Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

E'en while the careless, difencumber'd soul,
Sinks, all diffolving, into Pleasure's dream;
E'en then to Time's tremendous verge we roll,

[ocr errors][merged small]

Can Gaiety the vanish'd years restore,

Or on the withering limbs fresh beauty fhed; Or foothe the fad inevitable hour,

Or chear the dark, dark manfions of the dead?

Still founds the folemn knell in Fancy's ear,

That call'd Eliza to the filent tomb:

With her how jocund roll'd the fprightly year!
How fhone the nymph in Beauty's brightest bloom!

Ah! Beauty's bloom avails not in the grave,

Youth's lofty mien, nor Age's awful grace : Moulder, alike unknown, the prince and flave, Whelm'd in th' enormous wreck of human race.

The thought-fix'd portraiture, the breathing bust,
The arch with proud memorials array'd,
The long-liv'd pyramid, fhall fink in duft,
To dumb Oblivion's ever-defart fhade.

Fancy from Joy still wanders far aftray;

Ah, Melancholy, how I feel thy pow'r! Long have I labour'd to elude thy fway

But, 'tis enough; for I refift no more.

The traveller thus, that o'er the midnight waste, Thro' many a lonesome path, is doom'd to roam, 'Wilder'd and weary, fits him down at last

For the long night, and diftant far his home.

ELEGY

ELE GY.

TO A YOUNG NOBLEMAN LEAVING THE UNIVERSITY.

BY MR. MASON.

RE yet, ingenious youth, thy steps retire

From Cam's fmooth margin, and the peaceful vale,
Where Science call'd thee to her ftudious quire,
And met thee mufing in her cloisters pale;
O! let thy friend (and may he boaft the name)
Breathe from his artlefs reed one parting lay :
A lay like this thy early virtues claim,

And this let voluntary friendship pay.

Yet know, the time arrives, the dang'rous time,
When all those virtues, op'ning now so fair,
Transplanted to the world's tempeftuous clime,
Muft learn each paffion's boift'rous breath to bear :
There, if Ambition, peftilent and pale,

Or Luxury, fhould taint their vernal glow;
If cold Self-intereft, with her chilling gale,
Should blaft th' unfolding bloffoms ere they blow;
If mimick hues, by Art or Fashion spread,

Their genuine, fimple colouring, should supply;
O with them may thefe laureate honours fade,
And with them (if it can) my friendship die.
Then do not blame, if, tho' thyself infpire,
Cautious I ftrike the panegyrick ftring;
The Mufe full oft pursues a meteor fire,
And, vainly vent'rous, foars on waxen wing;
Too actively awake at Friendship's voice,
The poet's bofom pours the fervent strain,
Till fad Reflection blames the hafty choice,
And oft invokes Oblivion's aid in vain.

Call

Call we the fhade of Pope, from that blefs'd bow'r
Where thron'd he fits with many a tuneful fage;
Ak, if he ne'er bemoans that hapless hour

When St. John's name illumin'd Glory's page;
Afk, if the wretch, who dar'd his memory ftain,
Afk, if his country's, his religion's foe,
Deferv'd the meed that Marlbro' fail'd to gain,
The deathless meed he only could bestow :
The bard will tell thee, the mifguided praife.
Clouds the celeftial funfhine of his breaft;
E'en now, repentant of his erring lays,

He heaves a figh amid the realms of rest.
If Pope thro' friendship fail'd, indignant view,
Yet pity Dryden; hark, whene'er he fings,
How Adulation drops her courtly dew

On titled rhymers, and inglorious kings.
See, from the depths of his exhaustless mine,

His glitt❜ring ftores the tuneful spendthrift throws:
Where Fear or Intereft bids, behold they shine;
Now grace a Cromwell's, now a Charles's brows.
Born with too gen'rous, or too mean a heart,
Dryden in vain to thee those stores were lent:
Thy sweetest numbers but a trifling art;
Thy strongest diction idly eloquent.
The fimpleft lyre, if Truth directs it's lays,
Warbles a melody ne'er heard from thine:
Not to disgust with false or venal praise,

Was Parnell's modeft fame, and may be mine.
Go then, my friend, nor let thy candid breast
Condemn me, if I check the plaufive ftring:
Go to the wayward world; compleat the reft;
Be what the pureft Muse would wish to fing.
Be ftill thyself: that open path of truth,
Which led thee here, let manhood firm purfue;
Retain the sweet fimplicity of youth,

And all thy virtue dictates, dare to do.

Still fcorn, with confcious pride, the mask of Art;
On Vice's front let fearful caution lour,

And teach the diffident, difcreeter part,

Of knaves that plot, and fools that fawn for pow'r.
So, round thy brow when Age's honours spread,
When Death's cold hand unftrings thy Mafon's lyre,
When the green turf lies lightly on his head,

Thy worth fhall fome fuperior bard infpire:
He to the ampleft bounds of Time's domain,
On Rapture's plume shall give thy name to fly;
For truft, with rev'rence truft this Sabine ftrain,
The Muse forbids the virtuous man to die."

KNOWLED G E.

AN ODE.

BY MR. MICKLE.

Ducit in errorem variarum ambage viarum.

HIG

IGH on a hill's green bofom laid,
At eafe my careless fancy ftray'd,

And o'er the landscape ran;

Review'd what fcenes the feafons fhew,

And weigh'd what share of joy
Is doom'd to toiling man.

and

woe

The nibbling flocks around me bleat,
The oxen low beneath my feet
Along the clover'd dale;

The golden fheaves the reapers bind,
The ploughman whistles near behind,
And breaks the new-mown vale.

Z

QVID.

< Hail,

[ocr errors]

Hail, Knowledge! gift of Heav'n!' I cried, • E'en all the gifts of Heav'n befide,

[ocr errors][merged small]

How mean the fhort-liv'd joys of Sense!
But how fublime the excellence

Of Wisdom's facred lore!

In Death's deep shades what nations lie! . Yet ftill can Wisdom's piercing eye Their mighty deeds explore.

She fees the little Spartan band, With great Leonidas, withstand • The Afian world in arms;

She hears the heavenly founds that hung • On Homer's and on Plato's tongue, And glows at Tully's charms.

The wonders of the fpacious fky ⚫ She penetrates with Newton's eye, And marks the planets roll;

The human mind with Locke she scans, • With Cambray Virtue's flame she fans, And lifts to heav'n the foul.

How matter takes ten thousand forms
Of metals, plants, of men, and worms,
• She joys to trace with Boyle:

This life the deems an infant ftate,

A gleam that bodes a light compleat,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »