POEMS CHRISTOPHER SMART. ODES. Happy Muse, that didst embrace Oft thro' my eyes my soul has flown, IDLENESS. ODE 1. Obsequious to the Muse and me; Oh! sweet insensibility ! Sister of peace and indolence, Bring, Muse, bring numbers soft and slow, ! Elaborately void of sense, And sweetly thoughtless let them flow. Near some cowslip-painted mead, There let me doze out the dull hours, and under me let Flora spread, A sofa of her softest flow'rs. When first at Nature's early birth, Where, Philomel, your notes yout breathe Forth from behind the neighbouring pine, And murmurs of the stream beneath Still flow in unison with thine. For thee, O Idleness, the woes ON AN EAGLE CONFINED IN A COLLEGE COURT. We shun thee but to make thee sure. . ODE III. For who'd sustain war's toil and waste, Imperial bird, who wont to soar Or who th' hoarse thund'ring of the sea, High o'er the rolling cloud, But to be idle at the last, Where Hyperborean mountains hoar Their heads in ether shroud ; - Who, free and swift as thought, could'st rove To the bleak north's extremest goal ; Thou, who magnanimous could'st bear Oh cruel fate! what barbarous hand, What more than Gothic ire, At some fierce tyrant's dread command, In fair Ethelinda's breast! To check thy daring fire, VOL. XVI. Has plac'd thee in this servile cell, See-hear the storms tempestuous sweep Where discipline and dulness dwell, Precipitate it falls--it falls-falls lifeless in the Where genius ne'er was seen to roam; deep. Where ev'ry selfish soul's at rest, Cease, cease, ye weeping youth, Nor ever quits the carnal breast, Sincerity's soft sighs, and all the tears of truth. But lurks and sneaks at home! And you, his kindred throng, forbear Marble memorials to prepare, Tho' dim'd thine eye, and clipt thy wing Apd sculptur'd in your breasts his busto wear. So gror'ling! once so great! 'Twas thus when Israel's legislator dy'd, The grief-inspired Muse shall sing Vo fragile mortal honours were supply'd, Ja tend'rest lays thy fate. But even a grave denied. What time by thee scholastic pride Better than what the pencil's daub can give, Takes his precise, pedantic stride, Better than all that Phidias ever wrought, Nor on thy mis’ry casts a care, Is this that what he taught shall live, The stream of love ne'er from his heart And what he liv'd for ever shall be taught, Flows out, to act fair pity's part; But stinks, and stagnates there. ON GOOD-NATURE. ODE V. Haur cherub of the highest Heav'n, Of look divine, and temper ev'n, Who study downward on the ground; Celestial sweetness, exquisite of mien, Type of the fall of Greece and Rome; Of ev'ry virtue, ev'ry praise the queen! Soft gracefulness, and blooming youth, That friendship reigns, no interest can divide, ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF A And great humility looks down on pride. Oh! curse on slander's viprous tongue, That daily dares thy merit wrong; Ideots usurp thy title, and thy frame, I,, like th' Orphean lyre, my song could charm' Without or virtue, talent, taste, or name. And light to life the ashes in the urn, Fate of his iron dart I would disarm, Is apathy, is heart of steel, Sudden as thy disease should'st thou return, Nor ear to hear, nor sense to feel, Recall'd with mandates of despotic sounds, Life idly inoffensive such a grace, And arbitrary grief that will not hear of bounds. That it shou'd steal thy name and take thy But, ah ! such wishes, artless Muse, forbear; place? No-thou art active spirit all Of injur'd innocence, or griev'd desert, Impatient of a rein, Thou caost notin due bounds the struggling mea. | Thy appetites in easy tides sures keep, (As reason's luminary guides) -But thou alas! canst weep Soft flow--no wind can work them to a storm, Thou canst-and o'er the melancholy bier Correctly quick, dispassionately warm. Canst lend the sad solemnity a tear. (cold, Yet if a transport thou canst feel Hail ! to that wretched corse, untenanted and And hail the peaceful sbade loos’d from its irk "Tis only for thy neighbours weal : [move, some hold. Great, generous acts thy ductile passions Now let me say thou’rt free, And smilingly thou weep'st with joy and For sure thou paid'st an heavy tax for life, love. While combating for thee, | Mild is thy mind to cover shame, Nature and mortality | Averse to envy, slow to blame, Maintain'd a daily strife, High, on a slender thread thy vital lamp was Bursting to praise, yet still sincere and free From flattery's fawning tongue, and bending plac'd Upon the mountain's bleakest brow, knee. To give a noble light superior was it rais'd, Extensive, as from west to east, But more expos'd by eminence it blaz'd; Thy love descends from man to beast, For not a whistling wind that blew, Nought is excluded, little, or infirm, Nor the drop descending dew, Thou canst with greatness stoop to save a But half extinguish'd its fair fame-but now worm. Come, goddess, come with all thy charms, Next comes illiberal scrambling Avarice, Then Vanity, and Affectation nice- As in short Gallic trips she minces by, And squeamishly she knits her scornful brow, To thee, Ill-Nature, all the numerous group With lowly reverence stoop- They wait thy call, and mourn thy long delay, Away-thou art infectious haste away, OFFSPRING of folly and of pride, To all that's odjous, all that's base allied ; Nurs’d up by vice, by pravity misled, TO THE REVEREND AND LEARNED Dr. WEBSTER, . Occasioned by his Dialogues on Anger and Por. Fly to some gloomy shade, por blot the goodly light. giveness. Thy planet was remote, when I was born ; ODE VII. 