No More Learning

378
Say, what your gifts, ye Muses, now avail,
The poet's feelings, and the poet's fire ?
But keener pangs they teach me to bewail:
But. deeper lamentafions they inspire.
379
Now Spring, diffusing gladness all around,
With smiles alluring courts the western breeze,
Her gayest flowers scatters o'er the ground,
And clothes in te-\-liage green | the spreading trees.
380
A friend I had : that friend is now no more.
His cold remains beneath the marble lie.
His loss with bitter anguish i deplore,
and to his mem'ry often heave a sigh.
' yfc. . 38i* j
But, lo ! at last he comes with crowded sail!
See ! o'er the cliff what eager figures bend !
And hark, what mingled muirfnurs swell the gale!
In each, he hears the viekgme 8f a friend.
382
tn the wide hall huge cover'd tables stood,
With wines high-flavour'd, and rich Viands crown'dj
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? Key to English Prosody. 6l
Whatever sprightly juice or tasteful food
on the green bosfm of this earth is found.
383
The rooms with costly tapestry were hung,
Where was inwoven ma-|-/iy a gc>>-|-t! e tale,
Such as of old the rural poets sung
#r tif Arcadia? j or Sicilian vale.
384
Ye guardian spirit, to whom man is dear,
From frightful visions shield the midnight gloom:
angels of fancy and of love, be near,
And o'er the blank of sleep diffuse a bloom.
385
A rugged wight, the worst of brutes, was man :
8n his own wretched kind he ruthless prey'd :
The strongest still the weakest over-ran :
In ev'ry country mighty robbers sway'd.
S86
Alarm'd, th' infe-i-no/" de-\-mons bfthe place
Rais'd rtteful shrieks and hideous yells around.
Black stormy clouds defonn'd the welkin's face;
and from beneath was heard a wailing sound.
,. f#87
How vast, how
When hope
How dull and covnj'ortless, how poor and mean,
Has Reason since this mighty world portray'd !
388
Pour on my fainting soul thy melting notes,
Softer than spring's lone minstrel can bestow.
G
v fair appear'd this wond'rous scene,
at first its op'ning buds display/d !
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? 62 Key to English Prosody.
While through the Hst'ning air thy cadence floats,
The sigh shall cease, the tear forget to flow.
*? . 389. -- Retirement.
Ambition's -vessel, tin a faithful shore,
Here rests in peace, her anchor sweet content.
Here curiosity is seen no more
With prying eye exploring each event.
390
Here o'er the grassy meads the Muses rove,
or by yon stream that through the valley strays;
While inspiration whispers through the grove,
And sportive fancy 'mid the fo-\-fiage plays. |
391
Ye hills sublime, that o'er the landscape wild
Frown in terrific grandeur wild and drear,"
Thou crystal Tay, that roll'st in cadence mild,
I come to sooth my childish sorrows here.
392
Come, Patience! charmer of the anguish'd hour,
SklU'd each desponding horror tt i beguile!
Benignly mild, come, sweet but serious pow'r,
And sooth me with thy melancholy smile.
In yonder grove, the rooks are hush'd to rest
Within their nests, the topmost boughs among;
The light-wing'd lark his lowly bed has press'd:
The glossy blackWro' has forgot his song.
394
There the tall tomb uprears its pompous head, fo'er,
With verse high-sounding and with praise spread
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? Key to English Prosody. 63
As though the fulsome theme could please the dead,
Or sooth them on eternity's vast shore.
395
Sweet child of fancy, Fief ion, thou hast pow'r
To move each various passion that we know;
Canst bid the brow with imag'd sorrows lour,
Canst make the breast with imag'd pleasures glow.
396
How oft, in reason's spite shall we be told
(And told it too in Britain's lib'ral air)
By those who Afric's sons in bondage hold,
That better they, than Sco-l-tfa's pea-|-sants, fare :
397
0 Peace! for thee, I all the world resign,
for thee, from all the haunts of men I fly.
1 ask but this on earth, b maid divine,
With thee to wander, and with thee to die.
