s: Charactered in the face. This have I learnt


s: Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts


s: That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night


s: He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl


s: Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,


s: In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers.


s: Yet have they many baits and guileful spells


s: This evening late, by then the chewing flocks


s: Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb


s: Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,


s: Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close


s: The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,


s: And filled the air with barbarous dissonance;


s: At which I ceased, and listened them awhile,


s: Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds


s: That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep.


s: At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound


s: Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,


s: And stole upon the air, that even Silence


s: Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might


s: Still to be so displaced. I was all ear,


s: And took in strains that might create a soul


s: Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long


s: Too well I did perceive it was the voice


s: Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister.


s: Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear;


s: And "O poor hapless nightingale," thought I,


s: "How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!"


s: Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste,


s: Through paths and turnings often trod by day,


s: Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place


s: Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise


s: (For so by certain signs I knew), had met


s: Already, ere my best speed could prevent,


s: The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey;


s: Who gently asked if he had seen such two,


s: Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed


s: Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung


s: Into swift flight, till I had found you here;


s: SEC. BRO.                   O night and shades,


s: How are ye joined with hell in triple knot


s: Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin,


s: Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence


s: ELD. BRO.                   Yes, and keep it still;


s: Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats


s: Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm:


s: Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled;


s: Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm


s: Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.


s: And mix no more with goodness, when at last,


s: Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,


s: Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,


s: And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on!


s: Against the opposing will and arm of heaven


s: But, for that damned magician, let him be girt


s: Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms


s: 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out,


s: And force him to return his purchase back,


s: Or drag him by the curls to a foul death,


s: SPIR.         Alas! good venturous youth,


s: I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise;


s: But here thy sword can do thee little stead.


s: Be those that quell the might of hellish charms.


s: He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints,


s: ELD. BRO.                            Why, prithee,


s: How durst thou then thyself approach so near


s: SPIR.                                   Care and utmost


s: Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,


s: Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled


s: In every virtuous plant and healing herb


s: That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray.


s: He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing;


s: Which when I did, he on the tender grass


s: And show me simples of a thousand names,


s: Telling their strange and vigorous faculties.


s: Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,


s: The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,


s: Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:


s: Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain


s: Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;


s: And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly


s: 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp,


s: I pursed it up, but little reckoning made,


s: But now I find it true; for by this means


s: I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised,


s: Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells,


s: And yet came off. If you have this about you


s: (As I will give you when we go), you may


s: Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood


s: And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass,


s: And shed the luscious liquor on the ground;


s: But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew


s: Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high,


s: Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke,


s: Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink.


s: ELD. BRO. Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee;


s: And some good angel bear a shield before us!


s: The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of


s: whom he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to


s: COMUS. Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand,


s: Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster,


s: LADY.                            Fool, do not boast.


s: Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind


s: With all thy charms, although this corporal rind


s: Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good.


s: COMUS. Why are you vexed, Lady? why do you frown?


s: Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates


s: Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures


s: That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,


s: When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns


s: Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.


s: And first behold this cordial julep here,


s: That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,


s: With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.


s: Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone


s: Is of such power to stir up joy as this,


s: To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.


s: And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent


s: But you invert the covenants of her trust,


s: With that which you received on other terms,


s: By which all mortal frailty must subsist,


s: Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,


s: That have been tired all day without repast,


s: And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin,


s: LADY.                         'T will not, false


s: 'T will not restore the truth and honesty


s: That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies.


s: Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these,


s: These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me!


s: Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!


s: Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence


s: With vizored falsehood and base forgery?


s: And would'st thou seek again to trap me here


s: With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute?


s: Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,


s: I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None


s: But such as are good men can give good things;


s: And that which is not good is not delicious


s: COMUS. O foolishness of men! that lend their ears


s: To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,


s: And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,


s: Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence!


s: Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth


s: With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,


s: Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,


s: Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,


s: But all to please and sate the curious taste?


s: And set to work millions of spinning worms,


s: That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk,


s: To deck her sons; and, that no corner might


s: Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins


s: She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems,


s: To store her children with. If all the world


s: Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse,


s: Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,


s: The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised,


s: Not half his riches known and yet despised;


s: And we should serve him as a grudging master,


s: Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight,


s: The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes,


s: The herds would over-multitude their lords;


s: The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds


s: Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep,


s: And so bestud with stars, that they below


s: Would grow inured to light, and come at last


s: To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.


s: List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened


s: Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded,


s: But must be current; and the good thereof


s: If you let slip time, like a neglected rose


s: It withers on the stalk with languished head.


s: Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown


s: In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,


s: Where most may wonder at the workmanship.


s: They had their name thence: coarse complexions


s: And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply


s: The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool.


s: What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that,


s: Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?


s: There was another meaning in these gifts;


s: Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet.


s: LADY. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips


s: In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler


s: Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,


s: Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb.


s: And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.


s: Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,


s: As if she would her children should be riotous


s: If every just man that now pines with want


s: Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,


s: Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed


s: And she no whit encumbered with her store;


s: And then the Giver would be better thanked,


s: His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony


s: Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,


s: Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on


s: Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words


s: Fain would I something say;--yet to what end?


s: Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend


s: And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know


s: More happiness than this thy present lot.


s: That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;


s: Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.


s: Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth


s: Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits


s: And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake,


s: Till all thy magic structures, reared so high,


s: Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head.


s: COMUS. She fables not. I feel that I do fear


s: Her words set off by some superior power;


s: And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew


s: Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove


s: To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble,


s: And try her yet more strongly.--Come, no more!


s: Against the canon laws of our foundation.


s: I must not suffer this; yet 't is but the lees


s: But this will cure all straight; one sip of this


s: Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight


s: Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.


s: The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of


s: hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of


s: resistance, but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in.


s: SPIR. What! have you let the false enchanter scape?


s: O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand,


s: And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,


s: And backward mutters of dissevering power,


s: Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me,


s: Some other means I have which may be used,


s: The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains.


s: There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence,


s: That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream:


s: That had the sceptre from his father Brute.


s: She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit


s: Commended her fair innocence to the flood


s: That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.


s: The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,


s: Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,


s: Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;


s: Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,


s: And gave her to his daughters to imbathe


s: In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil,


s: And through the porch and inlet of each sense


s: Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived,


s: Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains


s: Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,


s: Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs


s: That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,


s: Which she with precious vialed liquors heals:


s: For which the shepherds, at their festivals,


s: And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream


s: And, as the old swain said, she can unlock


s: The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,


s: If she be right invoked in warbled song;


s: For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift


s: In hard-besetting need. This will I try,


s: And add the power of some adjuring verse.


s: Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,


s: The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;


s: SABRINA rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.


s: Where grows the willow and the osier dank,


s: Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen


s: I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.


s: SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat.


s: Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace,


s: Come, let us haste; the stars grow high,


s: But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.


s: The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's


s: Castle: then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT


s: SPIRIT, with the two BROTHERS and the LADY.


s: SPIR. Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play


s: The second Song presents them to their Father and Mother.


s: Their faith, their patience, and their truth,


s: The dances ended, the SPIRIT epiloguizes.


s: Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced


s: In this Monody the author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately


s: by occasion, foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in


s: YET once more, O ye laurels, and once more,


s: I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,


s: Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.


s: For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,


s: Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.


s: Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.


s: Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,


s: Without the meed of some melodious tear.


s: That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring;


s: Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.


s: With lucky words favour my destined urn,


s: And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud!


s: For we were nursed upon the self-same hill,


s: Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill;


s: Together both, ere the high lawns appeared


s: We drove a-field, and both together heard


s: What time the grey-fly winds her sultry horn,


s: Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night,


s: Oft till the star that rose at evening bright


s: Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel.


s: Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute;


s: Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel


s: From the glad sound would not be absent long;


s: And old Damoetas loved to hear our song.


s: But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone,


s: Now thou art gone and never must return!


s: Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves,


s: With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,


s: The willows, and the hazel copses green,


s: Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.


s: Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,


s: Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,


s: Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear.


s: Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep


s: Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas?


s: For neither were ye playing on the steep


s: Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie,


s: Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.


s: RHad ye been there, S . . . for what could that have done?


s: What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,


s: The Muse herself, for her enchanting son,


s: When, by the rout that made the hideous roar,


s: His gory visage down the stream was sent,


s: Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?


s: To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade,


s: And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?


s: Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise


s: To scorn delights and live laborious days;


s: But, the fair guerdon when we hope to find,


s: And think to burst out into sudden blaze,


s: Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears,


s: And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise,"


s: Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears:


s: "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,


s: Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies,


s: But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes


s: And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;


s: Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed."


s: O fountain Arethuse, and thou honoured flood,


s: Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds,


s: That strain I heard was of a higher mood.


s: He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds,


s: What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain?


s: And questioned every gust of rugged wings


s: That blows from off each beaked promontory.


s: And sage Hippotades their answer brings,


s: That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed:


s: The air was calm, and on the level brine


s: Sleek Panope with all her sisters played.


s: Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark,


s: That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.


s: Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow,


s: Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge


s: Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.


s: "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?"


s: (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).


s: He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:--


s: "How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,


s: Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake,


s: Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold!


s: Of other care they little reckoning make


s: Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast,


s: Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold


s: A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least


s: That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!


s: What recks it them? What need they? They are sped:


s: And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs


s: Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;


s: The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,


s: But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,


s: Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;


s: Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw


s: Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."


s: Return, Alpheus; the dread voice is past


s: That shrunk thy streams; return Sicilian Muse,


s: And call the vales, and bid them hither cast


s: Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.


s: Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use


s: Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,


s: On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks,


s: Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes,


s: That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers,


s: And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.


s: Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,


s: The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,


s: The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,


s: The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,


s: With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,


s: And every flower that sad embroidery wears;


s: And daffadillies fill their cups with tears,


s: To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.


s: Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise,


s: Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas


s: Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled;


s: Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide


s: Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world;


s: Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,


s: Where the great Vision of the guarded mount


s: Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold.


s: Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth:


s: And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth.


s: Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,


s: Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor.


s: And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore


s: Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:


s: Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves,


s: Where, other groves and other streams along,


s: With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,


s: And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,


s: In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.


s: There entertain him all the Saints above,


s: That Sing, and singing in their glory move,


s: And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.


s: Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;


s: Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore,


s: In thy large recompense, and shalt be good


s: To all that wander in that perilous flood.


