends the care
The link dissolves each seeks a fresh embrace
Another love succeeds another race
A longer care Man helpless kind demands
That longer care contracts more lasting bands
Reflection reason still the ties improve
At once extend the interest and the love
With choice we fix with sympathy we burn
Each virtue in each passion takes its turn
And still new needs new helps new habits rise
That graft benevolence on charities
Still as one brood and as another rose
These natural love maintain'd habitual those
The last scarce ripen'd into perfect man
Saw helpless him from whom their life began
Memory and forecast just returns engage
That pointed back to youth this on to age
While pleasure gratitude and hope combined
Still spread the interest and preserved the kind
Nor think in Nature state they blindly trod
The state of Nature was the reign of God
Self-love and social at her birth began
Union the bond of all things and of Man
Pride then was not nor arts that pride to aid
Man walk'd with beast joint tenant of the shade
The same his table and the same his bed
No murder clothed him and no murder fed
In the same temple the resounding wood
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God
The shrine with gore unstain'd with gold undress'd
Unbribed unbloody stood the blameless priest
Heaven attribute was universal care
And Man prerogative to rule but spare
Ah how unlike the Man of times to come
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb
Who foe to Nature hears the general groan
Murders their species and betrays his own
But just disease to luxury succeeds
And every death its own avenger breeds
The fury-passions from that blood began
And turn'd on Man a fiercer savage Man
See him from Nature rising slow to Art
To copy instinct then was reason part
Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake 
'Go from the creatures thy instructions take
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field
Thy arts of building from the bee receive
Learn of the mole to plough the worm to weave
Learn of the little nautilus to sail
Spread the thin oar and catch the driving gale
Here too all forms of social union find
And hence let reason late instruct mankind
Here subterranean works and cities see
There towns aerial on the waving tree
Learn each small people genius policies
The ants' republic and the realm of bees
How those in common all their wealth bestow
And anarchy without confusion know
And these for ever though a monarch reign
Their separate cells and properties maintain
Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state
Laws wise as Nature and as fix'd as Fate
In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw
Entangle Justice in her net of lay
And right too rigid harden into wrong
Still for the strong too weak the weak too strong
Yet go and thus o'er all the creatures sway
Thus let the wiser make the rest obey
And for those arts mere instinct could afford
Be crown'd as monarchs or as gods adored
Great Nature spoke observant men obey'd
Cities were built societies were made
Here rose one little state another near
Grew by like means and join'd through love or fear
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend
And there the streams in purer rills descend
What war could ravish commerce could bestow
And he return'd a friend who came a foe
Converse and love mankind might strongly draw
When love was liberty and Nature law
Thus states were form'd the name of king unknown
Till common interest placed the sway in one
'Twas virtue only or in arts or arms
Diffusing blessings or averting harms
The same which in a sire the sons obey'd
A prince the father of a people made
Till then by Nature crown'd each patriarch sat
King priest and parent of his growing state
On him their second Providence they hung
Their law his eye their oracle his tongue
He from the wondering furrow call'd the food
Taught to command the fire control the flood
Draw forth the monsters of the abyss profound
Or fetch the aerial eagle to the ground
Till drooping sickening dying they began
Whom they revered as god to mourn as man
Then looking up from sire to sire explored
One great first Father and that first adored
Or plain tradition that this All begun
Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son
The worker from the work distinct was known
And simple reason never sought but one
Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light
Man like his Maker saw that all was right
To virtue in the paths of pleasure trod
And own'd a Father when he own'd a God
Love all the faith and all the allegiance then
For nature knew no right divine in men
No ill could fear in God and understood
A sovereign Being but a sovereign good
True faith true policy united ran
That was but love of God and this of Man
Who first taught souls enslaved and realms undone
The enormous faith of many made for one
That proud exception to all Nature laws
To invert the world and counterwork its cause
Force first made conquest and that conquest law
'Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe
Then shared the tyranny then lent it aid
And gods of conquerors slaves of subjects made
She midst the lightning blaze and thunder sound
When rock'd the mountains and when groan'd the ground
She taught the weak to bend the proud to pray
To Power unseen and mightier far than they
She from the rending earth and bursting skies
Saw gods descend and fiends infernal rise
Here fix'd the dreadful there the blest abodes
Fear made her devils and weak hope her gods
Gods partial changeful passionate unjust
Whose attributes were rage revenge or lust
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive
And form'd like tyrants tyrants would believe
Zeal then not charity became the guide
And hell was built on spite and heaven on pride
Then sacred seem'd the ethereal vault no more
Altars grew marble then and reek'd with gore
Then first the Flamen tasted living food
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood
With Heaven own thunders shook the world below
And play'd the god an engine on his foe
So drives self-love through just and through unjust
To one man power ambition lucre lust
The same self-love in all becomes the cause
Of what restrains him government and laws
For what one likes if others like as well
What serves one will when many wills rebel
How shall he keep what sleeping or awake
A weaker may surprise a stronger take
His safety must his liberty restrain
All join to guard what each desires to gain
Forced into virtue thus by self-defence
Even kings learn'd justice and benevolence
Self-love forsook the path it first pursued
And found the private in the public good
'Twas then the studious head or generous mind
Follower of God or friend of human kind
Poet or patriot rose but to restore
The faith and moral Nature gave before
Relumed her ancient light not kindled new
If not God image yet his shadow drew
Taught power due use to people and to kings
Taught not to slack nor strain its tender strings
The less or greater set so justly true
That touching one must strike the other too
Till jarring interests of themselves create
The according music of a well-mix'd state
Such is the world great harmony that springs
From order union full consent of things
Where small and great where weak and mighty made
To serve not suffer strengthen not invade
More powerful each as needful to the rest
And in proportion as it blesses bless'd
Draw to one point and to one centre bring
Beast man or angel servant lord or king
For forms of government let fools contest
Whate'er is best administer'd is best
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right
In faith and hope the world will disagree
But all mankind concern is charity
All must be false that thwart this one great end
And all of God that bless mankind or mend
Man like the generous vine supported lives
The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives
On their own axis as the planets run
Yet make at once their circle round the sun
So two consistent motions act the soul
And one regards itself and one the whole
Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame
And bade self-love and social be the same
O Happiness our being end and aim
Good Pleasure Ease Content whate'er thy name
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh
For which we bear to live or dare to die
Which still so near us yet beyond us lies
O'erlook'd seen double by the fool and wise
Plant of celestial seed if dropp'd below
Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow
Fair opening to some court propitious shine
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine
Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field
Where grows where grows it not If vain our toil
We ought to blame the culture not the soil
Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere
Tis nowhere to be found or everywhere
'Tis never to be bought but always free
And fled from monarchs St John dwells with thee
Ask of the learn'd the way the learn'd are blind
This bids to serve and that to shun mankind
Some place the bliss in action some in ease
Those call it Pleasure and Contentment these
Some sunk to beasts find pleasure end in pain
Some swell'd to gods confess even virtue vain
Or indolent to each extreme they fall
To trust in every thing or doubt of all
Who thus define it say they more or less
Than this that happiness is happiness
Take Nature path and mad Opinion leave
All states can reach it and all heads conceive
Obvious her goods in no extreme they dwell
There needs but thinking right and meaning well
And mourn our various portions as we please
Equal is common sense and common ease
Remember Man 'The Universal Cause
Acts not by partial but by general laws
And makes what happiness we justly call
Subsist not in the good of one but all
There not a blessing individuals find
But some way leans and hearkens to the kind
No bandit fierce no tyrant mad with pride
No cavern'd hermit rests self-satisfied
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend
Seek an admirer or would fix a friend
Abstract what others feel what others think
