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O, come! O, teach me nature to subdue,
Renounce my love, my life, myself and you:
Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he
Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot:
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labor and rest, that equal periods keep;
'Obedient slumbers, that can wake and weep;'
Desires composed, affections ever even;

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Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven:
Grace shines around her with serenest beams, 215
And whispering angels prompt her golden dreams:
For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes;
For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring;
For her white virgins hymeneals sing;
To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away,
And melts in visions of eternal day.

Far other dreams my erring soul employ,
Far other raptures of unholy joy.

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When, at the close of each sad, sorrowing day,
Fancy restores what vengeance snatch'd away,
Then conscience sleeps, and leaving nature free,
All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee.
O, cursed, dear horrors of all-conscious night!
How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight! 230
Provoking demons all restraint remove,
And stir within me every source of love.

I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms,
And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms.

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I wake :-no more I hear, no more I view ;
The phantom flies me, as unkind as you.
I call aloud; it hears not what I say:
I stretch my empty arms; it glides away.
To dream once more I close my willing eyes;
Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise!
Alas, no more! methinks we wandering go
Through dreary wastes, and weep each other's wo,
Where round some mouldering tower pale ivy
creeps,

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And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the

deeps.

Sudden you mount, you beckon from the skies;
Clouds interpose, waves roar, and winds arise.
I shriek, start up, the same sad prospect find,
And wake to all the griefs I left behind.

For thee the fates, severely kind, ordain
A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain;
Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose;
No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows:
Still as the sea, ere winds were taught to blow,
Or moving spirit bade the waters flow;
Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiven,

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And mild as opening gleams of promised heaven.
Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread?
The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.
Nature stands check'd; religion disapproves;
Ev'n thou art cold-yet Eloisa loves.
Ah, hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn.
To light the dead, and warm the unfruitful urn.

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What scenes appear where'er I turn my view! The dear ideas, where I fly, pursue,

Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,
Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes.
I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee;
Thy image steals between my God and me;
Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear
r;
With every bead I drop too soft a tear.
When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,
And swelling organs lift the rising soul,

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One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight;
Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight;
In seas of flame my plunging soul is drown'd, 275
While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.

While prostrate here in humble grief I lie, Kind, virtuous drops just gathering in my eye; While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll, And dawning grace is opening on my soul; Come, if thou darest, 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;

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Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those

tears;

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Take back my fruitless penitence and prayers;
Snatch me, just mounting, from the bless'd abode ;
Assist the fiends, and tear me from my God!
No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;
Rise Alps between us, and whole oceans roll! 290

274 Priests, tapers, &c. Pope seems to have felt no hesitation in borrowing, where the expression caught his ear. Those lines are word for word from Smith's dreary Phædra and Hippolytus:

Priests, tapers, temples, swam before my sight.

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!
Long loved, adored ideas, all adieu!

O, grace serene! 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 rest!

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See in her cell sad Eloisa spread, Propp'd on some tomb, a neighbor 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 sound :-Come, sister, come!' it said, or seem'd to say; "Thy place is here; sad sister, come away: Once, like thyself, I trembled, wept, and pray'd; Love's victim then, though now a sainted maid: But all is calm in this eternal sleep;

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Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep;
Ev'n superstition loses every fear;
For God, not man, absolves our frailties here.'
I come, I come! prepare your roseate bowers,
Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flowers:
Thither, where sinners may have rest, I go;
Where flames refined in breasts seraphic glow:
Thou, Abelard! the last sad office pay,
And smoothe my passage to the realms of day:

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See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll;
Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul!
Ah, no: in sacred vestments mayst thou stand,
The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand,
Present the cross before my lifted eye,
Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.
Ah, then, thy once-loved Eloisa see!
It will be then no crime to gaze on me.
See from my cheek the transient 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 loved no more.
O Death all-eloquent! you only prove
What dust we dote 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 ecstatic may thy pangs be drown'd,
Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee
round;

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From opening skies may streaming glories shine, 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, 345 When this rebellious heart shall beat no more; If ever chance two wandering lovers brings To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs, O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads, And drink the falling tears each other sheds; 350

323 See my lips tremble. From Oldham's 'Death of Adonis :'Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eyeballs roll, Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.

POPE.

II.

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