ODE TO EVENING.

IF aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song,

May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear,
Like thy own brawling springs,

Thy springs, and dying gales;

O nymph reserv'd, while now the bright-hair'd sun Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts, With brede ethereal wove,

O'erhang his wavy bed:

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Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-ey'd bat 9 With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 1. The first edition, and Dodsley, in some editions of his Coll. of Poems, read;

If ought of oaten, etc.

I follow Langhorne, and Dodsley in other editions of his Coll. Ver. 2. The first edition has;

May hope, O pensive Eve, to soothe thine ear,

I give the reading of Dodsley and Langhorne. Collins, no doubt, altered this line, because "pensive pleasures" occurred at ver. 27.

Ver. 3. Dodsley and Langhorne read;

Like thy own solemn springs,

Ver. 9. Dodsley, in some editions of his Coll. of Poems, has; While air, etc.

Ver. 10. Dodsley reads;

With short shrill shrieks, etc.

Or where the beetle winds

His small but sullen horn,

As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum:
Now teach me, maid compos'd,

To breathe some soften'd strain,

15

Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,

May not unseemly with its stillness suit;

As, musing slow, I hail

Thy genial lov'd return!

For when thy folding-star arising shows
His paly circlet, at his warning lamp
The fragrant Hours, and Elves
Who slept in buds the day,

20

And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with

sedge,

And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,

The pensive Pleasures sweet,

Prepare thy shadowy car.

Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene;

Or find some ruin, 'midst its dreary dells,

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 24. Dodsley reads;

Who slept in flowers the day.

25

30

Ver. 29. Instead of this stanza, Dodsley gives the following;

G

Whose walls more awful nod

By thy religious gleams.

Or, if chill blustering winds, or driving rain,
Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut,
That, from the mountain's side,

Views wilds, and swelling floods,

And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all

Thy dewy fingers draw

The gradual dusky veil.

35

40

While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,
And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!

While Summer loves to sport
Beneath thy lingering light;

While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves;
Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,
Affrights thy shrinking train,

And rudely rends thy robes;

45

VARIATIONS.

Then lead, calm votress, where some sheety lake

Cheers the lone heath, or some time-hallow'd pile,
Or upland fallows grey,

Reflect its last cool gleam.

Ver. 33. Dodsley has;

But when chill blustering winds, or driving rain,
Forbid, etc.

So long, regardful of thy quiet rule,

Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace, 50

Thy gentlest influence own,

And love thy favourite name!

VARIATION.

Ver. 49. This last stanza Dodsley gives thus ;
So long, sure-found beneath the Sylvan shed,
Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lipp'd Health,
Thy gentlest influence own,

And hymn thy favourite name!

ODE TO PEACE.

O THOU, who bad'st thy turtles bear
Swift from his grasp thy golden hair,

And sought'st thy native skies;

When War, by vultures drawn from far,

To Britain bent his iron car,

And bade his storms arise!

Tir'd of his rude tyrannic sway,
Our youth shall fix some festive day,

His sullen shrines to burn:

But thou who hear'st the turning spheres,

What sounds may charm thy partial ears,

And gain thy blest return!

O Peace, thy injur'd robes up-bind!

O rise! and leave not one behind

Of all thy beamy train;

5

10

15

By warlike Honour led;

And, while around her ports rejoice,
While all her sons adore thy choice,

With him for ever wed!