All pleasures sicken and all glories sink
Each has his share and who would more obtain
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain
Order is Heaven first law and this confess'd
Some are and must be greater than the rest
More rich more wise but who infers from hence
That such are happier shocks all common sense
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess
If all are equal in their happiness
But mutual wants this happiness increase
All Nature difference keeps all Nature peace
Condition circumstance is not the thing
Bliss is the same in subject or in king
In who obtain defence or who defend
In him who is or him who finds a friend
Heaven breathes through every member of the whole
One common blessing as one common soul
But Fortune gifts if each alike possess'd
And each were equal must not all contest
If then to all Men happiness was meant
God in externals could not place content
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose
And these be happy call'd unhappy those
But Heaven just balance equal will appear
While those are placed in hope and these in fear
Not present good or ill the joy or curse
But future views of better or of worse
O sons of earth attempt ye still to rise
By mountains piled on mountains to the skies
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise
Know all the good that individuals find
Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind
Reason whole pleasure all the joys of sense
Lie in three words Health Peace and Competence
But health consists with temperance alone
And peace O Virtue peace is all thy own
The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain
But these less taste them as they worse obtain
Say in pursuit of profit or delight
Who risk the most that take wrong means or right
Of vice or virtue whether bless'd or cursed
Which meets contempt or which compassion first
Count all th' advantage prosperous vice attains
'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains
And grant the bad what happiness they would
One they must want which is to pass for good
Oh blind to truth and God whole scheme below
Who fancy bliss to vice to virtue woe
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best
Best knows the blessing and will most be bless'd
But fools the good alone unhappy call
For ills or accidents that chance to all
See Falkland dies the virtuous and the just
See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife
Was this their virtue or contempt of life
Say was it virtue more though Heaven ne'er gave
Lamented Digby sunk thee to the grave
Tell me if virtue made the son expire
Why full of days and honour lives the sire
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath
When Nature sicken'd and each gale was death
Or why so long in life if long can be
Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me
What makes all physical or moral ill
There deviates Nature and here wanders Will
God sends not ill if rightly understood
Or partial ill is universal good
Or change admits or Nature lets it fall
Short and but rare till Man improved it all
We just as wisely might of Heaven complain
That righteous Abel was destroy'd by Cain
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease
When his lewd father gave the dire disease
Think we like some weak prince th' Eternal Cause
Prone for his favourites to reverse his laws
Shall burning AEtna if a sage requires
Forget to thunder and recall her fires
On air or sea new motions be impress'd
O blameless Bethel to relieve thy breast
When the loose mountain trembles from on high
Shall gravitation cease if you go by
Or some old temple nodding to its fall
For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall
But still this world so fitted for the knave
Contents us not A better shall we have
A kingdom of the just then let it be
But first consider how those just agree
The good must merit God peculiar care
But who but God can tell us who they are
One thinks on Calvin Heaven own spirit fell
Another deems him instrument of hell
If Calvin feel Heaven blessing or its rod
This cries there is and that there is no God
What shocks one part will edify the rest
Nor with one system can they all be bless'd
The very best will variously incline
And what rewards your virtue punish mine
Whatever is is right This world 'tis true
Was made for Caesar but for Titus too
And which more bless'd who chain'd his country say
Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day
'But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed
What then Is the reward of virtue bread
That vice may merit 'tis the price of toil
The knave deserves it when he tills the soil
The knave deserves it when he tempts the main
Where Folly fights for kings or dives for gain
The good man may be weak be indolent
Nor is his claim to plenty but content
But grant him riches your demand is o'er
'No shall the good want health the good want power
Add health and power and every earthly thing
'Why bounded power why private why no king
Nay why external for internal given
Why is not man a god and earth a heaven
Who ask and reason thus will scarce conceive
God gives enough while he has more to give
Immense the power immense were the demand
Say at what part of nature will they stand
What nothing earthly gives or can destroy
The soul calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy
Is virtue prize a better would you fix
Then give humility a coach and six
Justice a conqueror sword or truth a gown
Or public spirit its great cure a crown
Weak foolish man will Heaven reward us there
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here
The boy and man an individual makes
Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes
Go like the Indian in another life
Expect thy dog thy bottle and thy wife
As well as dream such trifles are assign'd
As toys and empires for a godlike mind
Rewards that either would to virtue bring
No joy or be destructive of the thing
How oft by these at sixty are undone
The virtues of a saint at twenty-one
To whom can riches give repute or trust
Content or pleasure but the good and just
Judges and senates have been bought for gold
Esteem and love were never to be sold
O fool to think God hates the worthy mind
The lover and the love of human kind
Whose life is healthful and whose conscience clear
Because he wants a thousand pounds a year
Honour and shame from no condition rise
Act well your part there all the honour lies
Fortune in men has some small difference made 
One flaunts in rags one flutters in brocade
The cobbler apron'd and the parson gown'd
The friar hooded and the monarch crown'd
'What differ more' you cry 'than crown and cowl
I'll tell you friend a wise man and a fool
You'll find if once the monarch acts the monk
Or cobbler-like the parson will be drunk
Worth makes the man and want of it the fellow
The rest is all but leather or prunella
Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings
That thou may'st be by kings or whores of kings
Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece
But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate
Count me those only who were good and great
Go if your ancient but ignoble blood
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood
Go and pretend your family is young
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long
What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards
Alas not all the blood of all the Howards
Look next on greatness say where greatness lies
'Where but among the heroes and the wise
Heroes are much the same the point agreed
From Macedonia madman to the Swede
The whole strange purpose of their lives to find
Or make an enemy of all mankind
Not one looks backward onward still he goes
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose
No less alike the politic and wise
All sly slow things with circumspective eyes
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take
Not that themselves are wise but others weak
But grant that those can conquer these can cheat
'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great
Who wickedly is wise or madly brave
Is but the more a fool the more a knave
Who noble ends by noble means obtains
Or failing smiles in exile or in chains
Like good Aurelius let him reign or bleed
Like Socrates that man is great indeed
What fame A fancied life in others' breath
A thing beyond us even before our death
Just what you hear you have and what unknown
The same my Lord if Tully or your own
All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends
To all beside as much an empty shade
An Eugene living as a Caesar dead
Alike or when or where they shone or shine
Or on the Rubicon or on the Rhine
A wit a feather and a chief a rod
An honest man the noblest work of God
Fame but from death a villain name can save
As justice tears his body from the grave
When what t' oblivion better were resign'd
Is hung on high to poison half mankind
All fame is foreign but of true desert
Plays round the head but comes not to the heart
One self-approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas
And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels
In parts superior what advantage lies
Tell for you can what is it to be wise
'Tis but to know how little can be known
To see all others' faults and feel our own
Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge
Without a second or without a judge
Truths would you teach or save a sinking land
All fear none aid you and few understand
Painful pre-eminence yourself to view
Above life weakness and its comforts too
Bring then these blessings to a strict account
Make fair deductions see to what they mount
How much of other each is sure to cost
How each for other oft is wholly lost
How inconsistent greater goods with these
How sometimes life is risk'd and always ease
Think and if still the things thy envy call
Say wouldst thou be the man to whom they fall
To sigh for ribands if thou art so silly
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra or Sir Billy
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life
Look but on Gripus or on Gripus' wife
If parts allure thee think how Bacon shined
