ELE GY. Written in the Garden of a Friend. HILE o'er my head this laurel-woven bow'r No; if the blightning Eaft deform'd the plain, Still should the grove re-echo to my strain, And friendship prompt the theme, where beauty fail'd. For he, whofe careless art this foilage dreft, Who bad these twining braids of woodbine bend, He firft with truth and virtue taught my breast Where beft to chufe, and best to fix a friend. How well does mem'ry note the golden day, What time reclin'd in Marg'ret's ftudious glade, My mimic reed first tun'd the * Dorian lay, "Unseen, unheard, beneath an hawthorn fhade !" * Mufæus, the firft poem which the author published, written while he was a scholar of St. John's college in Cambridge. "Twas 'Twas there we met: the mufes hail'd the hour; O! fince thofe days, when fcience fpread the feast, Say has one genuine joy e'er warm'd my breast ? To thirst for praise his temperate youth forbore; Much did he love the mufe, but quiet more, Hither in manhood's prime he wifely fled This laurel fhade was witness to their loves. "Begone (he cry'd) ambition's air-drawn plan; 66 Poffeft of love, of competence, and health." VOL. II. Smiling Smiling he fpake, nor did the fates withstand: How foon obedient Flora brought her store, And o'er thy breaft a fhower of fragrance flung Vertummus came; his earlieft blooms he bore, And thy rich fides with waving purple hung: Then to the fight he call'd yon ftately spire, Hail, fylvan wonders, hail! and hail the hand And taught one little acre to command Each envied happiness of scene and shade. Is there a hill, whose distant azure bounds The ample range of Scarfdale's proud domain, A mountain hoar, that yon' wild peak furrounds, But lends a willing beauty to thy plain ? And, And, lo! in yonder path, Ifpy my friend; * Blefs'd fpirit, come! tho' pent in mortal mould, From folly's maze my wayward steps reclaim. Too long, alas! my inexperienc'd youth, The huddling brook, cool cave, and whifp'ring vale. Won to the world, a candidate for praise, Too oft the public ear has heard my lays, Too much its vain applaufe has touch'd my heart: But now, e'er cuftom binds his powerful chains, While yet my foul its first best taste retains, * See the description of the Genius of the Wood in Milton's Arcades. For know by lot, from Jove I am the power Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower; O 2 Teach Teach me, like thee, to muse on nature's page, of man. Of man, while warm'd with reason's purer ray, Before vain science led his taste astray; When confcience was his law, and God his guide. This let me learn, and learning let me live The leffon o'er. From that great guide of truth O may my fuppliant foul the boon receive To tread thro' age the footsteps of thy youth. On feeing a faded Rofe in a nofegay, worn by Mrs. B-- at RANELAGH. 'N vain, Maria, do you ftrive, IN To keep the fading Rofe alive; With Nature for your foe, To Phoebus rays the fragrant flower, And not to hills of fnow. Additional |