s: Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills,


s: While the still morn went out with sandals grey:


s: He touched the tender stops of various quills,


s: With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:


s: And now the sun had stretched out all the hills,


s: At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:


s: Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.


s: Wild flight on flight against the fading dawn


s: The flames' red wings soar upward duskily.


s: This is the funeral pyre and Troy is dead


s: That sparkled so the day I saw it first,


s: Why have the high gods made me wreak their wrath--


s: Sorrow and blood about me?  Lo, they keep


s: It was the gods who led me to this lair,


s: That tho' the burning winds should make me weak,


s: They should not snatch the life from out my lips.


s: They shall be quiet when the day is done


s: There is no rest.  The gods are not so kind


s: To her made half immortal like themselves.


s: Had wrought such havoc on the earth as I,


s: That climbed to touch the silent whirling stars


s: And blotted out their brightness ere the dawn.


s: Have I not made the world to weep enough?


s: Give death to me.  Yet life is more than death;


s: How could I leave the sound of singing winds,


s: The strong sweet scent that breathes from off the sea,


s: I will not give the grave my hands to hold,


s: Have those who wander through the ways of death,


s: To lift their breasts with longing, any lips


s: Lo, I shall live to conquer Greece again,


s: To make the people love, who hate me now.


s: My dreams are over, I have ceased to cry


s: Against the fate that made men love my mouth


s: And left their spirits all too deaf to hear


s: The little songs that echoed through my soul.


s: I have no anger now.  The dreams are done;


s: Yet since the Greeks and Trojans would not see


s: Aught but my body's fairness, till the end,


s: And all the lands that lie beneath the sun,


s: Till light turn darkness, and till time shall sleep,


s: Men's lives shall waste with longing after me,


s: And they shall stretch their arms and starting, wake


s: With "Helen!" on their lips, and in their eyes


s: Limned on the darkness like a shaft of light


s: That glimmers and is gone.  They shall behold


s: Each one his dream that fashions me anew;--


s: With hair like lakes that glint beneath the stars


s: Dark as sweet midnight, or with hair aglow


s: Like burnished gold that still retains the fire.


s: Yea, I shall haunt until the dusk of time


s: The heavy eyelids filled with fleeting dreams.


s: I wait for one who comes with sword to slay--


s: The king I wronged who searches for me now;


s: And yet he shall not slay me.  I shall stand


s: With lifted head and look within his eyes,


s: He shall not have the power to stain with blood


s: That whiteness--for the thirsty sword shall fall


s: And he shall cry and catch me in his arms,


s: Bearing me back to Sparta on his breast.


s: Lo, I shall live to conquer Greece again!


s: Send out the singers--let the room be still;


s: They have not eased my pain nor brought me sleep.


s: Close out the sun, for I would have it dark


s: That I may feel how black the grave will be.


s: The sun is setting, for the light is red,


s: Come, leave the light and sit beside my bed,


s: For I have had enough of saints and prayers.


s: Strange broken thoughts are beating in my brain,


s: They come and vanish and again they come.


s: And Death stands waiting by the arras there.


s: Shall keep a silence till the end of time.


s: You have a mouth for loving--listen then:


s: Keep tryst with Love before Death comes to tryst;


s: For I, who die, could wish that I had lived


s: Not watching always thro' the blazoned panes


s: That show the world in chilly greens and blues


s: And grudge the sunshine that would enter in.


s: That moved beneath the palace windows here,


s: And yet sometimes a knight in shining steel


s: Would pass and catch the gleaming of my hair,


s: Affrighted and yet glad and full of dreams.


s: Ah, dreams and dreams that asked no answering!


s: I should have wrought to make my dreams come true,


s: It seemed but now I was the little child


s: Beyond the walls the festal trumpets blared.


s: With tossing ensigns in a sea of flowers,


s: Who saw for once the sweetness of the sun


s: Where tapers smoke against the windy gloom.


s: Whose wine had turned to roses in her hands.


s: And as I played, a child came thro' the gate,


s: As tho' he saw stretch far behind my head


s: Long lines of radiant angels, row on row.


s: He was content to stand and watch me pass,


s: Where I could feel his eyes the while I prayed.


s: I think if he had stretched his hands to me,


s: I might have loved him--he had wondrous eyes.


s: The room is filled with lights--with waving lights--


s: Who are the men and women 'round the bed?


s: What have I said, Ornella?  Have they heard?


s: And yet, and yet, I would not have them know--


s: The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep,


s: The temples glimmer moonwise in the trees.


s: Twilight has veiled the little flower face


s: Here on my heart, but still the night is kind


s: And leaves her warm sweet weight against my breast.


s: When tides came in to ease the hungry beach,


s: And running, running, till the night was black,


s: Would fall forespent upon the chilly sand


s: And quiver with the winds from off the sea?


s: Whose waves are stinging kisses, but to me


s: Love brought no peace, nor darkness any rest.


s: I crept and touched the foam with fevered hands


s: And cried to Love, from whom the sea is sweet,


s: From whom the sea is bitterer than death.


s: To thee, God's daughter, powerful as God,


s: It is that thou hast made my life too sweet


s: And I have pierced the pain and come to peace.


s: And softer than a little wild bird's wing


s: Are kisses that she pours upon my mouth.


s: Ah, never any more when spring like fire


s: Will flicker in the newly opened leaves,


s: Shall I steal forth to seek for solitude


s: Beyond the sob that stilled Erinna's voice.


s: Ah, never with a throat that aches with song,


s: Beneath the white uncaring sky of spring,


s: Shall I go forth to hide awhile from Love


s: The love-note of the birds, and bowed my head


s: And all the world's spring passion stifled me.


s: Ah, Love, there is no fleeing from thy might,


s: No lonely place where thou hast never trod,


s: With flowers that spring beneath thy perfect feet.


s: I saw thee by the maidens while they danced,


s: I looked at Cercolas and saw thine eyes;


s: Now I have found the peace that fled from me;


s: Close, close, against my heart I hold my world.


s: Ah, Love that tuned my lips to lyres of thine,


s: I sing for one who falls asleep to hear.


s: The sparrows wake beneath the convent eaves;


s: I think I have not slept the whole night through.


s: The times they wake and sleep, for life burns down;


s: They breathe the calm of death before they die.


s: The long night ends, the day comes creeping in,


s: Showing the sorrows that the darkness hid,


s: The bended head of Christ, the blood, the thorns,


s: The wall's gray stains of damp, the pallet bed


s: Where little Sister Marta dreams of saints,


s: Waking with arms outstretched imploringly


s: Our Lady smiled while all the convent slept


s: One winter midnight hushed around with snow--


s: I thought she might be kinder than the rest,


s: Sick with love's sorrow and love's bitterness.


s: But when I would have made the blessed sign,


s: And touched but ice within the carved stone.


s: The saints had hid themselves away from me,


s: Leaving the windows black against the night;


s: The last, pale, low-burnt taper flickered out,


s: But in the darkness, smooth and fathomless,


s: Still twinkled like a star the holy lamp


s: Then through the numbing cold peace fell on me,


s: Submission and the gracious gift of tears,


s: Her lips had parted and Our Lady smiled!


s: And then I knew that Love is worth its pain


s: And that my heart was richer for his sake,


s: The day is broad awake--the first long beam


s: And trembling there it lights a timid smile


s: And have no words for hate and none for love.


s: But when she passes where her prayers have gone,


s: And send her back with gentle words to earth


s: That she may hold a child against her breast


s: And feel its little hands upon her hair?


s: We weep before the Blessed Mother's shrine,


s: The precious hours she watched above His sleep


s: Were worth the fearful anguish of the end.


s: Yet I have felt what thing it is to know


s: To say one name whose sweetness grows so strange


s: That it might work a spell on those who weep;


s: To feel the weight of love upon my heart


s: So heavy that the blood can scarcely flow.


s: Love comes to some unlooked-for, quietly,


s: As when at twilight, with a soft surprise,


s: We see the new-born crescent in the blue;


s: A cold and placid gleam that wavers not,


s: And there are those who wait the call of love


s: To see the east grow pallid ere the moon


s: Lifts up her flower-like head against the night.


s: That on some rain-drenched morning, when the leaves


s: Are bowed beneath their clinging weight of drops,


s: Tears through the mist, and burns with fervent heat


s: The tender grasses and the meadow flowers;


s: And through the dark the thunder's muttering


s: Is drowned amid the dashing of the rain.


s: The sun sets slowly on a peaceful world,


s: And sheds a quiet light across the fields.


s: I was a queen, and I have lost my crown;


s: The women smiled, and all the world smiled too.


s: And now, what woman's eyes would smile on me?


s: I still am beautiful, and yet what child


s: Would think of me as some high, heaven-sent thing,


s: The world would run from me, and yet am I


s: No different from the queen they used to love.


s: And men will drink it with no thought of harm.


s: Where people smiled to see one happy thing,


s: And they were proud and glad to raise me high;


s: They only asked that I should be right fair,


s: If I had pleased them well throughout my life.


s: The women thought me proud, the men were kind,


s: And bowed right gallantly to kiss my hand,


s: And watched me as I passed them calmly by,


s: Along the halls I shall not tread again.


s: What if, to-night, I should revisit them?


s: The warders at the gates, the kitchen-maids,


s: The very beggars would stand off from me,


s: And I, their queen, would climb the stairs alone,


s: Pass through the banquet-hall, a loathed thing,


s: And seek my chambers for a hiding-place,


s: The fire in ashes on the freezing hearth.


s: A queen should never dream on summer eves,


s: When hovering spells are heavy in the dusk:--


s: I think no night was ever quite so still,


s: So smoothly lit with red along the west,


s: So deeply hushed with quiet through and through.


s: And strangely clear, and deeply dyed with light,


s: The trees stood straight against a paling sky,


s: With Venus burning lamp-like in the west.


s: That drooped their heads and drowsed beneath the dew,


s: And all my thoughts were quieted to sleep.


s: Behind me, on the walk, I heard a step--


s: I did not know my heart could tell his tread,


s: I did not know I loved him till that hour.


s: Within my breast I felt a wild, sick pain,


s: And quick he came behind me, caught my arms,


s: That ached beneath his touch; and then I swayed,


s: My head fell backward and I saw his face.