The wisest brightest meanest of mankind
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name
See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame
If all united thy ambition call
From ancient story learn to scorn them all
There in the rich the honour'd famed and great
See the false scale of happiness complete
In hearts of kings or arms of queens who lay
How happy those to ruin these betray
Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows
From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran
And all that raised the hero sunk the man
Now Europe laurels on their brows behold
But stain'd with blood or ill exchanged for gold
Then see them broke with toils or sunk in ease
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces
Oh wealth ill-fated which no act of fame
E'er taught to shine or sanctified from shame
What greater bliss attends their close of life
Some greedy minion or imperious wife
The trophied arches storied halls invade
And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade
Alas not dazzled with their noontide ray
Compute the morn and evening to the day
The whole amount of that enormous fame
A tale that blends their glory with their shame
Know then this truth enough for man to know
'Virtue alone is happiness below
The only point where human bliss stands still
And tastes the good without the fall to ill
Where only merit constant pay receives
Is bless'd in what it takes and what it gives
The joy unequall'd if its end it gain
And if it lose attended with no pain
Without satiety though e'er so bless'd
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd
The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears
Less pleasing far than Virtue very tears
Good from each object from each place acquired
For ever exercised yet never tired
Never elated while one man oppress'd
Never dejected while another bless'd
And where no wants no wishes can remain
Since but to wish more virtue is to gain
See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow
Which who but feels can taste but thinks can know
Yet poor with fortune and with learning blind
The bad must miss the good untaught will find
Slave to no sect who takes no private road
But looks through Nature up to Nature God
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design
Joins Heaven and Earth and mortal and divine
Sees that no being any bliss can know
But touches some above and some below
Learns from this union of the rising whole
The first last purpose of the human soul
And knows where faith law morals all began
All end in love of God and love of Man
For him alone Hope leads from goal to goal
And opens still and opens on his soul
Till lengthen'd on to Faith and unconfined
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind
He sees why Nature plants in Man alone
Hope of known bliss and faith in bliss unknown
Nature whose dictates to no other kind
Are given in vain but what they seek they find
Wise is her present she connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss
At once his own bright prospect to be bless'd
And strongest motive to assist the rest
Self-love thus push'd to social to divine
Gives thee to make thy neighbour blessing thine
Is this too little for the boundless heart
Extend it let thy enemies have part
Grasp the whole worlds of Reason Life and Sense
In one close system of Benevolence
Happier as kinder in whate'er degree
And height of bliss but height of charity
God loves from whole to parts but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake
The centre moved a circle straight succeeds
Another still and still another spreads
Friend parent neighbour first it will embrace
His country next and next all human race
Wide and more wide th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in of every kind
Earth smiles around with boundless bounty bless'd
And Heaven beholds its image in his breast
Come then my friend my genius come along
O master of the poet and the song
And while the Muse now stoops or now ascends
To Man low passions or their glorious ends
Teach me like thee in various Nature wise
To fall with dignity with temper rise
Form'd by thy converse happily to steer
From grave to gay from lively to severe
Correct with spirit eloquent with ease
Intent to reason or polite to please
Oh while along the stream of Time thy name
Expanded flies and gathers all its fame
Say shall my little bark attendant sail
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale
When statesmen heroes kings in dust repose
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide philosopher and friend
That urged by thee I turn'd the tuneful art
From sounds to things from fancy to the heart
For Wit false mirror held up Nature light
Show'd erring pride Whatever is is right
That Reason Passion answer one great aim
That true Self-love and Social are the same
That Virtue only makes our bliss below
And all our knowledge is Ourselves to know
What walls can guard me or what shades can hide
They pierce my thickets through my grot they glide
By land by water they renew the charge
They stop the chariot and they board the barge
No place is sacred not the church is free
Even Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to me
Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme
Happy to catch me just at dinner-time
Is there a parson much bemused in beer
A maudlin poetess a rhyming peer
A clerk foredoom'd his father soul to cross
Who pens a stanza when he should engross
Is there who lock'd from ink and paper scrawls
With desperate charcoal round his darken'd walls
All fly to Twit'nam and in humble strain
Apply to me to keep them mad or vain
Arthur whose giddy son neglects the laws
Imputes to me and my damn'd works the cause
Poor Cornus sees his frantic wife elope
And curses wit and poetry and Pope
Friend to my life which did not you prolong
The world had wanted many an idle song
What drop or nostrum can this plague remove
Or which must end me a fool wrath or love
A dire dilemma either way I'm sped
If foes they write if friends they read me dead
Seized and tied down to judge how wretched I
Who can't be silent and who will not lie
To laugh were want of goodness and of grace
And to be grave exceeds all power of face
I sit with sad civility I read
With honest anguish and an aching head
And drop at last but in unwilling ears
This saving counsel 'Keep your piece nine years
'Nine years' cries he who high in Drury-lane
Lull'd by soft zephyrs through the broken pane
Rhymes ere he wakes and prints before Term ends
Obliged by hunger and request of friends
'The piece you think is incorrect why take it
I'm all submission what you'd have it make it
Three things another modest wishes bound
My friendship and a prologue and ten pound
Pitholeon sends to me 'You know his Grace
I want a patron ask him for a place
Pitholeon libell'd me 'But here a letter
Informs you sir 'twas when he knew no better
Dare you refuse him Curll invites to dine
He'll write a journal or he'll turn divine
Bless me a packet ''Tis a stranger sues
A virgin tragedy an orphan Muse
If I dislike it 'Furies death and rage
If I approve 'Commend it to the stage
There thank my stars my whole commission ends
The players and I are luckily no friends
Fired that the house reject him ''Sdeath I'll print it
And shame the fools Your interest sir with Lintot
Lintot dull rogue will think your price too much
'Not sir if you revise it and retouch
All my demurs but double his attacks
At last he whispers 'Do and we go snacks
Glad of a quarrel straight I clap the door
Sir let me see your works and you no more
'Tis sung when Midas' ears began to spring
Midas a sacred person and a king
His very minister who spied them first
Some say his queen was forced to speak or burst
And is not mine my friend a sorer case
When every coxcomb perks them in my face
Good friend forbear you deal in dangerous things
I'd never name queens ministers or kings
Keep close to ears and those let asses prick 
'Tis nothing Nothing if they bite and kick
Out with it Dunciad let the secret pass
That secret to each fool that he an ass
The truth once told and wherefore should we lie
The queen of Midas slept and so may I
You think this cruel Take it for a rule
No creature smarts so little as a fool
Let peals of laughter Codrus round thee break
Thou unconcern'd canst hear the mighty crack
Pit box and gallery in convulsions hurl'd
Thou stand'st unshook amidst a bursting world
Who shames a scribbler break one cobweb through
He spins the slight self-pleasing thread anew
Destroy his fib or sophistry in vain
The creature at his dirty work again
Throned in the centre of his thin designs
Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines
Whom have I hurt has poet yet or peer
Lost the arch'd eyebrow or Parnassian sneer
And has not Colly still his lord and whore
His butchers Henley his freemasons Moore
Does not one table Bavius still admit
Still to one bishop Philips seem a wit
Still Sappho Hold for God-sake you'll offend
No names be calm learn prudence of a friend
I too could write and I am twice as tall
But foes like these One flatterer worse than all
Of all mad creatures if the learn'd are right
It is the slaver kills and not the bite
A fool quite angry is quite innocent
Alas 'tis ten times worse when they repent
One dedicates in high heroic prose
And ridicules beyond a hundred foes
One from all Grub-street will my fame defend
And more abusive calls himself my friend
This prints my letters that expects a bribe
And others roar aloud 'Subscribe subscribe
There are who to my person pay their court
I cough like Horace and though lean am short
Ammon great son one shoulder had too high
Such Ovid nose and 'Sir you have an eye' 
Go on obliging creatures make me see
All that disgraced my betters met in me
Say for my comfort languishing in bed
'Just so immortal Maro held his head
And when I die be sure you let me know
Great Homer died three thousand years ago
Why did I write what sin to me unknown
Dipp'd me in ink my parents' or my own
As yet a child nor yet a fool to fame
I lisp'd in numbers for the numbers came
