Where, then, ah! where shall poverty reside,
To 'scape the pressure of contiguous pride?|
305 If to some common's fenceless limits stray'd,
He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade, |
Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,|
And even the bare-worn common is denied. |

If to the city sped]—what waits him there ?|
310 To see profusion] that he must not share ; |
To see ten thousand baneful arts combined
To pamper luxury and thin mankind ;]
To see each joy) the sons of pleasure know,]
Extorted from his fellow-creature's woe :)
315 Here while the courtier glitters in brocade,
There the pale artist plies the sickly trade ;|
Here while the proud their long-drawn pomp display, |
There the black gibbet glooms beside the way :|
The dome) where Pleasure holds her midnight reign, |
320 Here, richly deck'd, admits the gorgeous train ;|
Tumultuous grandeur crowds the blazing square, |
The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare. |
Sure scenes like these no troubles e'er annoy ![
Sure these denote one universal joy !—|

325 Are these thy serious thoughts -ah, turn thine eyes]
Where the poor houseless shivering female lies : |
She once, perhaps, in village plenty bless'd,
Has wept at tales of innocence distress'd ;|

306. He cannot refer to poverty (line 303), for that could not be made masculine. We must therefore refer it to a Noun (poor man), suggested by the Abstract Noun poverty.

308. Reference to the Enclosure Acts, by which numerous bare-worn commons were divided, enclosed, and turned into rich fields, to the great advantage of agriculture and the country in general. The desponding views of the poet do not stand the test of political science.

309. Sped, i.e., having sped. The Past Partic. of Intransitive Verbs are very rarely used without Auxiliary Verbs (see Cowper's Task, i. 4, note). The grammatical construction is incomplete.

310. To see profusion [waits him there]. Supply also the same Pred. in lines 312 and 314.

314. His would read better their

315. Here while are inverted by poetic license.

316. Artist=artisan.

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,

330 Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn : | Now lost to all, her friends, her virtue, fled,

Near her betrayer's door she lays her head, |

And, pinch'd with cold, and shrinking from the shower,
With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour,|

335 When idly first, ambitious of the town,

She left her wheel, and robes of country brown. |
Do thine, sweet Auburn, thine, the loveliest train,
Do thy fair tribes participate her pain?|

Even now, perhaps, by cold and hunger led,
340 At proud men's doors they ask a little bread !|
Ah, no!] To distant climes, a dreary scene,)
Where half the convex world intrudes between, |
Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,|
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe. |
345 Far different there from all) that charm'd before, |
The various terrors of that horrid shore ;)
Those blazing suns) that dart a downward ray, |
And fiercely shed intolerable day ;]

Those matted woods) where birds forget to sing, | 350 But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling; |

Those poisonous fields, with rank luxuriance crown'd,)
Where the dark scorpion gathers death around ; |
Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake ; |
355 Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey, |
And savage men more murderous still than they :]
While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,

Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies. |

335. Idly thoughtlessly.

338. To speak of the fair tribes in addition to the lovely train of a village is indulging too much in the poetical license of painted words.

344. Altama, a river in America.

344. Murmurs to their woe. Compare Cowper, Task iv. 27.-Snore to the murmur

of the waves; and Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 537.-Streaming to the wind. See note. 346. Supply" are."

347 to 356. All grammatically dependent on the word terrors.

356. Supply-Still wait their hapless prey, from the former line.

Far different these from every former scene, 360 The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green, The breezy covert of the warbling grove,]

That only shelter'd thefts of harmless love.

[Good Heaven!] what sorrows gloom'd that parting day, | That call'd them from their native walks away; | 365 When the poor exiles, every pleasure past,

Hung round the bowers, and fondly look'd their last,]
And took a long farewell,] and wish'd in vain,
For seats like these beyond the western main ;]
And shuddering still to face the distant deep,
370 Return'd and wept,] and still return'd to weep!]
The good old sire the first prepared to go

To new-found worlds, and wept for others' woe ;]
But for himself, in conscious virtue brave,
He only wish'd for worlds beyond the grave. |
375 His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears,
The fond companion of his helpless years,
Silent went next, neglectful of her charms,
And left a lover's for a father's arms.]

With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,
380 And bless'd the cot] where every pleasure rose, |
And kiss'd her thoughtless babes with many a tear,]
And clasp'd them close, in sorrow doubly dear ;]
Whilst her fond husband strove to lend relief
In all the silent manliness of grief. |

385

[O Luxury, thou cursed by Heaven's decree,] How ill exchanged are things like these for thee!| How do thy potions, with insidious joy, Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy !| Kingdoms by thee to sickly greatness grown, 390 Boast of a florid vigour not their own ;|

395

At every draught more large and large they grow,
A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe ;|

Till sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound,
Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round. |
Even now the devastation is begun, |

And half the business of destruction done ;]
Even now,) [methinks,] as pondering here I stand, |
I see the rural Virtues leave the land.)

Down) where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail | 400 That idly waiting flaps with every gale,

Downward they move, a melancholy band,)
Pass from the shore,] and darken all the strand.]
Contented Toil, and hospitable Care,

And kind connubial Tenderness are there ;|
405 And Piety with wishes placed above,
And steady Loyalty, and faithful Love.]

And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid,
Still first to fly) where sensual joys invade ! |
Unfit, in these degenerate times of shame,

410 To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame;
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe,)
That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so ;]
415 Thou guide) by which the nobler arts excel, |
Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!)
Farewell!] and oh! where'er thy voice be tried, |
On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side,]
Whether,] where equinoctial fervours glow, |
420 Or winter wraps the polar world in snow,]

393. Two Nom. Absolutes, forming extensions of manner, to "sink."

406. Supply "are there."

407. This beautiful invocation to Poetry may either be taken as an exclamation standing apart from any grammatical construction, or may be united as a subject to the verb fare thee well in line 416. The thee

in fair thee well is really a subject also, though in the form of the objective case. 412. My solitary pride, i.e., my pride in solitude.

418. Torno's cliff: Tornea is a river at the extreme north of the Gulf of Bothnia. Pambamarca's side: A mountain in South America, nearly under the Equator.

Still let thy voice, prevailing over time,
Redress the rigours of th' inclement clime ;|
Aid slighted Truth, with thy persuasive strain ;]
Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain ;]
425 Teach him] that states, of native strength possest,
Though very poor, may still be very blest ; |
That Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, |
As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away; |
While self-dependent power can time defy, |
430 As rocks resist the billows and the sky. |

428. The image would be clearer, if this line were expressed in the passive; for the idea is that "Trade's proud empire must

perish as the laboured mole is swept away by the ocean; whilst power, independent of trade, can brave every storm."