As the quick eye can scarce pursue, And would have puzzled that famed clue Which led the' Athenian's unskill'd feet Through the labyrinth of Crete. At the near approach of day, Sudden the music dies away, Wasting in the sea of air, And the phantoms disappear, All (as the glowworm waxes dim) Vanish like a morning dream, And of their revels leave no trace, Save the ring upon the grass. When the elfin show is fled Home I haste me to my bed; There, if thou with magic wand On my temples take thy stand, I see in mix'd disorder rise All that struck my waking eyes: So when I stand, and round me gaze, Where the famed Lodona strays, On the woods and thickets brown, That its sedgy margins crown,
And watch the vagrant clouds that fly Through the vast desert of the sky, When adown I cast my look On the smooth unruffled brook (While its current clear doth run, And holds its mirror to the sun), There I see the' inverted scene Fall and meet the eye again.
RETURN, fair Health! the Muse again, A sweet associate of thy train,
To sketch the landscapes as they lie Brightening beneath thy beamy eye, Shall follow where thy footsteps lead Along the morn-empurpled mead, That, slanting down old Askew's side, Obtrudes on Trent's diminish'd tide.
Touch'd by thy spirit, genial power! And crown'd by thee, life's varied hour A gay unclouded aspect wears, High o'er the groveling mist of cares. While Hope in every changeful scene Exults beneath thy radiant mien, O, most indulge my favoured breast When Friendship greets the heart-loved guest; Nor let my hand, with languor faint, Cast o'er his welcome cold restraint. O, ever round my chearful board Be all thy social pleasures pour'd, While, sparkling from the liberal mind, The gladden'd thought starts, unconfined By slow Reserve or downcast Awe, Whose words in faltering haste withdraw; Or Inattention's torpid ear,
Who, gazing, only seems to hear; Or dark Distrust, in silence bound, With jealous eye that peers around. Thy influence wakes a fairer birth, Light Ease, and Play, and vacant Mirth;
The dancing Hopes, the glittering vein That runs through Fancy's boundless reign; With all the vivid grace of thought, In Wit's energic quickness wrought; And Humour, at whose festal sounds Fantastic-footed Laughter bounds.
With thee even Solitude is seen Clear from the withering hue of spleen; Her solemn air, her musing pace, Each deep, composed, majestic grace, Flush'd heavenly by thy vital bloom A freer fairer look assume;
Her listless thought, her languid tone No more oppressive sadness own; But, nerved by thee, such transport take That all her silent fancies wake.
Thou, in Retirement's hermit hour, A fairy saint to bless her bower, Shalt chase, with holy spell, away The fiends that vex her private day; Self-tired and sullen Discontent; Hatred, his brows in anger bent; And Superstition's gorgon head
That rends the midnight dream with dread; And Melancholy's moping train,
Grief, and the sickly dregs of Pain;
And stern Disgust of Life, that bears
With murmur'd woe his weight of cares, Or, as his desperate sorrows rave, Visits in gore his timeless grave.
When evening shadows haunt the vale, And dewy sweets enrich the gale, And musing through her motley groves With Inspiration Autumn roves;
When Hope, upon her morning's wing, Enchanting sheds the bloom of spring; When Summer's sultry noon persuades Where Coolness wreathes her bowery shades, And Beauty courts, with loosen'd vest, The struggling Zephyrs to her breast; When shuddering crones, in wintry nights, Recount long tales of ghostly sights, And, hovering o'er the embers' gleam, At every casual sparkle scream; O genius of the chosen hour! When most I court thy glowing power, From irksome labours ever free, If Heaven such bliss reserve for me, From social mirth retired awhile, Full on my soul delighted smile!
Though Grandeur stoop not to my shed; Though Pride avert his lifted head; Though tasteless Folly fluttering by Leer on my lot with Mockery's eye; Yet here while Health consents to stay, The charmer of my secret day;
While Love, with youthful Hope allied, Beneath my cottage roof abide; While myrtle-handed Leisure throws O'er soften'd life her sweet repose; And Fancy to her favourite lute Some high ambitious rhyme shall suit; My heart, with these sublimely bless'd, Bids Pride and Folly share the rest. Yet if my fate my wish deny;
If leisure, love, and fancy fly, While, dim and weary, life remains,
And heaves the slow blood through my veins,
Order and Peace, a tranquil mind, Though ever pensive, yet resign'd, Shall worship on the banks of Trent The household deity, Content.
Now the doubling vapours fill The vale, and hover o'er the hill; The heath, that right against the view Lifts its slope side, is clad in blue; O'er the far extended wood
Deep and still the gray mists brood; While by the hedge and on the grass We brush the vapours as we pass. Still is the air; the leaves and herbs Not a single breath disturbs,
Save that, by fits, the breeze's sighs In murmurs through the boughs arise. Through the dead calm that reigns around,
Is heard distinctly every sound:
The rooks, that still from earliest dawn
With caw incessant pass the lawn,
Then quick repass, with burden fill'd, Their annual aerie to rebuild;
The plough, that sometimes screaks ;-anon The swain's loud laugh, that guides it on; The clapping gate, at which we see, Slowly returning from the lea,
The sower with his empty sack;
The woodman, laden at his back
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