398
Obe-l-dtent Jor-l-tune waits, where'er they go :
For them, th' inconstant elements are kind :
For them, the proudest streams forget to flow;
and, at their wish, up springs the fav'ring wind.
399
Now tin the world's bleak waste I stand alone :
An unprotected orphan j am left.
To me the names of kindred are unknown :
Of each endearing comfort I'm bereft.
400
Pause, gentle \illdger, a moment here :
Awhile the thoughts of earthly cares forego :
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? 64 Key to English Prosody.
Breathe a soft sigh, or drop one pi-\-tying tear, |
If e'er thy bosom throbb'd for others' wo*.
401
Days of my youth ! are yifu for ever flown ?
Adieu, blest days of innocence and ease !
Dear rustic recreations, are you gone ?
Pastimes of youth, when ev'ry sport could please.
402. -- May.
No frowning moments dare their gloom intrude:
But melody is heard from ev'ry spray.
The fleecy wand'rers crop their plen-|*feo<<5food, |
Or gaily sport the sunny hours away.
403
Affection's glance can pierce the dfeary gloom,
That curtains round with clouds the land unknown.
She wails and sobs in anguish o'er thy tomb;
Her tears unseen, unheard, alas ! her moan.
404
Let busy Scandal, with malignant tongue,
Repeat, with savage joy, thy n'i-\-teous tale: |
The feeling soul shall, by thy sorrows wrung,
In sympathetic strains thy fate bewail.
405
Some statesman, anxious for his country's weal,
Perhaps the fate of mighty empires scans.
His lab'ring mind no soft repose can feel,
While in his breast he weighs th' important plans.
406 '
once more, my lyre, I strike thy trembling strings;
But not again to joy thy notes I raise.
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? Key to English Prosody. 65
Grief o'er the chords her hand distressful flings,
And, faintly pausing, oft the song delays.
407
With htm a youthful stripling t beheld :
Careless his gait, and modest was his mien ;
and in his hand a half-strung lyre he held,
Which oft he struck, each idle pause between.
- 409
Swiet pensive jessamine, if e'er you chose
To deck an humble spot unknown to fame;
And thou, of modest blush, ^air virgin rose,
If kindred worth and charms thy notice claim ;
oh! Interweave your branches round yon tomb,
and with united sweets embalm the air:
For innocence, and truth, and beauty's bloom--
all that the poet lov'd -- is buried there.
409
Sterne! thy poetic pow'rs to all are dear:
Near sick Le Fevre's couch we sit and moan;
And, wrung with anguish, drop the pi-|-reoi<< tear |
For poor Maria, wand'ring, wild, alone.
Nor less thy mirth delights, and poignant wit,
The martial bowling-green, the angled fence.
old Shandy's avguments are emblems fit
Of ruling passions mast'ring common sense.
410. -- Indolence.
Sometimes he wish'd his stupor off to shake,
And break the charm which thus his senses bound,
To deeds of noble enterprise awake,
And join the busy crowd which buzz'd around.
G3
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? 66 Key to English Prosody.
But still some vain excuse he ever found,
And said, " Tomorrow it will do as well. "
It came, and fled : -- the same unvaried round
He pass'd, nor could its numbing pow'rs repel.
411
Hhat breast, the seat of sentiment refin'd,
Tliosepow'rs, that ev'ry science could explore,
Are now to Death's unfathom'd gulf consign'd--
To charm, alas! th' admiring world no more.
What now avails that eltiquence divine,
That stamp'd convicriow on the dubious mind ?
The sage and savage must their life resign :
Time leaves no wreck of human pow'r behind.
412
What, if the smiles of Fortune round me play,
or if my name be echo'd through the land ?
What, if & servile train my voice obey,
Or length of days, or honors, round me stand I
Can these to mind one ray of bliss impart,
Or spread the glow of virtue o'er the breast,
Remove the anguish from a love-sick heart,
Disperse our doubts, or lull our fears to rest?
413
There, too, was he, who nobly stemm'd the tide
Of foul corrupritfn, with undaunted breast;
Who for his country liv'd, and would have died,
Could he have, dying, seen his country blest.
