A world of nothing in his chat,
Of who faid this, and who did that:
With fimilies, that never hit;
Vivacity, that has no wit;

Schemes laid this hour, the next forfaken;
Advice oft afk'd, but never taken :
Still whirl'd, by every rifing whim,
From that to this, from her to him;
And when he hath his circle run,
· He ends-just where he first begun.

ON AN AMOROUS OLD MAN.

TILL hovering round the fair at fixty-four,

Sunft to love, unable to give o'er;

A flesh-fly, that juft flutters on the wing,
Awake to buz, but not alive to sting;

Brifk where he cannot, backward where he can;
The teazing ghost of the departed man.

ON I. H. Esq.

THE youth had wit himself, and could afford A witty neighbour his good word.

Though fcandal was his joy, he would not fwear:
An oath had made the ladies ftare,

At them he duly drefs'd, but without paffion:
His only miftrefs was the fashion.
Her verfe with fancy glitter'd, cold and faint;
His profe, with fenfe, correctly quaint.
Trifles he lov'd; he tafted arts:

At once a fribble, and a man of parts.

F

A FRAGMENT.

AIR morn afcends: foft zephyr's wing O'er hill and vale renews the fpring: Where, fown profufely, herb and flower, Of balmy fmell, of healing power, Their fouls in fragrant dews exhale, And breathe fresh life in every gale. Here, fpreads a green expanfe of plains, Where, fweetly penfive, Silence reigns; And there, at utmost stretch of eye, A mountain fades into the fky: While winding round, diffus'd and deep, A river rolls with founding fweep, Of human art no traces near, I feem alone with Nature here!

Here are thy walks, O facred Health! The monarch's blifs, the beggar's wealth; The feafoning of all good below! The fovereign friend in joy or woe! O thou, moft courted, moft defpis'd, And but in abfence duly priz❜d!

Power of the foft and rofy face!
The vivid pulfe, the vermil grace,
The fpirits when they gayeft fhine,
Youth, beauty, pleasure, all are thine!
O fun of life! whofe heavenly ray
Lights up, and chears, our various day,
The turbulence of hopes and fears,,
The ftorm of fate, the cloud of years,
Till Nature, with thy parting light,
Reposes late in Death's calm might :
Feld from the trophy'd roofs of state,
Abodes of fplendid pain and hate;

Fled from the couch, where, in fweet fleep,
Hot riot would his anguish fteep,

But toffes through the midnight-shade,
Of death, of life, alike afraid;
For ever filed to fhady cell,

Where Temperance, where the Mufes dwell;
Thou oft art feen, at early dawn,
Slow-pacing o'er the breezy lawn:
Or on the brow of mountain high,
In filence Ceafting ear and eye,

With fong and profpect, which abound

From birds, and woods, and waters round.
But when the fun, with noontide ray,
Flames forth intolerable day;

While Heat fits fervent on the plain,
With Thirst and Languor in his train ;
All nature fickening in the blaze :
Thou, in the wild and woody maze,
That clouds the vale with umbrage deep,
Impendent from the neighbouring steep,
Wilt find betimes a calm retreat,
Where breathing coolness has her feat.
There, plung'd amid the fhadows brown,.
Imagination lays him down ;
Attentive, in his airy mood,
To every murmur of the wood:
The bee in yonder flowery nook;
The chidings of the headlong brook;
The green leaf fhivering in the gale;
The warbling hill, the lowing vale;
The diftant woodman's echoing stroke;
The thunder of the falling oak.
From thought to thought in vifion led,;
He holds high converfe with the de ad
Sages, or Poets. See they rife!
And fhadowy kim before his eyes.
Hark! Orpheus ftrikes the lyre again,
That foftens favages to men:
Lo! Socrates, the fent of heaven,
To whom its moral will was given.
Fathers and friends of human kind,
They form'd the nations, or refin'd;
With all that mends the head and heart,
Enlightening truth, adorning art.

