Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay, the insect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
Man cares for all to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods;
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasures, yet for more his pride.
All fed on one vain patron, and enjoy

Th' extensive blessing of his luxury.

That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage saves :
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast;
And, till he ends the being, makes it blest :
Which sees no more the stroke, nor feels the pain,
Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er!-PO

SECTION XI.

Human frailty.

WEAK and irresolute is man;

The purpose of to-day,
Woven with pains into his plan,

To-morrow rends away.

The bow well bent, and smart the spring,

Vice seems already slain;

But passion rudely snaps the string,

And it revives again.

Some foe to his upright intent

Finds out his weaker part;

Virtue engages his assent,

But pleasure wins his heart.

'Tis here the folly of the wise,
Through all his art we view;
And while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.

Bound on a voyage of awful length,

And dangers little known,

A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail

To reach the distant coast;

The breath of heav'n must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.-COWPER.

SECTION XII.

Ode to peace.

COME, peace of mind, delightful guest!
Return, and make thy downy nest
Once more in this sad heart:
Nor riches I, nor pow'r pursue
Nor hold forbidden joys in view;
We therefore need not part.
Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From av'rice and ambition free,
And pleasure's fatal wiles;
For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that. I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?

The great, the gay, shall they partake
The heav'n that thou alone canst make;
And wilt thou quit the stream,
That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove and the sequester'd shade,
To be a guest with them?
For thee I panted, thee I priz'd,
For thee I gladly sacrific'd

Whate'er I lov'd before;

And shall I see thee start away,

And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say

Farewell, we meet no more ?-COWPER.

SECTION XIII.

Ode to adversity..

DAUGHTER of Heav'n, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge, and tort'ring hour,
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Bound in thy adamantine chain,

The proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan

With

pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone

When first thy sire to send on earth
Virtue, his darling child, design'd,
To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
And bade to form her infant mind.
Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore
With patience many a year she bore.

What sorrow was, thou bads't her know;

And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' wo.

Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly
Self-pleasing folly's idle brood,

Wild laughter, noise, and thoughtless joy,
And leave us leisure to be good.

Light they disperse; and with them go
The summer-friend, the flatt'ring foe.
By vain prosperity receiv'd,

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.

Wisdom, in sable garb array'd,
Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,
And melancholy, silent maid,

With leaden eye that loves the ground,
Still on thy solemn steps attend;
Warm charity, the gen'ral friend,
With justice to herself severe,

And pity, dropping soft the sadly pleasing tear.

Ob, gently, on thy suppliant's head,*
Dread power, lay thy chast'ning hand!
Not in thy gorgon terrors clad,
Nor circled with the vengeful band,
(As by the impious thou art seen,)

With thund'ring voice, and threat ning mie.
With screaming horror's fun'ral cry,
Despair, and fell disease, and ghastly poverty.

Thy form benign, propitious, wear,
Thy milder influence impart ;
Thy philosophic train be there,
To soften, not to wound my heart.
The gen'rous spark extinct revive ;
Teach me to love, and to forgive,
Exact my own defects to scan ;

What others are to feel; and know myself a man.—GKAY

SECTION XIV.

The creation required to praise its
BEGIN, my soul, th' exalted lay!
Let each enraptur'd thought obey

And praise th' Almighty's n/skies,
Lo! heaven and earth, and sea
In one melodious concert rise,
To swell th' inspiring the

Ye fields of light, celestial plágns,
Where gay transporting bea

Ye scenes divinely fai proclaim,
Your Maker's wond'rousing frame,
Tell how he form'd youair.

And breath'd the ling sound!

Ye angels, catch the ones around
While all th' adorincy sing:
His boundleşint above

Let ev'ry list'niul soul of love,
Wake all the tų sweetest string.
And touch

heres, the vocal choir;

Join, ye lougrb of liquid fire,

Thou dazzlity chorus aid:

The Jev'ning gilds the plain,

Soon as gn, protract the melting strain,
Thou, praise him in the shade.

The

Y

heav'n of heav'ns, his vast abode ;
ouds, proclaim your forming God,
Who call'd yon worlds from night:
Ye shades dispel !"-th' Eternal said;
At once th' involving darkness fled,
And nature sprung to light.
Whate'er a blooming world contains,
That wings the air, that skims the plains,
United praise bestow :

Ye dragons, sound his awful name
To heav'n aloud; and roar acclaim,
Ye swelling deeps below.

Let ev'ry element rejoice;
Ye thunders burst with awful voice
TO HIM who bids you roll:

247

The English Reader.

raise in softer notes declare, whispering breeze of yielding air, Td breathe it to the soul.

Ye e grateful cedars, bow;

g mountains, bending low,
Tell, treat Creator own;
How Simffrighted nature shook,
Aadled at his look,

Ye flocks pled at his frown.

Ye insects hunt the humble vale,
In mutuing on the gale,

Crop the gay course rise;
And waft its spo.vermeil bloom,
In incense to sweet perfume,

akies. Wake all ye mountin

Ye plumy warblers ofbes, and sing ;
Harmonious anthemspring,

TO HIM who shap'd your ise
Who tipp'd your glitt'ring mould,

And tun'd your voice tos with gold,

aise.

Let man, by nobler passions s
The feeling heart, the judging id,
In heav'nly praise employ ;
Spread his tremendous name around
Till heav'n's broad arch rings back tì.
The gen'ral burst of joy.

ound,

Ye whom the charms of grandeur please,
Nurs'd on the downy lap of ease,

Fall prostrate at his throne:

Ye princes, rulers, all adore ;

Praise him, ye kings, who makes your pow'r
An image of his own.

Ye fair, by nature form'd to move,
O praise th' eternal SOURCE OF LOVE,
With youth's enliv’ning fire :

Let

age take up the tuneful lay,

Sigh his bless'd name-then soar away,

And ask an angel's lyre.-OGilvie.

« AnteriorContinuar »