Serve but to sport one flying moment o’er,
And swell with pompous verse the 'scutchon’d tomb.

For me: may Passion ne'er my soul invade,
Nor be the whims of towering Frenzy giv’n ;
Let Wealth ne'er court me from the peaceful shade,
Where Contemplation wings the soul to heav'n!

O guard me safe from Joy's enticing snare ;
With each extreme that Pleasure tries to hide,
The poison'd breath of low-consuming Care,
The noise of Folly, and the dreams of Pride!

But oft when Midnight's fadly folemn knell
Sounds long and distant from the sky-topt tower,
Calm let me fit in Prosper's lonely cell *,
Or walk with Milton thro’ the dark Obscure.

Thus when the tranfient dream of life is fled,
May some fad friend recall the former years;
Then stretch'd in silence o'er my dusty bed,
Pour the warm gush of sympathetic tears!.

arm

4.Walker del.et fiulp.

Ode to the Genius of SHAKESPEAR E.

I.

1.

H A PT from the glance of mortal eye,
SR Say, bursts thyGenius tothe world of light?

openSeeks it yon star-bespangled sky?
Or skims its fields with rapid flight?
Or mid' yon plains where Fancy strays,
Courts it the balmy-breathing gale ?
Or where the violet pale
Droops o'er the green-embroidered stream;
Or where young Zephir stirs the rustling sprays,
Lies all diffolv'd in fairy dream.

O'er

O'er yon bleak desert's unfrequented round
See'st thou where Nature treads the deepening gloom,
Sits on yon hoary tow'r with ivy crown'd,
Or wildly wails o'er thy lamented tomb;
Hear'st thou the solemn music wind along?
Or thrills the warbling note in thy mellifluous song?

:: I. 2.
Oft while on earth 'twas thine to rove
Where'er the wild-eyed Goddess lov'd to roam,

To trace serene the gloomy grove,
Or haunt meek Quiet's simple dome;
Still hovering round the Nine appear,
That pour the soul-transporting strain;
Join'd to the Love's gay train,
The loose-rob’d Graees crown'd with flow'rs,
The light-wing'd gales that lead the vernal year,
And wake the rosy-featured Hours.
O'er all bright Fancy's beamy radiance thone,
How fam’d thy bosom as her charms reveal !
Her fire-clad eye sublime, her starry zone,
Her tresses loose that wanton’d on the gale;
On Thee the Goddess fix'd her ardent look,

Then from her glowing lips these melting accents ... broke:

I. 3. « To Thee, my favourite son, belong “ The lays that steal the listening hour ; « To pour the rapture-darting song, “ To paint gay Hope's Elysian bower : “ From Nature's hand to snatch the dart, “ To cleave with pangs the bleeding heart, « Or lightly sweep the trembling string, “ And call the Loves with purple wing “ From the blue deep where they dwell 6. With Naiads in the pearly cell, “ Soft on the sea-born Goddess gaze*, “ Or in the loose robe's floating maze, “ Diffolv'd in downy flumbers rest; “ Or flutter o'er her panting breast. “ Or wild to melt the yielding foul, · Let Sorrow clad in sable stole “ Slow to thy musing thought appear; “ Or pensive Pity pale ; “ Or Love's desponding tale “ Call from th’intender'd heart the sympathetic tear."

II. 1. Say, whence the magic of thy mind ? Why thrills thy music on the springs of thought? Why, at thy pencil's touch refind, Starts into life the glowing draught? On yonder fairy carpet laid, Where Beauty pours eternal bloom, And Zephir breathes perfume; There nightly to the tranced eye Profuse the radiant goddess stood display'd, With all her smiling offspring nigh. Sudden the mantling cliff, the arching wood, The broidered mead, the landskip, and the grove, Hills, vales, and sky-dipt seas, and torrents rude, Grots, rills and shades, and bowers that breathed of

love All burst to fight!—while glancing on the view, Titania's sporting train brush'd lightly o'er the dew.

II. 2.
The pale-eyed Genius of the shade
Led thy bold step to Prosper's magic bower;

Whose