Page images
PDF
EPUB

2.

II. 2.

II. 3.

[ocr errors]

All burst to fight! while glancing on the vicw,

III.
Titania's sporting train brulh'd lightly o’er the Lo! on yon long-rcsounding shore,
dew.

Where the rock totters o'er the headtong dcep;

What phantoms bath'd in infant gore
The pale-eyed Genius of the fhade

Stand mutt'ring on the dizzy steep!
Led thy bold step to Prosper's magic bow'r;

Their murmur shakes the zephyr's wing!
Whofe voice the howling winds obey'd,

The storm obeys their pow'rful spell;
Whose dark spell chain d the rapid hour :

Sce, from his gloomy cell
Then rose serene the sca-girt ille ;

Fierce Winter starts! his scowling eye
Gay scenes, by Fancy's touch refin'd,

Blots the fair mantle of the breathing Spring,
Glow'd to the musing mind :

And lowers along the ruffled sky.
Such visions bless the hermit's dream,

To the deep vault the yelling harpies run ģ;
When hovering angels prompt his placid smile, Its yawning mouth receives th' infernal crew.
Or paint some high ecstatic theme.

Dim thro' the black glooin winks the glimmering Then flam’d Miranda on th’enraptur'd gaze,

fun, Then fail'd bright Ariel on the bat’s fleet wing: And the pale furnace gleams with brimstone blue. Or starts the list’ning throng in still amaze,

Hell howls; and fiends that join the dire acclaim The wild note trembling on th' aërial string ! Dance on the bubbling tide, and point the livid The form, in Heaven's resplendent vesture gay,

flame. Floats on the mantling cloud, and pours the

III.

3.
melting lay.
*

But, ah! on Sorrow's cypress bough

Can Beauty breathe her genial bloom ?
Oh lay me near yon limpid stream,

On Death's cold cheek will passion glow?
Whole murmur Toothes the ear of woe !

Or Music warble from the toinb?
There in fome sweet poetic dream

There sleeps the Bard, whose tuneful tongue
Let Fancy's bright Elyfium glow!

Pour'd the full stream of mazy fong.
'Tis done-o'er all the blushing mead

Young Spring, with lip of ruby, here
The dark wood shakes his cloudy head;

Show'rs from her lap the bluthing year;
Below, the lily-fringed dale

While along the turf reclinod,
Breathes its mild fragrance on the gale; The loose wing swimming on the wind,
While, in paftime all-unseen,

The Loves, with forward gesture bold,
Titania rob'd in mantle green

Sprinkle the fod with spangling gold;
Sports on the mossy-bank: her train

And oft the blue-eyed Graces trim
skims light along the gleaming plain; Dance lightly round on downy limb;
Or to the flutt'ring breeze unfold

Oft too, when eve demure and still
The blue wing streak d with beamy gold; Chequers the green dale's purling rill,
Its pinions op'ning to the light!-

Sweet Fancy pours the plaintive strain ;
Say, bursts the vision on my light?

Or, wrapt in soothing dream,
Ah, no! by Shakespeare's pencil drawn, By Avon's ruffled stream,

[plain, The beauteous shapes appear;

Hears the low-murinuring gale that dies along the
While meek-eyed Cynthia near
Iliumes with streamy raythesilver-mantled lawnt.
III. 1.

§ 116. Ode to Time : occafioned by seeing the

Ruins of an Old Castle. OGILVIE.
But, hark! the tempest howls afar !
Bursts the loud whirlwind o'er the pathless waste! O THOU who, mid the world. involving gloom,
What cherub blows the trump of war?

Sit'st on yon folitary spire !
What demon rides the stormy blaft ?

