Millions of suppliant Crouds the Shrine attend. And all degrees before the Goddess bendo;; The Poor theRich, the Valiant, and the Sage And boasting Youth, and narrative Old-age.

Temple of Fame

5

N that foft feafon, when defcending show'rs Call forth the greens, and wake the rifing How'rs; When op'ning buds falute the welcome day, And earth relenting feels the genial ray; As balmy fleep had charm'd my cares to reft, And love itself was banish'd from my breast, (What time the morn mysterious vifions brings, While purer flumbers spread their golden wings) A train of phantoms in wild order rose, And join'd, this intellectual scene compose.

NOTES.

10

VER. 1. In that foft season, etc.] This Poem is introduced in the manner of the Provencial Poets, whofe works were for the moft part Visions, or pieces of imagination, and conftantly defcriptive. From thefe, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrow the idea of their poems. See the Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower and the Leaf, etc, of the latter. The Author of this therefore chofe the fame fort of Exordium.

P.

I ftood, methougt, betwixt earth, feas, and skies; The whole creation open to my eyes :

In air felf-balanc'd hung the globe below,

Where mountains rife and circling oceans flow;
Here naked rocks, and empty wastes were seen, 15
There tow'ry cities, and the forests green:
Here failing ships delight the wand'ring eyes;
There trees, and intermingled temples rife ;
Now a clear fun the fhining scene displays,
The tranfient landscape now in clouds decays.
O'er the wide Profpect as I gaz'd around,
Sudden I heard a wild promifcuous found,
Like broken thunders that at distance roar,
Or billows murm'ring on the hollow fhore:
Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,

20

25

Whofe tow'ring fummit ambient clouds conceal'd. High on a rock of Ice the ftructure lay,

Steep its afcent, and flipp'ry was the way;

IMITATIONS.

VER. 11. etc.] These verses are hinted from the following of

Chaucer, Book ii.

Tho' beheld I fields and plains,

Now hills, and now mountains,

Now valeis, and now foreftes,

And now unneth great beftes,
Now rivers, now citees,

Now towns, now great trees,

Now fhippes fayling in the fees. P.

VER. 27. High on a rock of Ice, etc.] Chaucer's third book of Fame. It stood upon fo high a rock;

Higher ftandeth none in Spayne

30

The wond'rous rock like Parian marble shone,
And feem'd to distant fight, of solid stone.
Infcriptions here of various Names I view'd,
The greater part by hoftile time subdu'd;
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages paft,
And Poets once had promis'd they should last.
Some fresh engrav'd appear'd of Wits renown'd;
I look'd again, nor could their trace be found. 36
Critics I faw, that other names deface,

And fix their own, with labour, in their place:

IMITATIONS.

What manner ftone this rock was,

For it was like a lymed glass,
But that it fhone full more clere;

But of what congel'd matere

It was, I nifte redily;
But at the last espied I,

And found that it was every dele,
A rock of ife, and not of stele.

VER. 31. Infcriptions here, etc.]

Tho faw 1 all the hill y-grave
With famous folkes names fele,
That had been in much wele
And her fames wide y-blow;
But well unneth might I know,
Any letters for to rede

Ther names by, for out of drede
They weren almoft off-thawen fo,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte

of
away every name,

So unfamous was woxe her fame ;

But men faid, what may ever laft. P.