CONTENTS. To a young Nobleman leaving the University Written in the Garden of a Friend...... *MUSEU S. A MONODY. SORROWING I catch the reed, and call the muse; If yet a muse on Britain's plain abide, Since rapt Musæus tun'd his parting strain : With him they liv'd, with him perchance they dy'd. For who e'er since their virgin charms espy'd, Where Camus winds along his broider'd vale, Nor is it meet ye fly these pensive glades, Nor Thespia's grove; till with harmonious teen * Mr. Pope died in the year 1744; this Poem was then written, and published first in the year 1747. B Ye sooth his shade, and slowly-dittied air. And haste to Thames's shores; for Thames shall join The tears fast-trickling o'er his silver urn.. His tide no more in eddies blithe shall rove, For, with thy sisters, thou didst weeping stand. When Death approach'd, and wav'd his ebon wand, Say how each laurel droopt its with'ring green? How, in yon grot, each silver trickling spring Wander'd the shelly channels all among; While as the coral roof did softly ring Responsive to their sweetly-doleful song. Meanwhile all pale th' expiring Poet laid, While vocal shadows pleasing dreams prolong; They pour'd the balm of visionary peace. First, sent from Cam's fair banks, like Palmer old, Came * Tityrus slow, with head all silver'd o'er, And in his hand an oaken crook he bore, And thus in antique guise short talk did hold. "Grete clerk of Fame' is house, whose excellence "Maie wele befitt thilk place of eminence, "Mickle of wele betide thy houres last, "For mich gode wirkè to me don and past. "For syn the days whereas my lyre ben strongen, "And deftly many a mery laie I songen, "Old Time, which alle things don maliciously "Gnawen with rusty tooth continually, "Gnattrid my lines, that they all cancrid ben, "Till at the last thou smoothen 'hem hast again; «Sithence full semely gliden my rymes rude, "As, (if fitteth thilk similitude) "Whannè shallow brooke yrenneth hobling on, "Ovir rough stones it makith full rough song; "But, them stones removen, this lite rivere "Stealith forth by, making plesaunt murmere : "So my sely rymes, whoso may them note, "Thou makist everichone to ren right sote; "And in thy verse entunist so fetisely, “That men sayen I make trewe melody, *Came Tityrus, &c.] i. e. Chaucer, a name frequently given him by Spenser. See Shep. Cal. Ecl. 2, 6, 12, and elsewhere. "And speaken every dele to myne honoure. "Mich wele, grete clerk, betide thy parting houre!" He ceas'd his homely rhyme. When Colin Clout, Eliza's shepherd swain, Came with his reed soft-warbling on the way, "Ah! luckless swain, alas! how art thou lorn, "Who once, like me, could'st frame thy pipe to play Shepherds devise, and chear the ling'ring morn: "Ne bush, ne breere, but learnt thy roundelay. "Ah plight too sore such worth to equal right! "Ah worth too high to meet such piteous plight! "But I nought strive, poor Colin, to compare rare Surpass ought else of quaintest shepherd's quill. *Colin Clout.] i. e. Spenser, which name he gives himself throughout his works. The two first stanzas of this speech, as they relate to Pastoral, are written in the measure which Spenser uses in the first eclogue of the Shepherd's Calendar; the rest, where he speaks of Fable, are in the stanza of the FaeryQueen. |