WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOENIX.
Avish of wit, and bold appear the lines,
A thousand ways each brilliant point is turn'd,
And the gay poem, like its theme, adorn'd:
A tale more ftrange ne'er grac'd the poets art,
Nor e'er did fiction play fo wild a part.
Each fabled charm in matchlefs Cælia meets,
The heavenly colours, and ambrofial sweets;
Her virgin bofom chafter fires fupplies,
And beams more piercing guard her kindred eyes.
O'erflowing wit th' imagin'd wonder drew,
But fertile fancy ne'er can reach the true.
Now buds your youth, your cheeks their bloom
Th' untainted lilly, and unfolding rofe; [difclofe,
Eafe in your mein, and sweetness in your face,
You speak a fyren, and you move a grace;
Nor time shall urge these beauties to decay,
While virtue gives, what years fhall steal away:
The fair, whofe youth can boaft the worth of age,
In age fhall with the charms of youth engage;
In every change ftill lovely, ftill the fame,
A fairer Phoenix in a purer flame.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOENIX.
N utmoft Ocean lies a lovely ifle, Where fpring ftill blooms, and Which fees the fun put on his first array,
[fmile, And hears his panting fteeds bring on the day; When, from the deep, they rush with rapid force, And whirl aloft, to run their glorious course; When first appear the ruddy streaks of light, And glimmering beams dispel the parting night. In these soft shades, unpreft by human feet, The happy Phoenix keeps his balmy seat, Far from the world disjoin'd; he reigns alone, Alike the empire, and its king unknown. A godlike bird! whofe endless round of years Out-lafts the stars, and tires the circling fpheres ; Not us'd, like vulgar birds, to eat his fill, Or drink the chrystal of the murm'ring rill; But fed by warmth from Titan's purer ray, And flak'd by ftreams which eastern feas convey; Still he renews his life in these abodes, Contemns the power of fate, and mates the gods.
His fiery eyes shoot forth a glittering ray,
And round his head ten thousand glories play;
High on his creft, a ftar celeftial bright
Divides the darkness with its piercing light;
His legs are ftain'd with purple's lively dye,
His azure wings the fleeting winds out-fly;
Soft plumes of chearful blue his limbs infold,
Enrich'd with spangles, and bedropt with gold.
Begot.by none himself, begetting none,
Sire of himself he is, and of himself the fon;
His life in fruitful death renews its date,
And kind deftruction but prolongs his fate :
Ev'n in the grave new strength his limbs receive,
And on the funeral pile begin to live.
For when a thousand times the fummer fun
His bending race has on the zodiac run,
And when as oft the vernal figns have roll'd,
As oft the wintery brought the numbing cold;
Then drops the bird, worn out with aged cares,
And bends beneath the mighty load of years.
So falls the stately pine, that proudly grew,
The fhade, and glory of the mountain's brow.
When pierc'd by blasts, and spouting clouds o'er-
It, flowly finking, nods its tottering head, [fpread,
Part dies by winds, and part by fickly rains,
And wafting age deftroys the poor remains.
Then, as the filver emprefs of the night
O'er-clouded, glimmers in a fainter light,
So, froze with age, and fhut from light's fupplies,
In lazy rounds fcarce roll his feeble eyes,
And those fleet wings, for ftrength andspeed renown'd,
Scarce rear th' unactive lumber from the ground.
Myfterious arts a fecond time create
The bird, prophetic of approaching fate.
Pil'd on an heap Sabæan herbs he lays,
Parch'd by his fire the fun's intensest rays;
The pile, defign'd to form his funeral scene,
He wraps in covers of a fragrant green,
And bids the spicy heap at once become
A grave deftructive, and a teeming womb.
On the rich bed the dying wonder lies,
Imploring Phoebus, with persuasive cries,
To dart upon him in collected rays,
And new-create him in a deadly blaze.
The god beholds the fuppliant from afar,
And ftops the progrefs of his heavenly car.
"O thou, fays he, whom harmless fires shall burn,
Thy age the flame to fecond youth shall turn, "An infant's cradle is thy funeral urn.
"Thou, on whom heav'n has fix'd th' ambiguous "To live by ruin, and by death to bloom,
Thy life, thy ftrength, thy lovely form renew, "And with fresh beauties doubly charm the view. Thus fpeaking, midft the aromatic bed, A golden beam he toffes from his head;
Swift as defire, the fhining ruin flies,
And strait devours the willing facrifice;
Who haftes to perish in the fertile fire,
Sink into ftrength, and into life expire.
In flames the circling odours mount on high,
Perfume the air, and glitter in the fky,
The moon and ftars, amaz'd, retard their flight,
And nature ftartles at the doubtful fight;
For whilft the pregnant urn with fury glows,
The goddess labours with a mother's throes,
Yet joys to cherish, in the friendly flames,
The noblest product of the skill she claims.
Th' enlivening duft its head begins to rear,
And on the afhes fprouting plumes appear;
In the dead bird reviving vigour reigns,
And life, returning, revels in his veins :
A new-born Phoenix ftarting from the flame,
Obtains at once a fon's and father's name :
And the great change of double life displays,
In the fhort moment of one tranfient blaze.
On his new pinions to the Nile he bends,
And to the gods his parent urn commends,
To Egypt bearing, with majeftic pride,
The balmy neft, where firft he liv'd and dy'd.
Birds of all kinds admire th' unusual fight,
And grace the triumph of his infant flight;
In crowds unnumber'd round their chief they fly,
Opprefs the air, and cloud the fpacious sky;
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