s: All this grows bitter that was once so sweet,


s: And many mouths must drain the dregs of it.


s: Whom Love so lashed, and with such cruel thongs.


s: No, do not shake your head; I see your eyes


s: That shine with tears.  Sappho, you saw the sun


s: Just now when you came hither, and again,


s: When you have left me, all the shimmering


s: Great meadows will laugh lightly, and the sun


s: As might a lover, decking you with light.


s: I go toward darkness tho' I lie so still.


s: If I could see the sun, I should look up


s: And drink the light until my eyes were blind;


s: I should kneel down and kiss the blades of grass,


s: And I should call the birds with such a voice,


s: With such a longing, tremulous and keen,


s: That they would fly to me and on the breast


s: Bear evermore to tree-tops and to fields


s: The kiss I gave them.  Sappho, tell me this,


s: Was I not sometimes fair?  My eyes, my mouth,


s: My hair that loved the wind, were they not worth


s: The breath of love upon them?  Yet he passed,


s: And he will pass to-night when all the air


s: Is blue with twilight; but I shall not see.


s: I shall have gone forever.  Hold my hands,


s: Hold fast that Death may never come between;


s: Swear by the gods you will not let me go;


s: Make songs for Death as you would sing to Love--


s: Of all the gods will take no gifts from men.


s: Last night the fever gave a dream to me,


s: It takes my life and gives a little dream.


s: I thought I saw him stand, the man I love,


s: Silently toward me--he who night by night


s: Goes by my door without a thought of me--


s: Neared me and put his hand behind my head,


s: And leaning toward me, kissed me on the mouth.


s: That was a little dream for Death to give,


s: Too short to take the whole of life for, yet


s: The dream is worth the dying.  Do not smile


s: And ease your hurt by singing.  But to me


s: My songs are less than sea-sand that the wind


s: I have no care what place the grains may fall,


s: Nor of my songs, if Time shall blow them back,


s: As land-wind breaks the lines of dying foam


s: Along the bright wet beaches, scattering


s: The flakes once more against the laboring sea,


s: To please Apollo since Love hearkens not?


s: Your words will live forever, men will say


s: "She was the perfect lover"--I shall die,


s: I loved too much to live.  Go Sappho, go--


s: I hate your hands that beat so full of life,


s: Go, lest my hatred hurt you.  I shall die,


s: But you will live to love and love again.


s: He might have loved some other spring than this;


s: I should have kept my life--I let it go.


s: He would not love me now tho' Cypris bound


s: Her girdle round me.  I am Death's, not Love's.


s: Go from me, Sappho, back to find the sun.


s: Would you let me in when the gray wind blows?


s: You should never go when you came to me,


s: I should hold my love on my heart at last,


s: I should close my leaves and keep you fast,


s: Of a knight who shall come with a silver spear


s: But sometimes I wake, and my eyes are wet,


s: And whiles he smiled and whiles would play


s: If he could know my songs are all for him,


s: Would he not smile and think it but a whim,


s: Or would his heart rejoice and overflow,


s: As happy brooks that break their icy rim


s: When April's horns along the hillsides blow?


s: I may not speak till Eros' torch is dim,


s: And yet to-night our fate would seem less grim


s: Then plunge your sword within your breast


s: And I have loved the green bright north,


s: I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea,


s: And the petals fall on the orchard wall,


s: Was that his step that sounded on the stair?


s: Was that his knock I heard upon the door?


s: And yet I would that he might come once more.


s: It was the wind I heard, that mocks at me,


s: The bitter wind that is more cruel than he;


s: It was the wind that knocked upon the door,


s: Love said, "Wake still and think of me,"


s: Sleep, "Close your eyes till break of day,"


s: Past the fiery lights of the picture shows--


s: Breaks the cowslip's heart with yearning,


s: As kings who see their little life-day pass,


s: Take off the heavy ermine and the crown,


s: So had the trees that autumn-time laid down


s: Their golden garments on the faded grass,


s: When I, who watched the seasons in the glass


s: Of mine own thoughts, saw all the autumn's brown


s: Great spring came singing upward from the south;


s: For in my heart, far carried on the wind,


s: Your words like winged seeds took root and grew,


s: And all the world caught music from your mouth;


s: I saw the light as one who had been blind,


s: And knew my sun and song and spring were you.


s: When you were born, beloved, was your soul


s: New made by God to match your body's flower,


s: And were they both at one same precious hour


s: Sent forth from heaven as a perfect whole?


s: Or had your soul since dim creation burned,


s: That leaping earthward, left its place on high


s: And to your little new-born body yearned?


s: No words can tell in what celestial hour


s: God made your soul and gave it mortal birth,


s: Is any place so sweet that such a flower


s: Might linger there until thro' heaven's bars,


s: It heard God's voice that bade it down to earth.


s: Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,


s: And shall my soul that lies within your hand


s: Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep


s: When winds along the darkened desert sweep?


s: Or would it still remember, tho' it spanned


s: A thousand heavens, while the planets fanned


s: The vacant ether with their voices deep?


s: Soul of my soul, no word shall be forgot,


s: Nor fear the void wherethro' our planet runs,


s: At midnight when the moonlit cypress trees


s: Have woven round his grave a magic shade,


s: Still weeping the unfinished hymn he made,


s: There moves fresh Maia like a morning breeze


s: Blown over jonquil beds when warm rains cease.


s: And stooping where her poet's head is laid,


s: Selene weeps while all the tides are stayed


s: And swaying seas are darkened into peace.


s: But they who wake the meadows and the tides


s: Have hearts too kind to bid him wake from sleep


s: Who murmurs sometimes when his dreams are deep,


s: Startling the Quiet Land where he abides,


s: With visions of the sunny earth and sea.


s: Deep stillness pure of any speech or sound,


s: Soft quiet hovering over pools profound,


s: The broad unfurling banners of the dawn,


s: A faery forest where there sleeps a Faun;


s: Our souls are fain of solitudes like these.


s: And set the crown of silence on your art,


s: From what undreamed-of depth within your heart


s: Have you sent forth the hush that makes us free


s: To hear an instant, high above earth's stress,


s: I turned the key and opened wide the door


s: Where thro' the long hot months the dust had lain.


s: No step was heard, no sudden song that bore


s: My whole heart upward with a joyous pain?


s: Were not the pictures and the volumes fain


s: To lift her lids, nor did the subtle smile


s: Still wept against the glory of her hair,


s: Nor did the lovers part their lips the while,


s: But kissed unheeding that I watched them there.


s: The cold black fear is clutching me to-night


s: As long ago when they would take the light


s: And leave the little child who would have prayed,


s: Frozen and sleepless at the thought of death.


s: My heart that beats too fast will rest too soon;


s: I shall not know if it be night or noon,--


s: Yet shall I struggle in the dark for breath?


s: Will no one fight the Terror for my sake,


s: The heavy darkness that no dawn will break?


s: How can they leave me in that dark alone,


s: Who loved the joy of light and warmth so much,


s: And thrilled so with the sense of sound and touch,--


s: How can they shut me underneath a stone?


s: The wide, bright temple of the world I found,


s: That I might kneel and worship thee in it;


s: Leaving the singing stars their ceaseless round


s: For measured spaces where the shrines are lit,


s: My summons came across the endless spaces?


s: Mother of Love, turn not thy face from me


s: Now that I seek for thee in human faces;


s: (To the maiden with the hidden face in Abbey's painting)


s: The other maidens raised their eyes to him


s: Who stumbled in before them when the fight


s: Had left him victor, with a victor's right.


s: I think his eyes with quick hot tears grew dim;


s: He scarcely saw her swaying white and slim,


s: And trembling slightly, dreaming of his might,


s: Nor knew he touched her hand, as strangely light


s: The other maidens raised their eyes to see


s: And yet I ween she loved him more than they,


s: Yet for Love's shame and sweet humility,


s: She dared not meet him with their queenlike grace.


s: The winds have grown articulate in thee,


s: And voiced again the wail of ancient woe


s: Now lifted loud with pain and now brought low.


s: Unknown to him who sings, thro' lips that live,


s: The voiceless dead of long-forgotten lands


s: Proclaim to us their heaviness and wrong


s: In sweeping sadness of the winds that give


s: Thy strings no rest from weariless wild hands.


s: Was Time not harsh to you, or was he kind,


s: That he has left no word of singing fire


s: Whereby you waked the dreaming Lesbian wind,


s: And kindled night along the lyric shore?


s: O girl whose lips Erato stooped to kiss,


s: A dream in all our souls that we may say:


s: "Her voice had all the rapture of the sea,


s: "I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower,


s: Out of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges


s: Veiled in the violet folds of the air of the sea;


s: Softly the dream grows awakening--shimmering white of a city,


s: Splashes of crimson, the gay bougainvillea, the palms.


s: High in the infinite blue of its heaven a quiet cloud lingers,


s: Lost and forgotten of winds that have fallen asleep,


s: Fallen asleep to the tune of a Portuguese song in a garden.


s: The greenish sky glows up in misty reds,


s: The purple shadows turn to brick and stone,


s: The dreams wear thin, men turn upon their beds,


s: The city's street, a roaring blackened stream


s: Walled in by granite, thro' whose thousand eyes


s: A thousand yellow lights begin to gleam,


s: And the rain is heard now loud now blurred


s: He left the singing and the lyre and went his way.


s: From strangely fashioned harps slow golden tones he wrung.


s: And Fragoletta weep and wring her little hands?


s: Sappho's forgotten songs are falling on his ears.


s: And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.


s: (Written in a copy of "La Vita Nuova".  For M. C. S.)


s: (Written in a copy of "The Poems of Sappho".)


s: The wind would blow such songs as these--


s: They brought Him little new-born lambs--


s: They smiled and turned their heads away.


s: Voices of men and women on the ground at the foot of the tower.


s: The top of a high battlemented tower of a castle.  A stone ledge,


s: Small clouds float by in the blue sky, and occasionally a swallow


s: Entrance R. from an unseen stairway which is supposed to extend


s: With looking down the tower to where the earth


s: Lies dreaming in the sun.  I fear to fall.


s: Lean on me, love, my love, and look not down.


