And while, with measur'd steps, ye move Through the green mazes of the grove, With laurels bind the Bridegroom's brow, Eternal as the nuptial vow;
And wreaths of sweetest flowers prepare For lov'd ELIZA'S auburn hair. Let odours, from Arabian vales, Breathe gently on the balmy gales, And not a sound in Æther float, Save the soft Dove's enamour'd note, Till the bright star of Evening rise Auspicious to the Lover's sighs; And Cynthia, with her paler fire, Warn lingering Beauty to retire.
Oh! ever may the circling hours New blessings on their pinions bring; Health that no cankering care devours, And Pleasure that shall leave no sting! May yonder Sun, as o'er this nether sphere He rolls his chariot of æthereal gold, Beneath his orb no happier pair behold, But, ceaseless, as he runs his bright career, View rolling years their stedfast faith improve, And CHILDREN'S CHILDREN crown their virtuous love!
EPIGRAM.
FROM THE FRENCH.
DAMIS, an author cold and weak,
Thinks as a critic he's divine;" Likely enough we often make Good vinegar of sorry wine.
ODE TO MISS SARAH FOWLER.
Toutesfois vous demeurant en ce lieu, mes tenebreuses et tristes parolles n'en pourroient chasser les Graces, desquels vous me semblez estre l'unique simulachre, et moins les Muses qui Vous recognoissent pour leur Minerve.
WHEN first Aurora's gorgeous car Springs from might's dreary vault releas'd, And beauty's consecrated star,
Retires behind the blushing east,
Can Titian's orient beams dispense A more propitious influence To animate th' exulting earth,
Than sheds bright Fancy o'er the mind, When, from Care's grosser dregs refin'd, It gives the fruits of genius birth.
Not in the solitary gloom,
By the dim taper's sickly ray,
Sunk in the rust of Greece and Rome Does Genius point the doubtful way, While in abstracted thought the Sage Revolves the stern Socratic page; Or by the tedious rules of art In melancholy search pursues, Yet finds the gay, the bashful Muse Unseen and unattain'd depart.
Where Poesy erects her seat,
The myrtle's fragrant branches twine. Beneath the Pleasures' nimble feet Upstarts the new-born columbine. Methinks I see the jocund band Of Loves and Graces hand in hand Their artless symphony inspire; The Muses catch the dulcet sound, They waft the sportive echoes round, And wake the sympathetic lyre.
The rose's aromatic bloom Adorns their wild fantastic grove, And o'er the violet's perfume Angelic forms delighted rove; Fair Sappho in Elysian bowers Beguiles the gently stealing hours, And sooths entranc'd Despair to rest, Her strains so feelingly express The force of elegant distress, Implanted in a female breast.
Carelessly tripping o'er the green The sprightly Deshoulieres appears With winning air and brow serene, Unclouded by the frown of years; Around the Nymph in graceful state, A thousand smiling Cupids wait, And each performs his destin'd part; Some give the cheeks a livelier glow, Some tune the lyre, some twang the bow, To pierce the most obdurate heart..
The plaintive Rowe, whose warbling breath Dispers'd the melancholy gloom Which at her dear Alexis' death O'erhung the sickening vales of Frome, To the soft Cyprian lute recites The fears, the hopes, the fond delights, The tender blandishments of love,. Their mutual happiness completing, Where Innocence and Pleasure meeting, Have fixed them in the realms above;
Beside them Cytherea stands In Virtue's snowy garb array'd, And reunites their social hands Sever'd by Death's remorseless blade: The Loves with elegiac verse, Meanwhile adorn the sable hearse In which their mortal ashes lye,: And in due chaplet Phoebus weaves, The laurel's never-fading leaves, The pledge of immortality.
Yet not from these romantick shades, Whene'er I wake the Teian string, Will I invoke th' harmonious Maids T' unlock Castalia's vaunted spring: The palms of Genius thinly spread Where cypress glooms o'er-arch the dead Let others glean:-My raptur'd ear Has caught the soul-enchanting strains, That on Salopia's happy plains.. The bright Sabrina joys to hear:
ON SEEING A LADY'S DRESSING-ROOM.
WHENE'ER, to guard some fertile mead Against the rude encroacher's tread, We purpose that the soil unsound With ambush'd mischief should abound, The law commands to hang on high A caution to the passing eye, That no one trespass; and to show What dangers threaten such as do, That each offender risks to feel The latent gun, or trap of steel. But from the code of female laws, Can we extract a single clause Empower'd the fair one to compel Of all her ambuscades to tell? Within a blue dissolving eye What mischief oft conceal'd will lie, Or, in some ringlet left to stray, What Cupids, meditating prey, Like riflemen lurk up and down, To pick their men and bring them down; What fate the dimpled cheek invests, Or heaves luxuriant in the breasts, When gauze is taught but half to hide, And half disclose the panting pride; To tempt the busy eye, how low The bell-hoop'd petticoat must go ;
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