Indifference may repel armour | The jocund Loves in Hymen's band, With torches ever bright, The shafts of woe, in such a breast "Tis woven in the world's great plan, And fix'd by Heaven's decree, Tis nature bids, and whilst the laws Thus grief itself has comforts dear, For when it streams from that pure source, No bribes the heart can win, To check, or alter from its course The luxury within. Peace to the phlegm of sullen elves, Who, if from labour eased, Extend no care beyond themselves, Unpleasing and unpleased. Let no low thought suggest the Oh! grant, kind Heaven, to me, And generous Friendship hand in hand, With Pity's watery sight. The gentler Virtues too are join'd The Arts come smiling in the close, The marble breathes, the canvass The Muses sweep the lyre. "Still may my melting bosom To sufferings not my own; "So Pity shall take Virtue's part, And fashioning my soften'd heart, This artless vow may Heaven rece And you, fond maid, approve; So may the rosy-finger'd hours Where'er the heavenly nymph is And suns to come, as round they wheel, Your golden moments bless, AN ODE.* SECUNDUM ARTEM. I. SHALL I begin with Ah, or Oh? Be sad ? Oh yes. Be glad? Ah! no. Light subjects suit not grave Pindaric ode, Which walks in metre down the Strophic road. But let the sober matron wear Her own mechanic sober air: Ah me! ill suits, alas! the sprightly jig, Let thought turn exile, while the vacant mind To win the ear, neglects the heart. Court the quaint muse, and con her lessons o'er, Stretch, cramp, or lop the verse's limb, While rebel Wit beholds them with disdain, And Fancy flies aloft, nor heeds their servile chain. II. O Fancy, bright aërial maid! Where have thy vagrant footsteps stray'd! For, ah! I miss thee 'midst thy wonted haunt, Since silent now the enthusiastic chaunt, Which erst like frenzy roll'd along, Driven by the impetuous tide of song; Whose lady Muse full wantonly is drest, * Written in ridicule of the Pindarics of Mason. LINES WRITTEN DURING A PERIOD OF INSANITY. 27 As varnish on the cheek of harlot light; Smooth, soothing sounds, and sweet alternate rime, III. The lark shall soar in every Ode, With flowers of light description strew'd; There smouldering stones o'erspread the rugged ground. There babbling fonts, and prattling rills; Oh let me boast, with pride becoming skill, While Taste and Genius shall dispense, From every new poetic flower, And sweets collected may a wreath compose, To bind the poet's brow, or please the critic's nose. LINES WRITTEN DURING A PERIOD OF INSANITY, HATRED and vengeance,-my eternal portion Scarce can endure delay of execution, Wait with impatient readiness to seize my Soul in a moment. 28 LINES WRITTEN DURING A PERIOD OF INSANITY. Damn'd below Judas; more abhorr'd than he was, Who for a few pence sold his holy Master! Man disavows, and Deity disowns me, Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers; Him the vindictive rod of angry Justice Buried above ground. LINES WRITTEN DURING THE AUTHOR'S SECOND PERIOD OF INSANITY. 1774. HEU! quam remotus vescor ab omnibus Quam nescius jucunda quondam Et præter omnes te mihi flebilem, Sed nec ferocem me genuit pater, Leæna dumoso sub antro, Fata sed hoc voluere nostra. ON OBSERVING SOME NAMES OF LITTLE NOTE Он, fond attempt to give a deathless lot So when a child, as playful children use, * Written in 1780, and sent to the Rev. W. Unwin in a letter dated Sept. 3, in that year, |