THE

ENGLISH PO E T S.

POET

LANSDOWNE'S

POEMS

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TO THE

Of antique stock her high descent she brings, EARL OF PETERBOROUGH,

Born to renew the race of Britain's Kings ;

Who could deserve, like her, in whom we fee 0: bis happy Accomplishment of tbe Marriage between United, all that Paris found in three.

bis Royal Hgbress and the Princess Mary d'Efte, O equal Pair ! when both were set above of Modena. Written leveral years after, in imita- All other merit, but each other's love. tion of the Style of Mr. Waller.

Welcome, bright Princess, to Great Britain's shore, (IS Juno barren, in unfruitful joys,

As Berecynthia to high Heaven, who bore
Our British Jove his nuptial hours employs:

That shining race of Goddesles and Gods
So Fate ordains, that all our hopes may be,

That fill'd the skies, and rul'd the blest abodes : And all our prospect, gallant York, in thee.

From thee, my muse expects as noble Themes, By the rime with aspiring Queens are led,

Another Mars and Jove, another James ; Each languishing to mount his royal bed;

Our future hopes, all from thy womb arise ;

Our present joy and safety, from your eyes,
His youth, his wisdom, and his early fame
Create in every breast a rival Aame :

Those charming eyes, which shine to reconcile
Remo:ef Kings sit trembling on their thrones,

To harmony and peace, our stubborn Ilie.

On brazen Memnon, Phabus casts a ray,
As if no distance could secure their crowns ;
Fearing his valour, wisely they contend

And the tough metal, so salutes the day.
To bribe with beauty so renown'd a friend ;

The British Dame, fam'd for resistless grace, Beauty the price, there need no other arts,

Contends not now, but for the second place, Love is the surelt bait for heroes hearts;

Our love suspended, we neglect the fair Nor can the Fair conceal as high concern,

For whom we burn'd, to gaze adoring here. To see the Prince, for whom, unseen, they burn.

So lang the syrens with enchanting sound, Brive York, attending to the general voice,

Enticing all to listen and be drown'd;

Till Orpheus ravish'd in a nobler strain,
At length resolves to make the withd-for choice,
To noble Mordaunt, generous and juft,

They ceas'd to fing, or, singing, charm'd in vain. Of his great heart, he gives the Sacred trust :

This blest alliance, Peterborough, may " Thy choice, said he, shall well direct that heart,

Th'indebted Nation bounteously repay ; " Where thou, my best belov’d, haft such a part,

Thy ftatues, for the Genius of our land, " In council oft, and oft in battle try'd,

With palim adorn'd, on every threshold stand. “ Betwixt thy master, and the world decide."

-Utinam modo dicere folem The chosen Mercury prepares t'obey

Carmina digna Dea : Cerie eft Dea carmine digna. This high command. Gently ye winds convey And with auspicious gales his safety wait, On whom depend Great Britain's hopes and fate. So Jason with his Argonauts, from Greece To Cholcos foil'd, to seek the Golden Fleece.

Spoken by the Author, beirg then not twelve Years of As when the Godde les came down of old

Age, to her Royal Highness the Duchess of York, On Ida's hill, so many ages old,

ai Trinity College in Cambridge. With gifts their young Dardanian Judge they try'd,

HEN join'd in one, the Good, the Fair, the And each bude high to win him to her side ;

Great, So temp: they him, and emulously vie

Desceod to view the Muses humble seat,
To bribe a voice that empires would not buy ; Though in mean lines, they their valt joys declare,
With balls and banquets; his pler'd sense they bait, Yet for Sincerity and Truth, they dare
And Queens and Kings upon his pleasures wait. With your own T'asso's mighty self compare. y

Th’impartial Judge surveys with vist delight Then, bright and merciful as Heav'n, receive
All that the sun surrounds of fair and bright,

From them such praises, as to Heav'n they give, Then, ftrialy juft, he with adoring cyes,

Their praises for that gentle influence, To radiant Efte gives the royal prize.

Which those auspicious lights, your eyes, dispense; VOL. V.

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BY MR. EDMUND WALLER.

