Her fyren voice, enchanting, draws him on
To guileful fhores, and meads of fatal joy.
Even prefent, in the very lap of love
Inglorious laid; while mufic flows around,
Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours;
Amid the rofes fierce Repentance rears
Her fnaky creft: a quick-returning pang
Shoots thro' the conscious heart; where honour ftill,
And great defign, against the oppreffive load
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave.
But abfent, what fantastic woes arous'd,
Rage in each thought, by restless mufing fed,
Chill the warm cheek, and blast the bloom of life?
Neglected fortune flies; and fliding fwift,
Prone into ruin, fall his fcorn'd affairs,
'Tis nought but gloom around; the darkened fun
Lofes his light. The rofy-bofom'd Spring
To weeping Fancy pines; and yon bright arch,
Contracted, bends into a dusky vault.
All Nature fades extinct; and she alone
Heard, felt, and feen, poffeffes every thought,
Books are but formal dulnefs, tedious friends:
And fad amid the focial band he fits,
Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue
Th' unfinish'd period falls: while, borne away
On fwelling thought, his wafted fpirit flies
To the vain bofom of his distant fair;
And leaves the femblance of a lover, fix'd
In melancholy fite, with head declin❜d,
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,
Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs
To glimmering fhades, and fympathetic glooms;
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling stream,
Romantic, hangs; there thro' the pensive dusk
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft,
Indulging all to love: or on the bank.
Thrown, amid drooping lilies, fwells the breeze
With fighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in foft anguifh he confumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the Moon
Peeps thro' the chambers of the fleecy east,
Enlightened by degrees, and in her train
Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks,
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam,
With foftened foul, and wooes the bird of eve
To mingle woes with his : or while the world
And all the fons of Care lie hufh'd in fleep,
Affociates with the midnight shadows drear;
And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours
His idly-tortur'd heart into the page,
Meant for the moving meffenger of love;
Where rapture burns on rapture, every line
With rifing frenzy fir'd. But if on bed
Delirious flung, fleep from his pillow flies.
All night he toffes, nor the balmy power
In any pofture finds; till the grey morn
Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch,
Exanimate by love: and then perhaps
Exhausted Nature finks a while to reft,
Still interrupted by distracted dreams,
That o'er the fick imagination rife,
And in black colours paint the mimic scene.
Oft with th' enchantrefs of his foul he talks ;
Sometimes in crowds diftrefs'd; or if retir'd
To fecret winding flower-enwoven bowers,
Far from the dull impertinence of Man,
Juft as he, credulous, his endless cares
Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love,
Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Thro' forefts huge, and long untravell❜d heaths
With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempeft wrapt: or shrinks aghaft,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and strives to reach
The farther fhore; where fuccourlefs, and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores;
But ftrives in vain: borne by th' outrageous flood
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,
Or whelm❜d beneath the boiling eddy finks.
These are the charming agonies of love,
Whofe mifery delights. But thro' the heart
Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful mifery no more,
But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blafting all
Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then,
Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace,
Shine out your last! the yellow-tinging plague
Internal vifion taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps.
Ah then! inftead of love-enlivened cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes
With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed,
Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire;
A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,
Where the whole poison'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondnefs, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and refolution frail,
Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours,
Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought,
Her first endearments twining round the soul,
With all the witchcraft of enfnaring love.
Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew,
Flames thro' the nerves, and boils along the veins;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For even the fad affurance of his fears
Were eafe to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds,
Thro' flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fevered rapture, or of cruel care;
His brightest flames extinguish'd all, and all
His lively moments running down to waste.
But happy they! the happieft of their kind!
Whom gentler ftars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. 'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
|