The Rose soon reddened into rage,
And swelling with disdain,
Appealed to many a poet's page
To prove her right to reign.

The Lily's height bespoke command,
A fair imperial flower;

She seemed designed for Flora's hand,
The sceptre of her power.

This civil bickering and debate

The Goddess chanced to hear,

And flew to save, ere yet too late,

The pride of the parterre;

"Yours is," she said, "the nobler hue,

And yours the statelier mien;

And till a third surpasses you,

Let each be deemed a Queen."

Thus soothed and reconciled, each seeks

The fairest British fair;

The seat of empire is her cheeks,

They reign united there.

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IDEM LATINE REDDITUM.*

EU inimicitias quoties parit æmula forma, Quam raro pulchræ pulchra placere potest !

Sed fines ultra solitos discordia tendit,
Cum flores ipsos bilis et ira movent?

Hortus ubi dulces præbet tacitosque recessus,
Se rapit in partes gens animosa duas;
Hic sibi regales Amaryllis candida cultús,
Illic purpureo vindicat ore Rosa.

Ira Rosam et meritis quæsita superbia tangunt,
Multaque ferventi vix cohibenda sinû,

Dum sibi fautorum ciet undique nomina vatum,
Jusque suum, multo carmine fulta, probat.

Altior emicat illa, et celso vertice nutat,

Ceu flores inter non habitura parem, Fastiditque alios, et nata videtur in usus

Imperii, sceptrum, Flora quod ipsa gerat.

Nec Dea non sensit civilis murmura rixæ,
Cui curæ est pictas pandere ruris opes,
Deliciasque suas nunquam non prompta tueri,
Dum licet et locus est, ut tueatur, adest.

VOL. II.

Poems, Ed. 1782, p. 324.

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Et tibi forma datur procerior omnibus, inquit,
Et tibi, principibus qui solet esse, color,
Et donec vincat quædam formosior ambas,
Et tibi reginæ nomen, et esto tibi.

His ubi sedatus furor est, petit utraque nympham,
Qualem inter Veneres Anglia sola parit;
Hanc penes imperium est, nihil optant amplius,
hujus

Regnant in nitidis, et sine lite, genis.

THE POPLAR FIELD.*

HE poplars are felled;-farewell to the shade,

And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade!

The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves, Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view Of my favourite field, and the bank where they

grew;

6

And now in the grass behold they are laid,
And the tree is my seat, that once lent me a shade.

* Written about the close of 1784 (see letter to Unwin, 15th January, 1785), and first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1785, p. 53. The edition of the Poems published in 1800 is the first in which it has been found included, vol. п., p. 353. The poplars alluded to stood near Lavendon Mills, about a mile from Olney.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat,

Where the hazels afford him a screen from the

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heat, And the scene where his melody charmed me before, Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they,

With a turf on my breast, and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead. 10

"Tis a sight to engage me, if any thing can,
To muse on the perishing pleasures of man ;
Though his life be a dream, his enjoyments, I see,
Have a being less durable even than he.*

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* Cowper afterwards altered this stanza in the following

manner:

The change both my heart and my fancy employs,
I reflect on the frailty of man, and his joys;
Short-lived as we are, yet our pleasures, we see,
Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we.†

†This note was added in the Edition of 1803, vol. I. p. 332.

IDEM LATINE REDDITUM.*

OPULEÆ cecidit gratissima copia silvæ, Conticuêre susurri, omnisque evanuit umbra;

Nullæ jam levibus se miscent frondibus

auræ,

Et nulla in fluvio ramorum ludit imago.

Hei mihi! bis senos dum luctu torqueor annos, 5
His cogor silvis suetoque carere recessu,
Cum serò rediens, stratasque in gramine cernen.
Insedi arboribus, sub queîs errare solebam.

Ah ubi nunc merulæ cantus? Felicior illum
Silva tegit, duræ nondum permissa bipenni;
Scilicet exustos colles camposque patentes
Odit, et indignans et non rediturus abivit.

Sed qui succisas doleo succidar et ipse,
Et priùs huic parilis quàm creverit altera silva
Flebor, et, exequiis parvis donatus, habebo
Defixum lapidem tumulique cubantis acervum.

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* Written probably in January, 1785, and sent to Nichols for the Gentleman's Magazine early in the succeeding month (see letter to Unwin, 7th February, 1785). It was printed in that magazine for the following August, p. 644, and in the Edition of the Poems, 1800, vol. II., p. 354.