"On Contemplation, or the hallow'd ear "Of Poet, fwelling to feraphic strain."

560

AND art thou, *STANLEY, of that facred band? Alas, for us too foon!-Tho' rais'd above

The reach of human pain, above the flight
Of human joy; yet, with a mingled ray
Of fadly-pleas'd remembrance, muft thou feel
A mother's love, a mother's tender woe:
Who seeks thee ftill, in many a former scene;
Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely-beaming eyes,
Thy pleafing converfe, by gay lively fenfe
Infpir'd: where moral wisdom mildly shone,
Without the toil of art; and virtue glow'd,
In all her fmiles, without forbidding pride.
But, O thou beft of parents! wipe thy tears;
Or rather to PARENTAL NATURE pay
The tears of grateful joy, who for a while
Lent thee this younger felf, this opening bloom
Of thy enlighten'd mind and gentle worth.
Believe the Mufe: the wintry blast of death
Kills not the buds of virtue; no, they spread,
Beneath the heavenly beam of brighter funs,
Thro' endless ages, into higher powers.

THUS up the mount, in airy vision wrapt,
I ftray, regardless whither; till the found

565

570

575

580

Of

* A young lady, well known to the author, who died at the age of eighteen, in the year 1738.

Of a near fall of water every sense

Wakes from the charm of thought: fwift-fhrinking back

I check my steps, and view the broken scene.

586

SMOOTH to the fhelving brink a copious flood Rolls fair, and placid; where collected all, In one impetuous torrent, down the steep Itthundering shoots, and shakes the country round. 590 At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad; Then whitening by degrees, as prone it falls, And from the loud-refounding rocks below Dash'd in a cloud of foam, it fends aloft A hoary mift, and forms a ceafeless shower. Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repofe: But, raging ftill amid the fhaggy rocks, Now flashes o'er the scatter'd fragments, now Aflant the hollowed channel rapid darts; And falling faft from gradual flope to slope, With wild infracted courfe, and leffened roar, It gains a fafer bed, and steals, at last, Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

INVITED from the cliff, to whofe dark brow
He clings, the steep-afcending eagle foars,
With upward pinions thro' the flood of day;
And, giving full his bofom to the blaze,
Gains on the fun; while all the tuneful race,
Smit by afflictive noon, diforder'd droop,
Deep in the thicket; or, from bower to bower

595

600

605

610 Refponfive,

Refponfive, force an interrupted strain.
The stock-dove only thro' the forest cooes,
Mournfully hoarfe; oft ceafing from his plaint,
Short interval of weary woe! again
The fad idea of his murder'd mate,

Struck from his fide by favage fowler's guile,
Acrofs his fancy comes; and then refounds
A louder fong of forrow thro' the grove.

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620

BESIDE the dewy border let me fit,
All in the freshnefs of the humid air;
There on that hollowed rock, grotefque and wild,
An ample chair mofs-lin'd, and over head
By flowering umbrage fhaded; where the bee
Strays diligent, and with th' extracted balm
Of fragrant wood bine loads his little thigh.

Now, while I taste the fweetnefs of the fhade.
While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in Noon,
Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring flight,
And view the wonders of the torrid Zone:

625

Climes unrelenting! with whofe rage compar'd, 630
Yon blaze is feeble, and yon fkies are cool.

SEE, how at once the bright-effulgent fun,
Rifing direct, fwift chases from the sky
The short-liv'd twilight; and with ardent blaze
Looks gayly fierce o'er all the dazzling air:
He mounts his throne; but kind before him fends,
Iffuing from out the portals of the morn,

E 2

635

The

1

The general Breeze, to mitigate his fire,

639

And breathe refreshment on a fainting world.
Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown'd
And barbarous wealth, that fee, each cirling year,
·Returning funs and double feafons pass:

Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,
That on the high equator ridgy rife,

Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays: 645 Majestic woods, of every vigorous green,

650

Stage above stage, high-waving o'er the hills;
Or to the far horizon wide diffus'd,
A boundless deep immenfity of fhade
Here lofty trees, to antient fong unknown,
The noble fons of potent heat and floods
Prone-rufhing from the clouds, rear high to Heaven
Their thorny stems, and broad around them throw
Meridian gloom. Here, in eternal prime,
Unnumber'd fruits, of keen delicious taste
And vital spirit, drink amid the cliffs,
And burning fands that bank the shrubby vales,
Redoubled day, yet in their rugged coats
A friendly juice to cool its rage contain.

655

BEAR

*Which blows conftantly between the tropics from the eaft, or the collateral points, the north east and fouth-eaft: caufed by the preffure of the rarified air on that before it, according to the diurnal motion of the fun from east to west.

+In all places between the tropics, the fun, as he taffes and repaffes in his annual motion, is twice a year 1erpendicular, which produces this effect.

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66/

670

BEAR me, Pomona! to thy citron groves; To where the lemon and the piercing lime,, With the deep orange, glowing thro' the green, . Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclin'd Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes, Fann'd by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit. Deep in the night the mafly locuft fheds, Quench my het limbs; or lead me thro' the maze, Embowering endlefs, of the Indian fig; Or thrown at gayer cafe, on fome fair brow, Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cool'd, Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave, And high palmetos lift their graceful shade. O ftretch'd amid these orchards of the fun, Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl, And from the palm to draw its freshening wine! 675 More bounteous far than all the frantic juice Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its flender twigs Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorn'd; Nor, creeping thro' the woods, the gelid race Of berries. Oft in humble ftation dwells Unboaftful worth, above faftidious pomp.. Witness, thou best Anâna, thou the pride Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er The poets imag'd in the golden age: Quick, let me ftrip thee of thy tufty coat, Spread thy ambrofial stores, and feast with Jove!

680

685.