TO THE HON, CHARLES YORKE. A MUSE that lov'd in Nature's walks to stray, If She pours no flattery into folly's ear, No shameless hireling of a shameless Peer; Nor let me bear a bribe to Hardwicke's son! PROEMIUM: WRITTEN IN 1766. IN Eden's* vale, where early fancy wrought : [bays, Thus the fond Muse, that sooth'd my vacant youth, Prophetic sung, and what she sung was truth:'Boy! break thy lyre, and cast thy reed away; Vain are the honours of the fruitless bay. Though with each charm thy polish'd lay should please, Glow into strength, yet soften into ease; Say would thy cares a grateful age repay? Fame wreathe thy brows, or Fortune gild thy way? * The river Eden, in Westmoreland. †The Countess of Pembroke, to whom Sir Philip Sidney dedicated his Arcadia,' resided at Appleby, a small but beautiful town in Westmoreland, situated upon the Eden. FABLES OF FLORA. -Sylvas, saltusque sequamur VIRG. THE SUNFLOWER AND THE IVY. As duteous to the place of prayer, What time the rosy morning calls: So fair, each morn, so full of grace, And where, along the rising sky, Her god in brighter glory burn'd, When calling from their weary height But soon as night's invidious shade |