s: Call me not "love", call me your conquered foe,


s: That now, since you have battered down her gates,


s: Gives you the keys that lock the highest tower


s: And mounts with you to prove her homage true;


s: My foot has slipped upon the rain-worn stones,


s: Why are the stairs so narrow and so steep?


s: Who were so dauntless till the walls gave way?


s: Courage, my sweet.  I would that I could climb


s: A thousand times by wind-swept stairs like these,


s: (The Knight and the Lady appear on the top of the tower.)


s: Oh, my sweet lord, I am too tired to kiss.


s: With rivers veined and flawed with fallow fields.


s: Then I kiss you, a thousand thousand kisses


s: Beyond the walls and gates you barred so close.


s: Call me at last your love, your castle's lord.


s: (She kisses him.  Her veil blows away like a white butterfly


s: over the parapet.  Faint cries and laughter from men and women


s: (The knight takes the lady in his arms.)


s: My lord, I pray you loose me from your arms


s: Lest that my people see how much we love.


s: May they not see us?  All of them have loved.


s: With walls between us and with moss-grown moats,


s: I who was taught before I learned to speak


s: That all my house was hostile unto yours,


s: Now can I put my head against your breast


s: Here in the sight of all who choose to come?


s: Are we not past the caring for their eyes


s: Why came we here in all the noon-day light


s: Let us go down where walls will shut us round.


s: A hundred chambers, where the shadows lie


s: Forgotten lutes with strings that Time has slackened,


s: We two shall draw them close and bid them sing--


s: Forgotten games, forgotten books still open


s: Where you had laid them by at vesper-time,


s: And your embroidery, whereon half-worked


s: Shall I not see the room in which you slept,


s: Palpitant still and breathing of your thoughts,


s: Where maiden dreams adown the ways of sleep


s: Swept noiselessly with damosels and knights


s: To tourneys where the trumpet made no sound,


s: Blow as he might, the scarlet trumpeter,


s: And were the dreams not sometimes brimmed with tears


s: That waked you when the night was loneliest?


s: Where prayers arose like little birds set free


s: Still upward, upward without sound of flight?


s: Shall I not find your turrets toward the north,


s: Where you defied white winter armed for war;


s: Your southern casements where the sun blows in


s: Between the leaf-bent boughs the wind has lifted?


s: Shall we not see the sunrise toward the east,


s: Watch dawn by dawn the rose of day unfolding


s: And toward the west look quietly at evening?


s: Shall I not see all these and all your treasures?


s: Have you not laid a sapphire lit with flame


s: And amethysts set round with deep-wrought gold,


s: And all my chambers curtained from the sun.


s: My lord shall see them all, in time, in time.


s: Shall I not see them now?  To-day, to-night?


s: How could I show you in one day, my lord,


s: My castle and my treasures and my tower?


s: Let all the days to come suffice for this


s: Since all the past days made them what they are.


s: You will not be impatient, my sweet lord.


s: Some of the halls have long been locked and barred,


s: And some have secret doors and hard to find


s: We two will search together for the keys,


s: But not to-day.  Let us sit here to-day,


s: Since all is yours and always will be yours.


s: (She sees that he is asleep, and slipping off her long cloak-like


s: and half kneeling at his feet she sings very softly:)


s: (Light clouds veil the stars, growing denser constantly.


s: The castle bell rings for vespers, and rising, the lady moves


s: to a corner of the parapet and kneels there.)


s: Voice of the Page (from the foot of the tower.)


s: My lord, my lord, they call for you at court!


s: (The knight wakes.  It is now quite dark.)


s: Has challenged you.  My lord, make haste to come!


s: (The knight rises and gropes his way toward the stairs.)


s: I will make haste.  Await me where you are.


s: There was a lady on this tower with me----


s: My lord has far to ride before the dawn!


s: On the Death of a young Lady of five Years of Age


s: To a Lady on the Death of three Relations


s: A Funeral Poem on the Death of an Infant aged twelve Months


s: To a Lady on her coming to North America with


s: To a Lady on her remarkable Preservation in a


s: To a Lady and her Children on the Death of the Lady's Brother


s: To the Rev. Dr. Thomas Amory on reading his Sermons


s: on Daily Devotion, in which that Duty is


s: Niobe in Distress for her Children slain by Apollo,


s: from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VI, and from a View


s: To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works


s: His Excellency THOMAS HUTCHINSON, Governor.


s: The Hon. ANDREW OLIVER, Lieutenant-Governor.


s: N. B.  The original Attestation, signed by the above Gentlemen,


s: may be seen by applying to Archibald Bell, Bookseller,


s: *The Words "following Page," allude to the Contents


s: of the Manuscript Copy, with are wrote at the


s: MAECENAS, you, beneath the myrtle shade,


s: Read o'er what poets sung, and shepherds play'd.


s: What felt those poets but you feel the same?


s: Does not your soul possess the sacred flame?


s: Their noble strains your equal genius shares


s: While Homer paints, lo! circumfus'd in air,


s: Swift as they move hear each recess rebound,


s: Heav'n quakes, earth trembles, and the shores resound.


s: Great Sire of verse, before my mortal eyes,


s: The lightnings blaze across the vaulted skies,


s: And, as the thunder shakes the heav'nly plains,


s: A deep felt horror thrills through all my veins.


s: When gentler strains demand thy graceful song,


s: The length'ning line moves languishing along.


s: When great Patroclus courts Achilles' aid,


s: The grateful tribute of my tears is paid;


s: Prone on the shore he feels the pangs of love,


s: And stern Pelides tend'rest passions move.


s: Great Maro's strain in heav'nly numbers flows,


s: The Nine inspire, and all the bosom glows.


s: O could I rival thine and Virgil's page,


s: Or claim the Muses with the Mantuan Sage;


s: Soon the same beauties should my mind adorn,


s: And the same ardors in my soul should burn:


s: Then should my song in bolder notes arise,


s: But here I sit, and mourn a grov'ling mind,


s: That fain would mount, and ride upon the wind.


s: Not you, my friend, these plaintive strains become,


s: They fan in you the bright immortal fire,


s: But I less happy, cannot raise the song,


s: The fault'ring music dies upon my tongue.


s: The happier Terence* all the choir inspir'd,


s: His soul replenish'd, and his bosom fir'd;


s: But say, ye Muses, why this partial grace,


s: From age to age transmitting thus his name


s: With the finest glory in the rolls of fame?


s: Thy virtues, great Maecenas! shall be sung


s: In praise of him, from whom those virtues sprung:


s: While blooming wreaths around thy temples spread,


s: I'll snatch a laurel from thine honour'd head,


s: While you indulgent smile upon the deed.


s: As long as Thames in streams majestic flows,


s: While Phoebus reigns above the starry train


s: While bright Aurora purples o'er the main,


s: So long, great Sir, the muse thy praise shall sing,


s: So long thy praise shal' make Parnassus ring:


s: Then grant, Maecenas, thy paternal rays,


s: To comprehend thee.  Thine own words declare


s: Thine height t' explore, or fathom thy profound.


s: Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand


s: Would now embrace thee, hovers o'er thine head.


s: Fain would the heav'n-born soul with her converse,


s: Then seek, then court her for her promis'd bliss.


s: Auspicious queen, thine heav'nly pinions spread,


s: Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful years!


s: O leave me not to the false joys of time!


s: But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.


s: Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee,


s: O thou, enthron'd with Cherubs in the realms of day.


s: WHILE an intrinsic ardor prompts to write,


s: 'Twas not long since I left my native shore


s: Father of mercy, 'twas thy gracious hand


s: Brought me in safety from those dark abodes.


s: Students, to you 'tis giv'n to scan the heights


s: And mark the systems of revolving worlds.


s: Still more, ye sons of science ye receive


s: The blissful news by messengers from heav'n,


s: How Jesus' blood for your redemption flows.


s: See him with hands out-stretcht upon the cross;


s: He hears revilers, nor resents their scorn:


s: When the whole human race by sin had fall'n,


s: He deign'd to die that they might rise again,


s: And share with him in the sublimest skies,


s: Life without death, and glory without end.


s: Improve your privileges while they stay,


s: Ye pupils, and each hour redeem, that bears


s: By you be shun'd, nor once remit your guard;


s: Ye blooming plants of human race divine,


s: An Ethiop tells you 'tis your greatest foe;


s: Its transient sweetness turns to endless pain,


s: And in immense perdition sinks the soul.


s: The crown upon your brows may flourish long,


s: And that your arm may in your God be strong!


s: O may your sceptre num'rous nations sway,


s: But how shall we the British king reward!


s: Rule thou in peace, our father, and our lord!


s: Midst the remembrance of thy favours past,


s: The meanest peasants most admire the last*


s: May George, beloved by all the nations round,


s: Live with heav'ns choicest constant blessings crown'd!


s: Great God, direct, and guard him from on high,


s: And may each clime with equal gladness see


s: A monarch's smile can set his subjects free!


s: On being brought from Africa to America.


s: 'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,


s: That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:


s: Once I redemption neither fought now knew,


s: Some view our sable race with scornful eye,


s: May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.


s: On the Death of the Rev. Dr. SEWELL, 1769.


s: ERE yet the morn its lovely blushes spread,


s: See Sewell number'd with the happy dead.


s: Hail, holy man, arriv'd th' immortal shore,


s: Though we shall hear thy warning voice no more.


s: Come, let us all behold with wishful eyes


s: The saint ascending to his native skies;


s: From hence the prophet wing'd his rapt'rous way


s: Come, let us all with the same vigour rise,


s: And take a prospect of the blissful skies;


s: While on our minds Christ's image is imprest,


s: And the dear Saviour glows in ev'ry breast.


s: Thrice happy faint! to find thy heav'n at last,


s: By sense, we bow at thine exalted throne.


s: O, while we beg thine excellence to feel,


s: Which thou hast promis'd for the Saviour's sake!


s: "Sewell is dead."  Swift-pinion'd Fame thus cry'd.


s: "Is Sewell dead," my trembling tongue reply'd,


s: How oft to us the Word of Life convey'd!


s: By duty urg'd my mournful verse to close,


s: "Lo, here a man, redeem'd by Jesus's blood,


s: "A sinner once, but now a saint with God;


s: "Behold ye rich, ye poor, ye fools, ye wise,


s: "Not let his monument your heart surprise;


s: "Twill tell you what this holy man has done,


s: "Which gives him brighter lustre than the sun.