I left no calling for this idle trade
No duty broke no father disobey'd
The Muse but served to ease some friend not wife
To help me through this long disease my life
To second Arbuthnot thy art and care
And teach the being you preserved to bear
But why then publish Granville the polite
And knowing Walsh would tell me I could write
Well-natured Garth inflamed with early praise
And Congreve loved and Swift endured my lays
The courtly Talbot Somers Sheffield read
Even mitred Rochester would nod the head
And St John self great Dryden friends before
With open arms received one poet more
Happy my studies when by these approved
Happier their author when by these beloved
From these the world will judge of men and books
Not from the Burnets Oldmixons and Cookes
Soft were my numbers who could take offence
While pure description held the place of sense
Like gentle Fanny was my flowery theme
'A painted mistress or a purling stream
Yet then did Gildon draw his venal quill
I wish'd the man a dinner and sat still
Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret
I never answer'd I was not in debt
If want provoked or madness made them print
I waged no war with Bedlam or the Mint
Did some more sober critic come abroad 
If wrong I smiled if right I kiss'd the rod
Pains reading study are their just pretence
And all they want is spirit taste and sense
Commas and points they set exactly right
And 'twere a sin to rob them of their mite
Yet ne'er one sprig of laurel graced these ribalds
From slashing Bentley down to piddling Tibbalds
Each wight who reads not and but scans and spells
Each word-catcher that lives on syllables
Even such small critics some regard may claim
Preserved in Milton or in Shakspeare name
Pretty in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs or straws or dirt or grubs or worms
The things we know are neither rich nor rare
But wonder how the devil they got there
Were others angry I excused them too
Well might they rage I gave them but their due
A man true merit 'tis not hard to find
But each man secret standard in his mind
That casting-weight pride adds to emptiness
This who can gratify for who can guess
The bard whom pilfer'd Pastorals renown
Who turns a Persian tale for half-a-crown
Just writes to make his barrenness appear
And strains from hard-bound brains eight lines a year
He who still wanting though he lives on theft
Steals much spends little yet has nothing left
And he who now to sense now nonsense leaning
Means not but blunders round about a meaning
And he whose fustian so sublimely bad
It is not poetry but prose run mad
All these my modest satire bade translate
And own'd that nine such poets made a Tate
How did they fume and stamp and roar and chafe
And swear not Addison himself was safe
Peace to all such but were there one whose fires
True genius kindles and fair fame inspires
Blest with each talent and each art to please
And born to write converse and live with ease
Should such a man too fond to rule alone
Bear like the Turk no brother near the throne
View him with scornful yet with jealous eyes
And hate for arts that caused himself to rise
Damn with faint praise assent with civil leer
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer
Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike
Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike
Alike reserved to blame or to commend
A timorous foe and a suspicious friend
Dreading e'en fools by flatterers besieged
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged
Like Cato give his little senate laws
And sit attentive to his own applause
While wits and Templars every sentence raise
And wonder with a foolish face of praise 
Who but must laugh if such a man there be
Who would not weep if Atticus were he
What though my name stood rubric on the walls
Or plaster'd posts with claps in capitals
Or smoking forth a hundred hawkers' load
On wings of winds came flying all abroad
I sought no homage from the race that write
I kept like Asian monarchs from their sight
Poems I heeded now be-rhymed so long
No more than thou great George a birthday song
I ne'er with wits or witlings pass'd my days
To spread about the itch of verse and praise
Nor like a puppy daggled through the town
To fetch and carry sing-song up and down
Nor at rehearsals sweat and mouth'  and cried
With handkerchief and orange at my side
But sick of fops and poetry and prate
To Bufo left the whole Castalian state
Proud as Apollo on his forked hill
Sat full-blown Bufo puff'd by every quill
Fed with soft dedication all day long
Horace and he went hand in hand in song
His library where busts of poets dead
And a true Pindar stood without a head
Received of wits an undistinguish'd race
Who first his judgment ask'd and then a place
Much they extoll'd his pictures much his seat
And flatter'd every day and some days eat
Till grown more frugal in his riper days
He paid some bards with port and some with praise
To some a dry rehearsal was assign'd
And others harder still he paid in kind
Dryden alone what wonder came not nigh
Dryden alone escaped this judging eye
But still the great have kindness in reserve
He help'd to bury whom he help'd to starve
May some choice patron bless each gray-goose quill
May every Bavius have his Bufo still
So when a statesman wants a day defence
Or envy holds a whole week war with sense
Or simple pride for flattery makes demands
May dunce by dunce be whistled off my hands
Bless'd be the great for those they take away
And those they left me for they left me Gay
Left me to see neglected genius bloom
Neglected die and tell it on his tomb
Of all thy blameless life the sole return
My verse and Queensberry weeping o'er thy urn
Oh let me live my own and die so too
To live and die is all I have to do
Maintain a poet dignity and ease
And see what friends and read what books I please
Above a patron though I condescend
Sometimes to call a minister my friend
I was not born for courts or great affairs
I pay my debts believe and say my prayers
Can sleep without a poem in my head
Nor know if Dennis be alive or dead
Why am I ask'd what next shall see the light
Heavens was I born for nothing but to write
Has life no joys for me or to be grave
Have I no friend to serve no soul to save
'I found him close with Swift Indeed no doubt
Cries prating Balbus something will come out
'Tis all in vain deny it as I will
'No such a genius never can lie still
And then for mine obligingly mistakes
The first lampoon Sir Will or Bubo makes
Poor guiltless I and can I choose but smile
When every coxcomb knows me by my style
Cursed be the verse how well soe'er it flow
That tends to make one worthy man my foe
Give virtue scandal innocence a fear
Or from the soft-eyed virgin steal a tear
But he who hurts a harmless neighbour peace
Insults fallen worth or beauty in distress
Who loves a lie lame slander helps about
Who writes a libel or who copies out
That fop whose pride affects a patron name
Yet absent wounds an author honest fame
Who can your merit selfishly approve
And show the sense of it without the love
Who has the vanity to call you friend
Yet wants the honour injured to defend
Who tells whate'er you think whate'er you say
And if he lie not must at least betray
Who to the dean and silver bell can swear
And sees at Canons what was never there
Who reads but with a lust to misapply
Make satire a lampoon and fiction lie
A lash like mine no honest man shall dread
But all such babbling blockheads in his stead
Let Sporus tremble What that thing of silk
Sporus that mere white curd of ass milk
Satire or sense alas can Sporus feel
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel
Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings
This painted child of dirt that stinks and stings
Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys
Yet wit ne'er tastes and beauty ne'er enjoys
So well-bred spaniels civilly delight
In mumbling of the game they dare not bite
Eternal smiles his emptiness betray
As shallow streams run dimpling all the way
Whether in florid impotence he speaks
And as the prompter breathes the puppet squeaks
Or at the ear of Eve familiar toad
Half-froth half-venom spits himself abroad
In puns or politics or tales or lies
Or spite or smut or rhymes or blasphemies
His wit all see-saw between that and this
Now high now low now master up now miss
And he himself one vile antithesis
Amphibious thing that acting either part
The trifling head or the corrupted heart
Fop at the toilet flatterer at the board
Now trips a lady and now struts a lord
Eve tempter thus the Rabbins have express'd
A cherub face a reptile all the rest
Beauty that shocks you parts that none will trust
Wit that can creep and pride that licks the dust
Not Fortune worshipper nor Fashion fool
Not Lucre madman nor Ambition tool
Not proud nor servile be one poet praise
That if he pleased he pleased by manly ways
That flattery even to kings he held a shame
And thought a lie in verse or prose the same
That not in Fancy maze he wander'd long
But stoop'd to Truth and moralised his song
That not for Fame but Virtue better end
He stood the furious foe the timid friend
The damning critic half-approving wit
The coxcomb hit or fearing to be hit
Laugh'd at the loss of friends he never had
The dull the proud the wicked and the mad
The distant threats of vengeance on his head
The blow unfelt the tear he never shed
The tale revived the lie so oft o'erthrown
Th' imputed trash and dulness not his own
The morals blacken'd when the writings 'scape
The libell'd person and the pictured shape
Abuse on all he loved or loved him spread
A friend in exile or a father dead
The whisper that to greatness still too near
Perhaps yet vibrates on his sovereign ear 
Welcome for thee fair Virtue all the past
For thee fair Virtue welcome even the last
But why insult the poor affront the great
A knave a knave to me in every state
Alike my scorn if he succeed or fail
Sporus at court or Japhet in a jail
A hireling scribbler or a hireling peer
Knight of the post corrupt or of the shire
If on a pillory or near a throne
He gain his prince ear or lose his own
Yet soft by nature more a dupe than wit
