XIX. Would thy fond love his grace to her controul, Unjustly for thy partial good detain ? That heav'nly radiance of eternal light, In which enthron'd she now with pity sees How frail, how insecure, how slight, Is every mortal bliss; E'en love itself, if rising by degrees No feet but those of harden'd Guilt shall miss. There yield up all his pow'r ne'er to divide you more. RURAL ELEGANCE. [SHENSTONE.] To the Duchess of Somerset. WHILE orient skies restore the day, Ye rural thanes, that o'er the mossy down, Some panting, timorous hare pursue; Does nature mean your joys alone to crown? For you does echo bid the rocks reply, And urg'd by rude constraint resound the jovial cry? See from the neighbouring hill, forlorn He finds his faithful fences torn, He finds his labour'd crops a prey; He sees his flock-no more in circles feed ; And with no random curses loads the deed. Nor yet, ye swains, conclude That nature smiles for you alone; Your bounded souls, and your conceptions crude, The proud, the selfish boast disown: Yours be the produce of the soil: O may it still reward your toil! But tho' the various harvest gild your plains, Or the warm hope of distant gains Athirst ye praise the limpid stream, 'tis true: It mimic no unpleasing song, The limpid fountain murmurs not for you. Unpleas'd ye see the thickets bloom, Unpleas'd the Spring her flowery robe resume; The dappled mead without a smile. O let a rural conscious muse, For well she knows, your froward sense accuse: Forth to the solemn oak you bring the square, And span the massy trunk, before you cry, 'tis fair. Nor yet ye learn'd, nor yet ye courtly train, To waste with us a summer's day, She, where she pleases kind or coy, Then hither bring the fair ingenuous mind, Lo! not an hedge-row hawthorn blows, Or valley winds, or fountain flows, For such the rivers dash the foaming tides, Ev'n thriftless furze detains their wandering sight, And the rough barren rock grows pregnant with delight. With what suspicious fearful care The sordid wretch secures his claim, If haply some luxurious heir Should alienate the fields that wear his name! What scruples lest some future birth Should litigate a span of earth! Bonds, contracts, feoffments, names unmeet for prose, The towering muse endures not to disclose; Alas! her unrevers'd decree, More comprehensive and more free, Her lavish charter, taste, appropriates all we see. Let gondolas their painted flags unfold, When to confirm his lofty plea, In nuptial sort, with bridal gold, Ev'n Adria scorns the mock embrace, To some lone hermit on the mountain's brow, With all her myrtle shores in dow'r. |