Thy appetites in easy tides Soft flow-no wind can work them to a storm, Yet if a transport thou canst feel, Great, generous acts thy ductile passions move, And smilingly thou weep'st with joy and love. Bursting to praise, yet still sincere, and free [knee. Extensive, as from west to east, Nought is excluded, little or infirm, [worm, Thou canst with greatness stoop to save a Come, goddess, come with all thy charms (For oh! I love thee) to my arms All, all my actions guide, my fancy feed, Smart, ON ILL-NATURE. OFFSPRING of folly and of pride, Nurs’d up by vice, by pravity misled, Away, thou hideous hell-born sprite, Go, with looks of dark design, Sullen, sour, and saturnine; Fly to some gloomy shade, nor blot the goodly light, Thy planet was remote when I was born: 'Twas Mercury that ruld my natal morn, What time the Sun exerts his genial ray, And ripens for enjoyment every growing day; When to exist is but to love and sing, And sprightly Aries smiles upon the spring. There in yon lonesome heath, Which Flora or Sylvanus never knew, Where never vegetable drank the dew, Or beast or fowl attempts to breathe ; Where Nature's pencil has no colours laid ; But all is blank, and universal shade; Contrast to figure, motion, life, and light, There may'st thou vent thy spite, For ever cursing, and for ever curs’d, Of all th' infernal crew the worst; The worst in genius, measure, and degree; For envy, hatred, malice, are but parts of thee. Or would'st thou change the scene, and quit the den Where spleen, by vapours dense begot and bred, Hardness of heart, and heaviness of head, Have rais'd their darksome walls, and plac'd their thorny bed ; There may'st thou all thy bitterness unload, There may'st thou croak in concert with the toad, With thee the hollow howling winds shall join, Nor shall the bittern her base throat deny, The querulous frogs shall mix their dregs with thine, Th' ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high, Millions of humming gnats fit eestrum shall sup ply. Away-away--behold an hideous band, An herd of all thy minions are at hand; Suspicion first with jealous caution stalks, And ever looks around her as she walks, With bibulous ear imperfect sounds to catch, And proud to listen at her neighbour's latch. Next, Scandal's meagre shade, A wither'd time-deflower'd pld maid, Hypocrisy succeeds with saint-like look, And elevates her hands, and plods upon her book. Next comes illiberal scrambling Avarice, Then Vanity, and Affectation nice-See, she salutes her shadow with a bow, As in short Gallic trips she minces by, Starting antipathy is in her eye, And squeamishly she knits her scornful brow., To thee, Ill-Nature, all the numerous group With lowly reverence stoop. Smart. TO HOSPITALITY. DOMESTIC power! erewhile rever'd Where Syria spread her palny plain, Where Greece her tuneful Muses heard, Where Rome beheld her patriot-train ; Thou to Albion too wert known, Midst the moat and moss-grown wall, That girt her Gothic-structur'd hall With rural trophies strown. Upon the pathless forest wild; Wide their view around them cast, Mark'd the distant rustic tower, And shar'd the free repast. When Éve's dun robe the sky arrays, Thy punctual hand unfolds the door, Thy eye the mountain road surveys ; Pleas'd to spy the casual guest, Pleas'd with food his heart to cheer, And spread his couch for rest. Where Grandeur's splendid modern seat Far o'er the landscape glitters gay ; Or where fair Quiet's lone retreat Hides beneath the hoary hill, Near the dusky upland shade, And by the tinkling rill. That friends and relatives endear, When tales, not often told, we hear ; There the scholar's liberal mind Oft instruction gives and gains, His fair-one's audience kind. May Health and Peace attend thee still; Gratitude thy altar raise, Wealth to thee her offerings pay, And Genius wake his tuneful lay To celebrate thy praise. Scott. TO MIRTH. PARENT of joy! heart-easing Mirth! Whether of Vénus or Aurora born ; Yet goddess sure of heavenly birth, Thy glittering colours gay, Diffuse thy living influence : shade, And streams in murmurs shall forget to flow. Shine, goddess, shine with unremitted ray, And gild (a second sun) with brighter beam our day. |