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit
This dreaded satirist Dennis will confess
Foe to his pride but friend to his distress
So humble he has knock'd at Tibbald door
Has drunk with Cibber nay has rhymed for Moore
Full ten years slander'd did he once reply
Three thousand suns went down on Welsted lie
To please a mistress one aspersed his life
He lash'd him not but let her be his wife
Let Budgell charge low Grub-street on his quill
And write whate'er he pleased except his will
Let the two Curlls of town and court abuse
His father mother body soul and Muse
Yet why that father held it for a rule
It was a sin to call our neighbour fool
That harmless mother thought no wife a whore
Hear this and spare his family James Moore
Unspotted names and memorable long
If there be force in virtue or in song
Of gentle blood part shed in honour cause
While yet in Britain honour had applause
And better got than Bestia from the throne
Born to no pride inheriting no strife
Nor marrying discord in a noble wife
Stranger to civil and religious rage
The good man walk'd innoxious through his age
No courts he saw no suits would ever try
Nor dared an oath nor hazarded a lie
Unlearn'd he knew no schoolman subtle art
No language but the language of the heart
By nature honest by experience wise
Healthy by temperance and by exercise
His life though long to sickness pass'd unknown
His death was instant and without a groan
O grant me thus to live and thus to die
Who sprung from kings shall know less joy than I
O friend may each domestic bliss be thine
Be no unpleasing melancholy mine
Me let the tender office long engage
To rock the cradle of reposing age
With lenient arts extend a mother breath
Make languor smile and smooth the bed of death
Explore the thought explain the asking eye
And keep a while one parent from the sky
On cares like these if length of days attend
May Heaven to bless those days preserve my friend
Preserve him social cheerful and serene
And just as rich as when he served a Queen
Whether that blessing be denied or given
Thus far was right the rest belongs to Heaven
What and how great the virtue and the art
To live on little with a cheerful heart
A doctrine sage but truly none of mine
Let talk my friends but talk before we dine
Not when a gilt buffet reflected pride
Turns you from sound philosophy aside
Not when from plate to plate your eyeballs roll
And the brain dances to the mantling bowl
Hear Bethel sermon one not versed in schools
But strong in sense and wise without the rules
Go work hunt exercise he thus began
Then scorn a homely dinner if you can
Your wine lock'd up your butler stroll'd abroad
Or fish denied the river yet unthaw'd
If then plain bread and milk will do the feat
The pleasure lies in you and not the meat
Preach as I please I doubt our curious men
Will choose a pheasant still before a hen
Yet hens of Guinea full as good I hold
Except you eat the feathers green and gold
Of carps and mullets why prefer the great
Though cut in pieces ere my lord can eat
Yet for small turbots such esteem profess
Because God made these large the other less
Oldfield with more than harpy throat endued
Cries 'Send me gods a whole hog barbecued
Oh blast it south-winds till a stench exhale
Rank as the ripeness of a rabbit tail
By what criterion do ye eat d' ye think
If this is prized for sweetness that for stink
When the tired glutton labours through a treat
He finds no relish in the sweetest meat
He calls for something bitter something sour
And the rich feast concludes extremely poor
Cheap eggs and herbs and olives still we see
Thus much is left of old simplicity
The robin redbreast till of late had rest
And children sacred held a martin nest
Till beccaficos sold so devilish dear
To one that was or would have been a peer
Let me extol a cat on oysters fed
I'll have a party at the Bedford-head
Or even to crack live crawfish recommend
I'd never doubt at court to make a friend
'Tis yet in vain I own to keep a pother
About one vice and fall into the other
Between excess and famine lies a mean
Plain but not sordid though not splendid clean
Avidien or his wife no matter which
For him you'll call a dog and her a bitch
Sell their presented partridges and fruits
And humbly live on rabbits and on roots
One half-pint bottle serves them both to dine
And is at once their vinegar and wine
But on some lucky day as when they found
A lost bank-bill or heard their son was drown'd
At such a feast old vinegar to spare
Is what two souls so generous cannot bear
Oil though it stink they drop by drop impart
But souse the cabbage with a bounteous heart
He knows to live who keeps the middle state
And neither leans on this side nor on that
Nor stops for one bad cork his butler pay
Swears like Albutius a good cook away
Nor lets like Naevius every error pass
The musty wine foul cloth or greasy glass
Now hear what blessings temperance can bring
Thus said our friend and what he said I sing
First health the stomach cramm'd from every dish
A tomb of boil'd and roast and flesh and fish
Where bile and wind and phlegm and acid jar
And all the man is one intestine war
Remembers oft the school-boy simple fare
The temperate sleeps and spirits light as air
How pale each worshipful and reverend guest
Rise from a clergy or a city feast
What life in all that ample body say
What heavenly particle inspires the clay
The soul subsides and wickedly inclines
To seem but mortal even in sound divines
On morning wings how active springs the mind
That leaves the load of yesterday behind
How easy every labour it pursues
How coming to the poet every Muse
Not but we may exceed some holy time
Or tired in search of truth or search of rhyme
Ill health some just indulgence may engage
And more the sickness of long life old age
For fainting age what cordial drop remains
If our intemperate youth the vessel drains
Our fathers praised rank ven'son You suppose
Perhaps young men our fathers had no nose
Not so a buck was then a week repast
And 'twas their point I ween to make it last
More pleased to keep it till their friends could come
Than eat the sweetest by themselves at home
Why had not I in those good times my birth
Ere coxcomb-pies or coxcombs were on earth
Unworthy he the voice of fame to hear 
That sweetest music to an honest ear 
For faith Lord Fanny you are in the wrong
The world good word is better than a song
Who has not learn'd fresh sturgeon and ham-pie
Are no rewards for want and infamy
When luxury has lick'd up all thy pelf
Cursed by thy neighbours thy trustees thyself
To friends to fortune to mankind a shame
Think how posterity will treat thy name
And buy a rope that future times may tell
Thou hast at least bestow'd one penny well
'Right' cries his lordship 'for a rogue in need
To have a taste is insolence indeed
In me 'tis noble suits my birth and state
My wealth unwieldy and my heap too great
Then like the sun let bounty spread her ray
And shine that superfluity away
Oh impudence of wealth with all thy store
How dar'st thou let one worthy man be poor
Shall half the new-built churches round thee fall
Make quays build bridges or repair Whitehall
Or to thy country let that heap be lent
As Marlbro was but not at five per cent
Who thinks that Fortune cannot change her mind
Prepares a dreadful jest for all mankind
And who stands safest tell me is it he
That spreads and swells in puff'd prosperity
Or blest with little whose preventing care
In peace provides fit arms against a war
Thus Bethel spoke who always speaks his thought
And always thinks the very thing he ought
His equal mind I copy what I can
And as I love would imitate the man
In South-sea days not happier when surmised
The lord of thousands than if now excised
In forest planted by a father hand
Than in five acres now of rented land
Content with little I can piddle here
On broccoli and mutton round the year
But ancient friends though poor or out of play
That touch my bell I cannot turn away
'Tis true no turbots dignify my boards
But gudgeons flounders what my Thames affords
To Hounslow Heath I point and Bansted Down
Thence comes your mutton and these chicks my own
From yon old walnut-tree a shower shall fall
And grapes long lingering on my only wall
And figs from standard and espalier join
The devil is in you if you cannot dine
Then cheerful healths your mistress shall have place
And what more rare a poet shall say grace
Fortune not much of humbling me can boast
Though double tax'd how little have I lost
My life amusements have been just the same
Before and after standing armies came
My lands are sold my father house is gone
I'll hire another is not that my own
And yours my friends through whose free-opening gate
None comes too early none departs too late
For I who hold sage Homer rule the best
Welcome the coming speed the going guest
'Pray Heaven it last' cries Swift 'as you go on
I wish to God this house had been your own
Pity to build without a son or wife
Why you'll enjoy it only all your life
Well if the use be mine can it concern one
Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon
What property dear Swift You see it alter
From you to me from me to Peter Walter
Or in a mortgage prove a lawyer share
Or in a jointure vanish from the heir
Or in pure equity the case not clear
The Chancery takes your rents for twenty year
At best it falls to some ungracious son
Who cries 'My father damn'd and all my own
Shades that to Bacon could retreat afford
Become the portion of a booby lord
And Helmsley once proud Buckingham delight
Slides to a scrivener or a city knight
Let lands and houses have what lords they will
Let us be fix'd and our own masters still
St John whose love indulged my labours past
Matures my present and shall bound my last
Why will you break the Sabbath of my days
Now sick alike of envy and of praise
Public too long ah let me hide my age
See modest Cibber now has left the stage
Our generals now retired to their estates
Hang their old trophies o'er the garden gates
In life cool evening satiate of applause
Nor fond of bleeding even in Brunswick cause
A voice there is that whispers in my ear
