Wild forest trees the mountain sides array'd
With curling foliage and romantic shade:
Here spreads the poplar, to Alcides dear;
And dear to Phoebus, ever verdant here,
The laurel joins the bowers for ever green,
The myrtle bowers beloved of beauty's queen.
To Jove the oak his wide-spread branches rears;
And high to heaven the fragrant cedar bears;
Where through the glades appear the cavern'd
rocks,

The lofty pine-tree waves her sable locks;
Sacred to Cybele the whispering pine

Loves the wild grottoes where the white cliffs shine;
Here towers the cypress, preacher to the wise,
Lessening from earth her spiral honours rise,
Till, as a spear-point rear'd, the topmost spray
Points to the Eden of eternal day.

Here round her fostering elm the smiling vine
In fond embraces gives her arms to twine;
The numerous clusters pendent from the boughs,
The green here glistens, here the purple glows:
For here the genial Seasons of the year
Danced hand in hand, no place for Winter here;
His grisly visage from the shore expell'd,
United sway the smiling Seasons held.
Around the swelling fruits of deepening red,
Their snowy hues the fragrant blossoms spread;
Between the bursting buds of lucid green
The apple's ripe vermilion blush is seen;
For here each gift Pomona's hand bestows
In cultured garden, free, uncultured flows,
The flavour sweeter, and the hue more fair,
Than e'er was foster'd by the hand of care.
The cherry here in shining crimson glows;
And stain'd with lover's blood, in pendent rows,

The bending boughs the mulberries o'erload;
The bending boughs caress'd by Zephyr nod.
The generous peach, that strengthens in exile
Far from his native earth, the Persian soil,
The velvet peach of softest glossy blue,
Hangs by the pomegranate of orange hue,
Whose open heart a brighter red displays
Than that which sparkles in the ruby's blaze.
Here, trembling with their weight, the branches
Delicious as profuse, the tapering pear. [bear,
For thee, fair fruit, the songsters of the grove
With hungry bills from bower to arbour rove.
Ah, if ambitious thou wilt own the care
To grace the feast of heroes and the fair,
Soft let the leaves with grateful umbrage hide
The green-tinged orange of thy mellow side.
A thousand flowers of gold, of white and red,
Far o'er the shadowy vale their carpets spread,
Of fairer tapestry, and of richer bloom,
Than ever glow'd in Persia's boasted loom :
As glittering rainbows o'er the verdure thrown,
O'er every woodland walk the' embroidery shone.
Here o'er the watery mirror's lucid bed
Narcissus, self-enamour'd, hangs the head;
And here, bedew'd with love's celestial tears,
The woe-mark'd flower of slain Adonis rears
Its purple head, prophetic of the reign
When lost Adonis shall revive again.

At strife appear the lawns and purpled skies,
Which from each other stole the beauteous dyes.
The lawn in all Aurora's lustre glows,
Aurora steals the blushes of the rose,
The rose displays the blushes that adorn
The spotless virgin on the nuptial morn.

Zephyr and Flora emulous conspire
To breathe their graces o'er the field's attire ;
The one gives healthful freshness, one the hue,
Fairer than e'er creative pencil drew.
Pale as the lovesick hopeless maid they dye
The modest violet; from the curious eye
The modest violet turns her gentle head,
And by the thorn weeps o'er her lowly bed;
Bending beneath the tears of pearly dawn
The snow-white lily glitters o'er the lawn;
Lo, from the bough reclines the damask rose,
And o'er the lily's milk-white bosom glows;
Fresh in the dew far o'er the painted dales,
Each fragrant herb her sweetest scent exhales;
The hyacinth bewrays the doleful Ai,
And calls the tribute of Apollo's sigh;

Still on its bloom the mournful flower retains
The lovely blue that dyed the stripling's veins.
Pomona fired with rival envy views

The glaring pride of Flora's darling hues;
Where Flora bids the purple iris spread,

She hangs the wilding's blossom white and red;
Where wild thyme purples, where the daisy snows
The curving slopes, the melon's pride she throws;
Where by the stream the lily of the vale,
Primrose, and cowslip meek, perfume the gale,
Beneath the lily and the cowslip's bell
The scarlet strawberries luxuriant swell.
Nor these alone the teeming Eden yields,
Each harmless bestial crops the flowery fields;
And birds of every note and every wing
Their loves responsive through the branches sing;
In sweet vibration thrilling o'er the skies,
High-poised in air the lark his warbling tries;

The swan slow sailing o'er the crystal lake
Tunes his melodious note; from every brake
The glowing strain the nightingale returns,
And in the bowers of love the turtle mourns.
Pleased to behold his branching horns appear,
O'er the bright fountain bends the fearless deer;
The hare starts trembling from the bushy shade,
And, swiftly circling, crosses oft the glade.
Where from the rocks the bubbling founts distill,
The milkwhite lambs come bleating down the hill;
The dappled heifer seeks the vales below,
And from the thicket springs the bounding doe.
To his loved nest, on fondly fluttering wings,
In chirping bill the little songster brings

The food untasted; transport thrills his breast;
'Tis nature's touch; 'tis instinct's heavenlike feast.
Thus bower and lawn were deck'd with Eden's

flowers,

And song and joy imparadised the bowers.

ODE.

MICKLE.

FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF CAMOENS.

EVER gliding to the sea

Flow the waters fair and free

Of clear Mondego tranquil through the plain :

Anxious thoughts and growing care

Bound my youthful bosom there,

And slowly fixed their ever during reign.

Along the pleasant margin green,
Where now I mourn the alter'd scene,
First did my eyes a nymph behold
Brighter than snow, and pure as gold;

Sweet smiles serene, and grace so well display'd,
That from my heart its form will never fade.

In this country, deck'd with flowers,
Blithely roll'd my peaceful hours,

In calm contentment, unalloy'd with sighs:
Then I gloried in my cares;

Rapture sweeten'd even the tears

Drawn by the beam of those love-darting eyes.
Time flowed, nor I its lapse perceived,
Long by delusive hope deceived;

I sported in life's cheerful ray,

And dream'd of bliss from day to day.
What now avail those joys too quickly flown!
Those eyes that with unrival'd lustre shone!

Who could then have bade me deem
Time would break our pleasant dream,
And the deep spell of love at once divide!
Or that in this world forlorn

I from thee should e'er be torn,

From thee, dear lady, from my bosom's pride! At that dark hour fate's adverse strife

For ever closed my scene of life;

All hope in one sad moment flown,

Vain thoughts of bliss for ever gone;

And nothing left, save memory of joy,

Which ne'er will quit me, but at length destroy.

Still beneath this weight of woe

Some fond thoughts of comfort grow,

Some cheering rays amid the darkness shine :

While in happier hours of youth

Love approved our constant truth,

[mine;

Thy soul was calm, thy breast ne'er glow'd like