POEMS OF CHRISTOPHER SMART. ODES. IDLENESS. ODE I. GODDESS of ease, leave Lethe's brink, 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, Where, Philomel, your notes your breathe For thee, O Idleness, the woes Thou art the source whence labour flows, We shun thee but to make thee sure. For who'd sustain war's toil and waste, Or who th' hoarse thund'ring of the sea, But to be idle at the last, And find a pleasing end in thee. TO ETHELINDA, Happy Muse, that didst embrace Shall the bard arrive there too? Oft thro' my eyes my soul has flown, When first at Nature's early birth, No, no, fair nymph-for no such end ON AN EAGLE CONFINED IN A COLLEGE COURT. IMPERIAL bird, who wont to soar Where Hyperborean mountains hoar Thou servant of almighty Jove, Who, free and swift as thought, could'st rove ON HER DOING MY VERSES THE HONOUR OF The sovereign thund'rer's arms in air, WEARING THEM IN HER BOSOM.-WRIT TEN AT THIRTEEN. ODE II. HAPPY verses! that were prest In fair Ethelinda's breast! VOL. XVI. And shake thy native pole ! Oh cruel fate! what barbarous hand, What more than Gothic ire, At some fierce tyrant's dread command, To check thy daring fire, Has plac'd thee in this servile cell, Where discipline and dulness dwell, Where genius ne'er was seen to roam; Where ev'ry selfish soul's at rest, Nor ever quits the carnal breast, But lurks and sneaks at home! Tho' dim'd thine eye, and clipt thy wing Nor on thy mis'ry casts a care, The stream of love ne'er from his heart Yet useful still, hold to the throng- The passenger may pass : Who study downward on the ground; Type of the fall of Greece and Rome; While more than mathematic gloom, Envelopes all around. ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF A CLERGYMAN. ODE IV. I,, like th' Orphean lyre, my song could charm' Sudden as thy disease should'st thou return, To hope the Thracian's magic power to prove. Nor mighty is to move, nor forgetive to feign, Thou canst not in due bounds the struggling mea sures keep, -But thou alas! canst weep- [cold, Hail to that wretched corse, untenanted and And hail the peaceful shade loos'd from its irk some hold. See-hear the storms tempestuous sweepPrecipitate it falls-it falls-falls lifeless in the deep. Cease, cease, ye weeping youth, Sincerity's soft sighs, and all the tears of truth. And you, his kindred throng, forbear Marble memorials to prepare, And sculptur'd in your breasts his busto wear. 'Twas thus when Israel's legislator dy'd, No fragile mortal honours were supply'd, But even a grave denied. Better than what the pencil's daub can give, Is this that what he taught shall live, ON GOOD-NATURE. HALL cherub of the highest Heav'n, Celestial sweetness, exquisite of mien, Soft gracefulness, and blooming youth, That friendship reigns, no interest can divide, Ideots usurp thy title, and thy frame, Is apathy, is heart of steel, Nor ear to hear, nor sense to feel, Life idly inoffensive such a grace, That it shou'd steal thy name and take thy place? Great, generous acts thy ductile passions And smilingly thou weep'st with joy.and love. Mild is thy mind to cover shame, Averse to envy, slow to blame, Bursting to praise, yet still sincere and free From flattery's fawning tongue, and bending knee. Extensive, as from west to east, Thy love descends from man to beast, Nought is excluded, little, or infirm, Thou canst with greatness stoop to save a worm. Come, goddess, come with all thy charms, All, all my actions guide, my fancy feed, Next comes illiberal scrambling Avarice, Then Vanity, and Affectation niceSee, she salutes her shadow with a bow As in short Gallic trips she minces by, Starting antipathy is in her eye, 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. ON ILL-NATURE. ODE VI. d; OFFSPRING of folly and of pride, Fly to some gloomy shade, nor blot the goodly light. Thy planet was remote, when I was born; 'Twas Mercury that rul'd my natal morn, What time the Sun exerts his genial ray, And ripens for enjoyment every growing day; When to exist is but to love and sing, And sprightly Aries smiles upon the spring. There in yon lonesome heath, Which Flora, or Sylvanus never knew, Where never vegetable drank the dew, Or beast, or fowl attempts to breathe; Where Nature's pencil has no colours laid; But all is blank, and universal shade; Contrast to figure, motion, life and light, There may'st thou vent thy spite, For ever cursing, and for ever curs'd, Of all th' infernal crew the worst ; The worst in genius, measure and degree; For envy, hatred, malice, are but parts of thee. Or would'st thou change the scene, and quit the Behold the Heav'n-deserted fen, [den, Where spleen, by vapours dense begot and bred, Hardness of heart, and heaviness of head, Have rais'd their darksome walls, and plac'd their thorny bed; There may'st thou all thy bitterness unload, There may'st thou croak in concert with the toad, With thee the hollow howling winds shall join, Nor shall the bittern her base throat deny, The querulous frogs shall mix their dirge with thine, Th' ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high, Millions of humming gnats fit oestrum shall supply. Away-away-behold an hideous band An herd of all thy minions are at hand, Suspicion first with jealous caution stalks, And ever looks around her as she walks, With bibulous ear imperfect sounds to catch, And prompt to listen at her neighbours latch. Next Scandal's meagre shade, Foe to the vigins, and the poet's fame, But when the King of Righteousness arose, From anger, fell revenge, and discord free, Well hast thou, Webster, pictur'd Christian love, Or croud thy portrait in a nook malign→ Shall think the bright original they see, The likeness nobly lost in the identity. Oh hadst thou liv'd in better days than these, There, where thy dignify'd inferiors sit Oh they are in their generations wise, Each path of interest they have sagely trod,To live-to thrive-to rise-and still to riseBetter to bow to men, than kneel to God. EPITH ALAMIUM. DESCEND, descend, ye sweet Aonian maids, Than fiction can devise, or eloquence declare, And you, ye winged choristers, that fly Chant thro' th' enamel'd grove, Stretch from the trembling leaves your little With all the wild variety of artless notes, [throats, The Author apologizes to a Lady for his being a But let each note be love. Fragrant Flora, queen of May, All bedight with garlands gay, Where in the smooth-shaven green The spangled cowslips variegate the scene, As it stoops, or falls, or springs; There let him hate the light, and curse the And blame the tardy hours. But see the bride-she comes with silent pace, Full of majesty and love; Not with a nobler grace Look'd the imperial wife of Jove, In Venus' irresistible, enchanting zone. Fhoebus, great god of verse, the nymph observe, Then touch each sweetly-trem❜lous nerve Her like huntress-Dian paint, Modest, but without restraint; little Man. ODES. Where I defy, and challenge, all thy utmost love. ODE XI. ODE XI. ON TAKING A BACHELOR'S In allusion to Horace. Book iii, Ode 30 And catch such heav'nly fire, Shall time itself o'erpow'r', My name shall now attend, Where late I shook with fear, Loud thundering in my ears. Or where Cam's scauty waters flow7, For Horace bids us challenge fame, When once that fame's our due9, An Ode on the 26th of January, being the Birth- My head with ample square-cap crown', Day of a Young Lady. ALL hail, and welcome joyous morn, Whether smooth calms thy face adorn, Sweet Nancy's voice shall soothe the sound; Tho' darkness shou'd invest the skies, Let but those lips their sweets disclose, This day each warmest wish be paid Í long to see the blooming maid Chang'd to the blushing bride. And present joys exceed the past; And deck with hood my shoulders. A MORNING PIECE, 21 B.A. |