'Tis reason voice which sometimes one can hear
'Friend Pope be prudent let your Muse take breath
And never gallop Pegasus to death
Lest still and stately void of fire or force
You limp like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor horse
Farewell then verse and love and every toy
The rhymes and rattles of the man or boy
What right what true what fit we justly call
Let this be all my care for this is all
To lay this harvest up and hoard with haste
What every day will want and most the last
But ask not to what doctors I apply
Sworn to no master of no sect am I
As drives the storm at any door I knock
And house with Montaigne now or now with Locke
Sometimes a patriot active in debate
Mix with the world and battle for the state
Free as young Lyttelton her cause pursue
Still true to virtue and as warm as true
Sometimes with Aristippus or St Paul
Indulge my candour and grow all to all
Back to my native moderation slide
And win my way by yielding to the tide
Long as to him who works for debt the day
Long as the night to her whose love away
Long as the year dull circle seems to run
When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one
So slow the unprofitable moments roll
That lock up all the functions of my soul
That keep me from myself and still delay
Life instant business to a future day
That task which as we follow or despise
The eldest is a fool the youngest wise
Which done the poorest can no wants endure
And which not done the richest must be poor
Late as it is I put myself to school
And feel some comfort not to be a fool
Weak though I am of limb and short of sight
Far from a lynx and not a giant quite
I'll do what Mead and Cheselden advise
To keep these limbs and to preserve these eyes
Not to go back is somewhat to advance
And men must walk at least before they dance
Say does thy blood rebel thy bosom move
With wretched avarice or as wretched love
Know there are words and spells which can control
Between the fits this fever of the soul
Know there are rhymes which fresh and fresh applied
Will cure the arrant'st puppy of his pride
Be furious envious slothful mad or drunk
Slave to a wife or vassal to a punk
A Switz a High-Dutch or a Low-Dutch bear
All that we ask is but a patient ear
'Tis the first virtue vices to abhor
And the first wisdom to be fool no more
But to the world no bugbear is so great
As want of figure and a small estate
To either India see the merchant fly
Scared at the spectre of pale poverty
See him with pains of body pangs of soul
Burn through the tropic freeze beneath the pole
Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end
Nothing to make philosophy thy friend
To stop thy foolish views thy long desires
And ease thy heart of all that it admires
Here Wisdom calls 'Seek Virtue first be bold
As gold to silver Virtue is to gold
There London voice 'Get money money still
And then let virtue follow if she will
This this the saving doctrine preach'd to all
From low St James up to high St Paul
From him whose quill stands quiver'd at his ear
To him who notches sticks at Westminster
Barnard in spirit sense and truth abounds
'Pray then what wants he' Fourscore thousand pounds
A pension or such harness for a slave
As Bug now has and Dorimant would have
Barnard thou art a cit with all thy worth
But Bug and D l their Honours and so forth
Yet every child another song will sing
'Virtue brave boys 'tis virtue makes a king
True conscious honour is to feel no sin
He arm'd without that innocent within
Be this thy screen and this thy wall of brass
Compared to this a minister an ass
And say to which shall our applause belong
This new court-jargon or the good old song
The modern language of corrupted peers
Or what was spoke at Cressy and Poictiers
Who counsels best who whispers 'Be but great
With praise or infamy leave that to fate
Get place and wealth if possible with grace
If not by any means get wealth and place
For what to have a box where eunuchs sing
And foremost in the circle eye a king
Or he who bids thee face with steady view
Proud fortune and look shallow greatness through
And while he bids thee sets th' example too
If such a doctrine in St James air
Should chance to make the well-dress'd rabble stare
If honest S z take scandal at a spark
That less admires the palace than the park
Faith I shall give the answer Reynard gave
'I cannot like dread sir your royal cave
Because I see by all the tracks about
Full many a beast goes in but none comes out
Adieu to virtue if you're once a slave
Send her to court you send her to her grave
Well if a king a lion at the least
The people are a many-headed beast
Can they direct what measures to pursue
Who know themselves so little what to do
Alike in nothing but one lust of gold
Just half the land would buy and half be sold
Their country wealth our mightier misers drain
Or cross to plunder provinces the main
The rest some farm the poor-box some the pews
Some keep assemblies and would keep the stews
Some with fat bucks on childless dotards fawn
Some win rich widows by their chine and brawn
While with the silent growth of ten per cent
In dirt and darkness hundreds stink content
Of all these ways if each pursues his own
Satire be kind and let the wretch alone
But show me one who has it in his power
To act consistent with himself an hour
Sir Job sail'd forth the evening bright and still
'No place on earth' he cried 'like Greenwich hill
Up starts a palace lo the obedient base
Slopes at its foot the woods its sides embrace
The silver Thames reflects its marble face
Now let some whimsy or that devil within
Which guides all those who know not what they mean
But give the knight or give his lady spleen
'Away away take all your scaffolds down
For snug the word my dear we'll live in town
At amorous Flavio is the stocking thrown
That very night he longs to lie alone
The fool whose wife elopes some thrice a quarter
For matrimonial solace dies a martyr
Did ever Proteus Merlin any witch
Transform themselves so strangely as the rich
Well but the poor the poor have the same itch
They change their weekly barber weekly news
Prefer a new japanner to their shoes
Discharge their garrets move their beds and run
They know not whither in a chaise and one
They hire their sculler and when once aboard
Grow sick and damn the climate like a lord
You laugh half-beau half-sloven if I stand
My wig all powder and all snuff my band
You laugh if coat and breeches strangely vary
White gloves and linen worthy Lady Mary
But when no prelate lawn with hair-shirt lined
Is half so incoherent as my mind
When each opinion with the next at strife
One ebb and flow of follies all my life
I plant root up I build and then confound
Turn round to square and square again to round
You never change one muscle of your face
You think this madness but a common case
Nor once to Chancery nor to Hale apply
Yet hang your lip to see a seam awry
Careless how ill I with myself agree
Kind to my dress my figure not to me
Is this my guide philosopher and friend
This he who loves me and who ought to mend
Who ought to make me what he can or none
That man divine whom Wisdom calls her own
Great without title without fortune bless'd
Rich even when plunder'd honour'd while oppress'd
Loved without youth and follow'd without power
At home though exiled free though in the Tower
In short that reasoning high immortal thing
Just less than Jove and much above a king
Nay half in heaven except what mighty odd
A fit of vapours clouds this demi-god
This vault of air this congregated ball
Self-centred sun and stars that rise and fall
There are my friend whose philosophic eyes
Look through and trust the Ruler with his skies
To Him commit the hour the day the year
And view this dreadful All without a fear
Admire we then what earth low entrails hold
Arabian shores or Indian seas infold
All the mad trade of fools and slaves for gold
Or popularity or stars and strings
The mob applauses or the gifts of kings
Say with what eyes we ought at courts to gaze
And pay the great our homage of amaze
If weak the pleasure that from these can spring
The fear to want them is as weak a thing
Whether we dread or whether we desire
In either case believe me we admire
Whether we joy or grieve the same the curse
Surprised at better or surprised at worse
Thus good or bad to one extreme betray
The unbalanced mind and snatch the man away
For virtue self may too much zeal be had
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad
Go then and if you can admire the state
Of beaming diamonds and reflected plate
Procure a taste to double the surprise
And gaze on Parian charms with learned eyes
Be struck with bright brocade or Tyrian dye
Our birthday nobles' splendid livery
If not so pleased at council-board rejoice
To see their judgments hang upon thy voice
From morn to night at Senate Rolls and Hall
Plead much read more dine late or not at all
But wherefore all this labour all this strife
For fame for riches for a noble wife
Shall one whom nature learning birth conspired
To form not to admire but be admired
Sigh while his Chloe blind to wit and worth
Weds the rich dulness of some son of earth
Yet time ennobles or degrades each line
It brighten'd Craggs and may darken thine
And what is fame the meanest have their day
The greatest can but blaze and pass away
Graced as thou art with all the power of words
So known so honour'd at the House of Lords
Conspicuous scene another yet is nigh
More silent far where kings and poets lie
Where Murray long enough his country pride
Shall be no more than Tully or than Hyde
Rack'd with sciatics martyr'd with the stone
Will any mortal let himself alone
See Ward by batter'd beaux invited over
And desperate misery lays hold on Dover
The case is easier in the mind disease
There all men may be cured whene'er they please
Would ye be blest despise low joys low gains
Disdain whatever Cornbury disdains
Be virtuous and be happy for your pains
But art thou one whom new opinions sway
One who believes as Tindal leads the way
Who virtue and a church alike disowns
Thinks that but words and this but brick and stones
Fly then on all the wings of wild desire
Admire whate'er the maddest can admire
