And Vice reluctant quits th' expected | The strange misfortunes, oh! what words prey.

can tell ? Tell! ye neglected sylphs! who lap-dogs

guard, Cease, thou lorn mother ! cease thy why snatch'd ye not away your precious

2? wailings drear;

ward? Ve babes! the unconscious sob Why suffer'd ye the lover's weight to fall forego;

On the ill-fated neck of much-loved Ball ? Or let full gratitude now prompt the

The favourite on his mistress casts his tear

eyes, Which erst did sorrow force to flow.

Gives a short melancholy howl, andUnkindly cold and tempest shrill

dies. In life's morn oft the traveller chill,

Sacred his ashes lie, and long his rest! But soon his path the sun of Love shall

Anger and grief divide poor Julia's breast. warm;

Her eyes she fixt on guilty Florio first : And each glad scene look brighter for the

On him the storm of angry grief must storm!

1789.

burst.

The storm he fled: he wooes a kinder JULIA

fair,

Whose fond affections no dear puppies [IN CHRIST'S HOSPITAL BOOK]

share.

'Twere vain to tell, how Julia pin'd away: Medio de fonte leporum Surgit amari aliquid.

Unhappy Fair! that in one luckless

dayJULIA was blest with beauty, wit, and From future Almanacks the day becrost!grace:

At once her Lover and her Lap-dog lost. Small poets loved to sing her blooming

1789. face. Before her altars, lo! a numerous train Preferr'd their vows; yet all preferr'd in

QUE NOCENT DOCENT
vain,

[IN CHRIST'S HOSPITAL BOOK]
Till charming Florio, born to conquer,
came

O! mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos !
And touch'd the fair one with an equal Oh! might my ill-past hours return

| flame.

again! The flame she felt, and ill could she con

No more, as then, should Sloth around ceal

me throw
What every look and action would reveal.

Her soul-enslaving, leaden chain!
With boldness then, which seldom fails

No more the precious time would I

employ
He pleads the cause of Marriage and of In giddy revells, or in thoughtless joy,
Love:

A present joy producing future woe.
The course of IIymeneal joys he rounds,
The fair one's eyes danc'd pleasure at the But o'er the midnight Lamp I'd love to
sounds.

pore,
Nought now remain'd but Noes' -- how I'd seek with care fair Learning's depths
little meant !

to sound,
And the sweet coyness that endears con- And gather scientific Lore:
sent.

Or to mature the embryo thoughts in-
The youth upon his knees enraptur'd fell :

clin'd,

to move,

That hall-conceiv'd lay struggling in my I saw when from the turtle feast mind,

The thick dark smoke in volumes The cloisters' solitary gloom I'd round.

rose!

I saw the darkness of the mist 'Tis vain to wish, for Time has ta’en his

Encircle thee, O Nose! flight

Shorn of thy rays thou shott'st a fearful For follies past be ceas'd the fruitless

gleam tears :

(The turtle quiver'd with prophetic Let follies past to future care incite.

fright) Averse maturer judgements to obey

Gloomy and sullen thro’ the night of Youth owns, with pleasure owns, the

steam: Passions' sway,

So Satan's Nose when Dunstan urged But sage Experience only comes with

to flight, years.

1789. Glowing from gripe of red-hot pincers MS.

dread

Athwart the smokes of Hell disastrous THE NOSE

twilight shed! Ye souls unused to lofty verse Who sweep the earth with lowly

The Furies to madness my brain de

votewing, Like sand before the blast disperse

In robes of ice my body wrap!

On billowy flames of fire I float,
A Nose! a mighty Nose I sing !
As erst Prometheus stole from heaven

Ilear ye my entrails how they snap? the fire

Some power unseen forbids my lungs to

breathe! To animate the wonder of his hand; Thus with unhallow'd hands, O muse,

What fire-clad meteors round me aspire,

whizzing fly! And from my subject snatch a burn

I vitrify thy torrid zone beneath,

Proboscis fierce! I am calcined ! I ing brand !

die! So like the Nose I sing--my verse shall glow

Thus, like great Pliny, in Vesuvius' fire, Like Phlegethon my verse in waves of I perish in the blaze while I the blaze

admire. fire shall flow!

1789. Light of this once all darksome spot

TO THE MUSE
Where now their glad course mortals
run,

Tho' no bold flights to thee belong; First-born of Sirius begot

And tho' thy lays with conscious fear, Upon the focus of the sun

Shrink from Judgement's eye severe, I'll call thee —! for such thy earthly Yet much I thank thee, Spirit of my

-| name-What name so high, but what too low | For, lovely Muse! thy sweet employ must be ?

Exalts my soul, refines my breast, Comets, when most they drink the solar Gives each pure pleasure keener zest, flame

And softens sorrow into pensive Joy. Are but faint types and images of thee! From thee I learn’d the wish to bless, Burn madly, Fire! o’er earth in ravage From thee to commune with my heart; run,

From thee, dear Muse! the gayer part, Then blush for shame more red by fiercer To laugh with pity at the crowds that outdone!

press

song!