s: "Listen, ye happy, from your seats above.


s: "I speak sincerely, while I speak and love,


s: "He fought the paths of piety and truth,


s: "By these made happy from his early youth;


s: "In blooming years that grace divine he felt,


s: "Which rescues sinners from the chains of guilt.


s: "Mourn him, ye indigent, whom he has fed,


s: "And henceforth seek, like him, for living bread;


s: "Ev'n Christ, the bread descending from above,


s: "And ask an int'rest in his saving love.


s: "Mourn him, ye youth, to whom he oft has told


s: "God's gracious wonders from the times of old.


s: "I too have cause this mighty loss to mourn,


s: "O when shall we to his blest state arrive?


s: "When the same graces in our bosoms thrive."


s: On the Death of the Rev. Mr. GEORGE WHITEFIELD.  1770.


s: HAIL, happy saint, on thine immortal throne,


s: Possest of glory, life, and bliss unknown;


s: We hear no more the music of thy tongue,


s: Thy sermons in unequall'd accents flow'd,


s: Thou didst in strains of eloquence refin'd


s: Inflame the heart, and captivate the mind.


s: So glorious once, but ah! it shines no more.


s: Behold the prophet in his tow'ring flight!


s: He leaves the earth for heav'n's unmeasur'd height,


s: And worlds unknown receive him from our sight.


s: There Whitefield wings with rapid course his way,


s: And sails to Zion through vast seas of day.


s: Thy pray'rs, great saint, and thine incessant cries


s: Have pierc'd the bosom of thy native skies.


s: Thou moon hast seen, and all the stars of light,


s: How he has wrestled with his God by night.


s: He pray'd that grace in ev'ry heart might dwell,


s: He charg'd its youth that ev'ry grace divine


s: Should with full lustre in their conduct shine;


s: That Saviour, which his soul did first receive,


s: The greatest gift that ev'n a God can give,


s: He freely offer'd to the num'rous throng,


s: That on his lips with list'ning pleasure hung.


s: "Take him, ye wretched, for your only good,


s: "Take him ye starving sinners, for your food;


s: "Ye thirsty, come to this life-giving stream,


s: "Ye preachers, take him for your joyful theme;


s: "Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid:


s: "Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you,


s: "Wash'd in the fountain of redeeming blood,


s: "You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to God."


s: Thy name, and mingle in thy grief sincere;


s: New England deeply feels, the Orphans mourn,


s: Their more than father will no more return.


s: But, though arrested by the hand of death,


s: Whitefield no more exerts his lab'ring breath,


s: Yet let us view him in th' eternal skies,


s: Let ev'ry heart to this bright vision rise;


s: While the tomb safe retains its sacred trust,


s: *The Countess of Huntingdon, to whom Mr. Whitefield was Chaplain.


s: On the Death of a young Lady of Five Years of Age.


s: Th' enraptur'd innocent has wing'd her flight;


s: This known, ye parents, nor her loss deplore,


s: She feels the iron hand of pain no more;


s: Should turn your sorrows into grateful praise;


s: Let then no tears for her henceforward flow,


s: No more distress'd in our dark vale below,


s: Her morning sun, which rose divinely bright,


s: Was quickly mantled with the gloom of night;


s: But hear in heav'n's blest bow'rs your Nancy fair,


s: And learn to imitate her language there.


s: "Thou, Lord, whom I behold with glory crown'd,


s: "By what sweet name, and in what tuneful sound


s: "Wilt thou be prais'd?  Seraphic pow'rs are faint


s: "To thee let all their graceful voices raise,


s: "And saints and angels join their songs of praise."


s: Perfect in bliss she from her heav'nly home


s: Looks down, and smiling beckons you to come;


s: Why then, fond parents, why these fruitless groans?


s: Restrain your tears, and cease your plaintive moans.


s: Freed from a world of sin, and snares, and pain,


s: Why would you wish your daughter back again?


s: No--bow resign'd.  Let hope your grief control,


s: And check the rising tumult of the soul.


s: Calm in the prosperous, and adverse day,


s: Upright your actions, and your hearts sincere,


s: Till having sail'd through life's tempestuous sea,


s: And from its rocks, and boist'rous billows free,


s: Yourselves, safe landed on the blissful shore,


s: Shall join your happy babe to part no more.


s: WHO taught thee conflict with the pow'rs of night,


s: To vanquish satan in the fields of light?


s: Who strung thy feeble arms with might unknown,


s: How great thy conquest, and how bright thy crown!


s: War with each princedom, throne, and pow'r is o'er,


s: O could my muse thy seat on high behold,


s: How deckt with laurel, how enrich'd with gold!


s: O could she hear what praise thine harp employs,


s: How sweet thine anthems, how divine thy joys!


s: What heav'nly grandeur should exalt her strain!


s: What holy raptures in her numbers reign!


s: To sooth the troubles of the mind to peace,


s: To still the tumult of life's tossing seas,


s: To ease the anguish of the parents heart,


s: What shall my sympathizing verse impart?


s: Where is the balm to heal so deep a wound?


s: Where shall a sov'reign remedy be found?


s: Look, gracious Spirit, from thine heav'nly bow'r,


s: And thy full joys into their bosoms pour;


s: The raging tempest of their grief control,


s: And spread the dawn of glory through the soul,


s: To eye the path the saint departed trod,


s: GRIM monarch! see, depriv'd of vital breath,


s: Our griefs to double, and lay waste our joy?


s: Enough thou never yet wast known to say,


s: Though millions die, the vassals of thy sway:


s: Nor youth, nor science, not the ties of love,


s: Nor ought on earth thy flinty heart can move.


s: The friend, the spouse from his dire dart to save,


s: In vain we ask the sovereign of the grave.


s: Fair mourner, there see thy lov'd Leonard laid,


s: And o'er him spread the deep impervious shade.


s: Clos'd are his eyes, and heavy fetters keep


s: Till time shall cease, till many a starry world


s: Shall fall from heav'n, in dire confusion hurl'd


s: Till nature in her final wreck shall lie,


s: And her last groan shall rend the azure sky:


s: Not, not till then his active soul shall claim


s: Pursue each other down the mourner's face;


s: But cease thy tears, bid ev'ry sigh depart,


s: And cast the load of anguish from thine heart:


s: From the cold shell of his great soul arise,


s: And look beyond, thou native of the skies;


s: There fix thy view, where fleeter than the wind


s: Thy Leonard mounts, and leaves the earth behind.


s: Thyself prepare to pass the vale of night


s: To thine embrace this joyful spirit moves


s: To thee, the partner of his earthly loves;


s: He welcomes thee to pleasures more refin'd,


s: YE martial pow'rs, and all ye tuneful nine,


s: Inspire my song, and aid my high design.


s: The dreadful scenes and toils of war I write,


s: The ardent warriors, and the fields of fight:


s: You best remember, and you best can sing


s: Resume the lays with which your sacred lyre,


s: Now front to front the armies were display'd,


s: Here Israel rang'd, and there the foes array'd;


s: The hosts on two opposing mountains stood,


s: Thick as the foliage of the waving wood;


s: O'er which the gleaming armour pour'd the day,


s: When from the camp of the Philistine foes,


s: Dreadful to view, a mighty warrior rose;


s: In the dire deeds of bleeding battle skill'd,


s: The monster stalks the terror of the field.


s: From Gath he sprung, Goliath was his name,


s: Of fierce deportment, and gigantic frame:


s: A coat of mail his form terrific grac'd,


s: The greaves his legs, the targe his shoulders prest:


s: Dreadful in arms high-tow'ring o'er the rest


s: A spear he proudly wav'd, whose iron head,


s: Strange to relate, six hundred shekels weigh'd;


s: He strode along, and shook the ample field,


s: While Phoebus blaz'd refulgent on his shield:


s: Through Jacob's race a chilling horror ran,


s: When thus the huge, enormous chief began:


s: "Say, what the cause that in this proud array


s: "You set your battle in the face of day?


s: "One hero find in all your vaunting train,


s: "Then see who loses, and who wins the plain;


s: "Perpetual service from the vanquish'd land:


s: "Your armies I defy, your force despise,


s: "Produce a man, and let us try the fight,


s: "Decide the contest, and the victor's right."


s: Thus challeng'd he: all Israel stood amaz'd,


s: But Jesse's son in youthful bloom appears,


s: And warlike courage far beyond his years:


s: He left the folds, he left the flow'ry meads,


s: Now Israel's monarch, and his troops arise,


s: With peals of shouts ascending to the skies;


s: In Elah's vale the scene of combat lies.


s: When the fair morning blush'd with orient red,


s: What David's fire enjoin'd the son obey'd,


s: And swift of foot towards the trench he came,


s: Where glow'd each bosom with the martial flame.


s: He leaves his carriage to another's care,


s: And runs to greet his brethren of the war.


s: While yet they spake the giant-chief arose,


s: Repeats the challenge, and insults his foes:


s: Struck with the sound, and trembling at the view,


s: Affrighted Israel from its post withdrew.


s: "Observe ye this tremendous foe, they cry'd,


s: "Who in proud vaunts our armies hath defy'd:


s: "Whoever lays him prostrate on the plain,


s: "Freedom in Israel for his house shall gain;


s: "And on him wealth unknown the king will pour,


s: "And give his royal daughter for his dow'r."


s: Then Jesse's youngest hope: "My brethren say,


s: "What shall be done for him who takes away


s: "Reproach from Jacob, who destroys the chief.


s: "And puts a period to his country's grief.


s: "He vaunts the honours of his arms abroad,


s: "And scorns the armies of the living God."


s: Thus spoke the youth, th' attentive people ey'd


s: "Such the rewards our monarch will bestow,


s: "On him who conquers, and destroys his foe."


s: To hear his shepherd brother thus inquire,


s: And thus begun: "What errand brought thee? say


s: "Who keeps thy flock? or does it go astray?


s: "I know the base ambition of thine heart,


s: "But back in safety from the field depart."


s: Express'd his wrath in accents most severe.


s: "What have I done? or what the cause to chide?


