While thousand hand-maid ftars await,
Attendant on their queen of ftate.
'Tis now that in her high controul,
Ambitious of a foreign rule,
She ftirs the Ocean to rebel,
And factious waters fond to fwell
Guides to battle in her carr,
'Gainft her fifter Earth to war.
Thus let me mufe on things fublime,
Above the flight of modern rhyme,
And call the foul of Newton down,
Where it fits high on ftarry throne,
Inventing laws for worlds to come,
Or teaching comets how to roam:
With him I'd learn of every flar,
But four-ey'd Pedantry be far,
And Ignorance in garb of Sense,
With terms of art to make pretence.
Hail happy foil! illuftrious earth!
Which gav't fo many heroes birth;
Which never wand'ring poet trod,
But felt within th' infpiring God!
In thefe tranfporting, folemn fhades,
First I falute th' Aonian maids.
Ah lead me, Genius, to thy haunts,
Where Philomel at ev'ning chants,
And as my oaten pipe resounds,
Give mufick to the forming founds.
A fimple fhepherd, yet unknown,
Afpires to fnatch an ivy crown,
On daring pinions bold to foar,
Tho' here thy Waller fung before,
And Johnson dipt his learned pen,
And Sidney pour'd his fancy-flowing strain.
Hon. WILMOT VAUGHAN, Efq; in WALES.
E diftant realms that hold my friend
Beneath a cold ungenial sky,
Where lab'ring groves with weight of vapours bend,
Or raving winds o'er barren mountains fly;
Restore him quick to London's focial clime,
Reftore him quick to friendship, love and joy;
Be fwift, ye lazy fteeds of Time,
Ye moments, all your speed employ.
Behold November's glooms arise,
Pale funs with fainter glory fhine,
Dark gathering tempefts blacken in the fkies,
And fhiv'ring woods their fickly leaves refign.
Is this a time on Cambrian hills to roam,
To court disease in Winter's baleful reign,
To listen to th' Atlantic foam,
While rocks repel the roaring main,
While horror fills the region vaft,
Rheumatic tortures Eurus brings,
Pregnant with agues flies the northern blaft,
And clouds drop quartans from their flagging wings.
Doft thou explore Sabrina's fountful fource,
Where huge Plinlimmon's hoary height afcends:
Then downward mark her vagrant course,
Till mix'd with clouds the landscape ends
Doft thou revere the hallow'd foil
Where Druids old fepulchred lie;
Ór up cold Snowden's craggy fummits toil,
And mufe on ancient favage liberty?
Ill fuit fuch walks with bleak autumnal air,
Say, can November yield the joys of May ?
When Jove deforms the blafted year,
Can Wallia boast a chearful day?
The town expects thee.
Thro' every street of gay refort,
New chariots rattle with awak'ning found,
And crowd the levees, and befiege the court.
The patriot, kindling as his wars enfue,
Now fires his foul with liberty and fame,
Marshals his threat'ning tropes anew,
And gives his hoarded thunders aim.
Now feats their abfent lords deplore,
Neglected villas empty stand,
Capacious Gro'venor gathers all its store,
And mighty London fwallows up the land.
See fportive Vanity her flights begin,
See new-blown Folly's plenteous harvest rise,
She mimick beauties dye their skin,
And harlots roll their venal eyes.
Fashions are fet, and fops return,
And young coquettes in arms appear;
Dreaming of conqueft, how their bofoms burn,
Trick'd in the new fantaftry of the year.
Fly then away, nor scorn to bear a part
In this gay scene of folly amply spread:
Follies well us'd refine the heart,
And pleasures clear the ftudious head;
By grateful interchange of mirth
The toils of ftudy sweeter
As varying seasons recommend the earth,
Nor does Apollo always bend his bow.
HILE born to bring the Mufe's happier days,
A patriot's hand protects a poet's lays :
While nurs'd by you fhe fees her myrtles bloom,
Green and unwither'd o'er his honour'd tomb:
Excufe her doubts, if yet fhe fears to tell
What secret transports in her bosom swell:
With confcious awe fhe hears the critic's fame,
And blushing hides her wreath at Shakespear's name.
|