Is wealth thy passion Hence from pole to pole
Where winds can carry or where waves can roll
For Indian spices for Peruvian gold
Prevent the greedy and outbid the bold
Advance thy golden mountain to the skies
On the broad base of fifty thousand rise
Add one round hundred and if that not fair
Add fifty more and bring it to a square
For mark the advantage just so many score
Will gain a wife with half as many more
Procure her beauty make that beauty chaste
And then such friends as cannot fail to last
A man of wealth is dubb'd a man of worth
Venus shall give him form and Anstis birth
Believe me many a German prince is worse
Who proud of pedigree is poor of purse
His wealth brave Timon gloriously confounds
Ask'd for a groat he gives a hundred pounds
Or if three ladies like a luckless play
Takes the whole house upon the poet day
Now in such exigencies not to need
Upon my word you must be rich indeed
A noble superfluity it craves
Not for yourself but for your fools and knaves
Something which for your honour they may cheat
And which it much becomes you to forget
If wealth alone then make and keep us bless'd
Still still be getting never never rest
But if to power and place your passion lie
If in the pomp of life consist the joy
Then hire a slave or if you will a lord
To do the honours and to give the word
Tell at your levee as the crowds approach
To whom to nod whom take into your coach
Whom honour with your hand to make remarks
Who rules in Cornwall or who rules in Berks
'This may be troublesome is near the chair
That makes three members this can choose a mayor
Instructed thus you bow embrace protest
Adopt him son or cousin at the least
Then turn about and laugh at your own jest
Or if your life be one continued treat
If to live well means nothing but to eat
Up up cries Gluttony 'tis break of day
Go drive the deer and drag the finny prey
With hounds and horns go hunt an appetite 
So Russel did but could not eat at night
Call'd happy dog the beggar at his door
And envied thirst and hunger to the poor
Or shall we every decency confound
Through taverns stews and bagnios take our round
Go dine with Chartres in each vice outdo
K l lewd cargo or Ty y crew
From Latian syrens French Circaean feasts
Return well travell'd and transform'd to beasts
Or for a titled punk or foreign flame
Renounce our country and degrade our name
If after all we must with Wilmot own
The cordial drop of life is love alone
And Swift cry wisely 'Vive la bagatelle
The man that loves and laughs must sure do well
Adieu if this advice appear the worst
E'en take the counsel which I gave you first
Or better precepts if you can impart
Why do I'll follow them with all my heart
While you great patron of mankind sustain
The balanced world and open all the main
Your country chief in arms abroad defend
At home with morals arts and laws amend
How shall the Muse from such a monarch steal
An hour and not defraud the public weal
Edward and Henry now the boast of fame
And virtuous Alfred a more sacred name
After a life of generous toils endured
The Gaul subdued or property secured
Ambition humbled mighty cities storm'd
Or laws establish'd and the world reform'd
Closed their long glories with a sigh to find
The unwilling gratitude of base mankind
All human virtue to its latest breath
Finds envy never conquer'd but by death
The great Alcides every labour past
Had still this monster to subdue at last
Sure fate of all beneath whose rising ray
Each star of meaner merit fades away
Oppress'd we feel the beam directly beat
Those suns of glory please not till they set
To thee the world its present homage pays
The harvest early but mature the praise
Great friend of liberty in kings a name
Above all Greek above all Roman fame
Whose word is truth as sacred and revered
As Heaven own oracles from altars heard
Wonder of kings like whom to mortal eyes
None e'er has risen and none e'er shall rise
Just in one instance be it yet confess'd
Your people sir are partial in the rest
Foes to all living worth except your own
And advocates for folly dead and gone
Authors like coins grow dear as they grow old
It is the rust we value not the gold
Chaucer worst ribaldry is learn'd by rote
And beastly Skelton heads of houses quote
One likes no language but the 'Faery Queen'
A Scot will fight for 'Christ Kirk o' the Green'
And each true Briton is to Ben so civil
He swears the Muses met him at The Devil
Though justly Greece her eldest sons admires
Why should not we be wiser than our sires
In every public virtue we excel
We build we paint we sing we dance as well
And learned Athens to our art must stoop
Could she behold us tumbling through a hoop
If time improve our wit as well as wine
Say at what age a poet grows divine
Shall we or shall we not account him so
Who died perhaps an hundred years ago
End all dispute and fix the year precise
When British bards begin t' immortalise
'Who lasts a century can have no flaw
I hold that wit a classic good in law
Suppose he wants a year will you compound
And shall we deem him ancient right and sound
Or damn to all eternity at once
At ninety-nine a modern and a dunce
'We shall not quarrel for a year or two
By courtesy of England he may do
Then by the rule that made the horse-tail bare
I pluck out year by year as hair by hair
And melt down ancients like a heap of snow
While you to measure merits look in Stowe
And estimating authors by the year
Bestow a garland only on a bier
Shakspeare whom you and every play-house bill
Style the divine the matchless what you will
For gain not glory wing'd his roving flight
And grew immortal in his own despite
Ben old and poor as little seem'd to heed
The life to come in every poet creed
Who now reads Cowley if he pleases yet
His moral pleases not his pointed wit
Forgot his epic nay Pindaric art
But still I love the language of his heart
'Yet surely surely these were famous men
What boy but hears the sayings of old Ben
In all debates where critics bear a part
Not one but nods and talks of Johnson art
Of Shakspeare nature and of Cowley wit
How Beaumont judgment check'd what Fletcher writ
How Shadwell hasty Wycherley was slow
But for the passions Southern sure and Rowe
These only these support the crowded stage
From eldest Heywood down to Cibber age
All this may be the people voice is odd
It is and it is not the voice of God
To Gammer Gurton if it give the bays
And yet deny the 'Careless Husband' praise
Or say our fathers never broke a rule
Why then I say the public is a fool
But let them own that greater faults than we
They had and greater virtues I'll agree
Spenser himself affects the obsolete
And Sydney verse halts ill on Roman feet
Milton strong pinion now not Heaven can bound
Now serpent-like in prose he sweeps the ground
In quibbles angel and archangel join
And God the Father turns a school-divine
Not that I'd lop the beauties from his book
Like slashing Bentley with his desperate hook
Or damn all Shakspeare like the affected fool
At court who hates whate'er he read at school
But for the wits of either Charles days
The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease
Sprat Carew Sedley and a hundred more
Like twinkling stars the Miscellanies o'er
One simile that solitary shines
In the dry desert of a thousand lines
Or lengthen'd thought that gleams through many a page
Has sanctified whole poems for an age
I lose my patience and I own it too
When works are censured not as bad but new
While if our elders break all reason laws
These fools demand not pardon but applause
On Avon bank where flowers eternal blow
If I but ask if any weed can grow
One tragic sentence if I dare deride
Which Betterton grave action dignified
Or well-mouth'  Booth with emphasis proclaims
Though but perhaps a muster-roll of names
How will our fathers rise up in a rage
And swear all shame is lost in George age
You'd think no fools disgraced the former reign
Did not some grave examples yet remain
Who scorn a lad should teach his father skill
And having once been wrong will be so still
He who to seem more deep than you or I
Extols old bards or Merlin prophecy
Mistake him not he envies not admires
And to debase the sons exalts the sires
Had ancient times conspired to disallow
What then was new what had been ancient now
Or what remain'd so worthy to be read
By learned critics of the mighty dead
In days of ease when now the weary sword
Was sheathed and luxury with Charles restored
In every taste of foreign courts improved
'All by the king example lived and loved
Then peers grew proud in horsemanship t' excel
Newmarket glory rose as Britain fell
The soldier breathed the gallantries of France
And every flowery courtier writ romance
Then marble soften'd into life grew warm
And yielding metal flow'd to human form
Lely on animated canvas stole
The sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul
No wonder then when all was love and sport
The willing Muses were debauch'd at court
On each enervate string they taught the note
To pant or tremble through an eunuch throat
But Britain changeful as a child at play
Now calls in princes and now turns away
Now Whig now Tory what we loved we hate
Now all for pleasure now for Church and State
Now for prerogative and now for laws
Effects unhappy from a noble cause
Time was a sober Englishman would knock
His servants up and rise by five o'clock
Instruct his family in every rule
And send his wife to church his son to school
To worship like his fathers was his care
To teach their frugal virtues to his heir
To prove that luxury could never hold
And place on good security his gold
Now times are changed and one poetic itch
Has seized the court and city poor and rich
Sons sires and grandsires all will wear the bays
Our wives read Milton and our daughters plays
To theatres and to rehearsals throng
And all our grace at table is a song
I who so oft renounce the Muses lie
Not   self e'er tells more fibs than I
When sick of muse our follies we deplore
And promise our best friends to rhyme no more
We wake next morning in a raging fit
And call for pen and ink to show our wit
He served a 'prenticeship who sets up shop
Ward tried on puppies and the poor his drop
