With solemn pomp to my paternal seat,
Where peace and plenty on thy word shall wait:
Music and song shall wake the marriage day,
And while the priests accuse the bride's delay,
Myrtles and roses shall obstruct her way.
Friendship shall still thy ev'ning feasts adorn, And blooming Peace shall ever bless thy morn; Succeeding years their happy race shall run, And Age unheeded by delight come on, While yet superior love shall mock his pow'r; And when old Time shall turn the fated hour, Which only can our well-ty'd knot unfold, What rests of both, one sepulchre shall hold. Hence, then, for ever, from my Emma's breast (That heav'n of softness, and that seat of rest) Ye doubts and fears, and all that know to move Tormenting grief, and all that trouble love:
EMMA. O day! the fairest sure that ever rose!675 Period and end of anxious Emma's woes!
Sire of her joy, and source of her delight,
O! wing'd with pleasure take thy happy flight,
And give each future morn a tincture of thywhite.
Yet tell thy vot'ry, potent queen of Love,
Henry, my Henry, will he never rove?
Will he be ever kind, and just, and good?
And is there yet no mistress in the wood?
None, none there is: the thought was rash and yain, A false idea, and a fancy'd pain.
Doubt shall for ever quit my strengthen'd heart,
And anxious jealousy's corroding smart ;
Nor other inmate shall inhabit there,
But soft belief, young joy, and pleasing care.
Hence let the tides of plenty ebb and flow,
And Fortune's various gale unheeded blow.
If at my feet the suppliant goddess stands,
And sheds her treasure with unweary'd hands,
Her present favour cautious I'll embrace,
And not unthankful use the proffer'd grace,
If she reclaims the temporary boon,
And tries her pinions, flutt'ring to be gone,
Secure of mind I'll obviate her intent,
And unconcern'd return the goods she lent.
Nor happiness can I, nor misery, feel,
From any turn of her fantastic wheel:
Friendship's great laws, and Love's superior pow'rs,
Must mark the colour of my future hours.
From the events which thy commands create,
I must my blessings or my sorrows date,
And Henry's will must dictate Emma's fate.
Yet while with close delight and inward pride
(Which from the world my careful soul shall hide)
I see thee, lord and end of my desire,
Exalted high as virtue can require,
With pow'r invested, and with pleasure cheer'd,
Sought by the good, by the oppressor fear'd,
Loaded and blest with all the affluent store
Which human vows at smoking shrines implore ;715
Grateful and humble grant me to employ
My life subservient only to thy joy,
And at my death to bless thy kindness, shown
To her who, of mankind, could love but thee alone.
WHILE thus the constant pair alternate said,
Joyful above them and around them play'd
Angels and sportive loves, a num'rous crowd;
Smiling they clapt their wings, and low they bow'd:
They tumbled all their little quivers o'er,
To chuse propitious shafts a precious store,
That when their god should take his future darts,
To strike (however rarely) constant hearts,
His happy skill might proper arms employ,
All tipt with pleasure, and all wing'd with joy,
And those, they vow'd, whose lives should imitate
These lovers' constancy, should share their fate.
The queen of beauty stopp'd her bridled doves,
Approv'd the little labour of the loves;
Was proud and pleas'd the mutual vow to hear,
And to the triumph call'd the god of war :
Soon as she calls the god is always near.
Now Mars, she said, let fame exalt her voice,
Nor let thy conquests only be her choice.
But when she sings great Edward from the field
Return'd, the hostile spear and captive shield 740
In Concord's temple hung, and Gallia taught to
yield.
And when, as prudent Saturn shall complete
The years design'd to perfect Britain's state,
The swift-wing'd pow'r shall take her trump again, To sing her fav'rite Anna's wond'rous reign, 745 To recollect th' unweary'd Malboro's toils,
Old Rufus' Hall unequal to his spoils,
The British soldier from his high command
Glorious, and Gaul thrice vanquish'd by his hand,
Let her at least perform what I desire,
With second breath the vocal brass inspire,
And tell the nations, in no vulgar strain,
What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain,
And when thy tumults and thy fights are past,
And when thy laurels at my feet are cast;
Faithful may'st thou, like British Henry prove,
And Emma-like let me return thy love.
Renown'd for truth let all thy sons appear,
And constant beauty shall reward their care.
Mars smil'd, and bow'd: the Cyprian deity 760
Turn'd to the glorious ruler of the sky;
And thou, she smiling said, great god of Days
And Verse, behold my deed and sing my praise;
As on the British earth my fav'rite isle,
Thy gentle rays and kindest influence smile, 765
Thro' all her laughing fields and verdant groves,
Proclaim with joy these memorable loves,
From ev'ry annual course let one great day
To celebrated sports and floral play
Be set aside; and in the softest lays,
O' thy poetic sons, he solemn praise
And everlasting marks of honour paid
To the true Lover and the Nut-brown Maid.
PREFACE to the poem on the vanity of the world, 5
SOLOMON ON THE VANITY OF THE WORLD,
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