Ah! WINTER, calm thy cruel rage,
Release the struggling year;
Thy power is past, decrepit Sage,
Arise and disappear.

The stars that graced thy splendid night

Are lost in warmer rays;

The Sun, rejoicing in his might,
Unrolls celestial days.

Then why, usurping WINTER, why

Still flags thy frozen wing?

Fly, unrelenting tyrant, fly

And yield the year to SPRING.

ROUND LOVE'S ELYSIAN BOWERS.

ROUND LOVE'S Elysian bowers

The fairest prospects rise;
There bloom the sweetest flowers,
There shine the purest skies:

And joy and rapture gild awhile
The cloudless heaven of BEAUTY'S smile.

Round LovE's deserted bowers

Tremendous rocks arise;
Cold mildews blight the flowers,
Tornadoes rend the skies:

And PLEASURE's waning moon goes down
Amid the night of BEAUTY's frown.

Then YOUTH, thou fond believer!

The wily Syren shun;

Who trusts the dear deceiver

Will surely be undone :

When BEAUTY triumphs, ah! beware;

Her smile is hope-her frown despair.

LINES

WRITTEN UNDER

A DRAWING OF YARDLEY OAK,

CELEBRATED BY COWPER.

See Hayley's Life and Letters of W. Cowper, Esq.

THIS sole survivor of a race

Of giant oaks, where once the wood
Rang with the battle or the chase,
In stern and lonely grandeur stood.
From age to age it slowly spread
Its gradual boughs to sun and wind;
From age to age its noble head

As slowly wither'd and declined.

A thousand years are like a day,

When fled;—no longer known than seen;
This tree was doom'd to pass away,
And be as if it ne'er had been ;-

But mournful CowPER, wandering nigh,
For rest beneath its shadow came,
When, lo! the voice of days gone by
Ascended from its hollow frame.

O that the Poet had reveal'd

The words of those prophetic strains, Ere death the eternal mystery seal'd

Yet in his song the Oak remains.

And fresh in undecaying prime,
There may it live, beyond the power
Of storm and earthquake, Man and Time,
Till Nature's conflagration-hour.

WRITTEN FOR A SOCIETY,

WHOSE MOTTO WAS "FRIEndship, love, AND TRUTH."

WHEN "Friendship, Love, and Truth" abound Among a band of BROTHERS,

The cup of joy goes gaily round,

Each shares the bliss of others:
Sweet roses grace the thorny way
Along this vale of sorrow;

The flowers that shed their leaves to-day
Shall bloom again to-morrow:
How grand in age, how fair in youth,
Are holy "FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and TRUTH!"

On halcyon wings our moments pass,
Life's cruel cares beguiling;

Old TIME lays down his scythe and glass,
In gay good-humour smiling:
With ermine beard and forelock gray,
His reverend front adorning,
He looks like Winter turn'd to May,
Night soften'd into morning.

How grand in age, how fair in youth,
Are holy "FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and TRUTH !”

From these delightful fountains flow
Ambrosial rills of pleasure:
Can man desire, can Heaven bestow
A more resplendent treasure?
Adorn'd with gems so richly bright,
We'll form a Constellation,

Where every Star, with modest light,
Shall gild his proper station.

How grand in age, how fair in youth,
Are holy "FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, and TRUTH!"

RELIGION.

AN OCCASIONAL HYMN.

THROUGH shades and solitudes profound The fainting traveller winds his way; Bewildering meteors glare around,

And tempt his wandering feet astray.

Welcome, thrice welcome, to his eye
The sudden moon's inspiring light,
When forth she sallies through the sky,
The guardian angel of the night.

Thus mortals, blind and weak, below
Pursue the phantom Bliss, in vain;

The world's a pilgrimage of wo,
And life a pilgrimage of pain,

Till mild RELIGION, from above,
Descends, a sweet engaging form-
The messenger of heavenly love,
The bow of promise in a storm.

Then guilty passions wing their flight,
Sorrow, remorse, affliction cease;

RELIGION'S yoke is soft and light,

And all her paths are paths of peace.

Ambition, pride, revenge depart,

And folly flies her chastening rod; She makes the humble contrite heart A temple of the living God.

Beyond the narrow vale of time,

Where bright celestial ages roll,

To scenes eternal, scenes sublime,

She points the way, and leads the soul.

1799.

At her approach the Grave appears
The Gate of Paradise restored;
Her voice the watching Cherub hears,
And drops his double-flaming sword.
Baptized with her renewing fire,

May we the crown of glory gain ;
Rise when the Host of Heaven expire,
And reign with God, for ever reign !

VOL. II.

THE JOY OF GRIEF.

SWEET the hour of tribulation,
When the heart can freely sigh,

And the tear of resignation

Twinkles in the mournful eye.

Have you felt a kind emotion

Tremble through your troubled breast;

Soft as evening o'er the ocean,

When she charms the waves to rest?

Have you

lost a friend, or brother?

Heard a father's parting breath ?

Gazed upon a lifeless mother,

Till she seem'd to wake from death?

Have you felt a spouse expiring
In your arms before your view?
Watch'd the lovely soul retiring
From her eyes that broke on you?
Did not grief then grow romantic,
Raving on remember'd bliss?
Did you not, with fervour frantic,
Kiss the lips that felt no kiss?

Yes! but when you had resign'd her,
Life and you were reconciled;

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