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Nor unregarded fighs the lowly hind;
Tho' you contemn, the gods respect his vow;
Vindictive rage awaits the fcornful mind,

And vengeance, too fevere! the gods allow.

On SARUM's plain I met a wand'ring fair;

The look of forrow, lovely ftill, fhe bore:
Loofe flow'd the foft redundance of her hair,
And, on her brow, a flow'ry wreath she wore.

Oft stooping as she stray'd, fhe cull'd the pride
Of ev'ry plain; the pillag'd ev'ry grove!
The fading chaplet daily fhe fupply'd,

And still her hand fome various garland wove.

Erroneous fancy fhap'd her wild attire ;

From BETHLEM's walls the poor lympatic stray'd; Seem'd with her air her accent to conspire, When, as wild fancy taught her, thus she said.

"Hear me, dear youth! oh hear an hapless maid,
Sprung from the scepter'd line of ancient kings!
Scorn'd by the world, I ask thy tender aid;
Thy gentle voice shall whisper kinder things.

The world is frantic-fly the race profane-
Nor I, nor you, fhall its compaffion move;

Come friendly let us wander, and complain,

And tell me, shepherd! haft thou seen my love?

My

My love is young-but other loves are youngs
And other loves are fair, and so is mine
An air divine difclofes whence he sprung;

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He is my love, who boasts that air divine.

No vulgar DAMON robs me of my rest,
IANTHE liftens to no vulgar vow;

A prince, from gods defcended, fires her breaft;
A brilliant crown diftinguishes his brow.

What, fhall I ftain the glories of my race?
More clear, more lovely bright than HESPER's beam?
The porc❜lain pure with vulgar dirt debase?
Or mix with puddle the pellucid stream?

See thro' thefe veins the faphire current shine!
'Twas Jove's own nectar gave th' etherial hue :
Can bafe plebeian forms contend with mine!
Display the lovely white, or match the blue?

The painter ftrove to trace its azure ray;

He chang❜d his colours, and in vain he ftrove; He frown'd-I fmiling view'd the faint effay; Poor youth! he little knew it flow'd from Jove.

Pitying his toil, the wond'rous truth I told;
How am'rous Jove trepann'd a mortal fair;
How thro' the race the generous current roll'd,
And mocks the poet's art, and painter's care.
3

Yes,

Yes, from the gods, from earliest Saturn, fprung
Our facred race; thro' demigods, convey'd ;
And he, ally'd to PHOEBUS, ever young,
My god-like boy, muft wed their duteous maid.

Oft, when a mortal vow profanes my ear,
My fire's dread fury murmurs thro' the sky;
And fhou'd I yield-his inftant rage appears,
He darts th' uplifted vengeance-and I die.

Have you not heard unwonted thunders roll! Have you not feen more horrid light'nings glare! 'Twas then a vulgar love enfnar'd my foul; 'Twas then-I hardly fcap'd the fatal fnare.

'Twas then a peafant pour'd his amorous vow,
All as I liften'd to his vulgar ftrain

Yet fuch his beauty-wou'd my birth allow,
Dear were the youth, and blissful were the plain.

But oh! I faint! why waftes my vernal bloom,
In fruitless fearches ever doom'd to rove?
My nightly dreams the toilfome path refume,
And I fhall die-before I find my love.

When last I flept, methought, my ravish'd eye,
On distant heaths his radiant form furvey'd;
Tho' night's thick clouds encompass'd all the sky,
The
gems that bound his brow, difpell'd the shade.

O how

O how this bofom kindled at the fight!

Led by their beams I urg'd the pleasing chace; Till, on a fudden, these with-held their light— All, all things envy the fublime embrace.

But now no more-behind the distant grove, Wanders my deftin'd youth, and chides my ftay; See, fee, he grafps the steel-forbear, my love— IANTHE Comes; thy princess haftes away.".

Scornful she spoke, and heedless of reply
The lovely maniac bounded o'er the plain;
The piteous victim of an angry sky.!

Ah me! the victim of her proud disdain!

ELEGY

EL EGY XVII.

He indulges the fuggeftions of Spleen: an elegy to the winds.

Eole, namque tibi divum pater atque hominum rex
Et mulcere dedit mentes & tollere vento.

TERN monarch of the winds, admit my pray❜r!

STE

Awhile thy fury check, thy ftorms confine!

No trivial blast impells the paffive air,

But brews a tempeft in a breast like mine.

What bands of black ideas fpread their wings!
The peaceful regions of content invade!
With deadly poifon taint the crystal springs!
With noisome vapour blast the verdant shade!

I know their leader, fpleen; and dread the fway
Of rigid EURUs, his detefted fire;

Thro' one my bloffoms and my fruits decay;
Thro' one my pleasures, and my hopes expire.

Like fome pale ftripling, when his icy way
Relenting yields beneath the noontide beam,
I stand aghaft; and chill'd with fear survey
How far I've tempted life's deceitful stream!

Where

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