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SOLITUDE:

OR,

The ELYSIUM of the POETS..

OME from the climes of light, celestial Maid!

CON

Thou whofe gay vifions bless my nightly dream: Lo! what bright scenes fair opening claim thine aid, How Fancy glows o'er each tranfporting theme!

Not now to fing of God's eternal ways *,

I fweep the fwelling lyre's melodious strings: More fweetly varying flow th' inspiring lays :

Grant melting notes, and ftrong yet temperate wings,

To tell what bards have blefs'd Britannia's clime,
Each beaming mild like Eve's refulgent star,
The Mufe attempts; to paint her race fublime
In fong-unequall'd, as unmatch'd in war.

* The Subje& of Providence, a Poem. See Book I. ab init.

What time the Queen of Silence, and of Night,
Steals meekly penfive from Endymion's bower,
Illumes the broider'd lawn with filver light,

Or hears the lone owl on fome blafted tower,

Mufing I roved, and mark'd the folemn scene.

No cloud obfcured th' unbounded arch above; Hufh'd was each murmur o'er the still ferene,

And calm the warblers of the vocal

All but the wakeful Philomel.—Alone

grove:

She fat; and wailing from th' aereal bough Mellifluous, pour'd her deeply plaintive moan, The moan that thrills the dying ear of Woe.

Far in a dark wood's folitary maze,

Where the pine trembled o'er the murmuring rill, Led foft, my rapt eye mark'd the streamy rays, That glimmering tinged the wild o'er-arching hill.

At laft, where Nature form'd a mossy seat

I stay'd, and eager drunk th' inchanting found:
Calm Silence, hovering o'er the deep retreat,
Lull'd to the plaint the folemn waste around.

Then

Then trilling ceafed the dying note.Awhile
The ftrain ftill languish'd on the listening ear;
Till Fancy kindling, with benignant fmile

Waked her wild harp, and call'd the woods to hear.

"O YE, whom Nature's genial charms inspire, (Thus spoke the Goddess of the thought fublime) "Who nobly ardent feel diviner fire,

"Whose hope o'erfhoots the lingering flight of Time!

"Ye noble Few! whom not the fplendid pride "Of wealth allures, nor Grandeur's tinfell'd plume; "Whofe hearts to bleeding fympathy allied, "Can melt o'er Virtue's unlamented tomb :

"Ye, who thro' Modefty's involving veil
"Can mark the features of a godlike mind,
"Snatch Genius pining from the cottaged dale,
"Or feeling wake to tranfports all refined:

"O come! escaped from Folly's bustling train :
"Not these have eyed bright Fancy's genial ray,
"Nor felt sweet transport in each throbbing vein,
" Nor died deep-pierced to Love's diffolving lay.

"Th'

"Th' ingenuous blush that speaks the foul fincere,
"The living ardour of the mind's keen eye,
" On Pity's cheek the flow-defcending tear,
"And stealing from the heart the tender figh,

" "Tis mine to give. Though from the ftarry throne, "Whence Power high-raised the rolling world furveys, "Stoops not her ear to Woe's unheeded moan, " Nor Genius basks in her enlivening rays;

"Yet, where wild Solitude's refounding dome
"Lies deep and filent in the woodland fhade,
"Sweet Peace with devious step delights to roam,
"And foft-reclining refts her gentle head.

"And Thou, whofe feet to this deserted bower
"Have stray'd; if mild Benevolence is thine,
(To me thus fmiling spoke the heavenly power)
"If warm thou bow'ft at Virtue's facred fhrine;

"If thy thrill'd heart with sympathetic woe "Hath bled (for man is destined to endure ;) "If others anguish bade thine eyes o'erflow, "If prone to feel the grief thou can'st not cure;

"With me retire. Lo! to the clime remote

"I lead, where yet to human step unknown, "The power who lifts to God th' afpiring thought, Rapt Solitude hath rear'd her folemn throne.

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"What scenes shall then thy wondering fight behold! "Yet know that toils, that perils go before: "The firm of mind, the refolute, the bold,

"Brave the rude storm, and reach th' appointed shore."

She spoke. Her airy wings expanded wide,
The wan ray trembling on the filver plume,
Shot where a hollow rock's high-arching fide
Stood lone and filent as the defert tomb.

There fullen Darkness fix'd her dire abode :
Black clouds involving wrapt her gloomy cell :

While as her flow hand waved a Stygian rod,
Wail'd thro' th' impervious gulph the fiends of hell.

There pined pale Envy in the cavern dun,

There Time deep-furrowing plough'd the front of Care; Despair with curfes eyed the winking moon, And Frenzy howling tore her tangled hair.

These