Must Delia's softness, elegance, and ease Submit to Marian's dress? to Marian's gold? Must Marian's robe from distant India please? The simple fleece my Delia's limbs enfold? 'Yet sure on Delia seems the russet fair; Ye glittering daughters of disguise, adieu!' So talk the wise, who judge of shape and air, But will the rural thane decide so true? Ah! what is native worth esteem'd of clowns ? 'Tis thy false glare, O Fortune! thine they see; "Tis for my Delia's sake I dread thy frowns, And my last gasp shall curses breathe on thee. SHENSTONE. HIS RECANTATION. No more the Muse obtrudes her thin disguise, No more she paints the breast from passion free; I feel, I feel one loitering wish survive; Ah! need I, Florio, name that wish to thee? The star of Venus ushers in the day, The first, the loveliest of the train that shine! The star of Venus lends her brightest ray, When other stars their friendly beams resign. Still in my breast one soft desire remains, Pure as that star, from guilt, from interest free; Has gentle Delia tripp'd across the plains, And need I, Florio, name that wish to thee? While, cloy'd to find the scenes of life the same, I tune with careless hand my languid lays, Some secret impulse wakes my former flame, And fires my strain with hopes of brighter days. I slept not long beneath yon rural bowers, And lo! my crook with flowers adorn'd I see ; Has gentle Delia bound my crook with flowers, And need I, Florio, name my hopes to thee? SHENSTONE. ΤΟ DELIA, WITH SOME FLOWERS: COMPLAINING HOW MUCH HIS BENEVOLENCE SUFFERS WHATE'ER Could Sculpture's curious art employ, And win, at small expense, their fondest prayer! And, oh! the joy, to shun the conscious light; To spare the modest blush; to give unseen: Like showers that fall behind the veil of night, Yet deeply tinge the smiling vales with green. But happiest they who drooping realms relieve! To range where daisies open, rivers roll, Of these loved flowers the lifeless corse may share, Some hireling hand a fading wreath bestow; The rest will breathe as sweet, will glow as fair As when their master smiled to see them glow, The sequent morn shall wake the silvan quire; The kid again shall wanton ere 'tis noon; Nature will smile, will wear her best attire O, let not gentle Delia smile so soon! While the rude hearse conveys me slow away, And careless eyes my vulgar fate proclaim, Let thy kind tear my utmost worth o'erpay, And, softly sighing, vindicate my fame.O Delia! cheer'd by thy superior praise, I bless the silent path the fates decree; Pleased from the list of my inglorious days To rase the moments crown'd with bliss and thee. SHENSTONE. STANZAS TO THOUGH the day of my destiny's over, Then when nature around me is smiling Because it reminds me of thine; And when winds are at war with the ocean, Though the rock of my last hope is shiver'd, They may crush but they shall not contemnThey may torture, but shall not subdue me— "Tis of thee that I think-not of them. Though human, thou didst not deceive me, Though woman, thou didst not forsake, Though loved, thou forbarest to grieve me, Though slander'd, thou never couldst shake; Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me, Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me, 'Twas folly not sooner to shun: From the wreck of the past, which hath perish'd, It hath taught me that what I most cherish'd In the desert a fountain is springing, LORD BYRON. LOVE ELEGY. Now sunk in dumb despondence on the thorn, Sweet child of sorrow! with regret, like thine, VOL. IV. K |