Till thy frame fhudders at her fancy'd death,
Then dies my Mitio, and his blood creeps cold
Thro' ev'ry vein. Speak! does the stranger Muse
Caft happy gueffes at the unknown paffion,
Or has the fabled all? Inform me, friend,
Are half thy joys fincere? thy hopes fulfill'd
Or fruftrate? Here commit thy fecret griefs
To faithful ears, and be they bury'd here
fn friendship and oblivion, left they spoil
Thy newborn pleasures with distasteful gall;
Nor let thine eye too greedily drink in
The frightful prospect, when untimely death
Shall make wild inroads on a parent's heart,
And his dear offspring to the cruel grave
Are dragg'd in fad fucceffion, while his foul
Is torn away piecemeal: thus dies the wretch
A various death, and frequent ere he quit
The theatre and make his exit final.
But if his dearest half, his faithful mate,
Survive, and in the fweeteft faddeft airs
Of love and grief approach with trembling hand
To close his fwimming eyes, what double pangs,
What racks, what twinges, rend his heart-ftrings off
From the fair bofom of that fellow-dove
He leaves behind to mourn! what jealous cares
Hang on his parting foul to think his love
Expos'd to wild oppreffion and the herd
Of favage men! So parts the dying turtle,
With fobbing accents, with such fad regret,
Leaves his kind feather'd mate: the widow bird
Wanders in lonesome shades, forgets her food,
Forgets her life, or falls a speedier prey
To talon'd falcons, and the crooked beak
Of hawks athirft for blood-
Taus far the Muse in unaccustom❜d mood
And strains unpleafing to a lover's ear
Indulg'd a gloom of thought, and thus the fang
Partial; for Melancholy's hateful form
Stood by in fable robe: the pensive Muse
Survey'd the darksome scenes of life, and fought
Some bright relieving glimpse, some cordial ray,
In the fair world of love; but while fhe gaz'd
Delightful on the state of twinborn fouls
United blefs'd the cruel fhade apply'd
A dark long tube and a false tinctur'd glass
Deceitful, blending love and life at once
In darkness, chaos, and the common mass
Of mis'ry: now Urania feels the cheat,
And breaks the hated optick in disdain.
Swift vanishes the fullen form, and lo
The scene shines bright with bliss. Behold the place
Where mischiefs never fly, cares never come
With wrinkled brow, nor anguish, nor disease,
Nor Malice forky-tongu’d. On this dear spot,
Mitio, my love would fix and plant thy station,
To act thy part of life ferene, and blefs'd
With the fair confort fitted to thy heart.
Sure 't is a vision of that happy grove
Where the first authors of our mournful race
Liv'd in sweet partnership! one hour they liv'd,
But chang'd the tasted bliss (imprudent pair!)
For fin, and fhame, and this waste wilderness
Of briers, and nine hundred years of pain.
The wishing Muse new dresses the fair garden
Amid this defert world with budding blifs,
And evergreens, and balms, and flow'ry beauties,
Without one dang'rous tree: there heav'nly dews
Nightly defcending shall impearl the grafs
And verdant herbage; drops of fragrancy
Sit trembling on the fpires; the spicy vapours
Rife with the dawn, and thro' the air diffus'd
Salute your waking fenfes with perfume,
While vital fruits with their ambrofial juice
Renew life's purple flood and fountain
pure
From vicious taint, and with your innocence
Immortalize the structure of your clay.
On this new Paradife the cloudlefs fkies
Shall fmile perpetual, while the lamp of day
With flames unfully'd (as the fabled torch
Of Hymen) measures out your golden hours
Along his azure road. The nuptial moon
In milder rays ferene should nightly rife
Fullorb'd, (if Heav'n and Nature will indulge
So fair an emblem) big with filver joys,
And still forget her wane. The feather'd choir
Warbling their Maker's praise on early wing,
Or perch'd on ev'ning bough, shall join your worship,
Join your sweet vefpers and the morning fong.
O facred fymphony! Hark, thro' the grove
I hear the found divine! I'm all attention,
All ear,
And the fair Mufe proclaims the heav'n below.
Not the feraphick minds of high degree
Difdain converse with men : again returning
I fee th' ethereal hoft on downward wing:
Lo! at the eastern gate young cherubs fland
Guardians, commiffion'd to convey their joys
To earthly lovers. Go, ye happy pair,
all ecstasy; unknown delight!
Go tafle their banquet, learn the nobler pleasures 65
Supernal, and from brutal dregs refin'd
Raphael shall teach thee, friend, exalted thoughts
And intellectual blifs. 'Twas Raphael taught
The Patriarch of our progeny th' affairs
Of heav'n; (fo Milton fings, enlighten'd bard! 70
Nor mifs'd his eyes when in fublimest strain
The angel's great narration he repeats
To Albion's fons high favour'd) thou fhalt learn
Celeftial leffons from his awful tongue,
And with foft grace and interwoven loves
(Grateful digreffion!) all his words rehearse
To thy Chariffa's ear, and charm her foul.
Thus with divine discourse in fhady bow'rs
Of Eden our first father entertain'd
Eve his fole auditrefs, and deep difpute,
With conjugal careffes on her lip,
Solv'd easy, and abstrusest thoughts reveal'd.
Now the day wears apace, now Mitio comes
From his bright tutor and finds out his mate.
Behold the dear affociates feated low
On humble turf with rofe and myrtle strow'd,
But high their conference! How felf-fuffic'd
Lives their Eternal Maker, girt around
With glories, arm'd with thunders, and his throne Mortal access forbids, projecting far
Splendours unfuff'rable and radiant death.
With rev'rence and abasement deep they fall
Before his fov'reign Majesty to pay
Due worship; then his mercy on their fouls
Smiles with a gentler ray, but fov'reign still,
And leads their meditation and difcourfe
Long ages backward, and across the feas
To Bethlehem of Judah : there the Son,
The filial Godhead, character exprefs
Of brightness inexpreffible, laid by
His beamy robes, and made defcent to earth.
Sprung from the fons of Adam he became
A fecond father, ftudious to regain
Loft Paradise for men and purchase heav'n.
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