When be, whom ev'n our joys provoke, The fiend of Nature, join'd his yoke, And rush'd in wrath to make our isle his prey; Thy form from out thy sweet abode. O'ertook him on his blasted road, And stopp'd his wheels, and look'd his rage away That bore him swift to savage deeds, To thee we build a roseate bower, Thou, thou shalt rule our queen, and share our monarch's throne! TO HOPE. Ab, woe is me! from day to day Yet still, sweet hope, I hear thee say "Be calm, thine ills will end to-morrow." The morrow comes, but brings to me Sweet Hope, thy promises deceiving! Yet, false and cruel as thou art, HOPE. The wretch condemn'd with life to part, Still, still on hope relies; And every pang that rends the heart, Bids expectation rise. Hope, like the glimm'ring tapers light, And still, as darker grows the night, PITY. fail lovely pow'r, whose bosom heaves a sigh, When fancy paints the scene of deep distress; Vhose tears spontaneous chrystalize the eye, When rigid fate denies the pow'r to bless. Not all the sweets Arabia's gales convey Devoid of fear the fawns around thee play; Emblems of peace, the dove before thee flies; No blood-stain'd traces mark thy blameless way, Beneath thy feet no hapless insect dies. Come, lovely nymph! and range the mead with me, To spring the partridge from the guileful foe, From secret snares the struggling bird to free, And stop the hand uprais'd to give the blow. And when the air with heat meridian glows, And nature droops beneath the conq'ring gleam, Let us, slow wand'ring where the current flows, Save sinking flies that float along the stream. Or turn to nobler, greater tasks thy care, Teach me, in friendship's grief, to bear a share; Teach me to sooth the helpless orphan's grief ; With timely aid the widow's woes assuage; To mis'ry's moving cries to yield relief, Aud be the sure resource of drooping age. So when the verdant spring of youth shall fade, And sinking nature owns the dread decay, Some soul congenial then may lend its aid, And gild the close of life's eventful day. |