Or flowly thak'it the founding dome,
Red from the lightning's livid blaze,

Or hear'st the wildly-warbling lyre ;
The bleak heath rulhes on the sight;

Say, when thy musing soul
Then wrapt in fudden night

Bids distant tiines unroll,
Diffolves. But, ah! what kingly form And marks the fight of each revolving year,
Roams the lone defart's defolated maze I Of years whose Now-consuming pow'r
Unawid, nor heeds the sweeping storm;? Has clad with moss yon leaning tow'r,
Ye pale-eyed lightnings, spare the cheek of age ! That saw the race of Glory run,
Vain with! tho'anguith heaves the bursting groan, That mark'd Ambition's letting fun,
Dcaf as the fint, the marble ear of rage That shook old Empire's tow'ring pride,
Hears not the mourner's unavailing moan: That swept them down the floating tide-
Heart-pierc'd he bleeds ; and, ftung with wild Say, when these long-unfolding scenes appear,
despair,

[hair. Strcams down thy hoary check the pity-darting Bares his time-blasted lead, and tears his silver tear

[ocr errors]

* Ariel : see the Tempeft.

* Lear.

+ See the Midsummer Night's Dream. § The Witches in Macbeth.

1. 2.

[merged small][ocr errors]

II. 3•

Or waving woods detain the lightCart o'er yon trackless waste thy wand'ring eye: When from the gloomy cave of night Yon hill, whose gold-illumin’d brow,

Some cloud fiveeps shadowy o'er the dusky skies, Just trembling thro' the bending sky,

And wraps the flying scene, that fades, and swims, O'erlooks the boundless wild below;

and dies. Once bore the branching wood That o'er yon murm’ring flood

Lo! rising from yon dreary tomb,
Hung wildly waving to the ruftling gale; What spectres stalk across the gloom!
The naked heath with moss o'ergrown, With haggard eyes, and visage pale,
That hcars the lone owl's nightly moan,

And voice that inoans with feeble wail!
Once bloom'd with summer's copious store, O'er yon long resounding plain
Once rais'd the lawn-bespangling How'r; Slowly moves the solemn train ;
Or heard some lover's plaintive lay,

Wailing wild with shricks of woe
When by pale Cynthia's filver ray

O'er the bones that rest below!
All wild he wander'd o'er the lonely dale, While the dull night's startled ear
And taught the litt'ning moon the mclancholy tale. Shrinks, aghaft with thrilling fear

I.
3.

Or stand with thin robes waiting foon,
Ye wilds where heaven-rapt Fancy roves ! And cycs that blast the fick’ning moon!
Ye sky-crown'd hills, and folemn groves ! Yet these, ere Time had rollid thcir ycars away,
Ye low-brow'd vaults, ye gloomy cells !

Ere Death's fell arm had mark'd its aim;
Ye caves where night-bred Silence dwells! Ruld yon proud tow'rs with ample fivay,
Ghosts that in yon lonely hall

Beheld the trembling swains obey: Lightly glance along the wall;

And wrought the glorious deed that swell?d the Or beneath yon ivy'd tow'r,

trump of Fame. At the filent midnight hour,

III. Stand array'd in spotless white,

But why o'cr thcfe indulge the bursting figh? And ftain the dulky robe of Night;

Feels not each fhrub the tempeft's pow'r? Or with low solemn pauses roam

Rocks not the dome when whirlwinds fly? b'er the long-founding hollow dome!

Nor shakes the hill when thunders roar Say, mid yon desart folitary round,

Lo! mould'ring, wild, unknown,
When darkness wraps the boundless spheres, What fanes, what tow'rs o'erthrown,
Does ne'er fomc dismal dying found

What tumbling chaos marks the waste of Time!
On Night's dull serious ear rebound, [years ? | I see Palmyra's temples fall;
That mourns the ceaseless lapse of life-consuming Old Ruin ihakes the hanging wall!
II.

Yon waste where roaming lions howl,
O call th' inspiring glorious hour to view, Yon aitle where moans the grey-eyed owl,
When Caledonia's niartial train

Shows the proud Persian's great abode ';
From yon ftcep rock's high-arching brow

Where scepter'd once, an earthly god! Pour'd on the heart-struck Mying Dane !