'Twas Mercury that rul'd my natal morn, What time the Sun exerts his genial ray, I'Twas when the omniscient creative pow'r And ripens for enjoyment every growing day; l Display'd his wonders by a mortal's hand, When to exist is but to love and sing, And, delegated at th' appointed hour, And sprightly Aries smiles upon the spring. Great Moses led away his chosen band; When Israel's bost, with all their stores, There in yon lonesome heath, Past thro' the ruby-tinctur'd crystal shores, Which Flora, or Sylvanus never knew, The wilderness of waters and of land : Where never vegetable drank the dew, Then persecution rag'd in Heav'n's own cause, Or beast, or fowl attempts to breathe; Strict justice for the breach of Nature's laws, Where Nature's pencil has no colours laid ; The legislator held the scythe of fate, Bat all is blank, and universal shade; Where'er his legions chanc'd to stray, Contrast to figure, motion, life and light, Death and destruction mark'd their bloody There may'st thou vent thy spite, way ; For ever cursing, and for ever curs'd, Immoderate was their rage, for mortal was their Of all th’infernal crew the worst; hate. The worst in genius, measure and degree; For envy, hatred, malice, are but parts of thee. But when the King of Righteousness arose, And on the illumin'd east serenely smild, Or would'st thou change the scene, and quit the He shune with meekest mercy on his foes, Behold the Heav'n-deserted fen, [den, Bright as the Sun, but as the Moon-beams Where spleen, by vapours dense begot and bred, mild; Hardness of heart, and heaviness of head, From anger, fell revenge, and discord free, Have rais'd their darksome walls, and plac'd their He bad war's hellish clangour cease, thoray ted; In pastoral simplicity and peace, There may'st thou all thy bitterness unload, And show'd to man that face, which Moses could There may'st thou croak in concert with the toad, not see. With thee the hollow howling winds shall join, Well hast thou, Webster, pictur'd Christian love, Nor shall the bittern her base throat deny, The querulous frogs shall mix their dirge with And copied our great master's fair design, thine, But livid Envy would the light remove, Th'ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high, Or croud thy portrait in a nook malign Millions of humming gnats fit æstrum shall The Muse shall hold it up to popular view Where the more candid and judicious few supply. Shall think the bright original they see, Away-away-behold an hideous band The likeness nobly lost in the identity. An herd of all thy minions are at hand, Saspicion first with jealous caution stalks, Oh hadst thou liv'd in better days than these, And ever looks around her as she walks, F'er to excel by all was deem'd a shame! With bibulous ear imperfect sounds to catch, Alas! thou hast no modern arts to please, And prompt to listen at her neighbours latch. And to deserve is all thy empty claim. Else thou’dst been plac'd, by learning, and by Foe to the vn gins, and the poet's fame, wit, A wither'd time-deflower'd old maid, There, where thy dignify'd inferiors sit That ne'er enjoy'd love's ever sacred fame. Ob they are in their generations wise, Hypocrisy succeeds with saint-like look, Each path of interest they bave sagely trod, And elevates her hands aud plods upon her To live-to thrive-to rise-and still to rise book. Better to bow to men, than kneel to God. sale." Beholl where poor unmansion'd Merit stands, From the Zephyrs steal her sighs, All cold, and crampt with penury and pain ; From thyself her sun-bright eyes; Speechless thro’ want, she rears th' imploring Then baffled, thou shalt see, hands, That as did Daphne thee, And beys a little bread, but begs ip vain; Her charms description's force shall ny, While Bribery and Dullness, passing by, | And by no soft persuasive sounds be brib'd Bid her, in sounds barbarian, starve and die. To come within Inrention's parrow eye; “ Away” (they cry) “we never saw thy But all indignant shun its grasp, and scorn to be name [Fame; describ'd. Or in Preferment's list, or that of Away--nor here the fate thou earn'st be Now see the bridegroom rise, wail, Oh! how impatient are bis joys! Who canst not buy a vote, nor hast a soul for Bring zephyrs to depaint his voice, Bring lightning