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What eyes but hers, alas, have power to move! And is there magic but what dwells in love?

Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful ftrains! I'll fly from thepherds, flocks, and flowery plains. From fhepherds, flocks, and plains, I may remove, Forfake mankind, and all the world-but love! I know thee, Love: on foreign mountains bred, Wolves gave thee fuck, and favage tigers fed. 90 Thou wert from Ætna's burning entrails torn, Got by fierce whirlinds, and in thunder born!

Refound, ye hills, refound my mournful lay! Farewell, ye woods, adieu the light of day! One leap from yonder cliffs fhall end my pains; No more, ye hills, no more refound my strains! Thus fung the fhepherds till th' approach of night,

The skies yet blushing with departing light, When falling dews with spangles deck'd the glade, And the low fun had lengthen'd every shade. 100

WINTER.

THE FOURTH PASTORAL, OR DAPHNE.

TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. TEMPEST.

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'Tis done, and nature's various charms decay: See gloomy clouds obfcure the cheerful day! 30 Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours fcatter'd on her bier. See where, on earth, the flowery glories lie! With her they flourish'd and with her they die. Ah, what avail the beauties nature wore? Fair Daphne's dead, and beauty is no more!

For her the flocks refuse their verdant food, The thirsty heifers fhun the gliding flood; The filver fwans her hapless fate bemoan, In notes more fad than when they fing their 40

own;

In hollow caves fweet Echo filent lies,
Silent, or only to her name replies;
Her name with pleasure once the taught the fhore,
Now Daphne's dead, and pleasure is no more!

No grateful dews defcend from evening skies,
Nor morning odours from the flowers arife;
No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field,
Nor fragrant herbs their native incenfe yield.
The balmy zephyrs, filent fince her death,
Lament the ceafing of a sweeter breath;
Th' induftrious bees neglect their golden ftore;
Fair Daphne's dead, and sweetness is no more!

VARIATIONS.

50

Ver. 29. Originally thus in the MS. 'Tis done, and nature's chang'd fince you are gone; Behold, the clouds have "put their mourning on."

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No more the mounting larks, while Daphne fings, | In fome ftill evening, when the whispering breeze Shall, listening in mid air, suspend their wings; No more the birds fhall imitate her lays,

Or, hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays;
No more the streams their wonder fhall forbear,
A fweeter mufic than their own to hear;
But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal fhore,
Fair Daphne's dead, and music is no more!

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Her fate is whifper'd by the gentle breeze, And told in fighs to all the trembling trees; The trembling trees, in every plain and wood, Her fate remurmur to the filver flood: The filver flood, fo lately calm, appears Swell'd with new paffion, and o'erflows with tears; The winds, and trees, and floods, her death deplore,

Daphne, our grief! our glory now no more!
But fee where Daphne wondering mounts on
high

Above the clouds, above the starry sky!
Eternal beauties grace the fhining scene,
Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green!
There while you rest in amaranthine bowers,
Or from those meads felect unfading flowers,
Behold us kindly, who your name implore,
Daphne, our goddess, and our grief no more!
LYCIDAS.

70

How all things liften, while thy mufe complains! Buch filence waits on Philomela's ftrains,

Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees
To thee bright goddess, oft a lamb fhall bleed,
If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.
While plants their shade, or flowers their odours

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MESSIAH.

A SACRED ECLOGUE.

IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO.

ADVERTISEMENT.

In reading several paffages of the prophet Isaiah, which foretel the coming of Chrift, and the feli cities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line for line; but selected such ideas as best agreed with the nature of Pastoral Poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the fame in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the prophet are fuperior to those of the poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the fame disadvantage of a literal translation.

Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the fong:
To heavenly themes fublimer strains belong.
The moffy fountains and the fylvan fhades,
The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids,
Delight no more-0 thou my voice infpire
Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire!
Rapt into future times, the bard begun!
A Virgin fhall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son!
From Jeffe's root behold a branch arife,

*

Th' Æthereal spirit o'er its leaves fhall move,
And on its top defcends the mystic Dove.
Ye+ Heavens from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in foft filence fhed the kindly shower!
The fick and weak the healing plant shall aid,
From storms a shelter, and from heat a fhade.

IMITATIONS.

Whofe facred flower with fragrance fills the skies: 10 Irrita perpetua folvent formidine terras,—

IMITATIONS.

Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.

"Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of

Ver. 8. A Virgin fhall conceive-All crimes" Saturn returns, now a new progeny is fent down fhall cease, &c.]

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"from high heaven. By means of thee, whate"ver relics of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. "He shall govern the earth in peace, with the vir "tues of his Father."

+ Cb. xiv. ver. 8.
Cb. xxv. ver. 4.

All crimes thall cease, and ancient frauds fhall fail, A God, a God! the vocal hills reply,
Returning Juftice lift aloft her fcale;
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-rob❜d Innocence from heaven defcend. 20
Swift fly the years, and rife th' expected morn!
Oh fpring to light, aufpicious babe, be born!
See, nature haftes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the intense of the breathing spring:
See + lofty Lebanon his head advance,
See nodding forefts on the mountains dance:
See fpicy clouds from lowly Saron rife,
And Carmel's flowery top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely defert cheers;
Prepare the way & a God, a God appears!

