POEMS

OF

CHRISTOPHER SMART.

ODES.

IDLENESS.

i

ODE 1.
Goddess of ease, leave Lethe's brink,

Obsequious to the Muse and me;
For once endure the pain to think,

Oh! sweet insensibility! Sister of peace and indolence,

Bring, Muse, bring numbers soft and slow, 1 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 fow'rs.
Where, Philomel, your notes youf breathe

Forth from behind the neighbouring pine,
And murmurs of the stream beneath

Still flow in unison with thine.

Happy Muse, that didst embrace

The sweet, the heav'nly-fragrant place !
Tell me, is the omen true,
Shall the bard arrive there too?
Oft thro' my eyes my soul bas flown,
And wanton'd on that iv'ry throne :
| 'There with extatic transport burn'd,
And thought it was to Heav'n return'd.
Tell me is the omen true,
Shall the body follow too?
When first at Nature's early birth,
Hear'n sent a man upon the Earth,
Ev'n Eden was more fruitful found,
When Adam came to till the ground:
Shall then those breasts be fair in vain,
And only rise to fall again?
No, no, fair nymph—for no such end
Did Heav'n to thee its bounty lend;
That breast was ne'er design’d by fate
For verse, or things inanimate ;
Then throw them from that downy bed,
Aud take the poet in their stead.

For thee, O Idleness, the woes

ON AN EAGLE
Of Life we patiently endure,
Tbog art the source whence labour flows,

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
And find a pleasing end in thee.

Their heads in ether shroud ;-
Thou servant of almighty Jove,

Who, free and swift as thought, could'st rove 70 ETAELINDA,

To the bleak north's extremest goal ;

Thou, who magnanimous could'st bear
OF HER DOING MY VERSES THE AONOUR OPThe sovereign thuud'rer's arms in air,
WLARING THEM IN HER BOSOM.-WRIT- And shake thy native pole !
TEN AT THIRTEEN,

Oh cruel fate! what barbarous hand,
ODE II.

What more than Gothic ire,
Happy verses ! that were prest

At some fierce tyrant's dread command,
In fair Ethelinda's breast

To check thy daring fire,
FOL. 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 grov'ling! once so great !

'Twas thus when Israel's legislator dy'd, The grief-inspired Muse shall sing

No fragile mortal honours were supply'd, In 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 lir'd for ever shall be taught, Flows out, to act fair pity's part;

But stinks, and stagnates there.
Yet useful still, hold to the throng-

ON GOOD-NATURE.
Hold the reflecting glass,-
That not untutor'd at thy wrong

ODE V.
The passenger may pass :
Thou type of wit and sense confin'd,

Haur cherub of the highest Heav'n,
Cramp'd by the oppressors of tne mind,

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 !
While more than mathematic gloom,
Envelopes all around.

Soft gracefulness, and blooming youth,
Where, grafted on the stem of truth,

That friendship reigns, no interest can divide, ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF A

And great humility looks down on pride.
CLERGYMAN.

Oh! curse on slander's viprous tongue,
ODE IV.

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? 'Tis impotence of frantic love, Th’ enthusiastic fight of wild despair,

No—thou art active-spirit allTo hope the Thracian's magic power to prove. Swifter than lightning, at the call Alas ! thy slender vein,

Of injur'd innocence, or griev'd desert,
Nor mighty is to move, nor forgetive to feign, And large with liberality thy heart.

Impatient of a rein,
Tovu canst not in due bounds the struggling mea-

'Thy appetites in easy tides
sures keep,

(As reason's luminary guides) But tnou 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, Hail ! to that wretched corse, untenanted and

Yet if a transport thou canst feel And hail the peaceful shade 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

love,
For sure thou paid'st an heavy tax for life,
While combating for thee,
Nature and mortality

Mild is thy mind to cover shame,
Maintain'd a daily strife.

Averse to envy, slow to blame, 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

knee.
Upon the mountain's bleakest brow,
To give a noble light superior was it rais'd, Extensive, as from west to east,
But more expos'd by eminence it blazd;

Thy love descends from man to beast,
For not a whistling wind that blew,

Nought is excluded, little, or infirin,
Nor the drop descending dew,

Thou canst with greatness stoop to save & But half extinguish'd its fair flame—but now

Come, goddess, come with all thy charms, Next comes illiberal scrambling Avarice,
For Oh! I love thee, to my arms

Then Vanity, and Affectation nice
All, all my actions guide, my fancy feed, See, she salutes her shadow with a bow
So shall existence then be life indeed.