6

DESTRUCTION OF THE BASTILE--TO A YOUNG LADY

Where Fashion flaunts her robes by Such scenes no more demand the tear Folly spun,

humane; Whose hues gay-varying wanton in the I see, I see! glad Liberty succeed sun.

1789. With every patriot virtue in her train!

And mark yon peasant's raptured

eyes; DESTRUCTION OF THE BASTILE

Secure he views his harvests rise; 1

No fetter vile the mind shall know, HEARD'ST thou yon universal cry,

And Eloquence shall fearless glow. And dost thou linger still on Gallia's

Yes! Liberty the soul of Life shall

reign, shore ?

Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow Go, Tyranny! beneath some barbarous

thro' every vein! sky Thy terrors lost and ruin'd power

VI deplore! What tho’through many a groaning Shall France alone a Despot spurn?

a age

Shall she alone, O Freedom, boast Was felt thy keen suspicious rage,

thy care? Yet Freedom roused by fierce Dis- | Lo, round thy standard Belgia's heroes dain

burn, Has wildly broke thy triple chain,

Tho' Power's blood-stain'd streamers And like the storm which earth's deep

fire the air, entrails hide,

And wider yet thy influence spread, At length has burst its way and spread

Nor e'er recline thy weary head, the ruins wide.

Till every land from pole to pole

Shall boast one independent soul ! *

And still, as erst, let favour'd Britain be IV

First ever of the first and freest of the

free ! In sighs their sickly breath was spent;

? 1789. each gleam Of Hope had ceased the long long day

TO A YOUNG LADY to cheer; Or if delusive, in some fitting dream,

WITH A POEM ON THE FRENCH It gave them to their friends and

REVOLUTION
children dear-
Awaked by lordly Insult's sound

[Probably the preceding verses. ]
To all the doubled horrors round,

Much on my early youth I love to Oft shrunk they from Oppression's

dwell, band

Ere yet I bade that friendly dome fareWhile anguish raised the desperate

well, hand

Where first, beneath the echoing cloisters For silent death; or lost the mind's con

pale, troll,

I heard of guilt and wondered at the Thro' every burning vein would tides of

tale! Frenzy roll.

Yet though the hours flew by on careless

wing, V

Full heavily of Sorrow would I sing. But cease, ye pitying bosoms, cease to Aye as the star of evening flung its beam bleed !

In broken radiance on the wavy stream,

*

ΙΟ

care

20

My soul amid the pensive twilight gloomIf Smiles more winning, and a gentler Mourned with the breeze, O Lee Boo !1

Mien o'er thy tomb.

Than the love-wildered Maniac's brain Where'er I wandered, Pity still was near,

hath seen Breathed from the heart and glistened in Shaping celestial forms in vacant air, the tear :

If these demand the empassioned Poet's No knell that tolled but filled

my anxious eye,

If Mirth and softened Sense and Wit And suffering Nature wept that one

refined,
should die !

The blameless features of a lovely mind;
Then haply shall my trembling hand

assign
Thus to sad sympathies I soothed my
breast,

No fading wreath to Beauty's saintly shrine,

40 Calm, as the rainbow in the weeping Nor, Sara! thou these early flowers

, West:

refuse When slumbering Freedom roused with

Ne'er lurk’d the snake beneath their high Disdain

simple hues; With giant fury burst her triple chain ! Fierce on her front the blasting Dog-star

No purple bloom the Child of Nature

brings glowed; Her banners, like a midnight meteor,

From Flattery's night-shade: as he feels

he sings.
flowed ;

September 1792.
Amid the yelling of the storm-rent skies !
She came, and scattered battles from her

LIFE
eyes!
Then Exultation waked the patriot fire

As late I journey'd o'er the extensive And swept with wilder hand the Alcaan

plain

[stream, lyre:

Where native Otter sports his scanty Red from the Tyrant's wound I shook Musing in torpid woe a sister's pain,

the lance, And strode in joy the reeking plains of

The glorious prospect woke me from

the dream. France !

At every step it widen'd to my sight, Fallen is the oppressor, friendless, ghastly, Wood, Meadow, verdant Hill, and low,

dreary Steep. And my heart aches, though Mercy Following in quick succession of delight, struck the blow.

Till all--at once-did my eye ravish'd With wearied thought once more I seek

sweep! the shade, Where peaceful Virtue weaves the Myrtle May this (I cried) my course through Life braid.

portray!

[display, And 0 ! if Eyes whose holy glances roll, New scenes of wisdom may each step Swift messengers, and eloquent of soul ;

And knowledge open as my days

advance! 1 Lee Boo, the son of Abba Thule, Prince of

Till what time Death shall pour the unthe Pelew Islands, came over to England with

darken'd ray, Captain Wilson, died of the small-pox, and is buried in Greenwich church-yard. See Keate's

My eye shall dart thro' infinite expanse, Account of the Pelew Islands. 1788.

And thought suspended lie in rapture's 2 Southey's Retrospect.

blissful trance.

1789.

30