ページの画像
PDF
ePub

3

12 A PREFATORY ESSAY ON ELEGY.

tenderness of fentiment he has endeavoured to impress, he begs the metre also may not be too fuddenly condemned. The public ear, habituated of late to a quicker measure, may perhaps confider this as beavy and languid; but an objeƐtion of that kind may gradually lofe its force, if this measure should be allowed to fuit the nature of elegy.

If it should happen to be confidered as an objection with others, that there is too much of a moral caft diffufed through the whole; it is replied, that he endeavoured to animate the poetry fo far as not to render this objection too obvious; or to risque excluding the fashionable reader: at the fame time never deviating from a fixed principle, that poetry without morality is but the bloffom of a fruit-tree. Poetry is indeed like that fpecies of plants, which may bear at once both fruits and blossoms, and the tree is by no means in perfection without the former, however it may be embellished by the flowers which furround it.

ELEGY

EL EGY I.

He arrives at his retirement in the country, and takes occafion to expatiate in praife of fimplicity. To a friend.

OR rural virtues, and for native skies,

Now, mid the trees, I fee my fmoke arise;
Now hear the fountains bubbling round my cell.

O may that genius, which fecures my reft,
Preferve this villa for a friend that's dear!
Ne'er may my vintage glad the fordid breast!
Ne'er tinge the lip that dares be unfincere!

Far from these paths, ye faithless friends, depart!
Fly my plain board, abhor my hoftile name!
Hence the faint verfe that flows not from the heart,

But mourns in labour'd strains, the price of fame!

O lov'd fimplicity! be thine the prize!
Affiduous art correct her page in vain !
His be the palm who, guiltlefs of disguise,
Contemns the pow'r, the dull refource to feign!"

Still may the mourner, lavish of his tears
For lucre's venal meed, invite my scorn!
Still may the bard diffembling doubts and fears,
For praife, for flatt'ry fighing, figh forlorn!

Soft as the line of love-fick HAMMOND flows, 'Twas his fond heart effus'd the melting theme; Ah! never could AONIA's hill disclofe

So fair a fountain, or fo lov'd a stream.

Ye loveless bards! intent with artful pains
To form a figh, or to contrive a tear!
Forgo your Pindus, and on-

plains

Survey CAMILLA's charms, and grow fincere.

But thou, my friend! while in thy youthful foul
Love's gentle tyrant feats his aweful throne,
Write from thy bofom-let not art controul
The ready pen, that makes his edicts known.

Pleafing when youth is long expir'd, to trace

The forms our pencil, or our pen defign'd! "Such was our youthful air and shape and face! "Such the foft image of our youthful mind!

Soft

The loves and graces fteal unfeen away;

And where the turf diffus'd its pomp of flow'rs,
We wake to wint'ry scenes of chill decay!

Curfe the fad fortune that detains thy fair;
Praise the soft hours that gave thee to her arms;
Paint thy proud fcorn of ev'ry vulgar care,

When hope exalts thee, or when doubt alarms:

Where with CENONE thou haft worn the day,
Near fount or ftream, in meditation, rove;
If in the grove CENONE lov'd to ftray,

The faithful mufe fhall meet thee in the grove.

ELEGY

[ocr errors]

EL EGY II.

On pofthumous reputation. To a friend.

GRIEF of griefs! that envy's frantic ire

Should rob the living virtue of its praise ! O foolish muses! that with zeal aspire

To deck the cold infenfate fhrine with bays!

When the free spirit quits her humble frame,
To tread the fkies with radiant garlands crown'd,
Say, will the hear the distant voice of fame ?
Or hearing, 'fancy fweetness in the found?

Perhaps ev'n genius pours a flighted lay;

Perhaps ev'n friendship sheds a fruitless tear;
Ev'n LYTTELTON but vainly trims the bay,
And fondly graces HAMMOND's mournful bier.

Tho' weeping virgins haunt his favour'd urn,
Renew their chaplets, and repeat their fighs;
Tho', near his tomb, Sabæan odours burn,

The loit'ring fragrance will it reach the skies?

No, fhou'd his DELIA Votive wreaths prepare,
DELIA might place the votive wreaths in vain:

Yet the dear hope of DELIA's future care

Once crown'd his pleasures, and dispell'd his pain.

Yes

« 前へ次へ »