As in short Gallic trips she minces by,
Starting antipathy is in her eye,

And squeamishly she knits her scornful brow,
ON ILL-NATURE.

To thee, Ill-Nature, all the numerous group

With lowly reverence stoop-
ODE VI.

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 odious, all that's base allied ;

Nurs’d up by vice, by pravity misled,
By pedant affectation taught and bred :

TO THE REVEREND AND LEARNED Away, thou hideous hell-born spright, Go, with thy looks of dark design,

Dr. WEBSTER, Sullen, sour, and saturnine ;

Occasioned by his Dialogues on Anger and PorFly to some gloomy shade, por blot the goodly

giveness. light. 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,

'Twas when the omniscient creative pow'r And ripens for enjoyment every growing day ; 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 host, 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 smil'd, 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, thorny 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,

And copied our great master's fair design, The querulous frogs shall mix their dirge with

But livid Envy would the light remove, thine, Th'ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high,

Or croud thy portrait in a nook malignMillioos 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 hetter 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.
Next scandal's meagre shade,

Else thou’dst been plac'd, by learning, and by
Foe to the cugins, and the poet's fame,
A wither'd time-deflower'd old maid,

There, where thy dignify'd inferiors site That pe'er enjoy'd love's cver sacred fame. Oh they are in their generations wise,

Hypocrisy succeeds with saint-like look, Each path of interest they have sagely trod, And elevates her hands and plods upon her To live to thrive-to rise and still to rise book.

Better to bow to men, than kneel to God.

wit,

name

Beholil 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 in vain ;

Her charms description's force shall Ay, 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

[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 jogs! Who canst not buy a vote, nor hast a soul for Bring zephyrs to depaint his voice, sale."

Bring lightning for his eyes. Oh Indignation, wherefore wert thou given,

He leaps, he springs, he flics into her arins,

With joy intense, If drowsy Patience deaden all thy rage?

Feeds ev'ry sense,
Yet we must bear-such is the will of Heaven;

And sultanates o'er all her charms.
And, Webster, so prescribes thy candid page. On ! bad I Virgil's comprehensive strain,
Then let us hear thee preach seraphic love,
Guide our disgusted thoughts to things above;

Or sing like Pope, without a word in vain,

Then should I hope my numbers might conSo our free souls, fed with divine repast,

tain, (Unmindful of ļow mortals mean employ)

Engaging nynuph, thy boundless happiness, Shall taste the present, recollect the past,

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,
EPITH ALAMIUJI.

That interweave their verdant arms in love,
ODE VIII.

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,
Leave i he Parnassian shades,

Both shade the shepherd and adurn the land,
The joyful Hymeneal sing,

Together with each growing year arise,
And to a lovelier fair

Indissulubly link'd, and climb at last the skies.
Than fiction can devise, or eloquence declare,

Your vocal tributes bring.
And you, ye winged choristers, that fly
Io all the pensile gardens of the sky,
Chant thro' th’enamel'd grove,

ODE IX.
Stretch from the trembling leaves your little
With all the wild variety of aitless notes, (throats, The Author apologizes to a Lady for his being a
But let each note be love.

little Man.
Fragrant Flora, queen of May,
All bedight with garlands gay,
Natura nusquam magis, quam in minimis tota

Flix.
Where in the smooth-shaven green
The spangled cowslips variegate the scene,
and the rivulet Tetween,

Ολιγον τε φιλαν τε. ΗοΜ.
Whispers, murmurs, sings,

Yes, contumelious fair, you scorn
As it stoops, or falls, or springs ;

The amorous dwarf that courts you to his arms,
There spread a sofa of th: softest flowers,
There let the bridegroom stay,

But ere you leave him quite forlorn,

And to some youth gigantic yield your There let him hate the light, and curse the

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.
Full of majesty and lore;
Not with a nobler grace

Say, is it carnage makes the man ?
Look'd the imperial wife of Jore,

Is to be monstrous really to be great ?
When erst ineffably she shone

Say, is it wise or just to scan
In Venus' irresistible, enchanting zone.

