ページの画像
PDF
ePub

Not all the force of manhood's active might,
Not all the craft to fubtle age affign'd,

Not science shall extort that dear delight,
Which gay delufion gave the tender mind.

Adieu foft raptures! tranfports void of care!
Parent of raptures, dear deceit, adieu!
And you, her daughters, pining with despair,
Why, why fo foon her fleeting steps pursue!

Tedious again to curfe the drizling day!
Again to trace the wint'ry tracts of fnow!
Or, footh'd by vernal airs, again furvey

The felf-fame hawthorns bud, and cowflips blow!

O life! how foon of ev'ry blifs forlorn!

We start false joys, and urge the devious race: A tender prey; that chears our youthful morn, Then finks untimely, and defrauds the chace.

ELEGY

ELEGY

His recantation.

XII.

O more the mufe obtrudes her thin disguise;

No more with aukward fallacy complains,
How ev'ry fervour from my bofom flies,
And reason in her lonesome palace reigns.

Ere the chill winter of our days arrive,

No more the paints the breast from paffion free; I feel, I feel one loitering wifh furvive

Ah need I, FLORIO, name that wish to thee?

The ftar of VENUS ufhers in the day,

The first, the lovelieft of the train that shine! The ftar of VENUS lends her brightest ray, When other stars their friendly beams refign.

Still in my breast one foft defire remains,

Pure as that ftar, from guilt, from intʼrest free, Has gentle DELIA trip'd across the plains,

And need I, FLORIO, name that wish to thee ?

While, cloy'd to find the scenes of life the fame,
I tune with carelefs hand my languid lays;
Some fecret impulfe wakes my former flame,
And fires my ftrain with hope of brighter days.

3

I slept

I slept not long beneath yon rural bow'rs;

And lo! my crook with flow'rs adorn'd I see = Has gentle DELJA bound my crook with flow'rs, And need I, FLORIO, name my hopes to thee?

ELEGY

ELE GY XIII.

To a friend, on fome flight occafion estranged from him.

HE

EALTH to my friend, and many a chearful day Around his feat may peaceful shades abide ! Smooth flow the minutes, fraught with fmiles, away, And, 'till they crown our union, gently glide.

Ah me! too fwiftly fleets our vernal bloom!
Loft to our wonted friendship, loft to joy!
Soon may thy breast the cordial wish resume,
Ere wintry doubt its tender warmth destroy.

Say, were it ours, by fortune's wild command,
By chance to meet beneath the torrid zone;
Wou'dft thou reject thy DAMON's plighted hand?
Wou'dft thou with fcorn thy once lov'd friend disown?

Life is that stranger land, that alien clime :

Shall kindred fouls forego their focial claim? Launch'd in the vast abyss of space and time, Shall dark fufpicion quench the gen'rous flame?

Myriads of fouls, that knew one parent mold,
See fadly fever'd' by the laws of chance!
Myriads, in time's perennial lift enroll❜d,
Forbid by fate to change one tranfient glance!

But

But we have met-where ills of every form,

Where paffions rage, and hurricanes defcend: Say, fhall we nurse the rage, affift the storm? And guide them to the bofom-of a friend?

Yes, we have met thro' rapine, fraud, and

[ocr errors]

wrong: Might our joint aid the paths of peace explore! Why leave thy friend amid the boist'rous throng, Ere death divide us, and we part no more?

For oh! pale fickness warns thy friend away!
For me no more the vernal rofes bloom!
I fee ftern fate his ebon wand difplay;

And point the wither'd regions of the tomb.

Then the keen anguish from thine eye shall start,
Sad as thou follow'ft my untimely bier ;
"Fool that I was-if friends fo foon must part,
"To let fufpicion intermix a fear."

ELEGY

« 前へ次へ »