Its woes he f itted, and its wrongs redress'd ;
To it devoted each successive day:
But him the iron arm of pow'r oppress'd,
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? Key to English Prosody. 67
Strewing the thorns of sorrow o'er his way.
414
Hail, long-lost Peace ! hail, dove-ey'A maid divine!
See, at thy feet, a sup-\-pliant so-I-t'ry bend :
oh ! deign to view him with an eye benign :
So dying Hope shall find in thee a friend:
ah! turn not thy angelic face away !
If thou'lt be mine, no more I'll quit this vale,
But sit beside thee all the live-long day,
And list Ln silence to thy rural tale
There may we live, unsought for, and unseen
By Fortune's train, fantastic, cold, and rude ;
Nor let the sons of Comus mark the green,
Nor lounging triflers )in our hours intrude
If aught be wektime to our sylvan shed,
Be it the travVe/. who has lost his way,
Who knows not where to rest his anxious head,
Who knows not where his weary limbs to lay.
415
To sooth my grief, and chase the clouds of gloom,
I sought the beauties of the painted vale.
The flow'rs I often water d with my tears,
And loaded with my sighs the passing gale.
416. -- A dying Father, to his Children.
Go, pious offspring, and restrain those tears;
I fly to regions of eternal bliss:
Heav'n, in your favor, hears my dying pray'rs:
Take my last blessing in this clay-cold kiss.
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? 68 Key to English Prosody.
Iambics of eight syllables.
417
Forgive the inournfujjntes we keep,
Blest spirit! -- Pffr ourselves we weep.
418
How sooth<<wg to the troubled mind
Salter nature's music / how refin'd !
419
Remote from cities, Hv'd a swain,
Unvex'd with all the cares of gain.
420
I neri. r, with important air,
Tn conversation overbear.
421
Nor would t, with felonious slight,
By stealth invade my neighbour's right.
422
To err frail man is ever prone:
But gen'rous minds their faults will own.
423
Sweet at this twilight hour to rove
The tangled thickers of the grove.
424
The bee, from cowslips' golden bells,
Sucks honey, tti enrich her cells.
425
Now dropp'd for politics and news,
Neglected lay the drooping Muse.
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? Key to English Prosody.
426
And well the hands, that plough the soil,
Shall guard the produce of their toil.
427
Then let us, while our vows we seal,
Here on your hallow'd threshold kneel.
428
The earth, within her cavern'd deeps,
Her richest, proudest treasures keeps.
429
Benumbing frosts at length retire,
Which chill'dfair nature's genial fire.
430
Fain would my Muse, with daring wing,
Thy glorious deeds, Atrides, sing.
431
But soon again, in murmurs stow,
The melting notes begin to flow.
432
His bosom mild the fav'ring Muse
Had stor'd with all her ample views.
433
The surges, with resistless sway,
Force o'er the labor'd mole their way.
434
I've found thee in the vale below,
Sparkling 'midst heaps of drifted snow.
435
Now, in the kindling west, the sun
His headlong course has uearly run.
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? 70 Key to English Prosody.
436
Now, ff the mmor-ho&se remov'd,
old Simon ev'ry comfort prov'd.
437
oh! haste ! to this once-fmord shore
The blessaswgs of swtet peace restore.
438
Tar, far from Grandeur's noisy way,
To vales and groves the Muses stray.
439
Hence, ev'ry day the ant is found
With anxious steps to tread the ground.
440
Thus, in her cruelty and pride,
The wicked wanton sparrow died.
441
With cautious steps, the hoary swain
The river's margin strove to gain.
442
The playful lamb, with anxious bleat,
Pursues his dam, and seeks the teat.
443
Contentment lov'd to shelter here,
And truth, and fiity sincere.
444
By music's trilling notes beguil'd,
The river-god sat up, and smil'd.
445
But see, how regular appears
The motion of the heav'nly spheres.
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? Key to English Prosody. 71
A clown, before the break of day,
Across the forest took his way.
447
ho ! where this silent marble weeps,
A friend, a wife, a mother sleeps.
448
There soon the suff'rer sinks to rest,
jNo more with earthly cares opprcss'd.
449
Haply, some angel in his ear
Low whisper i that his hour was near.
