Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

ON QUITTING SCHOOL FOR COLLEGE FAREWELL parental scenes! a sad farewell!

To you my grateful heart still fondly

Tho'

[blocks in formation]

Those Hours on rapid Pinions flown
Shall yet return, by Absence crowned,
And scatter livelier roses round.

clings,
fluttering round on Fancy's The Sun who ne'er remits his fires
burnish'd wings
On heedless eyes may pour the day :

Her tales of future Joy Hope loves to tell.
Adieu, adieu! ye much-loved cloisters
pale!

Ah! would those happy days return again,

1 Empress of Russia.

The Moon, that oft from Heaven retires,
Endears her renovated ray.

What though she leave the sky unblest
To mourn awhile in murky vest?
When she relumes her lovely light,
We bless the Wanderer of the Night.

1791.

PHILEDON

O, curas hominum! O, quantum est in rebus inane!

THE fervid Sun had more than halved the day,

When gloomy on his couch Philedon lay; His feeble frame consumptive as his

purse,

His aching head did wine and women

curse;

His fortune ruin'd and his wealth decay'd, Clamorous his duns, his gaming debts unpaid,

The youth indignant seized his tailor's bill,

And on its back thus wrote with moral

quill:

Various as colours in the rainbow

shown,

Or similar in emptiness alone,

ΙΟ

Infirm of soul! who think'st to lift thy

name

Upon the waxen wings of human fame,— Who for a sound, articulated breathGazest undaunted in the face of death! 30 What art thou but a Meteor's glaring light

Blazing a moment and then sunk in night?

Caprice which raised thee high shall hurl thee low,

Or envy blast the laurels on thy brow. To such poor joys could ancient Honour lead

When empty fame was toiling Merit's meed;

To Modern Honour other lays belong; Profuse of joy and Lord of right and wrong,

Honour can game, drink, riot in the stew,

How false, how vain are Man's pursuits Cut a friend's throat;—what cannot

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

possest:

'Twas Brookes's all till two, - 'twas Hackett's all the rest!

[Cambridge.]

ON IMITATION

70

1791.

Where first his infant buds appear;
Or upwards dart with soaring force,
And tempt some more ambitious course?
Obedient now to Hope's command,
I bid each humble wish expand,
And fair and bright Life's prospects seem,
While Hope displays her cheering beam,
And Fancy's vivid colourings stream, 11
While Emulation stands me nigh
The Goddess of the eager eye.

With foot advanced and anxious heart
Now for the fancied goal I start :—
Ah! why will Reason intervene
Me and my promised joys between!
She stops my course, she chains my speed,
While thus her forceful words proceed :-
'Ah! listen, youth, ere yet too late, 20
What evils on thy course may wait!
To bow the head, to bend the knee,
A minion of Servility,

At low Pride's frequent frowns to sigh,
And watch the glance in Folly's eye;
To toil intense, yet toil in vain,
And feel with what a hollow pain
Pale Disappointment hangs her head
O'er darling Expectation dead!

30

'The scene is changed and Fortune's gale Shall belly out each prosperous sail. Yet sudden wealth full well I know Did never happiness bestow.

That wealth to which we were not born

ALL are not born to soar-and ah! how Dooms us to sorrow or to scorn.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

But sounds that variously express, What's thine already-Happiness! 'Tis thine the converse deep to hold With all the famous sons of old; And thine the happy waking dream While Hope pursues some favourite theme,

80

As oft when Night o'er Heaven is spread,
Round this maternal seat you tread,
Where far from splendour, far from riot,
In silence wrapt sleeps careless quiet.
'Tis thine with fancy oft to talk,
And thine the peaceful evening walk;
And what to thee the sweetest are-
The setting sun, the evening star-
The tints, which live along the sky,
And Moon that meets thy raptured eye,
Where oft the tear shall grateful start,
Dear silent pleasures of the Heart !
Ah! Being blest, for Heaven shall lend
To share thy simple joys a friend!
Ah! doubly blest, if Love supply
His influence to complete thy joy,
If chance some lovely maid thou find
To read thy visage in thy mind.

90

'One blessing more demands thy

care :

Once more to Heaven address the prayer:
For humble independence pray
The guardian genius of thy way;

[blocks in formation]

A CHRISTMAS TALE, TOLD BY A SCHOOL-BOY TO HIS LITTLE BROTHERS AND SISTERS

UNDERNEATH a huge oak tree
There was of swine a huge company,
That grunted as they crunched the mast :
For that was ripe, and fell full fast.
Then they trotted away, for the wind
grew high:

One acorn they left, and no more might you spy.

Next came a Raven, that liked not such folly:

He belonged, they did say, to the witch Melancholy!

Blacker was he than blackest jet, Flew low in the rain, and his feathers not wet.

10

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
« VorigeDoorgaan »