His pow'r-clad arm contrould each happier clime,
When War's blood-tin&tur'd spear

Where sports the warbling Mule, and Fancy soars
Hung o'er the trembling rear; [flight: sublime,
When light-hcel'd Terror wing’d their headlong

III.
Yon tow'rs then rung with wild alarms !

Hark! what dire found rolls murm’ring on the Yon defart gleam'd with shining arms !

Ah! what foul-thrilling scene appears : [gale? While on the bleak hill's bright'ning spire

I see the column'd arches fail! Bold Vict'ry Ham'd, with eyes of fre;

And structures hoar, the boast of years ! Her limbs celestial robes infold,

What mould'ring piles decay'd
Her wings were ting'd with spangling gold,

Glcam thro' the moon-streak'd shade,
She spoke-her words infus'd refiftleis might,
And warm’d the bounding heart, and rous'd the Sad monument ! -Ambition near

Where Rome's proudGeniusrear dherawful brow!
foul of fight.

Rolls on the dust, and pours a tear;

Pale Honour drops the flutt'ring plume, But, ah! what hand the smiling prospect brings? And Conquest weeps o'er Catar's tomb; What voice recals th’expiring day?

Slow Patience fits with eye deprest, See, darting swift on cagle-wings,

And Courage beats his sobbing breast; The glancing moment bursts away!

Ev'n War's red check the gushingstreamso'erflow, So from some mountain's head,

And Fancy's litt’ning car attends the plaint of
In mantling gold array’d,

Woe.
While bright-eyed Fancy stands in sweet surprise:
The vale where muting Quier treads,

Lo, on yon pyramid fublime,
The flow'r-clad lains, and bloomy meads, Whence lies Old Egypt's defart clime,
Or streams where zephyr loves to stay

Blcak, naked, wild! where ruin low'rs,
Beneath the pale eve's twinking ray;

Mid fanes, and wrecks, and tumbling tow'rs:

I.

2.

II. 2.

III. 3.

[ocr errors]

Perle polis,

[ocr errors]

On the steep height waste and bare,

Where, thro’ the mantling boughs, afar
Stands the pow'r with hoary hair!

Glimmers the filver-streaming itar;
O'er his scythe he bends; his hand

And, shower'd from ev'ry ruitling blade,
Slowly Ihakes the flowing sand,

The loose light floats along the shade :
While the hours, and airy ring,

So hov'ring o'er the human scene
Lightly fit with downy wing,

Gay Pleasure sports with brow serene;
And tap the works of man; and shade

By Fancy beam'd, the glancing ray
With silver'd locks his furrow'd head;

Shoots, Hutters, gleams, and fleets away:
Thence rolls the mighty pow'r his broad survey, Unsettled, dubious, restless, blind,
And seals the nations awful doom :

Floats all the busy bustling mind;
He sees proud grandeur's meteor ray;

While Memory's unstain'd leaves retain

No trace from all th' ideal train.
He yields to joy the festive day;
Then sweeps the length’ning lhade, and marks But see the landskip op'ning fair
them for the tomb.

Invites to breathe the purer air !

Oh when the cowslip-icented gale
§ 117. Ode to Evening. OGILVIE. Shakes the light dew-drop o'er the dale,
MEEK Pow’r, whose balmy-pinion'd gale When on her amber-dropping bed

Steals o'er the flow'r-enameli'd dale ! Loose Ease reclines her downy head;
Whose voice in gentle whispers near

How bleft! by fairy-haunted stream
Oft highs to Quiet's lift'ning ear;

To melt in wild ecstatic dream;
As on her downy couch at rest,

Die to the pictur’d with, or hear
By Thought's inspiring vifions bleft

(Breath'd loft on Fancy's trembling ear)
She fits, with white-rob’d Silence nigh,

Such lays by angel harps ruhind,
And musing heaves her serious eye,

As half un hain the fiutt'ring mind,
To mark the flow sun's glin m’ring ray, When on life's edge it eyes the shore,
To catch the last pale gleam of day;

