תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

O'er all the plains, the ftreams, and woods

around,

The pleasing lays of sweetest Bards refound;
A faithful echo every note returns,

And listening River-Gods neglect their urns.
When Codrington* and Steele their verfe unrein,
And form an easy, unaffected strain,

A double wreath of laurel binds their brow,
As they are poets and are warriors too.
Trapp's lofty fcenes in gentle numbers flow,
Like Dryden great, as foft as moving Rowe.
When youthful Harrison †, with tuneful skill,
Makes Woodstock Park scarce yield to Cooper's

Hill;

Old Chaucer from th' Elyfian Fields looks down, And fees at length a genius like his own; Charm'd with his lays, which reach the shades

below,

Fair Rofamonda intermits her woe,

Forgets the anguifh of an injur'd foul,
The fatal poignard, and invenom'd bowl.

The great benefactor to All-fouls College. N.
Of whom, fee Select Collection, vol. IV. p. 180. N.
Apollo

Apollo fmiles on Magd'len's peaceful bowers, Perfumes the air, and paints the grot with

flowers,

Where Yalden learn'd to gain the myrtle crown,
And every Mufe was fond of Addifon.

Applauded man! for weightier trusts design'd,
For once difdain not to unbend thy mind;
Thy mother Ifis and her groves rehearse,
A fubject not unworthy of thy verse ;

So Latian Fields will ceafe to boast thy praise,
And yield to Oxford, painted in thy lays:
And when the age to come, from envy free,
What thou to Virgil giv'ft fhall give to thee,
Ifis, immortal by the Poet's skill,

"Shall, in the fmooth defcription, murmur

[merged small][ocr errors]

New beauties fhall adorn our fylvan scene,
And in thy numbers grow for ever green.
Danby's fam'd gift +fuchverse as thine requires,
Exalted raptures, and celeftial fires;

* Letter from Italy, by Mr. Addison. T.

The Phyfic-garden at Oxford. This hint was happily taken-up in 1713 by Dr. Evans. See Select Collection, 1780, vol. III. p. 145. N.

Apollo

Apollo here fhould plenteously impart,
As well his finging, as his curing art;
Nature herself the healing garden loves,
Which kindly her declining strength improves,
Baffles the ftrokes of unrelenting Death,

Can-break his arrows, and can blunt his teeth.
How fweet the landfkip! where, in living trees,
Here frowns a vegetable Hercules!

There fam'd Achilles learns to live again, And looks yet angry in the mimic scene; Here artful birds, which blooming arbours fhew, Seem to fly higher, whilst they upwards grow, From the fame leaves both arms and warriors ‚****; rise,

[ocr errors]

And every bough a different charm fupplies.

So when our world the great Creator made,

And, unadorn'd, the fluggish chaos laid,

Horror and Beauty own'd their fire the fame, And Form itself from Parent Matter came, That lumpish mass alone was fource of all, a *And Bards and Themes had one original.

In vain the groves demand my longer ftay, The gentle Ifis wafts the Mufe away. MA

With ease the river guides her wandering stream,
And haftes to mingle with uxorious Thame,
Attempting Poets on her banks lie down,
And quaff, infpir'd, the better Helicon,
Harmonious strains adorn their various themes,
Sweet as the banks, and flowing as the streams.
Blefs'd we, whom bounteous Fortune here has

thrown,

And made the various bleffings all our own! Nor crowns, nor globes, the pageantry of state, Upon our humble, easy flumbers wait;

Nor aught that is Ambition's lofty theme Disturbs our fleep, and gilds the gaudy dream. Touch'd by no ills which vex th' unhappy great, We only read the changes in the state, Triumphant Marlborough's arms at diftance hear,

And learn from Fame the rough events of war; With pointed rhymes the Gallic tyrant pierce, And make the cannon thunder in our verse.

See how the matchlefs youth their hours improve,

And in the glorious way to knowledge movet

[blocks in formation]

Eager for fame, prevent the rifing fun,
And watch the midnight labours of the moon.

[ocr errors]

Not tender years their bold attempts restrain,
Who leave dull Time, and haften into man,
Pure to the foul, and pleafing to the eyes,
Like angels youthful, and like angels wife.

Some learn the mighty deeds of ages gone, And, by the lives of heroes, form their own; Now view the Granique choak'd with heaps of

flain,

And warring worlds on the Pharfalian plain;
Now hear the trumpets clangour from afar,
And all the dreadful harmony of war ;
Now trace thofe fecret tricks that loft a state,
And fearch the fine-fpun arts that made it great,
Correct thofe errors that its ruin bred,

And bid fome long-loft empire rear its ancient head.

Others, to whom perfuafive arts belong

[ocr errors]

(Words in their looks, and mufic on their tongue),

Inftructed by the wit of Greece and Rome,
Learn richly to adorn their native home ;

« הקודםהמשך »