SELECT POEMS.

ODES.

IDLENESS.

Goddess of ease, leave Lethe's brink,

Obsequious to the muse and me ; For once endure the pain to think,

Oh! sweet insensibility! Sister of peace and indolence,

Bring, muse, bring numbers soft and slow, Elaborately void of sense,

And sweetly thoughtless let them flow.

Near to some cowslip-painted mead,

There let ine doze out the dull hours, And under me let Flora spread

A sofa of her softest flow'rs;

Where, Philomel, your notes you breathe

Forth from behind the neighbouring pine, And murmurs of the stream beneath

Still flow in unison with thine.

For thee, o Idleness ! the woes

Of life we patiently endure ; Thou art the source whence labour flows,

We shun thee but to make thee sure.

For who'd sustain war's toil and waste,

Or the hoarse thundering of the sea, But to be idle at the last,

And find a pleasing end in thee?

Hail cherub of the highest heaven,
Of look divine, and temper even,

Celestial sweetness, exquisite of mien !
Of every virtue, every praise the queen!

Soft gracefulness, and blooming youth,
Where, grafted on the stem of truth,

That friendship reigng, no interest can divide,
And great humility looks down on pride.

Oh! curse on slander's viperous tongue,
That daily dares thy merit wrong ;

Idiots usurp thy title, and thy frame,
Without or virtue, talent, taste, or name.

Is apathy, is heart of steel,
Nor ear to hear, nor sense to feel,

Life idly inoffensive, such a grace [place :
That it should steal thy name and take thy

No-thou art active-spirit all-
Swifter than lightning, at the call

Of injur'd innocence, or griev'd desert,
And large with liberality thy heart,

Thy appetites in easy tides
(As reason's luminary guides)

Soft flow-no wind can work them to a storm,

Correctly quick, dispassionately warm.
Yet if a transport thou canst feel
'Tis only for thy neighbour's weal;

Great, generous acts thy ductile passions move,
And smilingly thou weep'st with joy and love.

Mild is thy mind to cover shame,
Averse to envy, slow to blame,

Bursting to praise, yet still sincere and free
From flattery's fawning tongue and bending

[knee. Extensive, as from west to east, Thy love descends from man to beast,

Nought is excluded, little or infirm,
Thou canst with greatness stoop to save a worm.

Come, goddess, come with all thy charms
(For oh ! I love thee) to my arms

All, all my actions guide, my fancy feed,
So shall existence then be life indeed.

ON ILL-NATURE.
OFFSPRING of folly and of pride,
To all that's odious, all that's base allied ;

Nurs'd up by vice, by pravity misled,
By pedant affectation taught and bred :

Away, thou hideous hell-born sprite, Go, with thy looks of dark design,

Sullen, sour, and saturnine; Fly to some gloomy shade, nor blot the goodly light. VOL. XXX.

Bb

Thy planet was remote when I was born ; 'Twas Mercury that ruld my natal morn,

What time the sun exerts his genial ray, And ripens for enjoyment every growing day :

When to exist is but to love and sing, And sprightly Aries smiles upon the spring.

There in yon lonesome heath, Which Flora or Sylvanus never knew,

Where never vegetable drank the dew, Or beast or fowl attempts to breathe ;

Where nature's pencil has no colours laid ; But all is blank, and universal shade ;

Contrast to figure, motion, life, and light, There may'st thou vent thy spite,

For ever cursing, and for ever curs'd, Of all the infernal crew the worst;

The worst in genius, measure, and degree ; For envy, hatred, malice, are but parts of thee. Or would'st thou change the scene, and quit the

den Where spleen, by vapours dense begot and bred,

Hardness of heart, and heaviness of head, Have rais'd their darksome walls, and plac'd their

thorny bed ; There may'st thou all thy bitterness unload, There mayst thou croak in concert with the toad,

With thee the hollow howling winds shall join, Nor shall the bittern ber base throat deny, The querulous frogs shall mix their dirge with

thine, The' ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high, Millions of humming gnats fit æstrum shall supply. Away-away-behold an hideous band,

An herd of all thy minions are at hand ;

Suspicion first with jealous caution stalks,

And ever looks around her as she walks, With bibulous ear imperfect sounds to catch,

And proud to listen at her neighbour's latch.

Next, Scandal's meagre shade,
Foe to the virgins and the poet's fame,

A wither'd time-deflower'd old maid,
That ne'er enjoy'd love's ever-sacred flame.

Hypocrisy succeeds with saint-like look,

And elevates her hands, and plods upon her book. Next comes illiberal scrambling Avarice,

Then vanity and affectation nice
See, she salutes her shadow with a bow,

As in short Gallic trips she minces by,
Starting antipathy is in her eye,

And squeamishly she knits her scornful brow.
To thee, IN-Nature, all the numerous group

With lowly reverence stoop-
They wait thy call, and mourn thy long delay,

Away—thou art infectious-haste away!

TO THE

REV, AND LEARNED DR. WEBSTER,

(oCCASIONED BY HIS DIALOGUES ON ANGER AND FOR

GIVENESS.)

'Twas when the' omniscient creative pow'r

Display'd his wonders by a mortal's hand, And delegated, at the appointed hour,

Great Moses led away his chosen band ;