Oh haste, your sweetest numbers shed,
Fraught with the genial dew of praise,
On Glory's fav'rite sons, who tread
Unweary'd danger's thorny maze:
Who tear fresh laurel's from War's ghastly brow, Or steer the stedfast bark, though tides of faction flow.
But, O ye delegates of Jove,
Sent from the starry realms above
To guard the clime, with dragon-eyes
Where all the Muses' treasures rise,
Should Gothic ignorance invade
With lawless foot the virgin shade,
And too incontinent presume
Rashly to pluck the gold bloom;
Wide wave the flaming sword, and send, O send
Your brightest shafts to quell the Stygian fiend!
With holy dread, ye guardians of her store,
Fulfil your charge, nor too profuse of praise
Embalm, with her immortal lays,
The carrion-corpse of pride, or power!
Let Dulness her vain favours shed
On smiling Folly's kindred head;
Or Vice, in tinsel trappings drest,
Promote the wretch who flatters best;
Disdain the crew!-And in some distant grove,
To worth afflicted, friendless, raise your voice:
So shall the Muse your honest songs approve,
And deathless Fame reward your uncorrupted choice!
HENCE from my sight, unfeeling sage,
Hence, to thy lonely hermitage !—
There far remov'd from joy and pain,
Supinely slumber life away ;
Act o'er dull yesterday again,
And be thy morrow like to-day.
Rest thy bones !-While to the gale
Happier I spread my festive wing,
And like the wand'ring bee exhale
Fresh odours from life's honey'd spring; From bloom to bloom in pleasing rapture stray, Where Mirth invites, and Pleasure points the way.
Hail, heaven-born virgin fair, and free,
Of language mild, of aspect gay,
Whose voice the sullen family
Of Care and Discontent obey !
By thee inspir'd the simplest scenes,
The russet cots, the lowly glens,
Mountains, on whose cragged brow
Nature's lawless tenant's feed,
Bushy dells, and streams, that flow
Through the vi'let-purpled mead,
Delight! thy breath exalts the rich perfumes,
That brooding o'er embalm the bean-flower field,
Beyond Sabean sweets, and all the gum
The spicy desarts of Arabia yield.
When the Attic bird complains
From the still attentive grove,
Or the linnet breathes his strains,
Taught by nature, and by love;
Do thou approve the dulcet airs,
And Harmony's soft, silken chain,
In willing bondage leads our cares,
And binds the giant-sense of pain:
Untun'd by thee, how coarse the long-drawn note,
Spun from the lab'ring eunuch's tortur'd throat!
Harsh are the sounds, tho' FARINELLI sings,
Harsh are the sounds, tho' HANDEL wakes the strings:
Untouch'd by thee, see senseless FLORIO sits,
And stares, and gapes, and nods, and yawns by fits.
Oh Pleasure come!-and far, far hence
Expel that nun, Indifference!·
Where'er she waves her ebon wand,
Drench'd in the dull Lethaean deep,
Behold the marble passions stand
Absorb'd in everlasting sleep!
Then from the waste, and barren mind
The Muse's fairy-phantoms fly,
They fly, nor leave a wreck behind
Of heaven-descended poesy:
Love's thrilling tumults then are felt no more, Quench'd is the gen'rous heat, the rapt'rous throbs are o'er!
'Twas thou, O Nymph, that led'st along
The fair Dione's wanton choir,
While to thy blithest, softest song,
Ten thousand Cupids strung the lyre:
Aloft in air the cherubs play'd
What time, in Cypria's myrtle-shade,
Young Adonis slumbʼring lay,
On a bed of blushing flowers,
Call'd to life by early May,
And the rosy-bosom'd Hours:
The Queen of Love beheld her darling boy,
In am'rous mood she nestled to his side,
And thus, to melt his frozen breast to joy,
Her wanton art she gayly-smiling try'd.
From the musk-rose, wet with dew,
And the lily's op'ning bell,
From fresh eglantine she drew
Sweets of aromatic smell:
Part of that honey next she took,
Which Cupid too advent'rous stole,
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