Mountains, on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest; Meadows trim with daisies pied, Shallow brooks and rivers wide: Towers and battlements it sees Bosomed high in tufted trees, Where perhaps some beauty lies, The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes. Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes From betwixt two aged oaks, Where Corydon and Thyrsis, met, Are at their savoury dinner set, Of herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses; And then in haste her bower she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or, if the earlier season lead
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat, To earn his cream-bowl duly set, When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn That ten day-labourers could not end; Then lies him down the lubber fiend,
And stretched out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And crop-full out of doors he flings, Ere the first cock his matin rings. Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. Towerèd cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men ;
Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of Peace, high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit, or arms, while both contend To win her grace, whom all commend. There let Hymen oft appear
In saffron robe, with taper clear, And Pomp, and Feast, and Revelry, With Mask, and antique Pageantry;— Such sights as youthful poets dream, On summer eves by haunted stream. Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on;
Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood notes wild.
And ever, against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal Verse;
Such as the meeting soul may pierce,
In notes, with many a winding bout
Such strains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite set free
His half regained Eurydice.— 'These delights, if thou canst give, Mirth with thee I mean to live.
HENCE vain deluding Joys!
The brood of Folly without father bred; How little you bestead,
Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! Dwell in some idle brain,
And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless
As the gay motes that people the sun-beams; Or likest hovering dreams
The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train, But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy,
Hail divinest Melancholy!
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight,
And therefore, to our weaker view,
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;- Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove
To set her beauty's praise above
The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended:
Come, pensive Nun! devout and pure, Sober, steadfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain, Flowing with majestic train, And sable stole of cypress lawn, Over thy decent shoulders drawn. Come! but keep thy wonted state With even step, and musing gait, And looks commércing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: There, held in holy passion still, Forget thyself to marble, till,
With a sad leaden downward cast,
Thou fix them on the earth as fast:
And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet, Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet, And hear the Muses in a ring
Aye round about Jove's altar sing: And add to these retirèd Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure: But first, and chiefest, with thee bring, Him that yon soars on golden wing, Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, The Cherub Contemplation; And the mute silence hist along, 'Less Philomel will deign a song, In her sweetest, saddest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,
And oft, as if her head she bowed, Stooping through a fleecy cloud. Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound, Over some wide-watered shore, Swinging slow with sullen roar; Or, if the air will not permit, Some still removed place will fit,
Where glowing embers, through the room,
Teach Light to counterfeit a gloom, Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly harm: Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, Be seen in some high lonely tower, Where I may oft out-watch the Bear, With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds, or what vast regions hold The mortal mind, that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook: And of those Demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or under ground, Whose power hath a true consent With planet, or with element. Some time let gorgeous Tragedy In sceptred pall come sweeping by, Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, Or the tale of Troy divine; Or what (though rare) of later age Ennobled hath the buskined stage.
But, oh! sad Virgin, that thy power Might raise Musæus from his bower! Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes, as, warbled to the string,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
And made Hell grant what Love did seek! Or call up him that left half-told,
The story of Cambuscan bold,
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