Ye cliffs, in hoary grandeur pil'd

• High o'er the glimmering dale! • Ye groves, along whofe windings wild

• Soft sighs the fadd’ning gale ! • Where oft lone Melancholy ftrays,

• By wilder'd Fancy fway'd, • What time the wan moon's yellow rays

• Gleam thro' the chequer'd shade!

• To you, ye wastes, whose artiefs charms

• Ne'er drew Ambition's eye, ;? : « 'Scap'd a tumultuous world's alarms,

• To your retreats I fly : • Deep in your moft fequefter'd bower,

• Let me my woes resign ; • Where Solitude, mild modeft power,

• Leans on her ivy'd fhrine. s.;

• How shall I woo thee, matchless fair,

• Thy heavenly smile how win! • Thy smile, that smoothes the brow of Care

• And stills each ftorm within ! • O wilt thou to thy favourite grove

• Thine ardent votary bring, « And bless his hours, and bid them move

• Serene on filent wing!

• Oft let Remembrance soothe his mind

• With dreams of former days, • When soft on Leisure's lap reclin'd,

• He caroll'd sprightly lays : • Bless'd days ! when Fancy smil'd at Care,

• When Pleasure toy'd with Truth, • Nor Envy, with malignant glare,

• Had harm'd his simple youth.

• 'Twas • 'Twas then, O Solitude! to thee • For me no more the path invites

• His early vows were paid, • From heart fincere, and warm, and free,

• Devoted to the shade: • Ah! why did Fate his fteps decoy

• In thorny paths to roam, • Remote from all congenial joy!

• O take thy wanderer home!

• Henceforth thy awful haunts be mine!

• The long abandon'd hill; .. « The hollow cliff, whose waving pine

• O'erhangs the darksome rill; • Whence the scar'd owl, on pinions grey,

« Breaks from the ruftling boughs, • And down the lone vale sails away

« To shades of deep repose,

's Ambition loves to tread;
• No more I climb those toilsome heights,

By guileful Hope misled :
Leaps my fond flutt'ring heart no more

« To Mirth's enlivening strain ;, · For present pleasure foon is o'er,

• And all the past is vain!'

THOU faithful partner of a heart thy own,

Whose pain or pleasure springs from thine alone ;
Thou, true as honour, as compassion kind,
That in sweet union harmonize thy mind;
Here, while thy eyes for sad Amyntor's woe,
And Theodora's wreck, with tears o'erflow,
O may thy friend's warm wish, to Heav'n preferråd
For thee, for him by gracious Heav'n be heard !
So her fair hour of fortune shall be thine
Unmix'd, and all Amyntor's fondness mine:
So thro’ long vernal life, with blended ray,
Shall Love light up, and Friendship close our day;
Till summon'd late this lower heav'n to leave,
One figh Tall end us, and one earth receive!

F

AR in the wat'ry waste, where his broad wave

From world to world the vast Atlantick rolls
On from the piny shores of Labrador
To frozen Thulé east, her airy height

Aloft 10

20

Aloft to heav'n remoteft Kilda lifts,

5 Last of the sea-girt Hebrides, that guard, In filial train, Britannia's parent coast. Thrice happy land! tho' freezing on the verge "Of Arctick skies, yet blameless still of arts That polish to deprave each softer clime, With simple nature, simple virtue, bless'd ! Beyond Ambition's walk, where never War Uprear'd his fanguine standard, nor unsheath'd, For wealth or pow'r, the defolating sword; Where Luxury, foft Syren, who around

15 To thousand nations deals her nectar'd cup Of pleasing bane, that soothes at once and kills, Is yet a name unknown ; but calm content, That lives to reason, ancient faith, that binds The plain community of guileless hearts In love and union, innocence of ill, Their guardian genius ; these the pow'rs that rule This little world, to all it's sons secure, Man's happiest life; the soul serene and found

e From paffion's rage, the body from disease,

25 Red on each cheek behold the role of health, Firm in each finew Vigour's pliant spring, By temp'rance brac'd to peril and to pain, Amid the floods they stem, or on the steep Of upright rocks their straining steps furmount, For food or pastime; these light up their morn, And close their eve in slumber sweetly deep, Beneath the north, within the circling swell Of ocean's raging found; but last and best, What Av'rice, what Ambition, shall not know,

35 True Liberty is theirs, the heav'n-sent guest, Who in the cave, or on th' uncultur’d wild, With Independence dwells and peace of mind, In youth, in age, their sun that never sets. Daughter of Heav'n and Nature, deign thy aid,

40 EC 2

Spontaneous

30 45

50

a

$5

Spontaneous Muse! O, whether from the depth
Of ev'ning forest, brown with broadeft fhade,
Or from the brow sublime of vernal Alp
As morning dawns, or from the vale at noon,
By some soft stream that slides with liquid foot
Thro' bow'ry groves, where Inspiration fits
And listens to thy lore, auspicious come!
O'er these wild wayes, o'er this unharbour'd shore,
Thy wing high-hovering spread, and to the gale,
The Boreal spirit breathing lib'ral round
From echoing hill to hill, the lyre attune
With answ'ring cadence free, as beft beseems
The tragick theme my plaintive verse unfolds.

Here good Aurelius—and a scene more wild
The world around, or deeper solitude,
Amiction could not find-Aurelius here,
(By fate unequal and the crime of war
Expell’d his native home, the facred vale
That saw him bless’d, now wretched and unknown !)
Wore out the flow remains of setting life
In bitterness of thought; and with the surge,
And with the founding storm, his murmur'd moan
Would often mix-Oft as remembrance fad
Th’ unhappy past recall'd, a faithful wife,
Whom love first chose, whom reason long endear’d,
His foul's companion and his fofter friend,
With one fair daughter, in her rosy prime,
Her dawn of op’ning charms, defenceless left
Within a tyrant's grasp! his foe profess'd,
By civil madness, by intemp’rate zeal
For diff'ring rites, imbitter'd into hate
And cruelty remorseless - Thus he liv'd,
If this was life! to load the blast with fighs,
Hung o'er it's edge, to fwell the flood with tears,
At midnight hour; for midnight frequent heard
The lonely mourner, desolate of heart,