"Whose moping sons no jovial orgies keep;

"Where evening brings no summons-but to sleep;

"Bear me, ye powers! to some more genial scene,

Where on soft cushions lolls the gouty Dean, (6 Or rosy

66

Prebend with cherubic face,

With double chin, and paunch of portly grace,

"Who lulled in downy slumbers shall agree

To own no inspiration but from me.

"Or to some spacious mansion, Gothic, old, "Where Comus' sprightly train their vigils hold;

“There oft exhausted, and replenished oft,

"O let me still supply the' eternal draught,

"Till Care within the deep abyss be drowned,

"And Thought grows giddy at the vast profound !”

More had the goblet spoke; but lo! appears

An ancient Sibyl, furrowed o'er with years.

Her aspect sour and stern ungracious look
With sudden damp the conscious vessel struck :
Chilled at her touch its mouth it slowly closed,
And in long silence all its griefs reposed:

Yet still low murmurs creep along the ground,
And the air vibrates with the silver sound.

ON THE BACKWARDNESS OF THE

SPRING 1771.

Estatem increpitans seram, Zephyrosque morantes.

VIRGIL

In vain the sprightly sun renews his course,

Climbs up the' ascending signs and leads the day, While long embattled clouds repel his force,

And lazy vapours choke the golden ray.

In vain the Spring proclaims the new-born year;

No flowers beneath her lingering footsteps spring,

No rosy garland binds her flowing hair,

And in her train no feathered warblers sing;

Her opening breast is stained with frequent showers,

Her streaming tresses bathed in chilling dews;
And sad before her move the pensive Hours,

Whose flagging wings no breathing sweets diffuse.

Like some lone pilgrim clad in mournful weed, Whose wounded bosom drinks her falling tears, On whose pale cheek relentless sorrows feed, Whose dreary way no sprightly carol cheers.

Not thus she breathed on Arno's purple shore,
And called the Tuscan Muses to her bowers;
Not this the robe in Enna's vale she wore,
When Ceres' daughter filled her lap with flowers.

Clouds behind clouds in long succession rise, And heavy snows oppress the springing green; The dazzling waste fatigues the aching eyes, And Fancy droops beneath the' unvaried scene.

Indulgent Nature, loose this frozen zone;

Through opening skies let genial sunbeams play; Dissolving snows shall their glad impulse own, And melt upon the bosom of the May.

VERSES WRITTEN IN AN ALCOVE.

Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus, imminente Luna.

НОВАТ.

Now the moonbeam's trembling lustre
Silvers o'er the dewy green,

And in soft and shadowy colours

Sweetly paints the chequered scene.

Here between the opening branches

Streams a flood of softened light;
There the thick and twisted foliage

Spreads the browner gloom of night.