462. The Complaint WAY! away! Αν Tempt me no more, insidious Love: Long did my youthful bosom prove: At length some dear-bought caution earn'd: I know, I see Her merit. Needs it now be shown, How often, to myself unknown, The graceful, gentle, virtuous maid Have I admired! How often saidWhat joy to call a heart like hers one's own! But, flattering god, O squanderer of content and ease In thy abode Will care's rude lesson learn to please? O say, deceiver, hast thou won Proud Fortune to attend thy throne, Or placed thy friends above her stern decrees? 463. TO-N The Nightingale "O-NIGHT retired, the queen of heaven And now to Hesper it is given A stream of brighter rays. Propitious send thy golden ray, Let no false flame seduce to stray To them, by many a grateful song These lawns, Olympia's haunts, belong : Nor seldom, where the beechen boughs But hark! I hear her liquid tone! Down the red marl with moss o'ergrown, See the green space: on either hand See, in the midst she takes her stand, Enclosed in woods profound. Hark! how through many a melting note She now prolongs her lays: How sweetly down the void they float! The breeze their magic path attends; The stars shine out; the forest bends; The wakeful heifers graze. Whoe'er thou art whom chance may bring If then the plaintive Siren sing, O think, o'er all this mortal stage How many griefs from knowledge flow; O sacred bird! let me at eve, 464. TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT To Leven Water 1721-1771 PURE stream, in whose transparent wave Still on thy banks so gaily green May numerous herds and flocks be seen, 455. CHRISTOPHER SMART Song to David UBLIME-invention ever young, SUBLI 1722-1770 Of vast conception, tow'ring tongue Notes from yon exaltations caught, O'er meaner strains supreme. His muse, bright angel of his verse, Blest light still gaining on the gloom, He sang of God-the mighty source Tell them, I AM, Jehovah said To Moses; while earth heard in dread, The world, the clustering spheres, He made; The multitudinous abyss, Where Secrecy remains in bliss, And Wisdom hides her skill. The pillars of the Lord are seven, From Christ enthroned, to Man. |