"Mark maiden innocence, a prey
To love-pretending snares,
This boasted honor turns away,
Shunning soft pity's rising sway,

Regardless of the tears, and unavailing prayers!
Perhaps, this hour, in mis'ry's squalid nest,
She strains your infant to her joyless breast,
And with a mother's fears shrieks at the rocking blast

66

"O ye! who, sunk in beds of down,

Feel not a want but what yourselves create,
Think for a moment on his wretched fate,
Whom friends and fortune quite disown!
Ill satisfied keen nature's clam'rous call,
Stretch'd on his straw, he lays himself to sleep,
While thro' the ragged roof and chinky wall,
Chill o'er his slumbers piles the drifty heap!
Think on the dungeon's grim confine,
Where guilt and poor misfortune pine!
Guilt, erring man, relenting view!
But shall thy legal rage pursue

The wretch already crushed low

By cruel fortune's undeserved blow!
Affliction's son's are brothers in distress,
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!"

I heard nae mair, for Chanticleer
Shook off the pouthery snaw,

And hail'd the morning with a cheer,
A cottage-rousing craw.

But deep this truth impress'd my mind

Thro' all his works abroad,

The heart, benevolent and kind,

The most resembles GOD.

WINTER.

A DIRGE.

I.

THE wintry west extends his blast,
And hail and rain does blaw;

Or, the stormy north sends driving forth
The blinding sleet and snaw:

While tumbling brown, the burn comes down.
And roars frae bank to brae;

And bird and beast in covert rest,

And pass the heartless day.

II.

"The sweeping blast, the sky o'ercast,"

The joyless winter day,

Let others fear, to me more dear

Than all the pride of May!

The tempest's howl, it soothes my soul,
My griefs it seems to join,

The leafless trees my fancy please,

Their fate resembles mine!

III.

Thou Pow'r Supreme, whose mighty scheme

These woes of mine fulfil,

Here, firm, I rest—they must be best,

Because they are thy will!

* Dr. Young.

Then all I want, (O, do thou grant
This one request of mine!)
Since to enjoy thou dost deny,
Assist me to resign.

DESPONDENCY.

AN ODE.

I.

OPPRESS'D with grief, oppress'd with care,

A burden more than I can bear,
I sit me down and sigh;
O life, thou art a galling load,

A long, a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I!

Dim, backward as I cast my view,
What sick'ning scenes appear!
What sorrows yet may pierce me thro',

Too justly I may fear!

Still caring, despairing,

Must be my bitter doom;

My woes here shall close ne'er,

But with the closing tomb!

11.

Happy, ye sons of busy life,

Who, equal to the bustling strife,
No other view regard!

Ev'n when the wished end's denied,
Yet while the busy means are ply'd.
They bring their own reward:

Whilst I, a hope-abandon'd wight,
Unfitted with an aim,

Meet ev'ry sad returning night,
And joyless morn, the same.
You, bustling and justling,
Forget each grief and pain;
I, listless, yet restless,
Find ev'ry prospect vain.

III.

How blest the Solitary's lot,
Who, all-forgetting, all-forgot,
Within his humble cell,

The cavern wild with tangling roots,
Sits o'er his newly-gather'd fruits,
Beside his crystal well!
Or, haply, to his evening thought,
By unfrequented stream,
The ways of men are distant brought,
A faint collected dream;

While praising, and raising

His thoughts to Heav'n on high,

As wand'ring, meand'ring,

He views the solemn sky.

IV.

Then I, no lonely hermit plac'd
Where never human footstep trac❜d,
Less fit to play the part;
The lucky moment to improve,

And just to stop, and just to move,

With self-respecting art:

But ah! those pleasures, loves, and joys,

Which I too keenly taste,

The Solitary can despise,

Can want, and yet be blest!
He needs not, he heeds not,
Or human love or hate,
Whilst I here, must cry here,
At perfidy ingrate !

V.

Oh! enviable, early days,

When dancing, thoughtless pleasure's maze,
To care, to guilt unknown!
How ill exchang'd for riper times,
To feel the follies, or the crimes,
Of others, or my own!

Ye tiny elves that guiltless sport,
Like linnets in the bush,
Ye little know the ills ye court,
When manhood is your wish!
The losses, the crosses,
That active man engage!
The fears all, the tears all,
Of dim declining age!

TO RUIN.

1.

ALL hail! inexorable lord!

At whose destruction-breathing word

The mightiest empires fall!
Thy cruel, wo-delighted train,
The ministers of grief and pain,

A sullen welcome, all!