(The web is wove. The work is done.) Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn: In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, They melt, they vanish from my eyes. But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height Descending slow their glitt'ring skirts unroll? Visions of glory, spare my aching sight, Ye unborn Ages, crowd not on my soul! No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. All hail, ye genuine Kings, Britannia's Issue, hail!" III. 2. “Girt with many a Baron bold Sublime their starry fronts they rear; And gorgeous Dames, and Statesmen old In bearded majesty, appear. In the midst a Form divine! Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line; What strings symphonious tremble in the air, What strains of vocal transport round her play. Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear; They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. Bright Rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings, Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd wings." III. 3. "The verse adorn again Pale Grief, and Pleasing Pain, With Horrour, Tyrant of the throbbing breast. A Voice, as of the Cherub-Choir, Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings lessen on my ear, Fond impious Man, think'st thou, yon sanguine cloud, Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the Orb of day? To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, And warms the nations with redoubled ray. Enough for me: With joy I see The different doom our Fates assign. Be thine Despair, and sceptr❜d Care, To triumph, and to die, are mine." He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless night. Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774 THE DESERTED VILLAGE (1770) Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, Where health and plenty cheer'd the labouring swain, Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid, And parting summer's lingering blooms delay'd: How often have I paus'd on every charm, The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill, The hawthorn bush with seats beneath the shade, And still, as each repeated pleasure tir'd, reprove. These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these, With sweet succession, taught even toil to please; These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed; These were thy charms-but all these charms are fled. Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms with drawn; Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen, One only master grasps the whole domain, The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, A time there was, ere England's griefs began, When every rood of ground maintain'd its man: For him light labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life requir'd, but gave no more; His best companions, innocence and health, And his best riches, ignorance of wealth. But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train And every pang that folly pays to pride. scene, Liv'd in each look and brighten'd all the green- Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour, Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power. Here, as I take my solitary rounds Amidst thy tangling walks and ruin'd grounds, And, many a year elaps'd, return to view Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew, Remembrance wakes with all her busy train, Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain. In all my wanderings round this world of care, And as an hare whom hounds and horns pursue O blest retirement, friend to life's decline, |