132 SONNET. TO A FAVOURITE CAT*. FROM THE ITALIAN OF TASSO. "Come nel Ocean, s'oscura, e' nfesta, &c." BY ALEXANDER THOMSON, ESQ, WITH stormy rage while ocean's billows roll, With eager wishes turns his anxious eye: In gloom's nocturnal hours his lays to write: Tasso, in a humourous Sonnet addressed to his favourite Cat, earnestly entreats her to lend him the light of her eyes during his midnight studies, not being himself able to purchase a candle to write by. ADVENTURER, No. 59. SONG. ROUND Love's elysian bowers, Round Love's deserted bowers, And Pleasure's waning moon goes down, Then youth, thou fond believer! The wily syren shun, Who trusts the sweet deceiver, Will surely be undone ! When Beauty triumphs, ah beware! Her smile is Hope, her frown Despair! ALCEUS, ODE. TO ROBERT ANDERSON, M. D. ON HIS LEAVING THE COUNTY OF DOWN, SEPTEMBER 17, 1802. BY THE REV. HENRY BOYD, A. M. We spent at Campbell's * friendly board Of that illustrious name, surpast And Percy's health and praise went round— -How is the prospect all o'er-cast Since you have left Uladia's bound! -Even tuneful Hafiz ‡ seems to mope, Like Patrick's Dean bereft of Pope! *The Rev. Dr. William Campbell, Newry. + Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore. Thomas Stott, Esq. Dromore. Deserted by the sinking gale, Since you forsook the northern shore, Those Islands where the Muses play; And all our glimmering fires decay. We saw Mount Catherine o'er the tide We saw Rosstrevors sylvan pride The foamy spray indignant spurn, Where on the beach by Neptune worn, From pendent bowers and billows hoar, Sapphire and emerald tints adorn, In fairy dance, the winding shore. Yet still the parting scene display'd O'er all a melancholy shade. Ah! little thought the mingled throng Might raise their minds above the scene Of all that Fancy yet descried, In moon-light wave, or woodland green, Or where the golden shafts of day Thro' chequer'd shades on Ocean play. * Carlingford bay, a scene of unparalleled beauty and magnificence. For, like thy country's pride of yore, Thy banded minstrels march along, And charmed Echo answers still; The swains from many a hamlet round As the full concert charms the ear; * Wallace. + The general dispersion of Dr. Anderson's edition of the British Poets, the critical merit of the editor, the influence of general knowledge, and particularly of the refined entertainment which these volumes afford, in humanizing the manners and aiding the cause of virtue in rural literary societies, are alluded to here and in the following Stanzas. |