Faint is my bounded bliss: nor I refuse

To range where daisies open, rivers roll, While prose or song the languid hours amuse, And soothe the fond impatience of my soul.

Awhile I'll weave the roofs of jasmine bow'rs, And urge with trivial cares the loitering year; Awhile I'll prune my grove, protect my flow'rs, Then, unlamented, press an early bier!

Of those lov'd flowers the lifeless corse may share,
Some hireling hand a fading wreath bestow;
The rest will breathe as sweet, will glow as fair,
As when their master smil'd to see them glow.

The sequent morn shall wake the silvan quire;
The kid again shall wanton ere 'tis noon;
Nature will smile, will wear her best attire ;
O, let not gentle Delia smile so soon!

While the rude hearse conveys me slow away,
And careless eyes my vulgar fate proclaim;
Let thy kind tear my utmost worth o'erpay,
And, softly sighing, vindicate my fame.—

O Delia cheer'd by thy superior praise,

I bless the silent path the Fates decree; Pleas'd, from the list of my inglorious days

To raise the moments crown'd with bliss and thee.

DESCRIBING THE SORROW OF AN INGENUOUS MIND ON THE MELANCHOLY EVENT OF A LICENTIOUS AMOUR.

WHY mourns my friend? why weeps his downcast eye?

That eye where mirth, where fancy, us'd to shine; Thy cheerful meads reprove that swelling sigh; Spring ne'er enamell'd fairer meads than thine. Art thou not lodg'd in Fortune's warm embrace? Wert thou not form'd by Nature's partial care ? Bless'd in thy song, and bless'd in every grace

That wins the friend, or that enchants the fair!

Damon,' said he, thy partial praise restrain; Not Damon's friendship can my peace restore; Alas! his very praise awakes my pain,

And my poor wounded bosom bleeds the more.
For, oh! that Nature on my birth had frown'd,
Or Fortune fix'd me to some lowly cell:
Then had my bosom 'scap'd this fatal wound,

Nor had I bid these vernal sweets farewell.
But led by Fortune's hand, her darling child,
My youth her vain licentious bliss admir'd;
In Fortune's train the siren Flattery smil❜d,
And rashly hallow'd all her queen inspir'd.
'Of folly studious, ev'n of vices vain,

Ah, vices gilded by the rich and gay!
I chas'd the guileless daughters of the plain,
Nor drop'd the chase, till Jessy was my prey.
Poor artless maid! to stain thy spotless name
Expense, and art, and toil, united strove ;
To lure a breast that felt the purest flame,
Sustain❜d by virtue, but betray'd by love.

"School'd in the science of Love's mazy wiles,
I cloth'd each feature with affected scorn;
I spoke of jealous doubts and fickle smiles,
And, feigning, left her anxious and forlorn.
Then while the fancied rage alarm'd her care,
Warm to deny, and zealous to disprove,
I bade my words the wonted softness wear,
And seiz'd the minute of returning love.
'To thee, my Damon, dare I paint the rest?
Will yet thy love a candid ear incline?
Assur'd that virtue, by misfortune press'd,
Feels not the sharpness of a pang like mine.
• Nine envious moons matur'd her growing shame,
Ere while to flaunt it in the face of day;
When scorn'd of Virtue, stigmatiz'd by Fame,
Low at my feet desponding Jessy lay,'
"Henry," she said, "by thy dear form subdu'd,
See the sad relics of a nymph undone!

I find, I find this rising sob renew'd ;

I sigh in shades, and sicken at the sun.

"Amid the dreary gloom of night I cry,

When will the morn's once pleasing scenes return? Yet what can morn's returning ray supply,

But foes that triumph, or but friends that mourn! "Alas! no more that joyous morn appears, That led the tranquil hours of spotless fame; For I have steep'd a father's couch in tears, And ting'd a mother's glowing cheek with shame. "The vocal birds that raise their matin strain, The sportive lambs, increase my pensive moan; All seem to chase me from the cheerful plain, And talk of truth and innocence alone.

6

"If through the garden's flowery tribes I stray, Where bloom the jasmines that could once allure, Hope not to find delight in us,' they say,

For we are spotless, Jessy; we are pure.'

"Ye flowers! that well reproach a nymph so frail, Say could ye with my virgin fame compare? The brightest bud that scents the vernal gale Was not so fragrant, and was not so fair. "Now the grave old alarm the gentler young, And all my fame's abhor'd contagion flee; Trembles each lip, and falters every tongue, That bids the morn propitious smile on me. "Thus for your sake I shun each human eye, I bid the sweets of blooming youth adieu; To die I languish, but I dread to die,

Lest my sad fate should nourish pangs for you. "Raise me from earth; the pains of want remove,

And let me, silent, seek some friendly shore;
There only, banish'd from the form I love,

My weeping virtue shall relapse no more.
"Be but my friend; I ask no dearer name;
Be such the meed of some more artful fair;
Nor could it heal my peace or chase my shame,
That Pity gave what Love refus'd to share.
"Force not my tongue to ask its scanty bread,
Nor hurl thy Jessy to the vulgar crew;
Not such the parent's board at which I fed!
Not such the precept from his lips I drew !
Haply, when age has silver'd o'er my hair,
Malice may learn to scorn so mean a spoil;
Envy may slight a face no longer fair,

And Pity welcome to my native soil."

She spoke-nor was I born of savage race, Nor could these hands a niggard boon assign; Grateful she clasp'd me in a last embrace,

And vow'd to waste her life in prayers for mine. 'I saw her foot the lofty bark ascend,

I saw her breast with every passion heave ;I left her-torn from every earthly friend;

Oh, my hard bosom, which could bear to leave! Brieflet me be: the fatal storm arose ;

The billows rag'd, the pilot's art was vain;
O'er the tall mast the circling surges close;
My Jessy-floats upon the watery plain!
'And-see my youth's impetuous fires decay;
Seek not to stop Reflection's bitter tear;
But warn the frolic, and instruct the gay,
From Jessy floating on her watery bier!'