450
Why should he fear the tyrant's frown,
Whose life is past with fair renown ?
451
Her faultless form, her lovely face,
add (6 the diadem new grace;
And, snbjecl VS a woman's laws,
Darius sees, and smiles applause.
452. -- Memory.
Far from the busy world she flies,
To taste that peace the world denies.
Entranc'd she sits, from youth to age,
Reviewing life's eventful page,
And noting, as they fade away,
The little lines of yesterday.
453. -- To Dr. Thornton, on his beautiful representa-
tion of the Agave, or American Aloe.
Nurs'd by a length of rolling years,
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? 72 Key to English Prosody.
Her stately form Agave rears,
Protracting still, with wise delay,
The glory foMowd by decay ;
'Till, urg'd by time's resistless date,
Nobly she braves approaching fate,
And, conscious of impending doom,
Bursts forth impatient into bloom ;
While, rich from all their curving stems,
Profusely shoot the golden gems;
Then,fading 'midst admiring eyes,
The vegefable martyr dies.
But, flow'ring thus at thy command,
Unchanged her finish'd form shall stond,
And, glo-\-rying in | perennial bloom,
Shall smile through ages yet to come.
Iambics of ten syllables.
454
So stands the Thracian herds/nan with his spenr,
Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear.
455
And o'er its eastern gate, was rais'd above
A temple, sacred # the queen of love.
456
The form of Mars, high tin a chariot stood,
allsheath'd in arms; and gruffly look'd the god.
457 .
The huntress Cyn-\-thia, Kith | her nymphs around,
Pursues the deer : the woods with horns reseund.
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? Key to English Prosody. 73
458
Then, kneeling with her hands across her breast,
Thus lowly she preferr'd her chaste request.
459
Then shall the war, and stei n debate, and strife
Immortal, be the bus'ness of my life.
460
Scarce were they seated, when, with clamors loud,
in rush'd at once a rude promis-l-cuowj crowd. J
461
But, whither went his soul, let those relate,
Who search the secrets of the future state.
462
But why, alas! do mortal men in vain
Of Fortune, Fate, or 'Providence, complain?
463
fie snor'd secure till morn, his senses bound
In slumter, and in long oblivion drown'd.
464
In days ef old, there liv'd, of mighty fame,
A valiant prince, and Theseus was his name.
465
Indulgent heav'n vouchsafes, for our delight,
The sweet Vicissitudes of day and night.
466
o thou, with whom my heart was wont to share,
From reason's dawn, each pleasure and each care !
467
oh ! learn from our example and our fate,
Learn wisdom and repentance, ere too late.
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? 74 Key to English Prosody.
468 ' . .
Thus, always teasing others, always teas'd,
His only pleasure is to be displeas'd.
469
Like quicksilver, the rhet'ric they display,
Shines, us it runs, hut, grasp'd at, slips awaj\
470
angels, when Mercy's mandate wing'd their flight,
Had stopp'd to catch new rapture from the sight.
471
We pay, with rev'renee due, and grief sincere,
At learning's tomb, the tributary tear.
472
How much of learning, when Horatio fell,
How much of knowledge, bade the world farewell!
473
For me at home the careful housewives make,
With plums and almonds rich, an ample cake.
474 ,
Pride of the land ! whate'er of good or fair
Celestial bounty gives, you largely share.
475
Rash is the fool, who, 'gainst his sov'reign lord,
Presumes to utter one opposing word.
476
Now Sco-\-tia's qiietn, | as faintly dawn'd the day,
Rose on her couch, and gaz'd her soul away.
477
God, ever workatog on a social plan,
By various ties attaches man to man.
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? Key to English Prosody. 75
478
Yet,fair and feasible although it seein,
Depend not much upon your golden dream.
479
The sage, who late o'er India's wide domain
Diffus'd the blessmgs of Britannia's reign.
4S0
There was a time, when cheerfully the light
Wak'd me at morn, and peace was mine at night.
481
W-fated Greece, beneath a victor's ire,
Saw both her genius and her taste expire.
482
Lo ! lame Tyrtaews, with his martial lyre,
Wakes s/iimb'ring Sparta's half-extinguish'd fire.
