BACCH US:

OR, TH E

VINES OF LESB OS.

As

S Bacchus ranging at his leifure,

(Io Bacchus! king of pleasure)

Charm'd the wide world with drink and dances,

And all his thousand airy fancies;

Alas! he quite forgot the while

His fav'rite vines in Lefbos ifle.*

The God returning ere they died,
Ah! fee my jolly Fawns, he cried,
The leaves but hardly born are red,
And the bare arms for pity spread;
The beafts afford a rich manure,
Fly, my boys, and bring the lure,
Up the mountains, down the vales;
Thro' the woods, and o'er the dales ;
For this, if full the clusters grow,
Your bowls fhall doubly overflow.

So chear'd, with more officious hafte
They bring the dung of ev'ry beast,

The loads they wheel, the roots they bare,

They lay the rich manure with care,
While oft he calls to labour hard,

And names as oft the red reward.

The plants revive, new leaves appear,
The thick'ning clusters load the year;
The feafon fwiftly purple grew,

The grapes hung dangling deep with blue.
A vineyard ripe a day ferene

Now calls them all to work again;
The Fawns thro' ev'ry furrow fhoot

To load their flaskets with the fruit;

4

And now the vintage early trod,

The wines invite the jovial God,
Strow the rofes, raise the fong,
See the mafter comes along!
Lufty Revel join'd with Laughter,
Whim and Frolic follow after.

The Fawns befide the vatts remain

To fhew the work, and reap

the gain.

All around, and all around They fit to riot on the ground, A veffel ftands amidst the ring,

And here they laugh, and there they fing;

Or rife a jolly jolly band,

And dance about it hand in hand;

Dance about, and fhout amain,

Then fit to laugh and fing again.

But, as an ancient author fung, The vine manur'd with ev'ry dung, From ev'ry creature ftrangely drew, of brutal nature too;

A tang

'Twas hence in drinking on the lawns
New turns of humour feiz'd the Fawns.
Here one was crying out, by Jove!
Another, fight me in the grove;

This wounds a friend, and that the trees;
The Lion's temper reign'd in these.
Another grins and leaps about,
And keeps a merry world of rout,
And talks impertinently free;
And twenty talk the fame as he;
Chatt'ring, airy, idle, kind:

Thefe take the Monkey-turn of mind.

Here one who faw the nymphs that stood

To peep upon them from the wood,
Steals off, to try if any maid

Be lagging late beneath the fhade;
While loofe difcourfe another raises
In naked natures plaineft phrafes ;
And every glass he drinks enjoys
With change of nonfenfe, luft and noise;
Mad and careless, hot and vain,

Such as these the Goat retain.

Another drinks and cafts it up,

And drinks and wants another cup2

Solemn, filent, and fedate,

Ever long and ever late,

Full of meats and full of wine;

7 1 1

This takes his temper from the fwine.

Here fome who hardly feem to breathe,

Drink and hang the jaw beneath,

Gaping, tender, apt to weep;

Their natures alter'd by the sheep.

'Twas thus one autumn all the crew

(If what the Poets fing be true)

While Bacchus made the

merry feaft

Inclin'd to one or other beast;

And fince 'tis faid for many a mile
He fpread the vines of Lefbos ifle,

ཀནྟྭཱ ཏམ

ELYSIU M.

I'

N airy fields, the fields of blifs below,

Where woods of myrtle fet by Maro grow; Where grafs beneath, and shade diffus'd above,

Refresh the fever of distracted love:

There at a folemn tide, the beauties flain
By tender paffion, act their fates again :
Thro' gloomy light that just betrays the grove,
In Orgyes all difconfolately rove;

They range the reeds, and o'er the poppies fweep,
That nodding bend beneath their load of fleep;
By lakes fubfiding with a gentle face,

And rivers gliding with a filent pace,

Where kings and fwains, by antient authors fung,
Now chang'd to flow'rets, o'er the margin hung;
The felf-admirer, white Narciffus, fo

Fades at the brink, his picture fades below;
In bells of azure, Hyacinth arofe,

In crimson painted young Adonis glows;
The fragrant Crocus fhone with golden flame,
And leaves infcrib'd with Ajax' haughty name.
A fad remembrance brings their lives to view,
And with their paffion makes their tears renew;
Unwinds the years, and lays the former fcene,
Where after death, they live for deaths again.