IMITATIONS.

30

Ifaiah, Ch. vii. ver. 14. "Behold a Virgin "shall conceive and bear a Son-Chap. ix. ver. "6, 7. Unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son "is given; the Prince of Peace: of the increase "of his government, and of his peace, there fhall "be no end: Upon the throne of David, and up" on his kingdom, to order and to establish it, "with judgment and with justice, for ever and " ever."

Ver. 13. See nature haftes, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 18.

At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu,
Errantes hederas paffim cum baccare tellus,
Mixtaque ridenti colocafia fundet acantho
Ipfa tibi blandes fundent cunabula flores.

"For thee, O Child, fhall the earth, without "being tilled, produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with Baccar, and Colocaffia with "Imiling Acanthus. Thy cradle shall pour forth "pleafing flowers about thee."

Ifaiah, Ch. xxxi. ver. L. "The wilderness and the folitary place fhall be glad, and the defert "fhall rejoice and bloffom as the rofe." Ch. lx. ver. 13. The glory of Lebanon shall come un"to thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box “together, to beautify the place of thy fan&u"ary."

Ver. 29. Hark! a glad voice, &c.
Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 46.

40

The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies;
Sink down, ye mountains; and ye vallies, rise ;
With heads declin'd, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be fmooth, ye rocks: ye rapid floods, give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear him, ye deaf; and all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films fhall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eye-ball pour the day:
'Tis he th' obstructed paths of found shall clear,
And bid new mufic charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb fhall fing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No figh, no murmur, the wide world fhall hear,
From every face he wipes off every tear.
In + adamantine chains fhall death be bound,
As the good fhepherd tends his fleecy care,
And hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound.
Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air;
Explores the loft, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'erfees them, and by night protects;
The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms;
Thus fhall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd § father of the future age.
No more fhall nation against nation rife,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more:
But ufelefs lances into fcythes fhall bend,
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.
Then palaces fhall rife; the joyfulSon
Shall finish what his fhort-liv'd Sire begun;
Their vines a fhadow to their race fhall yield,
And the fame hand that sow'd, shall reap the field;
The swain in barren †4 deferts with surprise
Sees lilies fpring, and sudden verdure rife;

IMITATIONS.

50

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Aggredere, & magnos, (aderit jam tempus) honores," ftraight, and the rough places plain." Ch. iv, Cara deûm foboles, magnum Jovis incrementum

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ver. 23. "Break forth into finging, ye mountains; "O foreft, and every tree therein, for the Lord "hath redeemed Ifeael."

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Ver. 67. The fwain in barren deferts] Virg.
Ecl. iv. ver. 28.

Molli paulatim flavefcet campus aristå,
Incultifque rubens pendebit fentibus uva:
Et duræ quercus fudabunt roscida mella.

• Cb. xliii. ver. 18.
+ Ch. xxv. ver. 8.
§ Ch. ix. ver. 6.

Cb. lxv. ver. 21, 22.
tt Ch. xxxv, ver. 1. 7.

Ch. xxxv. ver. 5, 6.

Cb. xl. ver. II.
Cb. ii. ver. 4.

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And ftarts, amidft the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrufh nods.
Wafte fandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The fpiry fir and shapely box adorn :

*

To leaflefs fhrubs the flowery palms fucceed,
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.

The lambs with wolves fhall graze the verdant
mead,

And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead:
The fteer and lion at one crib fhall meet,

The smiling infant in his hand fhall take
The crefted bafilifk and fpeckled fnake,
Pleas'd, the green luftre of the scales furvey,
And with their forky tongue fhall innocently
play.

Rife, crown'd with light, imperial * Salem, rife!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long trace thy fpacious courts adorn;
See future fons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,

And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. 80 Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;

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"The goats fhall bear to the fold their udders "diftended with milk; nor fhall the herds be "afraid of the greatest lions. The ferpent fhall "die, and the herb that conceals poifon fhall die."

Ifaiah, Ch. xi. ver. 6, &c. "The wolf fhall "dwell with the lamb, and the leopard fhall lie "down with the kid, and the calf and the young

lion and the fatling together; and a little child "fhall lead them. And the lion shall eat straw like "the ox. And the fucking child fhall play on "the hole of the afp, and the weaned child fhall "put his hand on the den of the cockatrice."

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9,9

See thy bright altars throng'd with proftrate kings,
And heap'd with products of § Sabean fprings,
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And feeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its fparkling portals wide difplay,
And break upon thee in a flood of day!
No more the rifing | fun fhall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her filver horn;
But loft, diffolv'd in thy fuperior 1ays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The

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feas fhall wafte, the skies in fmoke decay,
Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his faving power remains;
Thy realm for ever lafts, thy own Messiah reigns!

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