A fimple fhepherd, yet unknown,
Afpires to fnatch an ivy crown,
On daring pinions bold to foar,
Tho' here thy Waller fung before,
And Johnson dipt his learned pen,
And. Sidney pour'd his fancy-flowing ftrain.
Hon. WILMOT VAUGHAN, Efq; in WALES.
YE diftant realms that hold my friend
Beneath a cold ungenial sky,
Where lab'ring groves with weight of vapours bend,
Or raving winds o'er barren mountains fly;
Reftore him quick to London's focial clime,
Reftore him quick to friendship, love and joy;
Be swift, ye lazy steeds of Time,
Ye moments, all your speed employ.
Behold November's glooms arife,
Pale funs with fainter glory fhine,
Dark gathering tempefts blacken in the fkies,
And shiv'ring woods their fickly leaves refign.
Is this a time on Cambrian hills to roam,
To court disease in Winter's baleful reign,
To liften to th' Atlantic foam,
While rocks repel the roaring main,
While horror fills the region vaft,
Rheumatic tortures Eurus brings,
Pregnant with agues flies the northern blast,
And clouds drop quartans from their flagging wings.
Doft thou explore Sabrina's fountful fource,
Where huge Plinlimmon's hoary height ascends :
Then downward mark her vagrant course,
Till mix'd with clouds the landscape ends?
Doft thou revere the hallow'd foil
Where Druids old fepulchred lie;
Or cold Snowden's up
fummits toil,
And muse on ancient favage liberty?
Ill fuit fuch walks with bleak autumnal air,
Say, can November yield the joys of May ?
When Jove deforms the blafted year,
Can Wallia boast a chearful day?
The town expects thee.Hark, around,
gay refort,
New chariots rattle with awak'ning found,
And crowd the levees, and befiege the court.
The patriot, kindling as his wars enfue,
Now fires his foul with liberty and fame,
Marshals his threat'ning tropes anew,
And gives his hoarded thunders aim.
Now feats their abfent lords deplore,
Neglected villas empty stand,
Capacious Gro'venor gathers all its ftore,
And mighty London swallows up the land.
See fportive Vanity her flights begin,
See new-blown Folly's plenteous harvest rise,
See mimick beauties dye their skin,
And harlots roll their venal eyes.
Fashions are fet, and fops return,
And young coquettes in arms appear;
Dreaming of conqueft, how their bofoms burn,
Trick'd in the new fantastry of the year.
Fly then away, nor fcorn to bear a part
In this gay fcene of folly amply spread :
Follies well us'd refine the heart,
And pleasures clear the ftudious head;
By grateful interchange of mirth
The toils of study sweeter grow,
As varying seasons recommend the earth,
Nor does Apollo always bend his bow.
HILE born to bring the Mufe's happier days,
A patriot's hand protects a poet's lays :
While nurs'd by you the fees her myrtles bloom,
Green and unwither'd o'er his honour'd tomb:
Excufe her doubts, if yet fhe fears to tell
What fecret transports in her bosom swell:
With confcious awe fhe hears the critic's fame,
And blufhing hides her wreath at Shakespear's name.
Hard was the lot those injur'd strains endur'd,
Unown'd by Science, and by years obfcur'd:
́Fair Fancy wept; and echoing fighs confefs'd
A fixt defpair in ev'ry tuneful breaft.
Not with more grief th' afflicted swains appear,
When wintry winds deform the plenteous year;
When ling'ring frofts the ruin'd feats invade
Where Peace reforted, and the Graces play'd.
Each rifing art by just gradation moves,
Toil builds on toil, and age on age improves :
The Muse alone unequal dealt her rage,
And grac'd with noblest pomp her earliest stage,
Preferv'd thro' time, the speaking scenes impart
Each changeful wish of Phædra's tortur❜d heart :
Or paint the curse, that mark'd the d Theban's reign,
A bed incestuous, and a father flain.
With kind concern our pitying eyes o'erflow,
Trace the fad tale, and own another's woe.
To Rome remov'd, with wit fecure to please,
The Comic fifters kept their native ease.
With jealous fear declining Greece beheld
Her own Menander's art almost excell'd!
But ev'ry Mufe effay'd to raise in vain
Some labour'd rival of her Tragic ftrain;
Ilyffus' laurels, tho' transferr'd with toil,
Droop'd their fair leaves, nor knew th' unfriendly foil.
a The Edipus of Sophocles.
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