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(As by the impious thou art feen)

With thundering voice and threatening mien,
With fcreaming horror's fun'ral cry,
Defpair, and fell difeafe, and ghafily poverty.

Thy form benign, ah goddefs, wear,
Thy milder influence impart,
Thy philofophic train be there,

To foften, not to wound my heart.
The generous fpark extinct revive,
Teach me to love and to forgive,
Exact my own defects to fcan,

What others are, to feel, and know myself a man.

CUPID BENIGHTED.

THE fable night had spread around
This nether world a gloom profound;
No filver moon nor ftars appear
The lonely traveller to cheer:

The race of man, with toils oppreft,

Enjoy'd the balmy fweets of reft!

When from the heav'nly court of Jove,
Defcended fwift the god of love,

(Ah me! I tremble to relate)

And loudly thunder'd at my gate.

"Who's there?" I cried "who breaks my door,

"At this unfeafonable hour?"

The god, with well-diffembled fighs,

And moan infidious, thus replies:

66

Pray ope the door, dear fir-'tis I,

"A harmlefs miferable boy:

"Benumb'd with cold and rain, I ftray. "A long, uncomfortable way-

"The winds with bluft'ring horror roar— ""Tis difmal dark-pray ope the door." Quite unfufpicious of a foe,

I liften'd to the tale of woe,

Compaffion touch'd my breast, and strait
I ftruck a light, unbarr'd the gate;
When lo! a winged boy I fpy'd,
With bow and quiver at his fide:
I wonder'd at his strange attire;
Then friendly plac'd him near the fire.
My heart was bounteous and benign,
I warm'd his little hands in mine;
Cheer'd him with kind affiduous care,
And wrung the water from his hair.
Soon as the fraudful youth was warm,
"Let's try," fays he, "if any harm,
"Has chanc'd my bow this flormy night;
"I fear the wet has fpoil'd it quite."
With that he bent the fatal yew,
And to the head an arrow drew;

Loud twang'd the founding string, the dart
Pierc'd through my bofom to my heart:
Then laugh'd amain the wanton boy,

And "Friend," he cried, "I with thee joy!. "Undamag'd is my bow, I fee,

"But what a wretch I've made of thee!"

ODE.

TO THE PEREMPTORY, ILL-NATURED, AND
UNWELCOME MONOSYLLABLE

NO.

THOU faucy malapert! away!

Thy name, ah! may I never hear,
Nor blafts malignant, e'er convey
Thy mandate to my startled ear;
May winds difperfe the found in air,
E'er on the trembling nerve imprest;
(The found that fills with grief the breaft,
And gives the heart to dire despair.)

All hateful! may the maid I love renounce thee,
And never, with averted look, pronounce thee.

E

Full many a heart, oppress'd with woe,
Has caufe to mourn thy baleful pow'rs,
That bid the ftream of forrow flow,
Full faft adown in briny fhow'rs.
For fweetmeats teazing, many a boy,
Struck with the heart-appalling found,
Has weeping roli'd along the ground,
His little bofom dead to joy;

Or fled, to vent the grief that rends his foul,
In fome dark corner, or fome gloomy hole,
Thou offspring vile of tyrant pride,

Thou lordeft o'er the weak and poor;
Like furly porter, or four maftiff try'd,
Doft fpurn the fuppliant from the door--
To wand'ring mendicants well known,
Thy dreaded name gives little care;
But finks the wretch, who feeks a gown,
In loweft depths of dark defpair.

The pliant courtier, at my lord's levee,
More than the devil, dreads the fight of thee.
In all its gorgon terrors deck'd,

Thy form the trembling poet feares;
Who long, in fpite of cold neglect,

Has worry'd patronage with pray'rs,
The wretched fcribbler flow retires,
Dejected, all his wifhes croft,

All hopes of future fortune's loft,

And quench'd the mufe's ardent fires; Full well, his lengthen'd face, and hollow cheek, The poignant anguish of his soul bespeak.

The fighing lover, too, poor wight !

By thee (hard cafe!) expell'd from heav'n, Muit quit his dear-lov'd fair one's fight, And fly, to lonely deferts driv'n: Wild-ftarting, ftill he feems to hear, Re-echo'd 'midft the gloom profound, The dreadful, hope-deftroying found, All fad vibrating on his ear;

And lonely wand'ring o'er the wild, diftreft,
He ftrays forlorn, and weeping beats his breaft.
Ah! ne'er with rigor ftern oppofe

The gentle withes of a genial flame,
Nor give, a prey to hopeless woes,

The heart a better meed may claim.
But, when with wild, unbridled force,
Heedlefs of REASON's high beheft,
Rude paffion fways the ardent breast,
Restrain us in our headlong courfe;
When we, forgetful, ceafe to act as men,
Step refolute between, and check us then.

ON THE

PLEASURES ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE.

A FRAGMENT.

NOW the golden morn aloft

Waves her dew-befpangled wing,
With vermil cheek, and whifper soft,
She wooes the tardy fpring:
Till April ftarts, and calls around
The fleeping fragrance from the ground;
And lightly o'er the living fcene
Scatters his fresheft, tendereft green.
New-born flocks, in ruftic dance,
Frifking ply their feeble feet;
Forgetful of their wint'ry trance
The birds his prefence greet:
But chief, the fky-lark warbles high
His trembling thrilling ecftafy;
And, leffening from the dazzled fight,
Melts into air and liquid light.

Yesterday the fullen year

Saw the fnowy whirlwind fly; Mute was the mufic of the air, The herd flood drooping by:

Their raptures now that wildly flow,
No yesterday, nor morrow know;
'Tis man alone that joy defcries
With forward and reverted eyes.
Smiles on paft misfortune's brow,

Soft reflection's hand can trace;
And o'er the cheek of forrow throw
A melancholy grace:

While hope prolongs our happier hour;
Or deepest fhades, that dimly lower
And blacken round our weary way,
Gilds with a gleam of diftant day.
Still, where rofy pleasure leads,
See a kindred grief purfue;
Behind the steps that mifery treads
Approaching comfort view:
The hues of blifs more brightly glow,
Chaftis'd by fabler tints of woe;
And blended firm, with artful ftrife,
For ftrength and harmony of life.'
See the wretch, that long has toft
On the thorny bed of pain,
At length repair his vigour loft,

And breathe, and walk again:
The meaneft floweret of the vale,
The fimpleft note that fwells the gale,
The common fun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening paradise.

Humble quiet builds her cell

Near the courfe where pleasure flows; She eyes the clear chryftalline well, And taftes it as it goes.

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