POEMS

ON

SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

RETIREMENT.

AN ODE.

'WHEN in the crimson cloud of Even
The lingering light decays,

And Hesper on the front of heaven
His glittering gem displays;

Deep in the silent vale unseen,
Beside a lulling stream,

A pensive Youth, of placid mien,
Indulg'd this tender theme.

"Ye cliffs, in hoary grandeur pil'd

High o'er the glimmering dale;

Ye woods, along whose windings wild Murmurs the solemn gale;

Where Melancholy strays forlorn,

And Woe retires to weep,

What time the wan moon's yellow horn Gleams on the western deep:

"To you, ye wastes, whose artless charms

Ne'er drew Ambition's eye,

'Scap'd a tumultuous world's alarms,

To your retreats I fly :

Deep in your most sequester'd bower
Let me at last recline,

Where Solitude, mild, modest power!
Leans on her ivied shrine.

"How shall I woo thee, matchless Fair! Thy heavenly smile how win?

Thy smile, that smooths the brow of Care, And stills the storm within.

O wilt thou to thy favourite grove

Thine ardent votary bring,

And bless his hours, and bid them move

Serene, on silent wing?

"Oft let remembrance sooth his mind

With dreams of former days,

When, in the lap of Peace reclin❜d,
He fram'd his infant lays;

When Fancy rov'd at large, nor Care

Nor cold Distrust alarm'd ;

Nor Envy, with malignant glare,

His simple youth had harm'd.

""Twas then, O Solitude! to thee

His early vows were paid,

From heart sincere, and warm, and free,

Devoted to the shade.

Ah, why did Fate his steps decoy

In stormy paths to roam,

Remote from all congenial joy?—

O take the Wanderer home.

"Thy shades, thy silence, now be mine, Thy charms my only theme;

My haunt the hollow cliff, whose pine
Waves o'er the gloomy stream,
Whence the scar'd owl on pinions grey
Breaks from the rustling boughs,
And down the lone vale sails away
To more profound repose.

"O while to thee the woodland pours
Its wildly warbling song,

And balmy from the bank of flowers

The zephyr breathes along;

Let no rude sound invade from far,
No vagrant foot be nigh,

No ray from Grandeur's gilded car
Flash on the startled eye.

"But if some pilgrim through the glade Thy hallow'd bowers explore,

O guard from harm his hoary head,
And listen to his lore;

For he of joys divine shall tell

That wean from earthly woe,

And triumph o'er the mighty spell
That chains this heart below.

"For me no more the path invites

Ambition loves to tread;

No more I climb those toilsome heights By guileful Hope misled;

Leaps my fond flattering heart no more

To Mirth's enlivening strain;

For present pleasure soon is o'er,

And all the past is vain."

73

ODE TO HOPE.

I. 1.

Ú THOU, who glad'st the pensive soul,
More than Aurora's smile the swain forlorn,
Left all night long to mourn

Where desolation frowns, and tempests howl;
And shrieks of woe, as intermits the storm,
Far o'er the monstrous wilderness resound,
And cross the gloom darts many a shapeless form,
And many a fire-eyed visage glares around,
O come, and be once more my guest:

Come, for thou oft thy suppliant's vow hast heard,
And oft with smiles indulgent cheer'd
And sooth'd him into rest.

I. 2.

Smit by thy rapture-beaming eye

Deep flashing through the midnight of their mind,
The sable bands combin'd,

Where Fear's black banner bloats the troubled sky,
Appall'd retire. Suspicion hides her head,
Nor dares the' obliquely gleaming eyeball raise;
Despair, with gorgon-figur'd veil o'erspread,
Speeds to dark Phlegethon's detested maze.
Lo, startled at the heavenly ray,

With speed unwonted Indolence upsprings,
And, heaving, lifts her leaden wings,
And sullen glides away :

I. 3.

Ten thousand forms, by pining Fancy view'd,
Dissolve. Above the sparkling flood

When Phoebus rears his awful brow,

From lengthening lawn and valley low,

The troops of fen-born mists retire.
Along the plain

The joyous swain

Eyes the gay villages again,

And gold-illumin'd spire;

While on the billowy ether borne
Floats the loose lay's jovial measure;
And light along the fairy Pleasure,
Her green robes glittering to the morn,
Wantons on silken wing. And goblins all
To the damp dungeon shrink, or hoary hall,
Or westward, with impetuous flight,

Shoot to the desert realms of their congenial Night.

II. 1.

When first on Childhood's eager gaze

Life's varied landscape, stretch'd immense around, Starts out of night profound,

Thy voice incites to tempt the' untrodden maze.
Fond he surveys thy mild maternal face,

His bashful eye still kindling as he views,
And, while thy lenient arm supports his pace,
With beating heart the upland path pursues :
The path that leads, where hung sublime,
And scen afar, youth's gallant trophies, bright
In Fancy's rainbow-ray, invite
His wingy nerves to climb.