While thus I mus'd beneath the fhade,
At once the founding breeze was laid :
And Nature, by the unknown law,
Shook deep with reverential awe.
Dumb filence grew upon the hour;'
A browner night involv'd the bower:
When, iffuing from the inmoft wood,
Appear'd fair Freedom's genius good.
O Freedom! fovereign boon of heaven:
Great charter, with our being given;

Stript off the fable veil, and wear
His once-gay look and happier air,
But Hymen, fpeeding forward still,
Cbferv'd a man on Richmond-hill,
Who now first tries a country life;
Perhaps, to ft him for a wife.

But, though not much on this he reckon'd,
The paffing god look'din and beckon'd:
He knows him rich in focial merit,
With independent taste and fpirit;
Though he will laugh with men of whim,
For fear fuch men should laugh at him,
But lo, already on his way,
In due obervance of the day,
A friend and favourite of the Nine,
Who can, but feldom cares to shine,
And one fole virtue would arrive at-
To keep his many virtues private.
Who tends, well pleas'd, yet as by ftealth,
His lov'd companions ease and health:
Or in his garden, barring out

The noise of every neighbouring rout,
At penfive hour of eve and prime,
Marks how the various hand of time

115

120

With truth, tafte, honour, in a mate,
And much good fenfe, and fome estate.
But now, fuppofe th' affembly met,
And round the table cordial fet;
While in fair order, to their wifh,
Plain neatnefs fends up every dish,
And Pleafure at the fide-board ftands,
A nedar'd goblet in his hands,

To pour libations, in due measure,

155

As Reafon wills when join'd with Pleasure 190
Let thefe white moments all be gay,
Without one cloud of dim allay:
In every face let joy be feen,
As truth fincere, as hope ferene :

Let Friendship, Love, and Wit combine,

130 To flavour both the meat and wine,
With that rich relish to each fenfe,
Which they, and they alone, dispense;
Let Mufic too their mirth prolong,
With warbled air and feftive fong:

135 Then, when at eye, the ftar of love
Glows with foft radiance from above,
And each companionable gueft
Withdraws, replenifh'd, not oppreft,
Let each, well-pleas'd, at parting fay-
My life be fuch a wedding-day!

140

195

200

205

Sincere, and briefly in the right;
Whom never minifter or king
Saw meanly cringing in their ring.
A fecond fee! of fpccial note,
Plump Comus in a colonel's coat ;
Whom we, this day, expect from far,
A jolly first-rate man of war;
On whom we boldly dare repofe.
To meet our friends, or meet our foes.
Or comes a brother in his ftead?
Strong-body'd too, and ftrong of head:
Who, in whatever path he goes,
Still looks right on before his nofe;
And holds it little less than treason,
To baulk his ftomach or his reafon.
True to his miftrefs and his meat,
IIe eats to love, and loves to eat.

AN ODE

IN THE

MASQUE OF ALFRED:

SUNG BY A SHEPHERDESS WHO HAS LOST

HER LOVER IN THE WARS.

Youth, adorn'd with every art,

To warm and win the coldest heart,
In fecret mine poffeft.

The morning bud that faireft blows,
The vernal oak that ftraightest grows,
His face and shape expreft.

175 In moving founds he told his tale,
Soft as the fighings of the gale,

That wakes the flowery year.
What wonder he could charm with cafe,
Whom happy Nature taught to please,

180 Whom Honour made fincere.

INVOCATION, addressed to Fancy. Subject pro propofed a short excurfive furvey of the Earth and Heavens. The poem opens with a description of the face of Nature in the different fcenes of morning, fun-rife, noon, with a thunder-ftorm, evening, night, and a particular night-piece, with the character of a friend deceased. With the return of morning Fancy continues her excurfion, first northward A view of the ardic continent and the deferts of Tartary From thence fouthward: a general prospect of the globe, followed by another of the mid-land part of Europe, fupppefe Italy. A city there upon the point of being swallowed up by an earthquake: fighs that ufher it in: defcribed in its caufes and effects at length Eruption of a burning mountain, happening at the Jame time and from the fame causes, likewife defcribed,