E'en Radcliffe doctors travel first to France
Nor dare to practise till they've learn'd to dance
Who builds a bridge that never drove a pile
Should Ripley venture all the world would smile
But those who cannot write and those who can
All rhyme and scrawl and scribble to a man
Yet sir reflect the mischief is not great
These madmen never hurt the Church or State
Sometimes the folly benefits mankind
And rarely avarice taints the tuneful mind
Allow him but his plaything of a pen
He ne'er rebels or plots like other men
Flight of cashiers or mobs he'll never mind
And knows no losses while the Muse is kind
To cheat a friend or ward he leaves to Peter
The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre
Enjoys his garden and his book in quiet
And then a perfect hermit in his diet
Of little use the man you may suppose
Who says in verse what others say in prose
Yet let me show a poet of some weight
And though no soldier useful to the State
What will a child learn sooner than a song
What better teach a foreigner the tongue
What long or short each accent where to place
And speak in public with some sort of grace
I scarce can think him such a worthless thing
Unless he praise some monster of a king
Or virtue or religion turn to sport
To please a lewd or unbelieving court
Unhappy Dryden in all Charles days
Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays
And in our own excuse some courtly stains
No whiter page than Addison remains
He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth
And sets the passions on the side of truth
Forms the soft bosom with the gentlest art
And pours each human virtue in the heart
Let Ireland tell how wit upheld her cause
Her trade supported and supplied her laws
And leave on Swift this grateful verse engraved
'The rights a court attack'd a poet saved
Behold the hand that wrought a nation cure
Stretch'd to relieve the idiot and the poor
Proud vice to brand or injured worth adorn
And stretch the ray to ages yet unborn
Not but there are who merit other palms
Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with psalms
The boys and girls whom charity maintains
Implore your help in these pathetic strains
How could devotion touch the country pews
Unless the gods bestow'd a proper muse
Verse cheers their leisure verse assists their work
Verse prays for peace or sings down Pope and Turk
The silenced preacher yields to potent strain
And feels that grace his prayer besought in vain
The blessing thrills through all the labouring throng
And Heaven is won by violence of song
Our rural ancestors with little blest
Patient of labour when the end was rest
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain
With feasts and offerings and a thankful strain
The joy their wives their sons and servants share
Ease of their toil and partners of their care
The laugh the jest attendants on the bowl
Smooth'  every brow and open'd every soul
With growing years the pleasing license grew
And taunts alternate innocently flew
But times corrupt and nature ill-inclined
Produced the point that left a sting behind
Till friend with friend and families at strife
Triumphant malice raged through private life
Who felt the wrong or fear'd it took the alarm
Appeal'd to law and justice lent her arm
At length by wholesome dread of statutes bound
The poets learn'd to please and not to wound
Most warp'd to flattery side but some more nice
Preserved the freedom and forbore the vice
Hence satire rose that just the medium hit
And heals with morals what it hurts with wit
We conquer'd France but felt our captive charms
Her arts victorious triumph'd o'er our arms
Britain to soft refinements less a foe
Wit grew polite and numbers learn'd to flow
Waller was smooth but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse the full-resounding line
The long majestic march and energy divine
Though still some traces of our rustic vein
And splayfoot verse remain'd and will remain
Late very late correctness grew our care
When the tired nation breathed from civil war
Exact Racine and Corneille noble fire
Show'd us that France had something to admire
Not but the tragic spirit was our own
And full in Shakspeare fair in Otway shone
But Otway fail'd to polish or refine
And fluent Shakspeare scarce effaced a line
Even copious Dryden wanted or forgot
The last and greatest art the art to blot
Some doubt if equal pains or equal fire
The humbler muse of Comedy require
But in known images of life I guess
The labour greater as the indulgence less
Observe how seldom even the best succeed
Tell me if Congreve fools are fools indeed
What pert low dialogue has Farquhar writ
How Van wants grace who never wanted wit
The stage how loosely does Astraea tread
Who fairly puts all characters to bed
And idle Cibber how he breaks the laws
To make poor Pinky eat with vast applause
But fill their purse our poets' work is done
Alike to them by pathos or by pun
O you whom Vanity light bark conveys
On Fame mad voyage by the wind of praise
With what a shifting gale your course you ply
For ever sunk too low or borne too high
Who pants for glory finds but short repose
A breath revives him or a breath o'erthrows
Farewell the stage if just as thrives the play
The silly bard grows fat or falls away
There still remains to mortify a wit
The many-headed monster of the pit
A senseless worthless and unhonour'd crowd
Who to disturb their betters mighty proud
Clattering their sticks before ten lines are spoke
Call for the farce the bear or the black-joke
What dear delight to Britons farce affords
Ever the taste of mobs but now of lords
Taste that eternal wanderer which flies
From heads to ears and now from ears to eyes
The play stands still damn action and discourse
Back fly the scenes and enter foot and horse
Pageants on pageants in long order drawn
Peers heralds bishops ermine gold and lawn
The champion too and to complete the jest
Old Edward armour beams on Cibber breast
With laughter sure Democritus had died
Had he beheld an audience gape so wide
Let bear or elephant be e'er so white
The people sure the people are the sight
Ah luckless poet stretch thy lungs and roar
That bear or elephant shall heed thee more
While all its throats the gallery extends
And all the thunder of the pit ascends
Loud as the wolves on Orcas' stormy steep
Howl to the roarings of the Northern deep
Such is the shout the long-applauding note
At Quin high plume or Oldfield petticoat
Or when from court a birthday suit bestow'd
Sinks the lost actor in the tawdry load
Booth enters hark the universal peal
'But has he spoken' Not a syllable
What shook the stage and made the people stare
Cato long wig flower'd gown and lacquer'd chair
Yet lest you think I rally more than teach
Or praise malignly arts I cannot reach
Let me for once presume to instruct the times
To know the poet from the man of rhymes
'Tis he who gives my breast a thousand pains
Can make me feel each passion that he feigns
Enrage compose with more than magic art
With pity and with terror tear my heart
And snatch me o'er the earth or through the air
To Thebes to Athens when he will and where
But not this part of the poetic state
Alone deserves the favour of the great
Think of those authors sir who would rely
More on a reader sense than gazer eye
Or who shall wander where the Muses sing
Who climb their mountain or who taste their spring
How shall we fill a library with wit
When Merlin cave is half unfurnish'd yet
My liege why writers little claim your thought
I guess and with their leave will tell the fault
We poets are upon a poet word
Of all mankind the creatures most absurd
The season when to come and when to go
To sing or cease to sing we never know
And if we will recite nine hours in ten
You lose your patience just like other men
Then too we hurt ourselves when to defend
A single verse we quarrel with a friend
Repeat unask'd lament the wit too fine
For vulgar eyes and point out every line
But most when straining with too weak a wing
We needs will write epistles to the king
And from the moment we oblige the town
Expect a place or pension from the crown
Or dubb'd historians by express command
To enrol your triumphs o'er the seas and land
Be call'd to court to plan some work divine
As once for Louis Boileau and Racine
Yet think great sir so many virtues shown
Ah think what poet best may make them known
Or choose at least some minister of grace
Fit to bestow the Laureate weighty place
Charles to late times to be transmitted fair
Assign'd his figure to Bernini care
And great Nassau to Kneller hand decreed
To fix him graceful on the bounding steed
So well in paint and stone they judged of merit
But kings in wit may want discerning spirit
The hero William and the martyr Charles
One knighted Blackmore and one pension'd Quarles
Which made old Ben and surly Dennis swear
'No Lord anointed but a Russian bear
Not with such majesty such bold relief
The forms august of king or conquering chief
E'er swell'd on marble as in verse have shined
In polish'd verse the manners and the mind
Oh could I mount on the Maeonian wing
Your arms your actions your repose to sing
What seas you traversed and what fields you fought
Your country peace how oft how dearly bought
How barbarous rage subsided at your word
And nations wonder'd while they dropp'd the sword
How when you nodded o'er the land and deep
Peace stole her wing and wrapp'd the world in sleep
Till earth extremes your mediation own
And Asia tyrants tremble at your throne 
But verse alas your Majesty disdains
And I'm not used to panegyric strains
The zeal of fools offends at any time
But most of all the zeal of fools in rhyme
Besides a fate attends on all I write
That when I aim at praise they say I bite
A vile encomium doubly ridicules
There nothing blackens like the ink of fools
If true a woful likeness and if lies
'Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise
Well may he blush who gives it or receives
And when I flatter let my dirty leaves
Like journals odes and such forgotten things
As Eusden Philips Settle writ of kings
Clothe spice line trunks or fluttering in a row
Befringe the rails of Bedlam and Soho
