Rife in the grove, before the altar rise,
Stain all my foul, and wanton in my eyes.
I waste the matin lamp in fighs for thee,
Thy image fteals between my God and me,
Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
With every bead I drop too foft a tear,
When from the cenfer clouds of fragrance roll,
And fwelling organs lift the rifing foul,
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,
Priefts, tapers, temples, swim before my sight:
In feas of flame my plunging foul is drown'd,
While Altars blaze, and Angels tremble round.
While proftrate here in humble grief I lie,
Kind, virtuous drops juft gathering in my eye,
While, praying, trembling, in the duft I roll,
And dawning grace is opening on my foul:
Come, if thou dar’ft, all charming as thou art!
Oppose thyself to Heaven; dispute my heart;
Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes
Blot out each bright idea of the skies;
Take back that grace, thofe forrows, and thofe tears;
Take back my fruitless penitence and prayers;
Snatch me, juft mounting, from the blest abode ;
Affist the fiends, and tear me from my God!
No, fly me, fly me, far as Pole from Pole;
Rife Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!
Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,
Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee.
Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;
Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.
Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view!) 295 Long lov'd, ador'd ideas, all adieu!
O Grace ferene! O Virtue heavenly fair!
Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care!
Fresh-blooming Hope, gay daughter of the sky!
And Faith, our early immortality!
Enter, each mild, each amicable guest ;
Receive and wrap me in eternal reft!
See in her cell fad Eloïfa fpread,
Propt on fome tomb, a neighbour of the dead.
In each low wind methinks a Spirit calls,
And more than Echoes talk along the walls.
Here, as I watch'd the dying lamps around,
From yonder shrine I heard a hollow found.
"Come, fifter, come!" (it faid, or seem'd to fay)
"Thy place is here, fad fifter, come away!
"Once like thyself, I trembled, wept, and pray'd,
"Love's victim then, though now a fainted maid:
"But all is calm in this eternal fleep;
"Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, "Ev'n fuperftition lofes every fear;
"For God, not man, abfolves our frailties here.”
I come, I come! prepare your rofeate bowers,
Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flowers.
Thither, where finners may have rest, I go,
Where flames refin'd in breafts feraphic glow:
Thou, Abelard! the last fad office pay,
And smooth my paffage to the realms of day;
See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll,
Suck my last breath, and catch my flying foul!
Ah no-in facred vestments may'st thou stand,
The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand,
Prefent the Crofs before my lifted eye,
Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.
Ah then, thy once-lov'd Eloïfa fee!
It will be then no crime to gaze on me.
See from my cheek the tranfient roses fly!
See the last sparkle languish in my eye!
Till every motion, pulse, and breath be o'er ;
And ev'n my Abelard be lov'd no more.
O Death all eloquent! you only prove
What duft we doat on, when 'tis man we love.
Then too, when fate shall thy fair frame destroy, (That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy)
In trance extatic may thy pangs be drown'd,
Bright clouds descend, and Angels watch thee round,
From opening skies may ftreaming glories fhine,
And Saints embrace thee with a love like mine.
May one kind grave unite each hapless name,
And graft my love immortal on thy fame!
Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er,
When this rebellious heart fhall be at no more;
If ever chance two wandering lovers brings
To Paraclete's white walls and filver springs,
O'er the pale marble fhall they join their heads,
And drink the falling tears each other sheds ;
Then fadly fay, with mutual pity mov'd,
"O may we never love as these have lov'd!"
From the full choir, when loud Hofannas rise,
And fwell the pomp of dreadful facrifice,
Amid that scene if some relenting eye
Glance on the ftone where our cold relicks lie,
Devotion's felf shall steal a thought from heaven,
One human tear fhall drop, and be forgiven.
And fure if fate fome future bard shall join
In fad fimilitude of griefs to mine,
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such if there be, who loves fo long, fo well;
Let him our fad, our tender story tell!
The well-fung woes will footh my penfive ghoft; 36ģ He beft can paint them who fhall feel them moft.
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