s: The words were told before the king, who sent


s: "For this Philistine fail no heart of man:


s: "I'll take the vale, and with the giant fight:


s: "I dread not all his boasts, nor all his might."


s: When thus the king: "Dar'st thou a stripling go,


s: "And venture combat with so great a foe?


s: "Who all his days has been inur'd to fight,


s: "And made its deeds his study and delight:


s: "Battles and bloodshed brought the monster forth,


s: "And clouds and whirlwinds usher'd in his birth."


s: When David thus: "I kept the fleecy care,


s: "And out there rush'd a lion and a bear;


s: "Bold I pursu'd, and chas d him o'er the field,


s: "The prey deliver'd, and the felon kill'd:


s: "So shall Goliath fall, and all his crew:


s: "The God, who sav'd me from these beasts of prey,


s: "By me this monster in the dust shall lay."


s: So David spoke.  The wond'ring king reply'd;


s: "Go thou with heav'n and victory on thy side:


s: "This coat of mail, this sword gird on," he said,


s: The coat, the sword, the helm he laid aside,


s: Nor chose to venture with those arms untry'd,


s: Then took his staff, and to the neighb'ring brook


s: Instant he ran, and thence five pebbles took.


s: "Goliath, well thou know'st thou hast defy'd


s: "Yon Hebrew armies, and their God deny'd:


s: "Rebellious wretch! audacious worm! forbear,


s: "Nor tempt the vengeance of their God too far:


s: "Them, who with his Omnipotence contend,


s: "Proud as thou art, in short liv'd glory great,


s: "I come to tell thee thine approaching fate.


s: "Regard my words.  The Judge of all the gods,


s: "Beneath whose steps the tow'ring mountain nods,


s: "Will give thine armies to the savage brood,


s: "That cut the liquid air, or range the wood.


s: "Thee too a well-aim'd pebble shall destroy,


s: "And thou shalt perish by a beardless boy:


s: "Such is the mandate from the realms above,


s: "And should I try the vengeance to remove,


s: "Goliath say, shall grace to him be shown,


s: "Who dares heav'ns Monarch, and insults his throne?"


s: "Your words are lost on me," the giant cries,


s: While fear and wrath contended in his eyes,


s: When thus the messenger from heav'n replies:


s: "To hurl its vengeance on thy guilty land:


s: "He grasps the thunder, and, he wings the storm,


s: "Servants their sov'reign's orders to perform."


s: The angel spoke, and turn'd his eyes away,


s: Now David comes: the fatal stones demand


s: His left, the staff engag'd his better hand:


s: The giant mov'd, and from his tow'ring height


s: Survey'd the stripling, and disdain'd the fight,


s: "Bring'st thou no armour, but a staff to me?


s: "The gods on thee their vollied curses pour,


s: "And beasts and birds of prey thy flesh devour."


s: David undaunted thus, "Thy spear and shield


s: "Jehovah's name------no other arms I bear,


s: "To-day the Lord of Hosts to me will give


s: "Vict'ry, to-day thy doom thou shalt receive;


s: "The fate you threaten shall your own become,


s: "And beasts shall be your animated tomb,


s: "That all the earth's inhabitants may know


s: "That there's a God, who governs all below:


s: "This great assembly too shall witness stand,


s: "That needs nor sword, nor spear, th' Almighty's


s: "The battle his, the conquest he bestows,


s: "And to our pow'r consigns our hated foes."


s: Thus David spoke; Goliath heard and came


s: Ah! fatal meeting to thy troops and thee,


s: But thou wast deaf to the divine decree;


s: Young David meets thee, meets thee not in vain;


s: 'Tis thine to perish on th' ensanguin'd plain.


s: And now the youth the forceful pebble slung


s: In his dread forehead, where the helmet ends,


s: Just o'er the brows the well-aim'd stone descends,


s: It pierc'd the skull, and shatter'd all the brain,


s: Prone on his face he tumbled to the plain:


s: The soul still ling'red in its lov'd abode,


s: Till conq'ring David o'er the giant strode:


s: Goliath's sword then laid its master dead,


s: And from the body hew'd the ghastly head;


s: The blood in gushing torrents drench'd the plains,


s: The soul found passage through the spouting veins.


s: And now aloud th' illustrious victor said,


s: "Where are your boastings now your champion's


s: Scarce had he spoke, when the Philistines fled:


s: But fled in vain; the conqu'ror swift pursu'd:


s: What scenes of slaughter! and what seas of blood!


s: There Saul thy thousands grasp'd th' impurpled sand


s: In pangs of death the conquest of thine hand;


s: And David there were thy ten thousands laid:


s: Breath'd out their souls, and curs'd the light of day:


s: Their fury, quench'd by death, no longer burns,


s: To Salem brought, but in his tent he plac'd


s: The load of armour which the giant grac'd.


s: His monarch saw him coming from the war,


s: "Say, who is this amazing youth?" he cry'd,


s: When thus the leader of the host reply'd;


s: "As lives thy soul I know not whence he sprung,


s: "So great in prowess though in years so young:"


s: "Inquire whose son is he," the sov'reign said,


s: "Before whose conq'ring arm Philistia fled."


s: Before the king behold the stripling stand,


s: To him the king: "Say of what martial line


s: "Art thou, young hero, and what sire was thine?"


s: "I came the glories of the field to try.


s: "Small is my tribe, but valiant in the fight;


s: "Small is my city, but thy royal right."


s: "Then take the promis'd gifts," the monarch cry'd,


s: "With me, nor quit my regal roof again."


s: A R I S E, my soul, on wings enraptur'd, rise


s: To praise the monarch of the earth and skies,


s: As round its centre moves the rolling year,


s: Or when the morning glows with rosy charms,


s: Or the sun slumbers in the ocean's arms:


s: Celestial muse, my arduous flight sustain


s: Which round the sun revolves this vast machine,


s: Though to his eye its mass a point appears:


s: Ador'd the God that whirls surrounding spheres,


s: Which first ordain'd that mighty Sol should reign


s: The peerless monarch of th' ethereal train:


s: Of miles twice forty millions is his height,


s: And yet his radiance dazzles mortal sight


s: So far beneath--from him th' extended earth


s: Vigour derives, and ev'ry flow'ry birth:


s: Vast through her orb she moves with easy grace


s: True to her course th' impetuous storm derides,


s: Triumphant o'er the winds, and surging tides.


s: Almighty, in these wond'rous works of thine,


s: What Pow'r, what Wisdom, and what Goodness shine!


s: And are thy wonders, Lord, by men explor'd,


s: While day to night, and night succeeds to day:


s: That Wisdom, which attends Jehovah's ways,


s: Shines most conspicuous in the solar rays:


s: Without them, destitute of heat and light,


s: This world would be the reign of endless night:


s: In their excess how would our race complain,


s: Abhorring life! how hate its length'ned chain!


s: From air adust what num'rous ills would rise?


s: What dire contagion taint the burning skies?


s: What pestilential vapours, fraught with death,


s: Would rise, and overspread the lands beneath?


s: Hail, smiling morn, that from the orient main


s: Ascending dost adorn the heav'nly plain!


s: So rich, so various are thy beauteous dies,


s: That spread through all the circuit of the skies,


s: That, full of thee, my soul in rapture soars,


s: And thy great God, the cause of all adores.


s: His Wisdom rules them, and his Pow'r defends.


s: When tasks diurnal tire the human frame,


s: The spirits faint, and dim the vital flame,


s: Then too that ever active bounty shines,


s: The sable veil, that Night in silence draws,


s: Conceals effects, but shows th' Almighty Cause,


s: Night seals in sleep the wide creation fair,


s: And all is peaceful but the brow of care.


s: Wakes ev'ry eye, but what shall wake no more;


s: Which still appears harmonious, fair, and good.


s: May grateful strains salute the smiling morn,


s: Before its beams the eastern hills adorn!


s: Shall day to day, and night to night conspire


s: To show the goodness of the Almighty Sire?


s: This mental voice shall man regardless hear,


s: And never, never raise the filial pray'r?


s: For time mispent, that never will return.


s: And spread their leafy banners to the skies.


s: In trees, and plants, and all the flow'ry race;


s: The pow'r the same that forms a ray of light,


s: That call d creation from eternal night.


s: "Let there be light," he said: from his profound


s: Old Chaos heard, and trembled at the sound:


s: Swift as the word, inspir'd by pow'r divine,


s: Behold the light around its Maker shine,


s: The first fair product of th' omnific God,


s: And now through all his works diffus'd abroad.


s: As reason's pow'rs by day our God disclose,


s: So we may trace him in the night's repose:


s: Say what is sleep? and dreams how passing strange!


s: Licentious and unbounded o'er the plains,


s: Where Fancy's queen in giddy triumph reigns.


s: Hear in soft strains the dreaming lover sigh


s: On pleasure now, and now on vengeance bent,


s: The lab'ring passions struggle for a vent.


s: What pow'r, O man! thy reason then restores,


s: What secret hand returns the mental train,


s: And gives improv'd thine active pow'rs again?


s: From thee, O man, what gratitude should rise!


s: And, when from balmy sleep thou op'st thine eyes,


s: Let thy first thoughts be praises to the skies.


s: O'erflowing tides of joy to human hearts,


s: When wants and woes might be our righteous lot,


s: Among the mental pow'rs a question rose,


s: "What most the image of th' Eternal shows?"


s: Her great companion spoke immortal Love.


s: "Say, mighty pow'r, how long shall strife prevail,


s: "And with its murmurs load the whisp'ring gale?


s: "Refer the cause to Recollection's shrine,


s: "The cause whence heav'n and earth began to be,


s: "Reason let this most causeless strife subside."


s: Thus Love pronounc'd, and Reason thus reply'd.


s: "Thy birth, coelestial queen! 'tis mine to own,


s: "In thee resplendent is the Godhead shown;


s: "Thy words persuade, my soul enraptur'd feels


s: "Resistless beauty which thy smile reveals."


s: Ardent she spoke, and, kindling at her charms,


s: She clasp'd the blooming goddess in her arms.


s: Appears: this ev'ry creature's wants supplies;


s: This most is heard in Nature's constant voice,


s: This makes the morn, and this the eve rejoice;


s: This bids the fost'ring rains and dews descend


s: To nourish all, to serve one gen'ral end,


s: The good of man: yet man ungrateful pays


s: But little homage, and but little praise.