And all its pinions itretch to foar.
Or funk in sweet repose, unknown

Lo! where the fun's broad orb withdrawn
Lies on the wild hill's van alone;

Skirts with pale gold the dusky lawn;
And sees thy gradual pencil flow

While, led by ev'ry gentler pow'r,
Along the heaven-illumin'd bow,

Steals the flow, solemn, musing hour.
Come, Nymph demure, with mantle blue, Now from the green hill's purple brow
Thy treffes bath d in balmy dew,

Let me mark the scene below;
With step smooth sliding o'er the green,

Where feebly glancing thro' the gloom
The graces breathing in thy mien;

Yon myrtle shades the filent tomb:
And thy vesture's gather'd fold

Not far, beneath the evening bcam
Girt with a zone of circling gold;

The dark lake rolls his azure stream,
And bring the harp, whole folcmn string Whofe breast the swan's white plumes divide,
Dies to the wild wind's murm’ring wing; Slov-failing o'er the floating tide.
And the Nymph, whose eye

seiene

Groves, meads, and spires, and forests bare,
Marks the calm, breathing woodland scene ; Shoot glimm’ring thro' the misty air;
Thought, mountain sage ! who loves to climb, Dim as the visiot-pictur'd bow's
And haunts the dark rock's summit dim; That gilds the faint's expiring hour,
Let Fancy falcon-wing'd be near:

When, rapt to ecstasy, his eye
And through the cloud-envelop'd sphere, Looks thro' the blue ethereal sky.
Where muling roams Retirement hoar,

All heaven unfolding to his sight!
Lull'd by the torrent's distant roar,

Gay forms that swim in foods of light!
Oh bid with trembling light to glow

The fun-pav'd floor, the balmy clime,
The raven-plume that crowns his brow. The ruby-beaming dome tublime,

Lo, where thy meek-eyed train attend ! The tow'rs in glitt'ring pomp display'd-
Queen of the folemn thought, descend ! The bright scene hovers o'er his bed
Oh hidc me in romantic bow'rs !

He starts but from his eager gaze
Or lead my step to ruin'd tow'rs !

Black clouds obscure the lefiening rays;
Where gleaming thro' the chinky door On mem'ry still the scene is wrought,
The pale ray gilds the moulder'd Aoor : Avd lives in Fancy's featur'd thought.
While beneath the hallow'd pile,

On the airy mount reclin'd
Deep in the desart shrieking ile,

What wishes soothe the musing mind !
Rapt Contemplation stalks along,

How soft the velvet lap of Spring!
And hears the flow clock's pealing tongue;

How fwect the Zephyr's violet wing!
Or, mid the dun discolour'd gloom,

Goddess of the plaintive song,
Sits on some hero's peaceful tomb,

That leads the melting heart along;
Throws Life's gay glitt'ring robe aside, Oh bid thy voice of genial pow'r
And tramples on the neck of Pride.

Reach Contemplation's lonely bow'r;
Oft shelter'd by the rambling sprays,

And call the sage with tranced sight
Lead o'er the forcft's winding maze;

To climb the mountain's steepy height;

TO

23

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

To wing the kindling with, or spread

" Oh sent from heaven to haunt the grove, O’er Thought's pale check enliv’ning red; “ Where squinting Envy ne'er can come! Come, hoary Pow'r with serious eye,

“ Nor pines the check with luckless love,
Whose thought explores yon distant sky; “ Nor Anguish chills the living bloom.
Now when the busy world is still,
Nor pailion tempts the wav'ring will,

“ But spotless Beauty, rob’d in white, When sweeter hopes each pow'r controul,

“ Sits on yon moss-grown hill reclin'd; And quiet whispers to the soul,

“ Serene as hicaven's unsullied light, Now fiveep from life th’illusivé train

“ And pure as Delia's gentle mind. That dance in Folly's dizzy brain ;

“ Grant, Heavenly Pow'r! thy peaceful sıray Bc Reason's simple draught portray'd,

