In service high, and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,

And bring all heaven before mine eyes.
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cell,
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth show,
And every herb that sips the dew;
Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.
These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.

:0:

ALEXANDER POPE.

1688-1744.

BELINDA AND THE SYLPHS.

NOT with more glories, in th' ethereal plain, The sun first rises o'er the purpled main, Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.

Fair nymphs and well-dressed youths around her shone,

But every eye was fixed on her alone.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she

wore,

Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore.
Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those.
Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;
Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike;
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of
pride,
[to hide;

Might hide her faults, if belles had faults
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.
This nymph, to the destruction of man-
kind,
[behind

Nourished two locks, which graceful hung In equal curls, and well conspired to deck With shining ringlets the smooth iv'ry neck. Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.

With hairy springes we the birds betray, Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey, Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair.

Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admired;

He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.
Resolved to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a lover's toil attends,
Few ask if fraud or force attained his ends.
For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had im-
plored
[adored,
Propitious Heaven, and every power
But chiefly Love-to Love an altar built,
Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt:
There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves;
With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three amorous sighs to raise
the fire.
[eyes

Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize.
The powers gave ear, and granted half his
prayer,

The rest the winds dispersed in empty air.

But now secure the painted vessel glides, The sunbeams trembling on the floating tides;

While melting music steals upon the sky, And softened sounds along the waters die; Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,

Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay. All but the sylph: with careful thoughts opprest,

Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast. He summons straight his denizens of air; The lucid squadrons round the sails repair; Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.

Some to the sun their insect wings unfold, Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;

Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light. Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew, Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies, Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes, While every beam new transient colours flings,

Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.

Amid the circle, on the gilded mast, Superior by the head, was Ariel placed; His purple pinions opening to the sun, He raised his azure wand, and thus begun: "Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear!

Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear!

Ye know the spheres and various tasks assigned

By laws eternal to th' aërial kind. Some in the fields of purest ether play, And bask and whiten in the blaze of day; Some guide the course of wand'ring_orbs on high, [sky; Or roll the planets through the boundless Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale light [night, Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the Or suck the mists in grosser air below, Or dip their pinions in the painted bow, Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main, Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain; Others on earth o'er human race preside, Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:

Of these the chief the care of nations own, And guard with arms divine the British throne.

"Our humbler province is to tend the fair, Not a less pleasing, though less glorious

care;

To save the powder from too rude a gale, Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale; To draw fresh colours from the vernal flowers; [showers

To steal from rainbows ere they drop in A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs, Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs; Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow, To change a flounce or add a furbelow.

"This day, black omens threat the brightest fair

That e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care;
Some dire disaster, or by force or slight;
But what, or where, the Fates have wrapt
in night.
[law,
Whether the nymph shall break Diana's
Or some frail china jar receive a flaw;
Or stain her honour or her new brocade;
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade;
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;
Or whether Heaven has doomed that
Shock must fall.
[repair:

Haste, then, ye spirits! to your charge
The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care;
The drops to thee, Brillante, we consign;
And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine;
Do thou, Crispissa, tend her favourite lock;
Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.

"To fifty chosen sylphs of special note We trust th' important charge, the petticoat; [to fail, Oft have we known that seven-fold fence Though stiff with hoops, and armed with ribs of whale;

Form a strong line about the silver bound, And guard the wide circumference around.

"Whatever spirit, careless of his charge, His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large, Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins,

Be stopped in vials or transfixed with pins; Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie, Or wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye; Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain,

While clogged he beats his silken wings in vain ;

Or alum styptics with contracting power
Shrink his thin essence like a rivelled flower;
Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling mill,
In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,
And tremble at the sea that froths below!"

He spoke the spirits from the sails

descend;

tend; Some, orb in orb, around the nymph exSome thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair; Some hang upon the pendants of her ear: With beating hearts the dire event they wait,

Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.

O THOUGHTLESS mortals! ever blind to fate,

Too soon dejected, and too soon elate. Sudden, these honours shall be snatched away,

And cursed for ever this victorious day. For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned, [round; The berries crackle, and the mill turns On shining altars of Japan they raise The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze; From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, [tide:

While China's earth receives the smoking At once they gratify their scent and taste, And frequent cups prolong the rich repast. Straight hover round the fair her airy band; Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned,

Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,

Trembling, and conscious of the rich bro

cade.

Coffee (which makes the politician wise, And see through all things with his halfshut eyes)

Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. Ah, cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late, [fate!

Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air, She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair!

But when to mischief mortals bend their will,

How soon they find fit instruments of ill! Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace [case: A two-edged weapon from her shining So ladies in romance assist their knight, Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.

He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends The little engine on his fingers' ends;

This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, As o'er the fragrant steam she bends her head.

Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair, A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair; [her ear;

And thrice they twitched the diamond in Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe

drew near.

Just in that instant anxious Ariel sought The close recesses of the virgin's thought; As on the nosegay in her breast reclined, He watched th' ideas rising in her mind, Sudden he viewed, in spite of all her art, An earthly lover lurking at her heart. Amazed, confused, he found his power expired,

Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.

The peer now spreads the glittering

forfex wide,

T'inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide. E'en then, before the fatal engine closed, A wretched sylph too fondly interposed; Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain

(But airy substance soon unites again): The meeting-points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, for ever and for ever! Then flashed the living lightning from [skies.

her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted Not louder shrieks to pitying Heaven are cast [their last, When husbands or when lapdogs breathe Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high, In glittering dust and painted fragments

lie!

"Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," [mine! The victor cried, "the glorious prize is

While fish in streams, or birds delight in air, Or in a coach and six the British fair, As long as Atalantis shall be read, Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed, While visits shall be paid on solemn days, When numerous wax lights in bright order blaze, [give, While nymphs take treats, or assignations So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!' [its date,

What time would spare, from steel receives And monuments, like men, submit to fate. Steel could the labour of the gods destroy, And strike to dust th' imperial towers of Troy ;

Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,

And hew triumphal arches to the ground. What wonder, then, fair nymph, thy hairs should feel

The conquering force of unresisted steel?

From the white flock, but passed unworried By angry wolf, or pard with prying head, Until it came to some unfooted plains Where fed the herds of Pan: ay, great his gains [were many,

Who thus one lamb did lose. Paths there Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny,

And ivy banks; all leading pleasantly To a wide lawn, whence one could only see Stems thronging all around between the swell

[tell Of turf and slanting branches; who could The freshness of the space of heaven above, Edged round with dark tree-tops? through which a dove

Would often beat its wings, and often too A little cloud would move across the blue.

THE SACRIFICE TO PAN.

FULL in the middle of this pleasantness There stood a marble altar, with a tress

Of flowers budded newly; and the dew
Had taken fairy phantasies to strew
Daisies upon the sacred sward last eve,
And so the dawnèd light in pomp receive.
For 'twas the morn: Apollo's upward fire
Made every eastern cloud a silvery pyre
Of brightness so unsullied, that therein
A melancholy spirit well might win
Oblivion, and melt out his essence fine
Into the winds; rain-scented eglantine
Gave temperate sweets to that well-wooing
[run
The lark was lost in him; cold springs had
To warm their chilliest bubbles in the grass;
Man's voice was on the mountains; and
[fold,

sun;

the mass

Of nature's lives and wonders pulsed tenTo feel the sunrise and its glories old.

Now, while the silent workings of the
dawn

Were busiest, into that self-same lawn
All suddenly, with joyful cries, there sped
A troop of little children garlanded,
Who, gathering round the altar, seemed
to pry

Earnestly round, as wishing to espy
Some folk of holiday; nor had they waited
For many moments, ere their ears were sated
With a faint breath of music, which e'en
then

Filled out its voice, and died away again.
Within a little space again it gave
Its airy swellings, with a gentle wave,
To light-hung leaves, in smoothest echoes
breaking
[o'ertaking
Through copse-clad valleys, ere their death
The surgy murmurs of the lonely sea.

And now, as deep into the wood as we Might mark a lynx's eye, there glimmered light

Fair faces, and a rush of garments white,
Plainer and plainer showing, till at last
Into the widest alley they all passed,
Making directly for the woodland altar.
O kindly Muse! let not my weak tongue
falter

In telling of this goodly company,
Of their old piety, and of their glee;
But let a portion of ethereal dew
Fall on my head, and presently unmew
My soul, that I may dare, in wayfaring,
Tostammer where old Chaucer used to sing.

Leading the way, young damsels danced
along,

Bearing the burden of a shepherd's song,

Each having a white wicker over-brimmed With April's tender younglings: next, well trimmed,

A crowd of shepherds with as sunburnt looks As may be read of in Arcadian books, Such as sat listening round Apollo's pipe, When the great deity, for earth too ripe, Let his divinity o'erflowing die

In music, through the vales of Thessaly; Some idly trailed their sheep-hooks on the ground,

And some kept up a shrilly mellow sound With ebon-tippèd flutes; close after these, Now coming from beneath the forest-trees, A venerable priest full soberly,

Begirt with minist'ring looks; alway his eye Steadfast upon the matted turf he kept, And after him his sacred vestments swept. From his right hand there swung a vase, milk-white,

Of mingled wine, outsparkling generous light;

And in his left he held a basket full

Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull,

Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still Than Leda's love, and cresses from the rill. His agèd head, crowned with beechen wreath,

Seemed like a poll of ivy in the teeth

Of winter hoar. Then came another crowd Of shepherds, lifting in due time aloud Their share of the ditty. After them appeared,

Up-followed by a multitude that reared Their voices to the clouds, a fair-wrought Easily rolling so as scarce to mar [car, The freedom of three steeds of dapple brown:

[nown

Of logs piled solemnly. Ah, well-a-day! Why should our young Endymion pine away?

Soon the assembly, in a circle ranged, Stood silent round the shrine; each look was changed

To sudden veneration; women meek [cheek
Beckoned their sons to silence; while each
Of virgin bloom paled gently for slight fear.
Endymion, too, without a forest peer,
Stood, wan and pale, and with an awèd face,
Among his brothers of the mountain chase.
In midst of all, the venerable priest
Eyed them with joy, from greatest to the
least,

And, after lifting up his agèd hands,
Thus spake he: "Men of Latmos! shep-

herd bands!

pare

By the dim echoes of old Triton's horn;
Mothers and wives! who day by day pre-
[air;
The scrip with needments for the mountain
And all ye gentle girls who foster up
Udderless lambs, and in a little cup
Will put choice honey for a favoured youth:
Yea, every one attend! for in good truth
Our vows are wanting to our great god Pan.
Are not our lowing heifers sleeker than
Night-swollen mushrooms? Are not our
wide plains
[not rains

Have Speckled with countless fleeces? Greened over April's lap? No howling sad Sickens our fearful ewes; and we have had Great bounty from Endymion our lord. The earth is glad: the merry lark has poured

His early song against yon breezy sky, That spreads so clear o'er our solemnity."

Thus ending, on the shrine he heaped a spire

Of teeming sweets, enkindling sacred fire; Anon he stained the thick and spongy sod With wine, in honour of the shepherd-god.