Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

ÉPISTLES

DESCRIPTIVE AND NARRATIVE.

EPISTLE I.

VERTUMNUS.

ΤΟ

MR. JACOB BOBART,

[Professor of Botany, at Oxford.]

FROM

ABEL EVANS, D. D.

THANK Heaven! at last our wars are o'er;
We're very wise, and very poor:
All our campaigns at once are done :
We've ended where we just begun,
In perfect peace: long may it last,
And pay for all the taxes past!
Refill th' Exchequer, chace our fears,
And dry up all the ladies' tears,
For husbands, sons, and lovers lost;
In duels some, in battles most.

10

Rise, rise, ye Britons, thankful rise! Extol your Empress to the skies; Crown her with laurels ever green, With olives fair inwove between :

Her courage drew the conquering sword;
Her wiston baum 'ċ peace restor 2.

Long, wondrous Anna! may'st thou live, T'enjoy those biesings which you fire: To guard thy friends, confound thy foes, And fix the Church and State's repose: And late, for peace to Britain given, Be crown'd with encies peace in Heaven!

Farewell, ye camps and sieges dire,
With all your cannons, smoke, and fire!
Ye victories and trophies vain,

A certain loss, uncertain gain!
Ye squadrons and battalions brave,
Who first your foes, then friends enslave !
Ye gallant leaders, who delight,

For glory less, than gold, to fight! ___ 30
Ye public patriots plac'd on high,
To sell those votes, which first ye buy!
And bards, whose mercenary lays
Such heroes and such statesmen praise!

An honest Muse alike disclaims
Such authors, and their impious themes;
And, with a more becoming grace,
Her song impartial will address,
Bobart, to thee, the Muses' friend:
Bobart, the promis'd song attend.
And where no difference appears

40

1

Betwixt the subject, and the verse;
But he who praises, and is prais'd,
On equal eminence are rais'd :
No flatteries thence are to be fear'd,
Nor hopes encourag'd of reward.
Such is our case :-I honor thee
For something, thou for something me;
Sincerely both our thoughts the same,
Of courtiers, fortune, and of fame;
Alike (in pity to mankind)

To peace, to heavenly peace, inclin'd.

[ocr errors]

To peace, my Friend! that thou and I,
No colors fluttering in the sky;
With frightful faces, glittering arms_
(Bellona's military charms);

May undisturb'd and studious rove,
O'er every lawn, through every grove.

See various Nature, in each field,
Her flowers and fruits luxuriant yield s. 6.
While the bright God of day presides
Aloft, and all the seasons guides;
Jocund to run his annual course,
With never-tiring speed and force.

With golden hair the God of day
Wings from the East his fervid way;
The stars, applauding as he flies,
To see him stretch along the skies;

Flay

To see him roll his fiery race

Shy Athwart the vast aethereal space;
Jeloos & melt
Unbind the frosts, dissolve the snows,
As round the radiant Belt he goes.

[ocr errors]

coler

σ

Mild Zephyrus the Graces leads,
To revel o'er the fragrant meads;
The mountains shout, the forests ring,
While Flora decks the purple Spring:]
The hours attendant all the while
On Zephyrus and Flora smile :
The valleys laugh, the rivers play,
In honor of the God of day.

[ocr errors]

The birds, that fan the liquid air,
To tune their little throats prepare;
The joyous birds of every shade,
For loitering, love, and music made,
Their voices raise on every spray,
To welcome in the God of day.

The vegetable Earth beneath

Bids all her plants his praises breathe:
Clouds of fresh fragrance upwards rise,
To cheer his progress through the skies; go
And Heaven, and Earth, and Air unite,
To celebrate his heat and light:

That light and heat which on our world
From his gay chariot-wheels is hurl'd;
And every morn does rosy rise,,

To glad our dampy, darksome skies:
Which once deserted by his light
Would languish in eternal night.

But Gardening were of all a toil,

That on our hopes the least would smile ;____/00
Should the kind God of day forbear
T'exhale the rains, foment the air:
Or, in an angry mood, decline
With his prolific beams to shine.

Ev'n thou! though that 's thy meanest praise,
Nor fruits nor flowers could'st hope to raise ;
Howe'er thou may'st in order place,
Of both, the latter, earlier race;
In glasses or in sheds confin'd,

To shield them from the wintery wind;
Or, in the Spring, with skilful care,
Range them his influence best to share;
Did not the sun, their genial sire,
The vegetative soul inspire:

Instruct the senseless aukward root,
And teach the fibres how to shoot:
Command the taper stalk to rear
His flowering head, to grace the year;
To shed ambrosial odors round,

110

σ

And paint, with choicest dyes, the ground./20

Thou, next to him, art truly great;

On earth his mighty delegate:

79

« AnteriorContinuar »