for his eyes. Oh Indignation, wherefore wert thou given, He leaps, he springs, he thies into her arins, If drowsy Patience deaden all thy rage? With joy intense, Yet we must bear--such is the will of Heaven; Feeds ev'ry sense, 1. And sultanates o'er all her charms. And, Webster, so prescribes thy candid page. Oh ! bad I Virgil's comprehensive strain, Then let us hear thee preach seraphic love, | Or sung like Pope, without a word in vain, Guide our disgusted thoughts to things above; So our free souls, fed with divine repast, Then should I hope my numbers might con tain, (Unmindful of low mortals mean employ) Shall taste the present, recollect the past, Engaging nymph, thy boundless happiness, How arduous to express ! And strongly hope for every future joy, Such may it last to all eternity : And may thy lord with thce, Like two coeval pines in ida's grove, That interweave their verdant arms in love, Each mutual office cheerfully perform, And share alike the sunshine, and the storm ; Descend, descend, ye sweet Aonian maids, And ever, as you flourish hand in hand, Both shade the shepherd and adorn the land, Together with each growing year arise, Indissolubly link’d, and climb at last the skies. Than fiction can devise, or eloquence declare, Your vocal tributes bring. ODE IX. little Man. | Natura nusquam magis, quam in minimis tota Where in the smootb-sbaven green est. flix. The spangled cowslips variegate the scene, Onoyoy TE DIAGU TE. Hom. Yes, contumelious fair, you scorn The amorous dwarf that courts you to his arms, There spread a sota of th: softest flowers, But ere you leave him quite forlorn, And to some youth gigantic yield your charms, day, Hear bim-oh hear him, if you will not try, And blame the tardy hours, | And let your judgment check th' ambition of But see the bride-she comes with silent pace, your eye. Say, is it carnage makes the man ? Is to be monstrous really to be great ? Say, is it wise or just to scan Your lover's worth by quantity or weight? Fhobus,great god of verse, the nymph observe. Ask your mamma and nurse, if it be so; Observe her well; , Nurse and mamma I ween shall jointly answer, Then touch each sweetly-trem’lous nerve no. The less the body to the view, The soul (like springs in closer durance pent) Is all exertion, ever new, Unceasing, unextinguish'd, and unspent ; spise, Still pouring forth executive desire, ODE XI. As bright, as brisk, and lasting, as the vestal ON TAKING A BACHELOR'S fire. DEGREE. Exegi monumentum ære perennius, &c. And catch such heav'nly fire, Nor is King'schapel higher':- The shape so tender,-look so meek If no rude mice with envious rage A title too with added grace, Then turn to me,-'urn with obliging eyes, My name shall now attend, Nor longer Nature's works, in miniature, de Till to the church with silent pace A nymph and priest ascend 4. Evin in the schools I bow rejoice, Where late I shook with fear, Loud thundering in my ears. Or where Cam's scauty waters flow?, Where I defy, and challenge, all thy utmost Releas'd from lectures, stray. love. Meanwhile, friend Banks, my merits claim Their just reward from you, When once that fame's our dues, Invest me with a graduate's gown, Midst shouts cf all beholders, My head with ample square-cap crown'o, And deck with houd my shoulders. B.A. A MORNING PIECE, OR AN HYMN FOR THE HAY-MAKERS. Tho' billows lash the sounding shore, ODE XII. And tem pests thro' the forests roar, Sweet Nancy's voice shall soothe the sound ; Quinetiam Gallum noctem explaudentibus alia Tho' darkness shou'd invest the skies, Auroram clarâ consuetum voce vocare. LUCRET, Nex day shall beam from Nancy's eyes, And bless all nature round. Brisk Chanticleer his matins had begun, And broke the silence of the night. And thrice be call'd aloud the tardy Sun, Let but those lips their sweets disclose, And thrice he hail'd the dawn's ambiguous And rich perfumes exhale, light; We shall not want the fragrant rose, Back to their graves the fear-begotten phantoms Nor miss the southern gale. run. Then loosely to the winds unfold, Those radiant locks of buruish'd gold, ' Regali situ pyramidum altius.Or on thy bosom let them rove; i Quod non innumerabilis His treasure-house there Cupid keeps, Annorum series, &c. And hoards up, in two snowy beaps, 3 Bachelor. . His stores of choicest love. 4. Dum Capitolium Scandet cum tacitê virgine pontifex. This day each warmest wish be paid - Quá violens To thee the Muse's pride, Obstrepit Aufi lus.I long to see the blooming maid 6 Æolium carmen ad Italos Chang'd to the blushing bride. Deduxisse modos. So shall thy pleasure and thy praise 1- Qua pauper aquæ Daunus, &c. locrease with the increasing days, 8 A celebratexi taylor. And present joys exceed the past; Sume superbiam To give and to receive delight, Quæsitam meritis. Stall be thy task both day and night, 10 - Mihi Delphica While day and night shall last. Lauro cinge volenscomam. |