HYMN TO ELIZA.
MADAM, before your feet I lay
This ode upon your wedding day,
The first indeed I ever made,
For writing odes is not my trade :
My head is full of household cares
And necessary dull affairs;
Besides that sometimes jealous frumps
Will put me into doleful dumps,
And then no clown beneath the sky
Was e'er more ungallant than I :
alone I now think fit
To turn a poet and a wit
For you, whose charms I know not how
Have pow'r to smooth my wrinkled brow,
And make me, tho' by nature stupid,
As brisk and as alert as Cupid.
These obligations to repay,
Whene'er your happy nuptial day
Shall with the circling years return,
For you my torch shall brighter burn
Than when you first my pow'r ador'd,
Nor will I call myself your Lord.
But am (as witness this my hand)
Your humble servant at command.
Dear Child! let Hymen not beguile
You who are such a judge of style,
To think that he these verses made
Without an abler penman's aid;
Observe them well you 'll plainly see
That ev'ry line was writ by me.
SUCH were the notes that struck the wond'ring ear
Of silent Night, when on the verdant banks
Of Siloe's hallow'd brook celestial harps
According to seraphick voices sung
"Glory to God on high, and on earth
"Peace and goodwill to men!"-Resume the lyre,
Chantress divine! and ev'ry Briton call
Its melody to hear-so shall thy strains,
More pow'rful than the song of Orpheus, tame
The savage heart of brutal Vice, and bend
At pure Religion's shrine the stubborn knees
Qf bold Impiety,-Greece shall no more
Of Lesbian Sappho boast, whose wanton Muse
Like a false Siren, while she charm'd, seduc'd
To guilt and ruin. For the sacred head
Of Britain's poetess the Virtues twine
A nobler wreath, by them from Eden's grove
Unfading gather'd, and direct the hand
Of- to fix it on her brows.
MOUNT EDGECUMBE.
THE gods on thrones celestial seated,
By Jove with bowls of nectar heated,
All on Mount Edgecumbe turn'd their eyes:
"That place is mine," great Neptune cries;
"Behold how proud o'er all the main
"Those stately turrets seem to reign!
"No views so grand on earth you see!
"The master too belongs to me;
" I grant him my domain to share;
"I bid his hand my trident bear."
"The sea is your's but mine the land,"
Pallas replies. "By me were plann'd
"Those tow'rs, that hospital, those docks,
"That fort which crowns those island rocks:
"The lady too is of my choir,
"I taught her hand to touch the lyré,
"With ev'ry charm her mind I grac'd,
"I gave her prudence, knowledge, taste."
"Hold, Madam !" interrupted Venus,
“The lady must be shar'd between us;
"And surely mine is yonder grove,
"So fine, so dark, so fit for love,
"Trees such as in th' Idalian glade
"Or Cyprian lawn my palace shade."
Then Oreads, Dryads, Naiads, came,
Each nymph alledg'd her lawful claim.
But Jove to finish the debate
Thus spoke, and what he speaks is fate:
"Nor god nor goddess great or small
"That dwelling his or her's may call;
"I made Mount Edgecumbe for you all."
TO THE DOWAGER DUTCHESS D'AIGUILLON.
WHEN Peace shall on her downy wing
To France and England Friendship bring,
Come, Aiguillon! and here receive
That homage we delight to give
To foreign talents, foreign charms,
To worth which Envy's self disarms
Of jealous hatred: come and love
That nation which you now approve:
So shall by France amends be made
(If such a debt can e'er be paid)
For having with seducing art
From Britain stol'n her Harvey's heart.
ADDITIONAL STANZAS TOASTOLFO'S VOYAGE TO THE MOON,
WHEN now Astolfo, stor'd within a vase,
Orlando's wits had safely brought away,
He turn'd his eyes towards another place
Where closely cork'd unnumber'd bottles lay.
II.
Of finest crystal were those bottles made,
Yet what was there enclos'd he could not see,
Wherefore in humble wise the saint he pray'd
To tell what treasure there conceal'd might be.
III.
"A wondrous thing it is," the saint reply'd,
"Yet undefin'd by any mortal wight,
"An airy essence not to be descry'd,
"Sutble and thin, that Maidenhead is hight.
"From earth each day in troops they hither come "And fill each hole and corner of the Moon, "For they are never easy while at home,
" Nor ever owner thought them gone too soon. 16
"When here arriv'd they are in bottles pent, "For fear they should evaporate again,
“ And hard it is a prison to invent
"So volatile a spirit to retain.
"Those that to young and wanton girls belong, "Leap, bounce and fly, as if they'd burst the glass, "But those that have below been kept too long "Are spiritless, and quite decay'd, alas!"
So spake the saint, and wonder seiz'd the knight, As of each vessel he th' inscription read,
|