“ May still my ruder thoughts controul;
Where blends alternate light and thade ; “ Thy hand to point my dubious way,
Bid dimpled Mirth, with thought belyed, “ Thy voice to Toothe the melting foul.
Sport on the bubble's glitt'ring side;
Bid Hope pursue the distant boon,

“ Far in the shady sweet retreat And Phrenzy watch the fading moon;

“ Let Thought bcuuile the ling’ring hour; Paint Superstition's starting eye,

“ Let Quiet court the mosly feat, And Wit that leers with gesture sy;

“ And twining olives form the bow'r. Let Censure whet her venom'd dart,

“ Let dove-eyed Peace her wreath bestow, And green-eyed Envy gnaw the heart;

“ And oft sit list’ning in the dale, Let Pleasure' lie on flow'rs reclin'd,

" While Night's sweet warbler from the bougla While Anguilh ainis her shaft behind.

Tells to the grove her plaintive talc. Hail, Sire sublime, whose hallow'd cave Howls to the hoarse deep's dashing wave;

“ Soft as in Delia's snowy breast, Thee Solitude to Phabus bore,

“ Let each consenting pallion move; Far on the lone deserted Thore,

“ Let Angels watch its filent rest, Where Orellano's rushing tide

" And all its blissful dreams be Love!"
Roars on the rock's projected fidc.
Hence bursting o'er thy ripen'd mind,
Beams all the father's thought refin'd:
Hence oft, in filent vales unseen,

§ 119. Hymn to Science.

LIBRARY MAGAZINE.
Thy footsteps print the fairy green ;
Or thy foul melts to strains of woe,
That from the willow's quiv’ring bough

I.
Swect warbling breathe--the zephyrs round
O'er Doc's smooth current waft the found,

SCIENCE ! thou fair effusive ray

From the great source of mental day,
When soft on bending ofiers laid

Free, gen'rous, and refin'd,
The broad fun trembling thro' the bed; Descend, with all thy treasures fraught,
All wild thy hear'n-rapt Fancy ftrays,

Illumine each bewilder'd thought,
Led thro' the foul-diffolving maze;

And blets my lab'ring mind.
Till Slumber downy-pinion'd, near
Plants her strong ferlocks on thy ear;

II.
The soul unfetter'd bursts away,

But first with thy refiftless light And baiks enlarg'd in bcamy day.

Disperse those phantoms from my sight,

Those mimic shades of thee,

The scholiast's learning, fophift's cant, s us. Ode to Innocence. OGILVIE.

The vitionary bigot's rant, 'TWAS when the flow-declining ray

The monk's philofophy.
Had ting'd the cloud with evening gold;

III.
No warbler pour'd the melting lay,
No sound disturb'd the sleeping fold.

Oh! let thy pow'rful charm impart

The patient head, the candid heart, When by a mum’ring rill reclin'd

Devoted to thy sway; Sat wrapt in thought a wand'ring swain;

Which no weak paflions e'er mislead, Calm peace compos'd his musing mind;

Which ftill with dauntlefs steps proceed And thus he rais'd the flowing strain :

Where reason points the way. " Hail, Innocence! celestial maid !

IV. " What joys thy blushing charins reveal ! « Sweet as the arbour's cooling shade,

Give me to learn each secret cause, 11 And milder than the vernal galc.

Let Numbers, Figures, Motion's laws

Reveal'd before me stand. " On Thee attends a radiant choir,

Then to great Nature's scenes apply, “ Soft-smiling Peace, and downy Reft;

And round the globe and thio' the sky With Love, that prompts the warbling lyre ;

Disclose her working hand. “ And Hope, that toorhes the throbbing breaft.

V, Next

a

V.

XIV,
Next to thy nobler search resign'd

Hail, Queen of Manners! Test of Truth!
The busy restless human mind,

Hail, charm of Age, and light of Youth !
Thro' ev'ry maze pursue;

Sweet refuge of Distress I
Detect perception where it lics,

L’en business you can make polite,
Catch the ideas as they rise,

Can give retirement its delight,
And all their changes view.

Profperity its grace.
VI.

