O praise him, 'till ye take your way And reign for ever there. XXVIII. Let us, who now impaffive stand, While thus we triumph in the flame, Rife, and our Maker's love proclaim, An ODE to FANCY. By the Same. ANCY, whose delufions vain FA Sport themselves with human brain; Rival thou of Nature's pow'r, Can'ft, from thy exhaustless store, Bid a tide of forrow flow, And whelm the foul in deepest woe: Or in the twinkling of an eye, Raife it to mirth and jollity. etetet Dreams Dreams and shadows by thee ftand, Taught to run at thy command, And along the wanton air, Now like thy mother drear and fad, (All in mournful vestments clad, Cypress weeds and fable stole,) Thou rushest on th' affrighted soul. Oft I feel thee coming on, When the night hath reach'd her noon, And And while my outward fenfes fleep, Sudden I stop, and turn my ear, And lift'ning hear, or think I hear. Walks along the holy ground; Then through the gloom alternate break Maids, who died with love forlorn, Youths, who fell by maidens' scorn, Helpless fires, and matrons old Slain for fordid thirst of gold, And babes, who owe their fhorten'd date To cruel step-dames ruthless hate; Each their fev'ral errands go, To haunt the wretch that wrought their woe: From their fight the caitiff flies, And his heart within him dies; While a horror damp and chill And Bears itself upon his head. When the early breath of day Hath made the fhadows flee away; Still poffefs'd by thee I rove Bofom'd in the fhelt'ring grove, There, with heart and lyre new ftrung, Meditate the lofty song. And if thou my voice infpire, I think on ages long paft o'er, When Truth and Virtue hand in hand Walk'd upon the smiling land. Thence Thence my eyes on Britain glance, Led by the found I onward creep,' And through the neighb'ring hedge I peep; There I fpy the Fairy band Now with step alternate bound, As the quick eye can scarce purfue, And would have puzzled that fam'd clue, Which led th' Athenian's unfkill'd feet Through the Labyrinth of Crete. Sudden the mufic dies away, Wafting |