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.
Of thy resounding shell:

The less the body to the view,
Her like huntress-Dian paint,
Modest, but without restraint;

The soul (likesprings in closer durance pent)

Is all exertion, ever new,
From Pallas tahe her decent pace,
With Venus sweeten all her face,

Unceasing, unextinguish’d, and unspent ;

est.

Still pouring forth executive desire,

ODE XL As bright, as brisk, and lasting, as the vestal

ON TAKING A BACHELOR'S fire.

DEGREE.
Does thy young bosom pant for fame: In allusion to Horace. Book iii, Ode 30
Woud'st thou be of posterity the toast?
The poets shall ensure thy name,

Exegi monumentum ære perennius, &c.
Who magnitude of mind not borly boast. 'Tis done: I tow'r to that degree,
Laurels on bulky barus as rarely grow,

And catch such heav'nly fire,
As on the sturdy oak the virtuous misletoe. That Horace ne'er could rank like me,

Nor is King'schapel higher'.-
Look in the glass, survey that cheek- My name in sure recording page
Where Flora has with all her roses blush'd;

Shall time itself o'erpow'ro,
The shape so tender, -look so meek- If no rude mice with envious rage
The breasts made to be press’d, not to be The buttery books devour.
crush'd-

A title too with added grace,
Then turn to me, -turn with obliging eyes, My nanie shall now attend,
Nor longer Nature's works, in miniature, de- | Till to the church with silent pace
spise.

A nymph and priest ascend.

Evin in the schools I now rejoice,
Young Ammon did the world subdue,

Where late I shook with fear,
Yet had not more external man than l; Nor beed the moderator's voice
Ah ! charmer, should I conquer you,

Loud thundering in my ears.
With him in fame, as well as size, l'll vie. Then with Æolian flute I blow
Then, scornful nymph, come forth to yonder A soft Italian layo,
grove,

Or where Cam's scauty waters flow7, Where I defy, and challenge, all thy utmost Releas'd from lectures, stray. love.

Meanwhile, friend Bankse, my merits claim

Their just reward from you,
For Horace bids us challenge fame,

When once that fame's our dues,

Invest me with a graduate's gown,
ODE XI.

Midst shouts cf all beholders,
An Ode on the 26th of January, being the Birth My bead with ample square-cap crown'o

,

And deck with hood my shoulders.
Day of a Young Lady.
CAMBRIDGE.

B.A.
All bail, and welcome joyous morn,
Welcome to the infant year ;

A MORNING PIECE,
Whether smooth calms thy face adorn,
Or lowering clouds appear;

OR AN HYMN FOR THE HAY-MAKERS. Tho' billows lash the sounding shore,

ODE XII. And tempests thro' the forests roar,

Sweet Nancy's voice shall soothe the sound; Quinetiam Gallum noctem explaudentibus alig Tho' darkness shou'd invest the skies,

Auroram clarâ consuetum voce vocare. LUCRET. New day shall beam from Nancy's eyes,

BRisk Chanticleer his matins had begun,
And bless all nature round.

And broke the silence of the night.

And thrice be call'd aloud the tarıly Sun, Let but those lips their sweets disclose,

And thrice be hail'd the dawn's ambiguous And rich perfumes exhale, We shall not want the fragrant rose,

Back to their graves the fear-begotten phantoms Nor miss the southern gale. 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, i

Annorum series, &c. And hoards up, in two snowy beaps,

3 Bachelor. His stores of choicest love.

Dum Capitulium

Scandet cum tacitê virgine pontifex.
This day each warmest wish be paid

Quá violens
To thee the Muse's pride,

Obstrepit Aufidus.-
I long to see the blooming maid

Æolium carmen ad Italos
Chang'd to the blushing bride.

Deduxisse modos.
So shall thy pleasure and thy praise

7

Qua pauper aquæ Daunus, &c. lucrease with the increasing days,

8 A celebrated 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,

Mihi Delphicâ
While day and night shall last.

Lauro cinge volens

light;

run.

lo