No, fly me, fly me, far as Pole from Pole; Oh grace serene! oh virtue heavenly fair! Propp'd on some tomb, a neighbour of the dead. Here Grief forgets to groan, and Love to weep, I come, I come! prepare your roseate bowers, Till every motion, pulse, and breath be o'cr; Then, too, when fate shall thy fair frame destroy, (That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy) In trance ecstatic may thy pangs be drown'd, Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round, From opening skies may streaming glories shine, And saints embrace thee with a love like mine. May one kind grave unite each hapless name, And graft my love immortal on thy fame! Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er, When this rebellious heart shall beat no more; If ever chance two wandering lovers brings To Paraclet's white walls and silver springs, O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads; And drink the falling tears each other sheds; Then sadly say, with mutual pity moved, "Oh may we never love as these have loved !” From the full choir when loud hosannahs rise, And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice, Amid that scene if some relenting eye Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie, Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heaven, One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven. And sure if fate some future bard shall join In sad similitude of griefs to mine, Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore, And image charms he must behold no more; Such if there be, who loves so long, so well; Let him our sad, our tender story tell; The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost; He best can paint them who shall feel them most. TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS. THE following Translations were selected from many others done by the Author in his youth; for the most part, indeed, but a sort of Exercises, while he was improving himself in the languages, and carried by his early bent to Poetry to perform them rather in verse than prose. Mr. Dryden's Fables came out by that time, which occasioned the Translations from Chaucer. They were first separately printed in Miscellanies by J. Tonson and B. Lintot, and afterwards collected in the quarto edition of 1717. The Imitations of English Authors, which are added at the end, were done as early, some of them at fourteen or fifteen years old; but having also got into Miscellanies, we have thought it best so to continue them. THE TEMPLE OF FAME. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCXI. Occxi THE hint of the following piece was taken from Chaucer's House of Fame. The design is in a manner entirely altered, the descriptions and most of the particular thoughts my own; yet I could not suffer it to be printed without this acknowledgment. The reader who would compare this with Chaucer, may begin with his third Book of Fame, there being nothing in the two first books that answers to their title. This poem is introduced in the manner of the Provençal poets, whose works were for the most part yisions or pieces of imagination, and constantly descriptive. In that soft season, when descending showers Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flowers; I stood, methought, betwixt earth, seas, and skies; The whole creation open to my eyes: In air self-balanced hung the globe below, Where mountains rise, and circling oceans flow; Here naked rocks and empty wastes were seen, There towery cities, and the forests green;. Here sailing ships delight the wandering eyes; There trees and intermingled temples rise: Now a clear sun the shining scene displays, The transient landscape now in clouds decays. O'er the wide prospect as I gazed around, Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound, Like broken thunders that at distance roar, Or billows murmuring on the hollow shore: Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld, Whose towering summit ambient clouds conceal'd. High on a rock of ice the structure lay, Steep its ascent, and slippery was the way; The wondrous rock like Parian marble shone, And seem'd, to distant sight, of solid stone. Inscriptions here of various names I view'd, The greater part by hostile time subdued; Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past, And poets once had promised they should last. Some fresh engraved appear'd of wits renown'd; I look'd again, nor could their trace be found. Critics I saw, that other names deface, And fix their own, with labour, in their place: Their own; like others, soon their place resign'd, Or disappear'd, and left the first behind. Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone, But felt the approaches of too warm a sun; For fame, impatient of extremes, decays Not more by envy than excess of praise. Yet part no injuries of heaven could feel, Like crystal faithful to the graving steel: The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade, Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade. Their names inscribed unnumber'd ages past From time's first birth, with time itself shall last; These ever new, nor subject to decays, Spread, and grow brighter with the length of days. So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of frost) Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast; Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away, Four faces had the dome,1 and ev'ry face Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd, And half the mountain rolls into a wall: 1 The Temple is described to be square, the four fronts with open gates facing the different quarters of the world, as an intimation that all nations of the earth may alike be received into it. The western front is of Grecian architecture: the Doric order was peculiarly sacred to heroes and worthies. Those whose statues are after mentioned, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts. 2. This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the position of the famous statue of Farnese. |