A

'Thore radiant eyes, whose irrefiftless Aame

TO THE KING. Strikes Envy dumb, and keeps Sedition tamc:

EROES of old, by rapine, and by spoil, They can to gazing multitudes give law,

In search of fame, did all the world embroil ; Convert the factious, and the rebel awe ;

Thus to their Gods each then ally'd his name, They conquer for the Duke, where-e'er you tread,

This sprang from Jove, and that from Titan came : Millions of profeiytes, behind are led ;

With equal valour, and the same success, Through crowds of new-made converts still you go,

Dread King, might 'It thou the universe oppress; Pleas'd and triumphant at the glorious show.

But Christian laws conftrain thy martial pride,
Happy that Prince who has in you obtain'd

Peace is thy choice, and Piety thy guide ;
A greater conquest than his arms e'er gain'd.
With all War's rage, he may abroad o'ercome,

By thy example Kings are taught to sway,

Heroes to fight, and saints may learn to pray.
But Love's a gentler victory at home ;
Securely here, he on that face relies,

From Gods descended, and of race divine,
Lays by his arms, and conquers with your eyes.

Nestor in council, and Ulysses shine ; And all the glorious actions of his life

But in a day of battle, all would yield
Thinks well rewarded, bleft with such a wife.

To the fierce matter of the seven-fold shield :
Their very deities were grac'd no more,
Mars had the courage, Jove the thunder bore.
But all perfections meet in James alone,

And Britain's King is all the Gods in one.
TO THE KING.
In the first rear of his Majesty's Reign.

TO THE AUTHOR,
AY all thy years, like this, auspicious be,
And bring thee crowns, and peace, and victory!

On his foregcing Verses to the King.
Scarce hadit thou time t'unsheath thy conqu’ring blade,
It did but glitter, and the rebels fied :
Thy sword, the safeguard of thy brother's throne,

N early plant, which such a blossom bears, Is now as much the bulwark of thy own.

And shews a genius so beyond his years, Aw'd by thy fame, the trembling nations send

A judgment that could make so fair a choice, Throughout the world, to court fo firm a friend.

So high a subject to employ his voice ; The guilty Senates, that refus’d thy sway,

Still as it grows, how tweetly will he fing
Repent their crime, and hasten to obey ;

The growing greatness of our matchless King.
Tribute they raise, and vows and oft'rings bring,
Confess their phrenzy, and confirm their King,
Who with their venom overspread thy soil,

ANSWER
Those scorpions of the state, present their oil.
So the world's Saviour, like a mortal drest,

HEN into Libya the young Grecian came, Although by daily miracles confeft,

To talk with Hammon, and confult for fame; Accused of evil doctrine by the Jews,

When from the sacred tripod where he stood,
The giddy crowd their rightful Prince refuse; The priest inspir'd, faluted him a God;
But when they faw such terror in the skies,

Scarce such a joy that haughty victor knew,
The temple rent, their King in glory rise ;

Thus own'd by heaven, as I, thus prais'd by you. Seiz'd with amaze, they own'd their lawful Lord, Whoe'er their names can in thy numbers show, And ftruck with guilt, bow'd, tremblid, and ador’d. Have more than empire, and immortal grow;

Ages to come shall scorn the pot's of old,
When in thy verse, of greater Gods they're told ;

Our beauteous Queen, and royal James's name,
TO THE KING.

For Jove and Juno shall be plac'd by fame;

Thy Charles for Neptune thall the seas command, HO' traind in arms, and learn'd in martial arts,

And Sacharifla shall for Venus stand :
Thou choosest, not to conquer men, but hearts; Greere shall no longer boast, nor haughty Rome,
Expecting nations for thy triumphs wait,

But think frorn Britain all the Gods did come.
But thou prefer’it the name of just to GreaT.
So Jove suspends his subject world to doom,
Which, would he please to thunder, he'd consume.

To the immortal Memory of
O! could the ghosts of mighty heroes dead,

MR. EDMUND WALLER,
Return on earth, and quit th' Elysian shade!
Brutus to James would trust the people's cause ;
Thy justice is a stronger guard than laws.

LIKE partaking of celestial fire,
Marius and Sylla would resign to thee,
Nor Cæfar and great Pompey rivals be;

"Till

crown'd with honour, and immortal name, Or rivals only, who should bett obey,

By wit, or valour, led to equal fame, And Cato give his voice for regal (way.

They mingle with the Gods who breath'd che noble fame.

TO

TO MR. WALLER.

W

UPON HIS DEATH.

A ,

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.

To high exploits, the praises that belong,

TO M YR A. Live, but as nourish'd by the Poet's fong.

LOVING AT FIRST SIGHT. A tree of life is sacred Poetry,

O warning of th' approaching flame, Sweet is the fruit, and tempting to the eye ;

Swiftly, like sudden death, it caine ; May there are, who nibble without leave,

Like travellers, by light'ning kill'd, But none who are not born to taste, survive.

I burnt the moment I beheld.

In whom so many charms are plac’d, WALLER shall never die, of life secure,

Is with a mind as nobly grac'd; As long as Fame, or aged Time endure,

The case so thining to bchold,
WALLER, the Muse's darling, free to taste

Is fill'd with richest gems, and gold.
Of all their stores, the master of the feast;
No: like old Adam, stinted in his choice,

To what my eyes admir'd before,
But Lord of all the spacious paradise.

I add a thousand graces more ;

And Fancy blows into a flame,
Those foes to Virtue, Fortune, and Mankind, The spark that from her beauty came.
Fav’ring his fame, once, to do justice joind;

The object thus improv'd by thought,
No carping critic interrupts his praise ;

By my own image I am caught ;
No rival strives, but for a second place;

Pygmalion so, with fatal art
No want constrain'd; (the writer's usual fate) Polish'd the form that stung his heart,
A Poet with a plentiful estate ;
The first of mortals who before the tomb,
Struck that pernicious monster, Envy, dumb;
Malice and Pride, those savages, difarınd;
Not Orpheus with such powerful magic charm'd.

TO MY R A.
Scuce in the grave can we allow him more,

CARN’D, and made wise by o-hers flame, Than living we agreed to give before.

I Aed from whence such mischiefs came,

Shunning the Sex, that kilis at fight,
His noble muse employ'd her generous rage I sought my safety in my fight.
In crowning virtue, fcorning to engage
The vice and follies of an impious age.

But, ah! in vain from fate we fly,

For first, or iaft, as all must die;
No satyr lurks within this hallow'd ground, U So 'tis as much decreed above,
But nymphs and heroines, kings and gods abound;

That firit, or laft, we all must love.
Glory, and arms, and love, is all the found.
His Eden with no Serpent is defil’d,

My heart which stood so long the shock
Bu: all is gay, delicious all, and mild.

Of winds and waves, like some firm rock,

By one bright spark from Myra thrown,
Miftaken men, his Muse of Aattery blame, Is into flame, like powder, blown.
Adorning twice an impious tyrant's name,
We raise our own, by giving fame to foes;
The valour that he prais’d, he did oppofe.

SONG
Nor were his thoughts to poetry confind,

ΤΟ M Y RA.
The state, and business shar’d his ample mind
As all the Fair were captives to his wit,

TOOLISH Love, begone, said I,
So Senates to his wisdom would submit;

Vain are thy attempts on me ;
His voice so soft, his eloquence so strong,

Thy soft allurements I dety,
Like Cato's was his speech, like Ovid's was his song. Women, those fair dissemblers, fly,

My heart was never made for thee.
Our British kings are rais'd above the herse,

Love heard; and straight prepared a dart;
Immortal made, in his immortal verse ;
No more are Mars and Jove poetic themes,

Myra, revenge my cause, faid he:
But the celestial Charles's, and just James :

Too fare 'twas thot, I feel the smart,

It rends my brain, and tears my heart;
Juno and Pallas, all the shining race
Of heavenly beauties, to the Queen give place ;

O Love! my conq'ror, pity me.
Clea, like her brow, and graceful was his song,
Great, like her mind, and like her virtue strong. -

Parent of Gods, who doft to Gods remove, An Imitation of the second Chorus in the second As of
Where art thou plac'd ? And which thy feat above ?

Seneca's Thyefies, WALLII, the God of Verse, we will proclaim,

HEN will the Gods, propiticus to our prayers, Not Phæbus now, but WALLER be his name ;

Compose our factions, and conclude our wars? Of joyful Bards, the sweet seraphic choir

Ye fons of Inachus, repent the guilt Acknowledge thee their oracle and fire ;

Of crowns usurp'd, and blood of parents spile; The Spheres do homage, and the Muses fing

For impious greatness, vengeance is in store ; WALLER, the God of Verfe, who was the King. Short is the date of all ill-gotten power,

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