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But I, whom griping penury furrounds,
And hunger, fure attendant upon want,
With scanty offals, and fmall acid tiff
(Wretched repaft!) my meagre corps sustain ;
Then folitary walk, or doze at home
In garret vile, and with a warming puff
Regale chill'd fingers; or from tube as black
As winter-chimney, or well-polish'd jet,
Exhale mundungus, ill-perfuming scent;
Not blacker tube, nor of a shorter fize,
Smokes Cambro-Britain (vers'd in pedigree)
Sprung from Cadwalader and Arthur, kings
Full famous in romantick tale) when he

O'er

many a craggy hill and barren cliff, Upon a cargo of fam'd Ceftrian cheese, High over-shadowing rides, with a defign

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To vend his wares, or at th' Arvonian marte,

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Thus while my joyless minutes tedious flow, 35
With looks demure, and filent pace, a Dun,
Horrible monster! hated by gods and men,
To my aërial citadel ascends,

With vocal heel thrice thund'ring at my gate,
With hideous accent thrice he calls; I know

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The voice ill-boding, and the folemn found.
What should I do? or whither turn? Amaz'd,
Confounded, to the dark recess I fly

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Of wood-hole; ftrait my bristling hairs erect
Thro' fudden fear; a chilly sweat bedews
My fhud'ring limbs, and (wonderful to tell!)
My tongue forgets her faculty of speech;
So horrible he feems! His faded brow
Entrench'd with many a frown, and conic beard,
And spreading band, admir'd by modern faints,
Difaftrous acts forebode; in his right hand
Long scrolls of paper folemnly he waves,
With characters and figures dire inscrib'd,
Grievous to mortal eyes; (ye gods, avert
Such plagues from righteous men!) Behind him
ftalks

Another monster, not unlike himself,

Sullen of afpect, by the vulgar call'd

A Catchpole, whose polluted hands the gods
With force incredible, and magick charms,
Erft have endu'd: if he his ample palm
Should haply on ill-fated fhoulder lay
Of debtor, ftrait his body to the touch
Obfequious, (as whilom knights were wont)
To fome inchanted caftle is convey'd,

Where gates impregnable, and coercive chains,
In durance ftrict detain him, till, in form
Of money, Pallas fets the captive free.

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Beware, ye debtors, when ye walk, beware,
Be circumfpect; oft with infidious ken

The caitiff eyes your fteps aloof, and oft
Lies perdue in a nook or gloomy cave,
Prompt to inchant fome inadvertent wretch
With his unhallow'd touch. So (poets fing)
Grimalkin, to domestick vermin fworn
An everlasting foe, with watchful eye
Lies nightly brooding o'er a chinky gap,
Protending her fell claws, to thoughtless mice
Sure ruin. So her difembowell'd web
Arachne, in a hall or kitchin, spreads
Obvious to vagrant flies: fhe secret stands
Within her woven cell; the humming prey,
Regardless of their fate, rush on the toils
Inextricable, nor will aught avail

Their arts, or arms, or shapes of lovely hue;
The wafp infidious, and the buzzing drone,
And butterfly proud of expanded wings
Distinct with gold, entangled in her fnares
Ufelefs refiftance make: with eager ftrides
She tow'ring flies to her expected spoils;
Then, with envenom'd jaws, the vital blood
Drinks of reluctant foes, and to her cave
Their bulky carcaffes triumphant drags.

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So pass my days. But, when nocturnal shades This world invelop, and th' inclement air

Perfuades men to repel benumming frofts

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With pleasant wines, and crackling blaze of wood;
Me, lonely fitting, nor the glimmering light
Of make-weight candle, nor the joyous talk
Of loving friend, delights; distress'd, forlorn,
Amidst the horrors of the tedious night,
Darkling I figh, and feed with dismal thoughts
My anxious mind; or sometimes mournful verse
Indite, and fing of groves and myrtle fhades,
Or defperate lady near a purling ftream,
Or lover pendant on a willow-tree.
Meanwhile I labour with eternal drought,

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And restless wish, and rave; my parched throat
Finds no relief, nor heavy eyes repose:

But if a flumber haply does invade
My weary limbs, my fancy's ftill awake,
Thoughtful of drink, and eager, in a dream,
Tipples imaginary pots of ale,

In vain; awake I find the fettled thirft

Still gnawing, and the pleasant phantom curse.

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Thus do I live, from pleasure quite debarr'd, Nor tafte the fruits that the fun's genial rays Mature, John-apple, nor the downy peach, Nor walnut in rough-furrow'd coat secure, Nor medlar-fruit, delicious in decay : Adictions great! yet greater ftill remain: My galligakins, that have long with flood The winter's fury, and incroaching frofts,

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By time fubdu'd (what will not time fubdue!)
An horrid chaẩm disclose, with orifice
Wide, discontinuous; at which the winds
Eurus and Auster, and the dreadful force
Of Boreas, that congeals the Cronian waves,
Tumultuous enter with dire chilling blasts,
Portending agues. Thus a well-fraught ship,
Long fail'd fecure, or thro' th'Ægean deep,
Or the Ionian, till cruifing near

The Lilybean fhore, with hideous crush,

On Scylla, or Charybdis (dang'rous rocks!)

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She strikes rebounding; whence the shatter'd oak, So fierce a shock unable to withstand,

Admits the sea; in at the gaping fide

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The crowding waves gush with impetuous rage, Refiftlefs, overwhelming; horrors feize

The mariners; death in their eyes appears,

They ftare, they lave, they pump, they swear, they pray :

(Vain efforts!) ftill the battering waves rush in, Implacable, till, delug'd by the foam,

The ship finks found'ring in the vast abyss.

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