Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

The celebrated Pitt.

By genius fired, such ardent genius tamed
By cool judicious art; that, in the strife,
Ali-beauteous Nature fears to be outdone.
And there, O PITT, thy country's early boast,
There let me sit beneath the sheltered slopes,
Or in that †Temple where, in future times,
Thou well shaft merit a distinguished name;

1045

And, with thy converse blest, catch the last smiles 1050
Of Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods.

While there with thee th' enchanted round I walk,
The regulated wild, gay Fancy then

Will tread in thought the groves of Attic Land;
Will from thy standard taste refine her own,
Correct her pencil to the purest truth
Of nature, or, the unimpassioned shades
Forsaking, raise it to the human mind.
Or if hereafter she, with juster hand,

Shall draw the tragic scene, instruct her thou,
To mark the varied movements of the heart;
What every decent character requires,
And every passion speaks : O thro' her strain
Breath thy pathetic eloquence! that moulds
The attentive senate, charms, persuades, exalts;
Of honest zeal the indignant lightning throws,
And shakes corruption on her venal throne.
While thus we talk, and through Elysian Vales
Delighted rove, perhaps a sigh escapes:

1055

1000

1065

What pity, COBHAM, thou thy verdant files

1070

Of ordered trees should'st here inglorious range,

Instead of squadrons flaming o'er the field,

And long embattled hosts! when the proud foe,

The Temple of Virtue in Stowe Gardens.

[blocks in formation]

The faithless vain disturber of mankind,
Insulting Gaul, has roused the world to war;

1075

When keen, once more, within their bounds to press
Those polished robbers, those ambitious slaves,

The British Youth would hail thy wise command,
Thy tempered ardour, and thy veteran skill.

The western sun withdraws the shortened day; 1080 And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky,

In her chill progress, to the ground condensed
The vapour throws. Where creeping waters ooze,
Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind,
Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along

1085

The dusky mantled lawn. Mean while the moon
Full-orbed, and breaking through the scattered clouds,
Shews her broad visage in the crimsoned east.
Turned to the sun direct, her spotted disk,

Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend, 1090
And caverns deep, as optic tube descries,
A smaller earth, gives us his blaze again,
Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day.

Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop,
Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime.

Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild
O'er the skied mountain to the shadowy vale,
While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleam,
The whole air whitens with the boundless tide
Of silver radiance, trembling round the world.

But when half blotted from the sky her light,
Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn

With keener lustre through the depth of heaven;
Or near extinct her deadened orb appears,
And scarce appears, of sickly beamless white;
Oft in this season, silent from the north

1095

1100

1105

Aurora Borealis.

A blaze of meteors shoots : ensweeping first
The lower skies, they all at once converge
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once
Relapsing quick, as quickly reascend,
And mix, and thwart, extinguish, and renew,
All ether coursing in a maze of light.

From look to look, contagious through the crowd,
The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes
The appearance throws: armies in meet array,
Thronged with aërial spears, and steeds of fire;
Till the long lines of full extended war

In bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine flood
Rolls a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven.
As thus they scan the visionary scene,

Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks

1110

1115

1120

On all sides swells the superstitious din,

Of blood and battle; cities overturned;

And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk,
Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame;

1125

Of sallow famine, inundation, storm;

Of pestilence, and every great distress;

Empires subversed, when ruling fate has struck

The unalterable hour even Nature's self

Is deemed to totter on the brink of time.
Not so the Man of philosophic eye,

1130

And inspect sage; the waving brightness he
Curious surveys, inquisitive to know

The causes, and materials, yet unfixed,

Of this appearance beautiful and new.

1135

Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall,

A shade immense. Sunk in the quenching gloom,
Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth.

Order confounded lies; all beauty void;

:

Benighted Traveller.

Distinction lost; and gay variety

One universal blot: such the fair power

1140

Of light, to kindle and create the whole.

Drear is the state of the benighted wretch,

Who then, bewildered, wanders thro' the dark,
Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge;

1145

Nor visited by one directive ray,

From cottage streaming, or from airy hall.
Perhaps impatient as he stumbles on,

Struck from the root of slimy rushes, blue,

The wild-fire scatters round, or gathered trails
A length of flame deceitful o'er the moss :
Whither decoyed by the fantastic blaze,
Now lost and now renewed, he sinks absorpt,
Rider and horse, amid the miry gulph:
While still, from day to day, his pining wife
And plaintive children his return await,
In wild conjecture lost. At other times,
Sent by the better Genius of the night,
Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane,
The meteor sits; and shews the narrow path,
That winding leads thro' pits of death, or else
Instructs him how to take the dangerous ford.
The lengthened night elapsed, the morning shines
Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright,

Unfolding fair the last autumnal day.

And now the mounting sun dispels the fog;

The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam;
And hung on every spray, on every blade
Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round.

1150

1155

1160

1165

Ah see where robbed, and murdered in that pit 1170 Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatched,

P

Destruction of Bees.

Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
And fixed o'er sulphur : while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people, in their waxen cells,

[ocr errors]

Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoiced

1175

To mark, full flowing round, their copious stores.
Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends;

And, used to milder scents, the tender race,

By thousands, tumble from their honeyed domes,
Convolved, and agonizing in the dust.

1180

And was it then for this you roamed the Spring,
Intent from flower to flower? for this you toiled,
Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away?
For this in Autumn searched the blooming waste,
Nor lost one sunny gleam? for this sad fate?
O Man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long,
Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage,
Awaiting renovation? When obliged,
Must you destroy? Of their ambrosial food
Can you not borrow; and, in just return,
Afford them shelter from the wintry winds;
Or, as the sharp year pinches, with their own
Again regale them on some smiling day?
See where the stony bottom of their town
Looks desolate, and wild; with here and there
A helpless number, who the ruined state
Survive, lamenting weak, cast out to death.
Thus a proud city, populous and rich,

1185

1190

1195

Full of the works of peace, and high in joy,

1200

At theatre or feast, or sunk in sleep,

(As late, Palermo, was thy fate ) iş seized

By some dread earthquake, and convulsive hurled

« ZurückWeiter »