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With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frofts have whiten'd all the naked groves ;
Where doves in flocks the leafless trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the watʼry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen sky :
Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath,
The clam'rous Lapwings feel the leaden death :
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

In genial fpring, beneath the quiv'ring fhade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his filent ftand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand:
With looks unmov'd, he hopes the fcaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed.
Our plenteous ftreams a various race fupply,
The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian dye,
The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd,
The yellow carp. in fcales bedrop'd with gold,
Swift trouts, diversify'd with crimson stains,
And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains.
Now Cancer glows with Phoebus' fiery car:
The youth rufh eager to the fylvan war,

VARIATIONS,

130

137

141

145

Swarm

VER. 126. O'er ruftling leaves around the naked groves.

VER. 129. The fowler lifts his levell'd tube on high. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 134. Præcipites alta vitam fub nube relinquunt.

Virg

151

Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,
Rouze the fleet hart, and chear the opening hound.
Th' impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,
And pawing, seems to beat the distant plain :
Hills, vales, and floods appear already cross'd,
And e'er he starts, a thousand steps are loft.

154

See the bold youth ftrain up the threat'ning steep,
Rufh thro' the thickets, down the valleys fweep,
Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager fpeed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying fteed.
Let old Arcadia boast her ample plain,

Th' immortal huntress, and her virgin train; 160
Nor envy,
Windfor! fince thy fhades have seen
As bright a Goddefs, and as chafte a QUEEN;
Whofe çare, like hers, protects the fylvan reign,
The Earth's fair light, and Emprefs of the Main.
- Here too, 'tis fung, of old Diana ftray'd, 165
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windsor shade;

E 4

VER. 162. Queen ANNE.

IMITATIONS.

Here

VER. 151. Th' impatient courfer, etc.] Tranflated from Statius,

Stare adeo miferum eft, pereunt veftigia mille

Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.` Thefe lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of painting, calls wonderfully fine, and fays they would cost him an hour, if he had the leifure to tranflate them, there is fo much of beauty in the original; which was the reafon, I fuppofe, why Mr. P. tried his ftrength with them.

VER. 158. and earth rolls back] He has improved his original,

terraque urbefque recedunt.

Virg.

Here was she feen o'er airy waftes to rove,
Seek the clear fpring, or haunt the pathlefs grove ;
Here arm'd with filver bows, in early dawn,
Her bufkin'd Virgins trac'd the dewy lawn.

170

Above the reft a rural nymph was fam'd, Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd; (Lodona's fate, in long oblivion caft,

The Muse shall fing, and what she fings shall last.) Scarce could the Goddess from her nymph be known,

But by the crefcent and the golden zone.

175

180

She fcorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care;
A belt her waift, a fillet binds her hair;
A painted quiver on her fhoulder founds,
And with her dart the flying deer she wounds,
It chanc'd, as eager of the chace, the maid
Beyond the foreft's verdant limits stray'd,
Pan faw and lov'd, and burning with defire
Purfu'd her flight, her flight increas'd his fire.
Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly,
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid fky;
Not half fo fwiftly the fierce eagle moves,
When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves;

185

As from the God fhe flew with furious pace,

Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace.

Now

IMITATIONS.

VER. 175.

Nec pofitu variare comas ; ubi fibula veftem,
Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos.

Ovid.

VER. 183, 186.

Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,
Ut folet accipiter trepidaş agitare columbas.

Ovid.

Now fainting, finking, pale, the nymph appears;
Now close behind, his founding fteps fhe hears;
And now his fhadow reach'd her as she run,
His fhadow lengthen'd by the setting fun;
And now his fhorter breath, with fultry air,
Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.
In vain on father Thames fhe calls for aid,
Nor could Diana help her injur'd maid.

191

195

Faint, breathless, thus fhe pray'd, nor pray'd in vain; "Ah Cynthia! ah-tho' banish'd from thy train, "Let me, O let me, to the shades repair,

201

.. My native shades -- there weep, and murmur there.
She faid, and melting as in tears she lay,
In a foft, filver ftream diffolv'd away.
The filver ftream her virgin coldness keeps,
For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps ;
Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore,
And bathes the foreft where the rang'd before.
In her chafte current oft the Goddess laves,
And with celeftial tears augments the waves.
Oft in her glass the mufing fhepherd fpies

205

The headlong mountains and the downward skies,
The watry landskip of the pendant woods,
And abfent trees that tremble in the floods;

211

In

VER. 205. Still bears the name] The River Loddon. VER. 209. Oft in her glass, etc.] Thefe fix lines were added after the firft writing of this poem. P.

VER. 191, 194.

IMITATIONS.

Sol erat a tergo vidi præcedere longom
Ante pedes umbram: nifi fi timor illa videbat.
Sed certe fonituque pedum terrebar; et ingens
Crinales vittas afflabat anhelitus oris,

In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen,
And floating forests paint the waves with green,
Thro' the fair fcene roll flow the ling'ring ftreams,
Then foaming pour along, and rufh into the Thames.
Thou too, great father of the British floods!
With joyful pride furvey'ft our lofty woods;
Where tow'ring oaks their growing honours rear,
And future navies on thy fhores appear,

Not Neptune's felf from all her ftreams receives
A wealthier tribute, than to thine he gives.
No feas fo rich, fo gay no banks appear,
No lake fo gentle, and no spring so clear.
Nor Po fo fwells the fabling Poet's lays,
While led along the skies his current ftrays,
As thine, which vifits Windfor's fam'd abodes,
To grace the manfion of our earthly Gods:
Nor all his ftars above a lustre show,
Like the bright Beauties on thy banks below;
Where Jove, fubdu'd by mortal Passion still,
Might change Olympus for a nobler hill.

220

225

230

Happy the man whom this bright Court approves, His Sov'reign favours, and his Country loves:

Happy

VARIATIONS.

VER. 231. It food thus in the MS.

And force great Jove, if Jove's a lover ftill,
To change Olympus, etc.

VER. 233.

Happy the man, who to the shades retires,
But doubly happy, if the Mufe infpires!
Bleft whom the fweets of home-felt quiet pleafe;
But far more bleft, who ftudy joins with cafe.

P.

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