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A NIGHT-PIECE.

'Tis night and storms the forest shake ;
Dark roll the billows on the lake;
The whirlwind sweeps; descends the rain,
The torrents echo to the plain :
Through desert paths forlorn I stray,
And not a moon to light my way;

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No friendly star with golden eye

Looks from the cieling of the sky.

Here sounds an oak ;-there spreads a plane;

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See the Six Bards, of which I conceive that the Night-piece was the original form.

Where sprightly music swelled the sound,
While blooming beauty tript around.
They vanished, as they ne'er had been,
No lyre is heard, no maid is seen,
No more the tuneful lyrist warms,
Death long since rifled beauty's charms;
No warrior's martial size is shown,
Time moulders down the very stone;
With every blast the fragments fall,
And winds are blust'ring in the hall.
Unhappy man! how short his date,
He springs to light, and sinks in fate;

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Ev'n from the womb, the tomb is seen;

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And sorrow fills the space between.

Bid paltry riches glut his eye,
Or empty glory raise him high;
Bid him in wrangling senates glow,
Or turn the batt'ry on the foe;
Yet, high or low, 'tis mankind's lot,
To live in grief, and die forgot.

Go, on the stone inscribe thy name,
And to the marble trust thy fame;
Bid half the mountain form thy tomb,
The wonder of the times to come;
The mound shall sink, the stone decay,
The sculptured figure wear away;
The bust that proudly speaks thy praise,
Some shepherd's future cot may raise;
While, smiling round, his infant son
Admires the figures on the stone.

A tomb its dreary honour shows!
Three stones exalt their heads of moss;

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Now peeping from the cloudy pole,
The moon has silvered o'er the whole.
Here, hoar tradition tells, repose
Two youths the dread of Albion's foes,
Of other times the grace and pride,
Who saved their country when they died;
But rolling time has lost their name,
So faithless is the breath of fame.
That light! it issues from the cot,
Be grief suspended,-care forgot:
There Nisa for her lover sighs,

And rolls on night her wishful eyes:
Why has my ling'ring rover stayed?

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VERSES

ΤΟ

A YOUNG LADY.

WHEN half the nation round Almira sighs,
And sense secures the conquest of her eyes,
Why bids the nymph a muse unknown to fame
To grace
her numbers with so fair a name?
Or would the maid add lustre to my lays ?
Or shew the world how weakly I can praise?

The muse disclaimed, and all the powers of song,
The rapture vanished, and the lyre unstrung;
I left to other bards their groves of bays,

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And sacrificed my hopes of fame to ease.
Nor Delia's charms could bid my numbers rise,
Nor caught my soul the fire of Chloe's eyes;
On Mira's cheek in vain did roses glow,
And Chloris heaved, unsung, her breast of snow;
Almira only could my breast inflame,

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Were but my strength proportioned to my theme.
Grant then I sung, what honour could I pay,
Where every grace displayed prevents the lay?
Thee first in beauty, sighing thousands own;
And thou art stranger to thy worth alone:

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Charms after charms in fair succession rise,
Thy wit pursues the progress of thine eyes;
Each love-sick youth, without the poet's art,
Beholds enough to rob him of his heart;

The muse despairs to make thee brighter shine,
Or give one beauty not already thine.

Permit me then, since useless are my lays,
To give my adoration for my praise;
With other youths, the pleasing pain to prove;

Though hope, alas! can never lodge with love:
Let me admire the charms I'll ne'er possess ;
And eye, in rapture, what I can't express.

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