XV.
Her secret stores bid Mein’ry tell,

Of pow'r, wealth, frecdom, thou the cause,
Bid fancy quit her airy cell

Foundress of order, cities, laws,
In all her treasures drest;

Of arts Inventress thou !
While, prompt her fallies to controul,

Without thec what were human kind?
Reason, the judge, recalls the soul

How vast their wants, their thoughts how blind!
To Truth's leverelt tett.

Their joys how mcan, how few!
VII.

XVI.
Say from what simple springs began

Sun of the soul! thy beams unveil I
The raft ambitious thoughts of man,

Let others fix the daring fail
That range beyond controul,

On Fortune's faithless fea :
Which feek eternity to trace,

While, undeluded, happier I
Drive thro' th’infinity of space,

From the vain tumult timely fly,
And strain to grasp the whole ?

And sit in peace with thee!
VIII.
Then range thro' Being's wide extent,
Let the fair scale with just ascent

§ 120. Address to a Young Gentleman at School. And cqual steps be trod,

DUNCAN. Till, from the dead corporeal mass,

ROUSĘ then, excrt thy talents, neither weak, Thro' each progreflive rank you pass

Nor 'mid the sons of dulness doom'd to sneak. To Instinct, Reason, God!

Get learning : 'tis the grace of Science fair,
IX.

That gives the lib'ral mind its noblest air.
There, Science, veil thy daring eye,

Get Knowledge : it ensures enjoyment true,
Nor dive too deep nor soar too high

Fit self-esteem, a claim to rev’rence due.
In the divine abyss;

Get Wisdom : in her train the virtues thine,
To Faith content thy bcams to lend,

Thy guides, with Hope and Faith, to bliss divine. Her hopes t'assure, her steps befriend,

Get Wisdom-arduous aim! not hopeless--run;
And light the way to blits.

Begin: half ended is the race begun.
X.

Flect, even at starting for the vidtor's meed,
Then downward take thy flight again,

Fly, the whole courle is glowing; ficeter speed. Mix with the policies of men,

The stripling drone, for life a driv'ler, ende And social nature's ties;

A Thame, a burthen to himself and friends.
The plan, the genius, of each state,

Blank as decrepitude shall youth fit by,
Its interests and its pow'r relate,

Manhood unmark'd by one night merit die.

Lo!
Its fortunes, and its rise.

yon

dull clown bends o'er his fork, demurs, XI.

Yawns, listless eyes the gliding stream, nor stirs ;
Thro' private life pursue thy course,

But waits its gliding off, that gliding still
Trace ev'ry action to its source,

From ages to succeedent ages will.
And means and motives weigh;

As idly toil these dolts, in chace as vain
Put tempers, paflions, in the scale,

Of air-gilt bubbles, pleasure, grandeur, gain. Mark what degrees in each prevail,

Ill does an carth-worm's otfal, thy pursuit, And fix the doubtful sway.

Bafe worldling, a celestial spirit suit;

Born to hold commerce with its kindred skics,
XII.
The last best effort of thy skill,

From strength to strength to glory born to rise.
To form the life, and rule the will,

- Who talks of spirit? All corporeal grown, Propitious pow'r, impart !

“* Each thinks of seeming now, of being none; Tcach me to cool my pafsion's fires,

“ A brilliant equipage, a modifh wife, Make me the judge of my defires,

“ The flutter, noise, and outside glare of life. The master of my heart.

“ In building, gard'ning, fordid is the plan, XIII.

“ That suits the rank and fortune of the man; Raise me above the vulgar breath,

“ Abjcct the taste, that stoops to things of use, Pursuit of fortune, dread of death,

« Poor the beft-order'd board, if not profuse." And all in life that's mean :

Rare noftrums these, to heal a fev'rish heart!
Still truc to Reason be my plan,

A&t thou the rational, the decent part,
And let my actions speak the man,

Which truth, pure nature, and religion trace,
Thro' ev'ry varying scene.

With moral dignity, with manly grace;

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »