Half-drown'd with the deluge, and frozen with fear, Apollo's mad vot'ry thus splutter'd ; "Thou deaf, saucy scoundrel! why did'st thou not hear The kind invocation I utter'd? And you, ye curs'd Nine! I detest your each form, So said to the village he scamper'd along, To the Famishing Bard, FROM A BROTHER SKELETON. Is there no patron to protect the Muse, ALOFT to high Parnassus' hill, THOMSON. I heard thy prayer ascending swift; To roll down from his kitchen high A sirloin huge-a smoking lift, If so, O much respected swain! Thou'rt surely Phoebus' fav'rite bard; E O Ο And while the juice besmears thy beard, Yet, if regardless of thy strains, The strumpets scorn to lend an ear— But stern refuse thy belly cheer; If oft on cheerless Winter's morn, Thou spends with thought the shiv'ring hour, Like Cruickston or the Stanley tower; Of lashing rain or hail rebound, And free thy issuing toes explore If ills like these, for these are mine, If thou must eat, ferocious bard! Do like the lank, lean, ghostly sinner, And pale the prospect yet appears, On crusts of hard brown bread and leeks, "Be Fame thy belly's chief delight." For this extend thy ev'ry nerve; And should that world thou strains to serve, More consolation I might pour, But, hark! the tempest, how it blows! And want and sleep's uniting throes, Epistle to Mr. T. Wotherspoon. FROM Fife's rugged shore, where old ocean loud bellows, And lofty Weyms' castlea looks down o'er the main, a The beautiful seat of William Wemys, Esq., member of Parliament for the County of Fife. From midst an old hut of some poor fisher fellows, In vain o'er old Scotia, a stranger he travels, The huge smoky city or hamlet's the same; So, dear Tom, farewell! and each cheerful compa nion, With sorrow, I bid you a long sad adieu; Some far distant country for life I'll remain in, you. So kind you have been to the fortuneless poet, Yet where shall the Muse to relate them begin. When gloomy brow'd Want, to attack my poor dwelling, With fury advanced and merciless glare, Your goodness dispatched the fiend loudly yelling, And snatched me to peace from the jaws of Despair. When fortune propitiously seemed to assist me, You leapt at the prospect and shared in my bliss ; When all these evanished and horror distressed me, You lulled every passion and soothed me to peace. And shall I forget you? No, rave on thou tempest! Misfortune! here pour all thy rage on my head; Though foaming with fury, around thou encampest, 'Tis friendship alone that shall force me to bleed. Though joy from thy talk I will ne'er again borrow, Though fond, on thy face I shall never gaze more; Yet Heaven one day will relieve us from sorrow, And join us again on a happier shore. Then, farewell, my friend, and my dearest companion, With tears I now bid you a final adieu; Some far distant country for life I'll remain on, Where Mem'ry shall weep while she hovers o'er you. Happiness, an Ede. AH! dark and dreary lowers the night, Unhappy he, who nightly braves And yet, though far remote from shore, Hope cheers each breast, that future winds, Not so with me! distrest, forlorn, Still doomed to weep from night to morn, The past, regret the present, care; How happy they, who blest with health, |