s: To him, whose works arry'd with mercy shine,


s: What songs should rise, how constant, how divine!


s: To a Lady on the Death of three Relations.


s: WE trace the pow'r of Death from tomb to tomb,


s: 'Tis his to call the planets from on high,


s: To blacken Phoebus, and dissolve the sky;


s: His too, when all in his dark realms are hurl'd,


s: From its firm base to shake the solid world;


s: His fatal sceptre rules the spacious whole,


s: And trembling nature rocks from pole to pole.


s: Awful he moves, and wide his wings are spread:


s: Behold thy brother number'd with the dead!


s: From bondage freed, the exulting spirit flies


s: Lost in our woe for thee, blest shade, we mourn


s: In vain; to earth thou never must return.


s: Thy sisters too, fair mourner, feel the dart


s: Of Death, and with fresh torture rend thine heart.


s: Weep not for them, and leave the world behind.


s: So near its parent lies the newly born--


s: But 'midst the bright ehtereal train behold


s: Then, mourner, cease; let hope thy tears restrain,


s: Smile on the tomb, and sooth the raging pain.


s: On yon blest regions fix thy longing view,


s: Ascend the sacred mount, in thought arise,


s: Where hope receives, where faith to vision springs,


s: And raptur'd seraphs tune th' immortal strings


s: To strains extatic.  Thou the chorus join,


s: And to thy father tune the praise divine.


s: WHERE contemplation finds her sacred spring,


s: Where heav'nly music makes the arches ring,


s: Where virtue reigns unsully'd and divine,


s: Where wisdom thron'd, and all the graces shine,


s: There sits thy spouse amidst the radiant throng,


s: While praise eternal warbles from her tongue;


s: There choirs angelic shout her welcome round,


s: With perfect bliss, and peerless glory crown'd.


s: While thy dear mate, to flesh no more confin'd,


s: Exults a blest, an heav'n-ascended mind,


s: Say in thy breast shall floods of sorrow rise?


s: Say shall its torrents overwhelm thine eyes?


s: Amid the seats of heav'n a place is free,


s: And angels open their bright ranks for thee;


s: For thee they wait, and with expectant eye


s: Thy spouse leans downward from th' empyreal sky:


s: "O come away," her longing spirit cries,


s: "And share with me the raptures of the skies.


s: "Our bliss divine to mortals is unknown;


s: "There too may the dear pledges of our love


s: "Arrive, and taste with us the joys above;


s: "Attune the harp to more than mortal lays,


s: "And join with us the tribute of their praise


s: "To him, who dy'd stern justice to stone,


s: "He in his death slew ours, and, as he rose,


s: "He crush'd the dire dominion of our foes;


s: "Vain were their hopes to put the God to flight,


s: "Chain us to hell, and bar the gates of light."


s: She spoke, and turn'd from mortal scenes her eyes,


s: Which beam'd celestial radiance o'er the skies.


s: Then thou dear man, no more with grief retire,


s: Let grief no longer damp devotion's fire,


s: But rise sublime, to equal bliss aspire,


s: Thy sighs no more be wafted by the wind,


s: No more complain, but be to heav'n resign'd


s: 'Twas thine t' unfold the oracles divine,


s: To sooth our woes the task was also thine;


s: Who can to thee their tend'rest aid refuse?


s: To dry thy tears how longs the heav'nly muse!


s: Assist my labours, and my strains refine;


s: In smoothest numbers pour the notes along,


s: Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:


s: The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,


s: Harmonious lays the feather'd race resume,


s: Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.


s: Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display


s: To shield your poet from the burning day:


s: While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire:


s: The bow'rs, the gales, the variegated skies


s: In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.


s: See in the east th' illustrious king of day!


s: His rising radiance drives the shades away--


s: But Oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong,


s: And scarce begun, concludes th' abortive song.


s: SOON as the sun forsook the eastern main


s: The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;


s: Majestic grandeur!  From the zephyr's wing,


s: Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.


s: Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,


s: And through the air their mingled music floats.


s: Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are spread!


s: But the west glories in the deepest red:


s: So may our breasts with ev'ry virtue glow,


s: Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light,


s: And draws the sable curtains of the night,


s: Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,


s: At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd;


s: More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.


s: Night's leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes,


s: Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora rise.


s: SAY, heav'nly muse, what king or mighty God,


s: In Bosrah's dies, with martial glories join'd,


s: Compres'd in wrath the swelling wine-press groan'd,


s: It bled, and pour'd the gushing purple round.


s: "Mine was the act," th' Almighty Saviour said,


s: And shook the dazzling glories of his head,


s: "When all forsook I trod the press alone,


s: "For man's release sustain'd the pond'rous load,


s: "My soul I sacrific'd with willing hand;


s: "Sinless I stood before the avenging frown,


s: Survey'd, but no created succours found;


s: His own omnipotence sustain'd the right,


s: His vengeance sunk the haughty foes in night;


s: Beneath his feet the prostrate troops were spread,


s: And round him lay the dying, and the dead.


s: Great God, what light'ning flashes from thine eyes?


s: What pow'r withstands if thou indignant rise?


s: Against thy Zion though her foes may rage,


s: And all their cunning, all their strength engage,


s: Smiles at their arts, and all their force defies.


s: Your vent'rous Afric in her great design.


s: Mneme, immortal pow'r, I trace thy spring:


s: Assist my strains, while I thy glories sing:


s: The acts of long departed years, by thee


s: Thy pow'r the long-forgotten calls from night,


s: That sweetly plays before the fancy's sight.


s: The ample treasure of her secret stores;


s: Swift from above the wings her silent flight


s: Through Phoebe's realms, fair regent of the night;


s: To the high-raptur'd poet gives her aid,


s: Through the unbounded regions of the mind,


s: The heav'nly phantom paints the actions done


s: Mneme, enthron'd within the human breast,


s: Has vice condemn'd, and ev'ry virtue blest.


s: How sweet the sound when we her plaudit hear?


s: Sweeter than Maro's entertaining strains


s: Resounding through the groves, and hills, and plains.


s: Who scorn her warnings and despise her grace?


s: By her unveil'd each horrid crime appears,


s: Days, years mispent, O what a hell of woe!


s: Hers the worst tortures that our souls can know.


s: Now eighteen years their destin'd course have run,


s: In fast succession round the central sun.


s: Unnotic'd, but behold them writ in brass!


s: And sure 'tis mine to be asham'd, and mourn.


s: Do thou exert thy pow'r, and change the scene;


s: Be thine employ to guide my future days,


s: And mine to pay the tribute of my praise.


s: Of Recollection such the pow'r enthron'd


s: In ev'ry breast, and thus her pow'r is own'd.


s: The wretch, who dar'd the vengeance of the skies,


s: He howls in anguish, and repents too late.


s: But O! what peace, what joys are hers t' impart


s: Thrice blest the man, who, in her sacred shrine,


s: Feels himself shelter'd from the wrath divine!


s: THY various works, imperial queen, we see,


s: How bright their forms! how deck'd with pomp


s: Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,


s: And all attest how potent is thine hand.


s: From Helicon's refulgent heights attend,


s: Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:


s: To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,


s: Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,


s: Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes,


s: Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,


s: Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?


s: Soaring through air to find the bright abode,


s: Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,


s: From star to star the mental optics rove,


s: Measure the skies, and range the realms above.


s: There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,


s: Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.


s: Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyes


s: The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;


s: The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,


s: And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.


s: Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,


s: And with her flow'ry riches deck the plain;


s: And all the forest may with leaves be crown'd:


s: Show'rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,


s: And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.


s: Such is thy pow'r, nor are thine orders vain,


s: In full perfection all thy works are wrought,


s: And thine the sceptre o'er the realms of thought.


s: Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,


s: Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler thou;


s: And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.


s: To rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high:


s: From Tithon's bed now might Aurora rise,


s: Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies,


s: While a pure stream of light o'erflows the skies.


s: And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,


s: But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,


s: Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;


s: And northern tempests damp the rising fire;


s: They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea,


s: Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.


s: THROUGH airy roads he wings his instant flight


s: Enlarg'd he sees unnumber'd systems roll,


s: Planets on planets run their destin'd round,


s: And circling wonders fill the vast profound.


s: Th' ethereal now, and now th' empyreal skies


s: With growing splendors strike his wond'ring eyes:


s: The angels view him with delight unknown,


s: Press his soft hand, and seat him on his throne;


s: Then smilling thus: "To this divine abode,


s: "The seat of saints, of seraphs, and of God,


s: "Thrice welcome thou."  The raptur'd babe replies,


s: "Thanks to my God, who snatch'd me to the skies,


s: "E'er vice triumphant had possess'd my heart,


s: "E'er yet the tempter had beguil d my heart,


s: "E'er yet on sin's base actions I was bent,


s: "E'er yet I knew temptation's dire intent;


s: "E'er yet the lash for horrid crimes I felt,


s: "But, soon arriv'd at my celestial goal,


s: "Full glories rush on my expanding soul."


s: Clapt their glad wings, the heav'nly vaults resound.


s: Why heave your pensive bosoms with the groan?


s: To Charles, the happy subject of my song,


s: A brighter world, and nobler strains belong.


s: Say would you tear him from the realms above


s: By thoughtless wishes, and prepost'rous love?


s: Or could you welcome to this world again


s: Methinks he answers with a smile severe,


s: "Thrones and dominions cannot tempt me there."


s: But still you cry, "Can we the sigh borbear,


s: "And still and still must we not pour the tear?


s: "Our only hope, more dear than vital breath,


s: "Twelve moons revolv'd, becomes the prey of death;


s: "Delightful infant, nightly visions give


s: "Thee to our arms, and we with joy receive,


s: "We fain would clasp the Phantom to our breast,


s: "The Phantom flies, and leaves the soul unblest."


s: To yon bright regions let your faith ascend,


s: Prepare to join your dearest infant friend


s: In pleasures without measure, without end.


s: To Captain H-----D, of the 65th Regiment.


s: SAY, muse divine, can hostile scenes delight


s: The warrior's bosom in the fields of fight?


s: Lo! here the christian and the hero join


s: With mutual grace to form the man divine.