483
No thought can figure, and no tongue express,
No pen describe, poor Orra's dire distress.
484
We thank the hand that points, with gentle art,
The wholesome lance* tH some morbid part.
485
This beauteous virgin Theodo-l-sn<< woo'd, |
A youth, with worth of early growth endu'd.
486
N5w tfn his couch reclin'd Darius lay,
Tir'd with the toilsome pleasures of the day.
487
E'en now, e'en now, on yonder western shores
Weeps pfile Despair, and writhing Anguish roari.
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? 76 Key to English Prosody.
E'en note, in Afric's groves, with hideous yell,
Fierce Slay'ty stalks, and slips the dogs of hell.
488
Well spake the propter, " Eft the desert sing:
Where sprang the thorn, the spiry fir shall spring;
And, where unsight/y and rank fAIstles grew,
Shall grow the myrtle and luxu-l-rtanf yew. |
489
But not, till time has calm'd the ruffled breast.
Are these fond dreams of happiness confess'd.
Not, till the rushing winds forget to rave,
Is heav'n's sweet smile reflected Hn the wave.
490
Take, if you can, ye care/ess and supine,
Counsel and caution frifm a voiee like mine.
Truths, which the theorisf could never reach,
And observation taught me, i would teach.
491
Just heav'n approves, as honest and sincere,
The work of gen'rous love, and filial fear ;
But, with averted eyes, th' omni-\-sci%nt judge |
Scorns the base hireling, and the slavish drudge.
492. -- To Death,
ah! why, capricious, thus, with tyrant pride,
Stillfrom the wretched dost thou turn aside ?
And, where thy presence strikes with wild dismay,
Why love, an un-invited guest, to stray ? , -
493. -- The Planet Mercury.
Scorch'd, as he moves around the solar blaze,
Swift Merc'xy first his vivid orb displays.
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? Key to English Prosody. 77
494
The heart, surrender'J to the ruling pow'r
Of some ungovern'd passion ev'ry hour,
Finds, by degrees, the truths that once bore sway,
And all their deep impression, wear away.
So coin grows smooth, in traffic current pass'd,
Till Caesar's image is effac'd at last.
495
I saw thee crof s the troubled sea of life,
Thwarted by storms of elemental strife.
I saw thy skiff unequal fight maintain
With fearful tempests on'the raging main.
I saw the whirlwind's breath, with dreadful sweep,
Heave up the mighty btilows of the deep.
496
Down by yon hazel copse, at ev'ning, blaz'd
The Gipsey's faggot. -- There we stood, and gaz'd--
Xiaz'd tin her sun-burn'd face with silent awe,
' Her tatter'd mantle, and her hood of straw
As o'er my palm the silver piece she drew,
And trac'd the line of life with searching viewr,
How throbb'd my flutt'ring pulse with hopes and fears,
To learn the color o/'my future years!
497
So 1'ully paus'd amid the wreck of time,
on the rude stone to trace the truth sublime,
When at his feet, in honor'd dust disclos'd,
Th' immortal sage of Syracuse repos'd;
h3 \ .
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? Key to English Prosody.
Iambics of eight and of six syllables alternately.
498
Oa Echo's ear her plaintive strains
In mournful accents play'd;
And sweet/y In the distant plains
The warbling notes decay'd.
499
Though dazzling splendor, pomp, and show,
My {ortune has denied, '. - .
Yet, more than grandeur con bestow,
Content has well supplied.
500
IS! down the mountain's rugged side,
Impe-1-faoi/s for-|-rents dash ;
And mingled rocks and trees the tide
Bears down with horrid crash.
501
Adieu, ye plains, where nature smiles!
Adieu, ye verdant groves!
The view no more my thought beguiles, .
No more my solace proves.
502. -- Epitaph on a Child,
ere sin could blight, or sorrow fade,
Death came, with friendly care,
The op'ning bud to heav'n convey'd,
And bade it blossom there.
503
Alas! regard/ess of their doom,
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? Key to English Prosody.
The little victims play.
No sense have they of ills to come,
No care beyond to-day.
504. -- Migratory Birds.