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Though taste, though genius, bless

To some divine excess,

Faints the cold work till thou inspire the whole;
What each, what all supply,

May court, may charm, our eye;

Thou, only thou canst raise the meeting soul!

Of these let others ask,

To aid some mighty task,

I only seek to find thy temperate vale;
Where oft my reed might sound

To maids and shepherds round,

And all thy sons, O Nature, learn my tale.

ODE

ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER.

S once,-if, not with light regard,

AS

I read aright that gifted bard, -Him whose school above the rest His loveliest elfin queen has blest;One, only one, unrival'd fair, Might hope the magic girdle wear, At solemn turney hung on high, The wish of each love-darting eye;

-Lo! to each other nymph, in turn, applied,
As if, in air unseen, some hovering hand,
Some chaste and angel-friend to virgin-fame,
With whisper'd spell had burst the starting band,

Florimel. See Spenser Leg. 4th.

It left unblest her loath'd dishonour'd side;
Happier hopeless Fair, if never

Her baffled hand with vain endeavour,
Had touch'd that fatal zone to her denied!

Young Fancy thus, to me divinest name,
To whom, prepar'd and bath'd in heaven,
The cest of amplest power is given:
To few the godlike gifts assigns,

To gird their best prophetic loins,

And gaze her visions wild, and feel unmix'd her flame!

The band, as fairy legends say,..

Was wove on that creating day

When He, who call'd with thought to birth

Yon tented sky, this laughing earth,

And drest with springs and forests tall,

And pour'd the main engirting all,
Long by the lov'd enthusiast woo'd,
Himself in some diviner mood,
Retiring, sat with her alone,

And plac'd her on his sapphire throne;
The whiles, the vaulted shrine around,
Seraphic wires were heard to sound,
Now sublimest triumph 'swelling,
Now on love and mercy dwelling;
And she, from out the veiling cloud,
Breath'd her magic notes aloud:
And thou, thou rich-hair'd youth of morn,
And all thy subject life was born!
The dangerous passions kept aloof,
Fair from the sainted growing woof:
But near it sat ecstatic Wonder,
Listening the deep applauding thunder;
And Truth, in sunny vest array'd,
By whose the tarsel's eyes were made;

All the shadowy tribes of mind,

In braided dance, their murmurs join'd,
And all the bright uncounted powers
Who feed on heaven's ambrosial flowers.
-Where is the bard whose soul can now
Its high presuming hopes avow?
Where he who thinks, with rapture blind,
This hallow'd work for him design'd?

High on some cliff, to heaven up pil'd,
Of rude access, of prospect wild,

Where, tangled round the jealous steep,
Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep,
And holy Genii guard the rock,

Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock,
While on its rich ambitious head,
An Eden, like his own, lies spread.

I view that oak, the fancied glades among,
By which as Milton lay, his evening ear,

From many a cloud that dropp'd ethereal dew,

Nigh spher'd in heaven, its native strains could hear; On which that ancient trump he reach'd was hung: Thither oft, his glory greeting,

From Waller's myrtle shades retreating,

With many a vow from Hope's aspiring tongue,
My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue;
In vain-Such bliss to one alone,

Of all the sons of soul, was known;

And Heaven, and Fancy, kindred powers,,
Have now o'erturn'd th' inspiring bowers;

Or curtain'd close such scene from ev'ry future view.

ODE,

WRITTEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1746.

HOW sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould.
She there shall dress a sweeter sod,
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung ;
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall a while repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there!

ODE TO MERCY.

STROPHE.

THOU, who sit'st a smiling bride
By valour's arm'd and awful side,
Gentlest of sky-born forms, and best ador'd;
Who oft with songs, divine to hear,
Win'st from his fatal grasp the spear,

And hid'st in wreaths of flow'rs his bloodless sword!
Thou who, amidst the deathful field,

By godlike chiefs alone beheld,

Oft with thy bosom bare art found,

Pleading for him the youth who sinks to ground:

See, Mercy, see, with pure and loaded hands, Before thy shrine my country's genius stands, And decks thy altar still, tho' pierc'd with many a wound!

ANTISTROPHE.

When he 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 stop'd his wheels, and look'd his rage away.

I see recoil his sable steeds,

That bore him swift to savage deeds,
Thy tender melting eyes they own;
O maid, for all thy love to Britain shown,
Where Justice bars her iron tow'r,

To thee we build a roseate bow'r,

Thou, thou shalt rule our queen, and share our monarch's throne!

ODE TO LIBERTY.

STROPHE.

WHO shall awake the Spartan fife,
And call in solemn sounds to life,
The youths, whose locks divinely spreading,
Like vernal hyacinths in sullen hue,

At once the breath of fear and virtue shedding,
Applauding Freedom lov'd of old to view?

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