POETICAL WORKS

OF

WILLIAM SHENSTONE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

COLLATED WITH THE BEST EDITIONS:

BY

THOMAS PARK, ES2. F.S. A.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

Printed at the Stanhope Press,

BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM,
Union Buildings, Leather Lane;

FOR JOHN SHARPE, OPPOSITE YORK-HOUSE,

PICCADILLY.

Description of the Leasowes, by R. Dodsley. 24

Prefatory Essay on Elegy .

........ ..............

52

ELEGIES, WRITTEN ON DIFFERENT OCCASIONS.

He arrives at his Retirement in the Country,

and takes occasion to expatiate in praise

of Simplicity. To a Friend...

On posthumous Reputation. To a Friend... 63

On the untimely Death of a certain learned

Acquaintance

Ophelia's Urn. To Mr. G-

He compares the Turbulence of Love with

the Tranquillity of Friendship. To Me-

lissa, his Friend....

To a Lady, on the Language of Birds......

64

68

69

He describes his Vision to an Acquaintance... 70

He describes his early Love of Poetry, and its

Consequences. To Mr. G-

1745...

He describes his Disinterestedness to a Friend

To Fortune, suggesting his Motive for repining

at her Dispensations..

He complains how soon the pleasing Novelty

of Life is over. To Mr. J-

His Recantation

To a Friend, on some slight Occasion estrang-

ed from him........

73

75

76

79

82

Declining an Invitation to visit foreign Coun-

tries, he takes occasion to intimate the

Advantages of his own. To Lord Temple 83

In Memory of a private Family in Worcester-

shire.......

He suggests the Advantages of Birth to a Per-

son of Merit, and the Folly of a Superci-

liousness that is built upon that sole Foun-

dation...

He indulges the Suggestions of Spleen: an

Elegy to the Winds...

He repeats the Song of Colin, a discerning

Shepherd, lamenting the State of the

Woollen Manufactory...

Written in Spring 1743......

He compares his humble Fortune with the

Distress of others, and his Subjection to

Delia with the miserable Servitude of an

African Slave

Taking a View of the Country from his Re-

tirement, he is led to meditate on the

Character of the ancient Britons. Writ-

ten at the time of a rumoured Tax upon

Luxury, 1746.

Written in the Year, when the Rights of

Sepulture were so frequently violated..... 107

Reflections suggested by his Situation.......... 110

He takes occasion, from the Fate of Eleanor

of Bretagne, to suggest the imperfect

Pleasures of a solitary Life......

To Delia, with some Flowers; complaining

how much his Benevolence suffers on ac-

count of his humble Fortune........

Describing the Sorrow of an ingenuous Mind

on the melancholy Event of a licentious

Amour...

113

116

........... 118

LEVITIES: OR, PIECES OF HUMOUR.............. 122