Ye cliffs, in hoary grandeur pil'd High o'er the glimmering dale! Ye groves,, along whofe windings.wild Soft fighs 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 fhade! To you, ye waftes, whofe artlefs charms Deep in your moft fequefter'd bower, • Where Solitude, mild modeft power, Leans on her ivy'd fhrine. • How fhall I woo thee, matchless fair, Thy heavenly fmile how win! B Thy fmile, 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 foothe his mind • With dreams of former days, • When soft on Leifure's lap reclin'd, He caroll'd fprightly lays : Blefs'd days! when Fancy fmil'd at Care, • When Pleasure toy'd with Truth, Nor Envy, with malignant glare, • "Twas then, O Solitude! to thee • His early vows were paid, • From heart fincere, and warm, and free, • Devoted to the fhade. 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, For me no more the path invites Ambition loves to tread ; ⚫ No more I climb those toilfome heights, THOU faithful partner of a heart thy own, Whose pain or pleasure springs from thine alone; Thou, true as honour, as compaffion kind, CANTO I. AR in the watʼry waste, where his broad wave On from the piny fhores of Labrador To frozen Thulé eaft, her airy height Aloft Aloft to heav'n remotest Kilda lifts, Their guardian genius; these the pow'rs that rule Man's happiest life; the foul ferene and found Of upright rocks their ftraining steps furmount, E c 2 Spontaneous Mufe! O, whether from the depth By some soft stream that slides with liquid foot 45 Thro' bow'ry groves, where Infpiration fits O'er these wild waves, o'er this unharbour'd shore, Thy wing high-hovering spread, and to the gale, The Boreal spirit breathing lib'ral round 50 The tragick theme my plaintive verfe unfolds. Here good Aurelius-and a scene more wild The world around, or deeper folitude, $5 Affliction could not find-Aurelius here, (By fate unequal and the crime of war Expell'd his native home, the facred vale That faw him blefs'd, now wretched and unknown!) 60 In bitterness of thought; and with the furge, And with the founding ftorm, his murmur'd moan Whom love first chofe, whom reafon long endear'd, 65 His foul's companion and his fofter friend, Her dawn of op'ning charms, defenceless left 70 If this was life! to load the blast with fighs, Hung o'er it's edge, to fwell the flood with tears, 75 Pour |