s: In H-----D see with pleasure and surprise,


s: Where valour kindles, and where virtue lies:


s: Go, hero brave, still grace the post of fame,


s: And add new glories to thine honour'd name,


s: Still to the field, and still to virtue true:


s: HAIL, happy day, when, smiling like the morn,


s: The northern clime beneath her genial ray,


s: Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful sway:


s: Elate with hope her race no longer mourns,


s: Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns,


s: While in thine hand with pleasure we behold


s: The silken reins, and Freedom's charms unfold.


s: Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies


s: She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:


s: Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd,


s: Sick at the view, she languish'd and expir'd;


s: Thus from the splendors of the morning light


s: The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.


s: Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,


s: No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,


s: Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land.


s: Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,


s: Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,


s: Whence flow these wishes for the common good,


s: By feeling hearts alone best understood,


s: Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:


s: What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?


s: Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd


s: That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:


s: Such, such my case.  And can I then but pray


s: For favours past, great Sir, our thanks are due,


s: Since in thy pow'r, as in thy will before,


s: To sooth the griefs, which thou did'st once deplore.


s: May heav'nly grace the sacred sanction give


s: To all thy works, and thou for ever live


s: Though praise immortal crowns the patriot's name,


s: But to conduct to heav'ns refulgent fane,


s: May fiery coursers sweep th' ethereal plain,


s: And bear thee upwards to that blest abode,


s: Where, like the prophet, thou shalt find thy God.


s: Nor let thy brow contracted frowns betray,


s: Pleas'd with their notes Sol sheds benign his ray,


s: And double radiance decks the face of day.


s: Thy promise, Neptune keep, record my pray'r,


s: To a LADY on her coming to North-America


s: with her Son, for the Recovery of her Health.


s: INDULGENT muse! my grov'ling mind inspire,


s: See from Jamaica's fervid shore she moves,


s: Like the fair mother of the blooming loves,


s: When from above the Goddess with her hand


s: Fans the soft breeze, and lights upon the land;


s: Thus she on Neptune's wat'ry realm reclin'd


s: Appear'd, and thus invites the ling'ring wind.


s: "Waft me, ye gales, from this malignant shore;


s: "The Northern milder climes I long to greet,


s: "There hope that health will my arrival meet."


s: The winds assented, and the vessel flew.


s: Madam, your spouse bereft of wife and son,


s: In the grove's dark recesses pours his moan;


s: Each branch, wide-spreading to the ambient sky,


s: Forgets its verdure, and submits to die.


s: From thence I turn, and leave the sultry plain,


s: And swift pursue thy passage o'er the main:


s: The ship arrives before the fav'ring wind,


s: And makes the Philadelphian port assign'd,


s: Where gen'rous friendship ev'ry bosom warms:


s: Thrice welcome here! may health revive again,


s: Bloom on thy cheek, and bound in ev'ry vein!


s: Then back return to gladden ev'ry heart,


s: And give your spouse his soul's far dearer part,


s: Receiv'd again with what a sweet surprise,


s: The tear in transport starting from his eyes!


s: While his attendant son with blooming grace


s: Springs to his father's ever dear embrace.


s: With shouts of joy Jamaica's rocks resound,


s: With shouts of joy the country rings around.


s: To a LADY on her remarkable Preservation


s: THOUGH thou did'st hear the tempest from afar,


s: And felt'st the horrors of the wat'ry war,


s: To me unknown, yet on this peaceful shore


s: Methinks I hear the storm tumultuous roar,


s: And how stern Boreas with impetuous hand


s: Compell'd the Nereids to usurp the land.


s: Reluctant rose the daughters of the main,


s: And slow ascending glided o'er the plain,


s: In gloomy grandeur from the vault above:


s: Their frantic sire, and madden all the sea.


s: The billows rave, the wind's fierce tyrant roars,


s: And with his thund'ring terrors shakes the shores:


s: Broken by waves the vessel's frame is rent,


s: And strows with planks the wat'ry element.


s: Preserv'd from sinking, and thy form upheld:


s: At that dread crisis to instruct thy mind


s: And to thine heart just feelings to convey


s: Of things above, and of the future doom,


s: And what the births of the dread world to come.


s: From tossing seas I welcome thee to land.


s: "Resign her, Nereid," 'twas thy God's command.


s: Thy spouse late buried, as thy fears conceiv'd,


s: Again returns, thy fears are all reliev'd:


s: Thy daughter blooming with superior grace


s: Again thou see'st, again thine arms embrace;


s: O come, and joyful show thy spouse his heir,


s: And what the blessings of maternal care!


s: To a LADY and her Children, on the Death


s: O'ERWHELMING sorrow now demands my song:


s: From death the overwhelming sorrow sprung.


s: What flowing tears?  What hearts with grief opprest?


s: What sighs on sighs heave the fond parent's breast?


s: The brother weeps, the hapless sisters join


s: Th' increasing woe, and swell the crystal brine;


s: The poor, who once his gen'rous bounty fed,


s: Droop, and bewail their benefactor dead.


s: In death the friend, the kind companion lies,


s: And in one death what various comfort dies!


s: Th' unhappy mother sees the sanguine rill


s: Forget to flow, and nature's wheels stand still,


s: But see from earth his spirit far remov'd,


s: And know no grief recals your best-belov'd:


s: For joys to this terrestial state unknown,


s: And glories richer than the monarch's crown.


s: Of virtue's steady course the prize behold!


s: What blissful wonders to his mind unfold!


s: Attempt not, muse, the too advent'rous strain.


s: No more in briny show'rs, ye friends around,


s: Or bathe his clay, or waste them on the ground:


s: Still do you weep, still wish for his return?


s: How cruel thus to wish, and thus to mourn?


s: No more for him the streams of sorrow pour,


s: But haste to join him on the heav'nly shore,


s: Child of the Name of Avis, aged one Year.


s: With pensive mind I search the drear abode,


s: Where the great conqu'ror has his spoils bestow'd;


s: There there the offspring of six thousand years


s: Whole kingdoms in his gloomy den are thrust,


s: And nations mix with their primeval dust:


s: Insatiate still he gluts the ample tomb;


s: His is the present, his the age to come.


s: See here a brother, here a sister spread,


s: And a sweet daughter mingled with the dead.


s: But, Madam, let your grief be laid aside,


s: And let the fountain of your tears be dry'd,


s: In vain they flow to wet the dusty plain,


s: Your sighs are wafted to the skies in vain,


s: Your pains they witness, but they can no more,


s: While Death reigns tyrant o'er this mortal shore.


s: The glowing stars and silver queen of light


s: At last must perish in the gloom of night:


s: Resign thy friends to that Almighty hand,


s: Which gave them life, and bow to his command;


s: Thine Avis give without a murm'ring heart,


s: Though half thy soul be fated to depart.


s: To shining guards consign thine infant care


s: To waft triumphant through the seas of air:


s: Her soul enlarg'd to heav'nly pleasure springs,


s: She feeds on truth and uncreated things.


s: Methinks I hear her in the realms above,


s: Invite you there to share immortal bliss


s: With tow'ring hopes, and growing grace arise,


s: On the Death of Dr. SAMUEL MARSHALL.  1771.


s: THROUGH thickest glooms look back, immortal shade,


s: On that confusion which thy death has made:


s: Or from Olympus' height look down, and see


s: A Town involv'd in grief bereft of thee.


s: Thy Lucy sees thee mingle with the dead,


s: And rends the graceful tresses from her head,


s: Wild in her woe, with grief unknown opprest


s: Sigh follows sigh deep heaving from her breast.


s: Too quickly fled, ah! whither art thou gone?


s: The hapless child, thine only hope and heir,


s: Clings round his mother's neck, and weeps his sorrows there.


s: The loss of thee on Tyler's soul returns,


s: And Boston for her dear physician mourns.


s: When sickness call'd for Marshall's healing hand,


s: With what compassion did his soul expand?


s: In him we found the father and the friend:


s: In life how lov'd! how honour'd in his end!


s: The babe unborn in the dark womb is tost,


s: And seems in anguish for its father lost.


s: But leaves the sweet memorials of his worth:


s: From yonder world unseen must come no more,


s: Yet 'midst our woes immortal hopes attend


s: The spouse, the sire, the universal friend.


s: To a GENTLEMAN on his Voyage to Great-Britain


s: WHILE others chant of gay Elysian scenes,


s: Of balmy zephyrs, and of flow'ry plains,


s: My song more happy speaks a greater name,


s: Feels higher motives and a nobler flame.


s: For thee, O R-----, the muse attunes her strings,


s: And mounts sublime above inferior things.


s: I sing not now of green embow'ring woods,


s: I sing not now the daughters of the floods,


s: I sing not of the storms o'er ocean driv'n,


s: And how they howl'd along the waste of heav'n.


s: But I to R----- would paint the British shore,


s: Thy life impair'd commands thee to arise,


s: Leave these bleak regions and inclement skies,


s: Where chilling winds return the winter past,


s: And nature shudders at the furious blast.


s: If ere thy pow'r prolong'd the fleeting breath,


s: Turn'd back the shafts, and mock'd the gates of death,


s: If ere thine air dispens'd an healing pow'r,


s: Or snatch'd the victim from the fatal hour,


s: This equal case demands thine equal care,


s: And equal wonders may this patient share.


s: To hope thine aid without the aid of him


s: Who gave thee birth and taught thee where to flow,


s: And in thy waves his various blessings show.


s: May R----- return to view his native shore


s: Then shall we see with pleasure and surprise,


s: And own thy work, great Ruler of the skies!


s: Thus while you strive to mend the human heart,


s: Thus while the heav'nly precepts you impart,


s: And youthful minds to Virtue's throne aspire!


s: When God's eternal ways you set in sight,


s: And Virtue shines in all her native light,


s: In vain would Vice her works in night conceal,


s: For Wisdom's eye pervades the sable veil.


s: Artists may paint the sun's effulgent rays,


s: But Amory's pen the brighter God displays:


s: While his great works in Amory's pages shine,


s: And while he proves his essence all divine,


s: The Atheist sure no more can boast aloud


s: Of chance, or nature, and exclude the God;


s: Should rise in various forms, and shapes self-made,


s: Or worlds above with orb o'er orb profound


s: Self-mov'd could run the everlasting round.