ELEGANT EXTRACTS. PART IV. Descriptive, Pastoral, and Narrative. THE EXTRAVAGANZA. 'OH, for a journey to the Antipodes; Or some lone region of remotest Ind; Where, sagely sad, in solitary ease My weary sprite a safe retreat might find; Where nothing might perturb my pensive mind, But such delicious fantasies as please The forming eye, when fiery flakes at eve 'Then wingy-heel'd Imagination's flight Would bear me devious through the lamping sky: Then haply should I feel no low delight From earthly Bonnibel's bewitching eye, Voluptuous in her dainty arms to lie; Ne stoop inglorious from so proud a height; While my fond heart pour'd forth its vain distress, Snared in the fetters of a golden tress.' VOL. II. CC Such was my wish, romantic wish I ween, And, shaking their broad locks of glorious green, Tall trees their thick lascivious leaves entwined, To wooe with dalliaunce blithe the western wind. The western wind did, scant-respiring, sigh, Ne ruffled with rude wing the' attemper'd air; But fuming from the fragrant flowers hard by, Prankt in all hues, and delicately fair, Did surging clouds of breathing incense bear: All summer's bravery refresh'd the eye, All musick's charms, above, beneath, around, Raptured the ear with fascinating sound. Here cherries riper than thy leman's lip, The ambrosial lip of love, thou mightst behold; Here purple plums their unctuous amber weep, And mellow pears their shapely size unfold; Here pensile balls of vegetable gold, With blushes blent, through the fresh foliage At once luxurious to the taste and sight, [peep; Here loaded boughs with nodding head invite. The nascent rose joined, prodigal of sweets, Harebell, affecting most obscure retreats; But viler than the sleeky sedge, that strews The barren sand, uptorne from ocean-bed, Were all those baser gauds, and meaner views, To that sweet semblance, next its influence shed, Descending in a vale of roses red; Delectable! not Grace, nor fabled Muse, Not she that, slighting her Idalian bowre, Enchafing, who dismantled stately Troy; Her sunny ringlets, wove in cunning braid, Arch'd with their graceful brows of shiny jet; Her swelling bosom through its slender shade Leap'd to be seen; her round and dimply chin Would tempt a frozen eremite to sin. A silken samite slightly did enfold Her luscious limbs, girt with a starry zone, Its colour heavenly blue, bedropt with gold, And crimson, gorgeous as the proud pavone; A lambent glory on her temples shone: In sooth, she look'd not one of Nature's mold, But some gay creature whom the minstrel sees Aerial floating on the evening breeze. Scarce my dazed eye could I uplift to trace I wist not how the fond infection came, When, sudden (while a gracious smile her face With modest blush most amiably arraid), Thus spoke in tuneful words the mystic maid : 'Thy fond intreaty, youth of bold design! Is heard, and sanctified thy wayward prayer; My soul in unison accords with thine; Henceforth, initiate, thou shalt be my care. Thou shalt not grieve for any mundane fair, Ne for the daughters of frail clay repine: Celestial quintessence thou shalt embrace; No mortal I, but of the sylphid race! 'Deem not this airy texture too refined The sacred energies of love to feel: True love is seated in the dureful mind, Which aught of fleshy converse ne'er can heal; In swinish riotise, his bouzing-can |