Here where the mountains, lefs'ning as they rife,
Lofe the low vales, and steal into the skies;
While lab'ring oxen, fpent with toil and heat,
In their loofe traces from the field retreat;
While curling smokes from village-tops are feen,
And the fleet fhades glide o'er the dusky green.
AUTUMN, V. I. p. 23.
YE gentle Mufes, leave your crystal spring; Let Nymphs and Sylvans cypress garlands bring: Ye weeping Loves, the ftream with myrtles hide, And break your bows as when Adonis died; And with your golden darts, now useless grown, Inscribe a verfe on this relenting stone:
* Let nature change, let heav'n and earth deplore, "Fair Daphne's dead, and love is now no more!"
'Tis done and Nature's various charms decay: See gloomy clouds obfcure the chearful day! Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours fcatter'd on her bier. See where, on earth, the flow'ry glories lie! With her they flourish'd, and with her they die. Ah, what avail the beauties Nature wore ? Fair Daphne's dead, and beauty is no more!
MESSIAH.
NO more the rifing Sun fhall gild the morn, Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her filver horn; But loft, diffolv'd in thy fuperior rays, One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze, O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine! The feas fhall wafte, the skies in fmoke decay, Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away; But fix'd his word, his faving power remains ; Thy realm for ever lafts, thy own Meffiah reigns! MESSIAH, V. I. p. 36.
WINDSOR FOREST.
THE groves of Eden, vanish'd now fo long,
Live in description, and look green in fong:
Thefe, were my breast infpir'd with equal flame,
Like them in beauty, fhould be like in fame.
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,
Here earth and water feem to strive again;
Not, chaos-like, together crufh'd and bruis'd,
But, as the world, harmoniously confus'd,
Where order in variety we fee,
And where, though all things differ, all agree.
Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display,
And part admit, and part exclude the day;
As fome coy nymph her lover's warm address
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite reprefs.
There, interfpers'd in lawns and op'ning glades,
Thin trees arife that fhun each other's fhades.
Here in full light the ruffet plains extend;
There, wrapt in clouds, the bluish hills afcend.
E'en the wild heath difplays her purple dyes,
And, 'midft the defert, fruitful fields arife,
That, crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn,
Like verdant ifles the fable waste adorn.
WINDSOR FOREST, V. 1. p. 39.
NOW Cancer glows with Phœbus' fiery car :
The youth rush eager to the fylvan war,
Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,
Rouze the fleet hart, and cheer the op'ning hound.
Th'impatient courfer pants in ev'ry vein,
And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain :
Hills, vales, and floods, appear already croft,
And ere he starts, a thousand steps are loft.
See the bold youth ftrain up the threat'ning fteep,
Rush through the thickets, down the vallies sweep,
Hang o'er their courfers' heads with eager speed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying fteed.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF LODONA.
ABOVE the reft a rural Nymph was fam'd, Thy offspring, Thames! the fait Lodona nam'd;
(Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast,
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.
She fcorn'd the praise of beauty, and the care;
A belt her waist, 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 fo swift the trembling doves can fly,.
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid fky;
Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves,
When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves,
As from the God fhe flew with furious pace,
Or as the God, more furious, urg'd the chace.
Now fainting, finking, pale, the Nymph appears;
Now, close behind, his founding fteps fhe hears;
And now his fhadow reach'd her as fhe run,
His fhadow, lengthen'd by the fetting fun;
And now his shorter breath, with fultry air,
Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.
In vain on Father Thames she calls for aid,
Nor could Diana help her injur'd Maid.
Faint, breathless, thus fhe pray'd, nor pray'd in vain;
"Ah, Cynthia! ah-though banish'd from thy train,
"Let me, oh! let me, to the fhades repair,
66 My native fhades--there weep, and murmur there.".
She faid, and melting as in tears the 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 she rang'd before.
In her chafle current oft the Goddefs laves,
And with celeftial tears augments the waves.
Oft in her glafs the mufing thepherd spies
The headlong mountains and the downward fkies,
The watʼry landskip of the pendent woods,
And abfent trees that tremble in the floods:
In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen,
And floating forefts paint the waves with green :
Through the fair fcene roll flow the ling'ring ftreams,
Then foaming pour along, and rufh into the Thames.
IBID. p. 46.
RETIREMENT.
HAPPY! next him who to these shades retires, Whom Nature charms, and whom the Mufe infpires; Whom humbler joys of home-felt quiet pleafe, Succeffive study, exercife, and ease.
He gathers health from herbs the forest yields,
And of their fragrant physic spoils the fields;
With chemic arts exalts the min❜ral pow'rs,
And draws the aromatic fouls of flow'rs;
Now marks the course of rolling orbs on high;
O'er figur'd worlds now travels with his eye;
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