The bushes and arbours so green, And form a retirement for love. Here Venus, transported, may rove Oft let me contemplative dwell On a scene where such beauties appear:I could live in a cot or a cell, And never think solitude near. DAMON TO HIS FRIENDS. THE billows of life are supprest; Dame Fortune and I are agreed; For the goddess has kindly decreed, the dim eyes, poor. To view the increase of my store; And many my friendship will prize, Who never knew Damon before. But those I renounce and abjure, That could look on misfortune awry! Ye powers that weak mortals govern, To despise the few friends that were kind. For their's was a feeling sincere ; 'Twas free from delusion and art; may By which was I ever forgot? It was both my physician and cure, That still found the way to my cot, Altho' I was wretched and poor, Q "Twas balm to my canker-toothed care; Attend, ye kind youth of the plain! I have chose a sweet sylvan retreat, Bedecked with the beauties of Spring; Around, my flocks nibble and bleat, While the musical choristers sing. I force not the waters to stand She's the goddess that darkens my bowers With tendrils of ivy and vine; What a pleasing diversified group Of trees has she spread o'er my ground! She has taught the grave lyrax to droop, And the birch to shed odours around. For whom has she perfumed my groves? For whom has she clustered my vine? If Friendship despise my alcoves, They'll ne'er be recesses of mine. He who tastes his grape juices by stealth, Is the basest of slaves to his wealth, O come, and with Damon retire Amidst the green umbrage embowered! Your mirth and your songs to inspire, Shall the juice of his vintage be poured. O come, ye dear friends of his youth! To say 'twas preserved for your sake. CONSCIENCE, -Leave her to Heaven, And to the thorns that in her bosom lodge, SHAKESF f No choiring warblers flutter in the sky'; O happy he, whose conscience knows no guile! Elysian dreams shall hover round his bed ; His soul shall wing, on pleasing fancies borne, To shining vales where flowerets lift their head, Waked by the breathing zephyrs of the morn. |