CO

NOMPANION of the Mufe, creative power, Imagination! at whofe great command Arife unnumber'd images of things,

Thy hourly offspring: thou, who can't at will
People with air-born fhapes the filent wood,
And folitary vale, thy. own domain,
Where Contemplation haunts : Oh come, invok'd,
To waft me on thy many-titur'd wing,
C'er Earth's extended fpace: and thence, on high,
Spread to fuperior Worlds thy bolder flight,
Excurfive, unconfin'd. Hence from the haunts
Of vice and folly, vanity and man-

To yon expanse of plains, where truth delights, Simple of heart; and, hand in hand with her, Where blameless virtue walks. Now parting Spring,

Parent of beauty and of fong, has left

His mantle, flower-embroider'd, on the ground. While Summer laughing comes, and bids the

Months

|

As fhadows pafs, nor is their path beheld. And now, pale-glimmering on the verge of heaven,

From east to north in doubtful twilight feen,

A whitening luftre fhoots its tender beam ;
While fade and filence yet involve the ball.
"Now facred Morn, afcending, fmiles ferene
A dewy radiance, brightning o'er the world.
Gay daughter of the air, for ever young,
For ever pleafing! lo, fhe onward comes,
In fluid gold and azure loose-array'ı,
Sun-tinctur'd, changeful hues. At her approach,
The wefern grey of yonder breaking clouds
Slow-reddens into flame: the rifing mifts,
From off the mountain's brow, roll blue away
In curling fpires; and open all his woods,
High waving in the fky: th' uncolour'd stream,
Glad Nature feels her through her boundless
Beneath her glowing ray, tranflucent fhines.

realms

Fragrance and fong. From each unfolding flower
Of life and fenfe: and calls forth all her fweets,
Tranfpires the balm of life, that Zephyr wafts,
Delicious on his rofy wing: each bird,
Or high in air, or fecret in the fhade,
Rojoicing warbles wild his mattin hymn.
While beafts of chace, by fecret inftinct mov'd,
In brake, or cavern, flumber out the day.
Scud o'er the lawns, and plunging into night,

Invited by the chearful morn abroad,
See, from his humble roof, the good Man comes,
To tafte her freshnefs, and improve her rife
In holy mufing. Rapture in his eye,
And kneeling wonder speak his filent foul,
With gratitude o'erflowing, and with praife!

Now Industry is up. The village pours
Her ufeful fons abroad to various toil :
The labourer here, with every inftrument
Of future plenty arm'd; and there the fwain,
A rural king amid his fubject-flocks,
Whose bleatings wake the vocal hills afar.
The traveller, too, purfues his early road,
Among the dews of moru. Aurora calls:
And all the living landscape moves around,

But fee, the flush'd horizon flames intenfe,
With vivid red, in rish profusion stream'd
O'er heaven's pure arch. At once the clouds
affume

Their gayeft liveries; thefe with filvery beams
Fring'd lovely, fplendid thofe in liquid gold:
And fpeak their fovereign's state. He comes, be
hold!

Fountain of light and colour, warmth and life!
The King of Glory! round his head divine,
Diffufive fhowers of radiance circling now,
As o'er the Indian wave up-ring fair
He looks abroad on Nature, and invests,
Where'er his univerfal eye furveys,
Her ample bofom, earthy air, fea, and sky,
In one bright robe, with heavenly tinctures gay..
From this hoar hill, that climbs above the plain,
Half-way up heaven ambitious, brown with woods
Of broadeft fhade, and terrafs'd round with walks,
Winding and wild, that deep embowering rife,
Maze above maze, thro' all its helter'd height:

G S