ODE XLIX. ΤΟ WISDOM. BY MRS. CARTER. THE solitary Bird of Night Thro' the pale shades now wings his flight, Beneath his ivy bow'r. With joy I hear the solemn sound, Which midnight echoes waft around, And sighing gales repeat: And, faithful to thy summons bend She loves the cool, the silent eve, Beneath the lunar ray : Here Folly drops each vain disguise, ! O Pallas! queen of ev'ry art "That glads the sense, or mends the heart," Blest source of purer joys: In ev'ry form of beauty bright, To thy unspotted shrine I bow: Not Fortune's Gem, Ambition's plume, To me thy better gifts impart, By studious thought refin'd: For Wealth, the smiles of glad content, When Fortune drops her gay parade, Unchang'd is thy immortal prize, By thee protected I defy The coxcomb's sneer, the stupid lie Of ignorance and spite: Alike contemn the leaden fool, Of undiscerning wit. From envy, hurry, noise and strife, Pursue thee to the peaceful groves, He bid Ilyssus' tuneful stream Of perfect, fair, and good: Attentive Athens caught the sound, And all her list'ning sons around, In awful silence stood. Reclaim'd her wild licentious youth, Confest the potent voice of truth, And felt its just controul: The passions ceas'd their loud alarms, And Virtue's soft persuasive charms O'er all their senses stole. Thy breath inspires the poet's song, No more to fabled names confin'd, O send her sure, her steady ray Beneath her clear discerning eye, Of Folly's painted show: She sees, thro' ev'ry fair disguise, ODE L. CONTRAST To the Foregoing ODE TO WISDOM. Now see my Goddess, earthly born, With smiling looks, and sparkling eyes, And with a bloom that shames the morn New risen in the eastern skies! Furnish'd from Nature's boundless store, She proves all far-sought knowledge vain. Untaught as Venus, when she found And unaccomplish'd all as Eve In the first morning of her life, |