And natural movements of th' harmonious frame. Besides, the sportive brook for ever shakes The trembling air; that floats from hill to hill, From vale to mountain, with incessant change Of purest element, refreshing still
Your airy seat, and uninfected gods. Chiefly for this I praise the man who builds High on the breezy ridge, whose lofty sides Th' ethereal deep with endless billows chafes. His purer mansion nor contagious years Shall reach, nor deadly putrid airs annoy.
FROM BOOK II. ENTITLED DIET.
Now come, ye Naiads, to the fountains lead; Now let me wander through your gelid reign. I burn to view th' enthusiastic wilds By mortal else untrod. I hear the din Of waters thund'ring o'er the ruin'd cliffs. With holy reverence I approach the rocks
Whence glide the streams renown'd in ancient song. Here from the desert down the rumbling steep First springs the Nile; here bursts the sounding Po In angry waves; Euphrates hence devolves
A mighty flood to water half the east;
And there in gothic solitude reclin'd, The cheerless Tanais pours his hoary urn. What solemn twilight! what stupendous shades
Enwrap these infant floods! through every nerve A sacred horror thrills, a pleasing fear
Glides o'er my frame. The forest deepens round; And more gigantic still th' impending trees Stretch their extravagant arms athwart the gloom. Are these the confines of some fairy world? A land of genii? Say, beyond these wilds What unknown nations? If indeed beyond Aught habitable lies. And whither leads, To what strange regions, or of bliss or pain, That subterraneous way? Propitious maids, Conduct me, while with fearful steps I tread This trembling ground. The task remains to sing Your gifts (so Pæon, so the powers of health Command) to praise your crystal element: The chief ingredient in heaven's various works: Whose flexile genius sparkles in the gem, Grows firm in oak, and fugitive in wine; The vehicle, the source, of nutriment And life, to all that vegetate or live.
O comfortable streams! with eager lips And trembling hand the languid thirsty quaff New life in you; fresh vigour fills their veins. No warmer cups the rural ages knew;
None warmer sought the sires of human kind. Happy in temperate peace! their equal days Felt not th' alternate fits of feverish mirth, And sick dejection. Still serene and pleas'd They knew no pains but what the tender soul With pleasure yields to, and would ne'er forget.
Blest with divine immunity from ails,
Long centuries they liv'd; their only fate
Was ripe old age, and rather sleep than death. Oh! could those worthies from the world of gods Return to visit their degenerate sons,
How would they scorn the joys of modern time, With all our art and toil improv❜d to pain! Too happy they! but wealth brought luxury, And luxury on sloth begot disease.
OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.
O THOU that glad'st my lonesome hours, With many a wildly warbled song,... When Melancholy round me low'rs, And drives her sullen storms along; When fell Adversity prepares
To lead her delegated train,
Pale Sickness, Want, Remorse, and Pain, With all her host of carking cares—
The fiends ordain'd to tame the human soul,
And give the humbled heart to sympathy's control;
Sweet soother of my mis'ry, say,
Why dost thou clap thy joyous wing? Why dost thou pour that artless lay? How canst thou, little prisoner, sing? Hast thou not cause to grieve
That man, unpitying man! has rent From thee the boon which Nature meant
Thou should'st, as well as he, receive- The pow'r to woo thy partner in the grove, To build where instinct points, where chance directs to rove?
Perchance, unconscious of thy fate, And to the woes of bondage blind, Thou never long'st to join thy mate, Nor wishest to be unconfin'd;
Then how relentless he, And fit for every foul offence,
Who could bereave such innocence
Of life's best blessing, Liberty!
Who lur'd thee, guileful, to his treacherous snare, To live a tuneful slave, and dissipate his care!
But why for thee this fond complaint? Above thy master thou art blest:
Art thou not free?-Yes: calm Content With olive sceptre sways thy breast: Then deign with me to live; The falcon with insatiate maw,
With hooked bill and griping claw,
Shall ne'er thy destiny contrive;
And every tabby foe shall mew in vain,
While pensively demure she hears thy melting strain.
Nor shall the fiend, fell Famine, dare
Thy wiry tenement assail;
These, these shall be my constant care, The limpid fount, and temperate meal; And when the blooming Spring In chequer'd liv'ry robes the fields, The fairest flow'rets Nature yields To thee officious will I bring;
A garland rich thy dwelling shall entwine, And Flora's freshest gifts, thrice happy bird, be
From drear Oblivion's gloomy cave
The powerful Muse shall wrest thy name,
And bid thee live beyond the grave
This meed she knows thy merits claim;
She knows thy liberal heart
Is ever ready to dispense The tide of bland benevolence,
And melody's soft aid impart;
Is ready still to prompt the magic lay, Which hushes all our griefs, and charms our pains
Erewhile when, brooding o'er my soul,
Frown'd the black demons of despair,
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