WILS
CLS
PS1904
.H45
1807

THE LIBRARY
OF THE
REGENTS
1
UNIVERSITY
ARTIOUS
OF
MINNESOTA
Wilson Library

Dincar's
в
RURAL POEMS,
MORAL AND DESCRIPTIVE;
TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
POEMS ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS.
BY JOHN HAYES, A. B.
PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES, DICKINSON COLLEGE,
CARLISLE.
Me vero primum dulces ante omnia muse
Accipiant.
5
&
MINNESOTA
CARLISLEN
FROM THE PRESS OF A. LOUDON,
(WHITEHALL.)
1807.
District of Pennsylvania, To wIT:
SEAL.
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the Sixth day
of July, in the Thirty-Second Year of the Inde-
pendence of the United States of America, A. D.
1807. JOHN HAYES, of the said District, hatlı
deposited in this office, the Title of a Book, the Right where-
of he claims as Author, in the Words following, to wit:
"
"RURAL POEMs, Moral and Descriptive; to which are add-
"ed, Poems on several subjects. By JOHN HAYES, A. B.
"Professor of Languages, Dickinson College, Carlisle."
Me vero primum dulces ante omnia muso Accipiant.”
In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United
States, intituled, " An Act for the Encouragement of Learn-
ing, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to
the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the Times
therein mentioned." And also to the Act, entitled "An
Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, "An Act for the
Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copics of Maps,
Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such
Copies during the Times therein mentioned," and extending
the Benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and
etching, historical and other Prints "
➜ t
A
-
CALDWELL,
Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania.
។ ……
2
*
+
WILS
wils, cls
JUN 22 20
CLS
PS1904
TH45
1807
PREFACE.
ANA 6619-1
N presenting the following poems to the
public, the Author feels a degree of diffi
dence peculiar to a young writer, unknown to
the world, and sensible of his own imperfections
-a diffidence, which has been much increas-
ed by the generous and active part which some
of his friends have taken, in recommending the
work to the public, and procuring subscripti-
ons. His apprehensions, lest its appearance
might disappoint the public expectation, and
reduce his friends to the disagreeable necessity
of retracting their former opinion, have some-
times led him sincerely to repent of the step
which he has taken. Embarrassing, indeed,
is the situation of a young poet: in other writ-
ers, truth and utility are sufficient to atone for
almost every defect; but in a poet, whose pro-
fessed object is to please, the reader naturally
looks for some degree of excellence; and when
he does not find it, he is very justly offended
255806
PREFACE.
and disgusted. And yet of all writers, none is
so ill qualified, as a poet, to judge of the merit
of his own compositions; or to determine how
far they are calculated to meet with general ap-:
probation. The pleasure which he finds in
composing leads him to expect, that others will
find the same pleasure in reading his producti-
ons; in which expection he is frequently dis-
appointed. The reason is obvious; the taste
of the author, and that of his readers may be very
different; and this diversity, on which side so-
ever the preference lies, will infallibly prevent
his success. A poet must generally be, in
some measure, pleased with his own composi-
tions; it is this pleasure alone which can recon.
cile him to the labour, necessary to finish any
poetical work; but it depends entirely upon
the correctness of his taste, whether, or not,
he shall be able to communicate any degree
of the same pleasure to the judicious reader.
If, then, the author of these poems has over-
rated their merit, (which he will be supposed
to have done, if they are unworthy of a publi.
cation,) the observations already offered will
account for his mistake-a mistake common to
1
PREFACE.
him with many others in almost every age and
country.
A considerable part of the Rural Poems was
composed by the author, some years ago, for
his own amusement, and without any imme
cliate view to a publication. Following the
bent of his own inclination, he continued from
time to time to prosecute the work, till it ar-.
rived at its present magnitude. Having from
childhood made poetry the amusement of his
leisure hours, and being sometimes carried to
that species of composition by an impulse almost
irresistible, it was natural for him to enquire,
whether such an exercise would, in the end, be
productive of any benefit to himself, or others.
To ascertain this he could not think of any ex-
pedient so infallible as that of publishing these
poems; as the tribunal of the public alone has
power to pronounce, decisively, and without
appeal, upon the merit of any production.
The author regrets that he engaged in this
work at so early a period of his life: several
of his first productions, originally intended to
make a part of the Rural Poems, have, upon a
A 2
vi
PREFACE.
review, been rejected altogether; and others,
after having undergone very considerable alter-
ations, have been admitted in their present
form, only because he had not time still further
to improve them, or rather to substitute some-
thing better in their place. Other parts which
the Author himself condemned, have been re-
tained merely for the sake of connection. Af-
ter all, it is probable, that in every part of this
work, some crudities, inaccuracies and other
blemishes may be found; many of which a great-
er length of time, and more leizure for a se-
vere examination might have discovered and
removed. Scarcely in any instance has the
Author succeeded to such a degree, as fully to
satisfy himself. The reader is therefore en-
treated to exercise candour and forbearance in
the perusal of these poems, and to consider
them in the light of a rude sketch, merely the
outlines of a work, which, if it should ever
undergo a second impression (an event not
very probable) may appear considerably im-
proved.
f
With respect to the reception which he may
experience, from the public, the expectations,
19
PREFACE.
vii
and the wishes of the Author are very moderate.
It was not without much previous hesitation
that he resolved to publish these Poems; and
now that they are likely to appear, he is some-
times, from various considerations, tempted
to wish that, they had been yet confined to his
desk, or even sentenced to a severer doom.
Should their merit and reputation be such as
to gratify the partial feelings of his few sincere
friends, it would be to him a highly pleas-
ing reflection.
When this little volume shall fall into the
hands of a candid and benevolent reader, the
Author entreats him, that, if he discovers in it
any thing like accuracy of description, or just-
ness of sentiment, he would allow these to atone,
in some degree, for its various defects; and if
he should find it entirely destitute of merit, that
he would suffer the incorrectness of the Author's
judgment, and perhaps something of that par.
tiality which we feel for what is our own, to
pass, as his apology, for having given it to the
public.
}
SOME typographical errors have been overlooked
in examining the proof sheets: which, from want of
time, was sometimes done very superficially. To
remedy these a table of erratta has been prefixed. In
preparing the work for the press, the Author had not
leisure to transcribe it; consequently the greater part
was printed from the loose papers, on which, at the
time of composing, he had written it in a careless
and very incorrect manner, merely to relieve his me
mory. The errors and omissions in the punctuation
are owing to the same cause few of these, it is
hoped, are of such a nature as to perplex, or injure
the sense.
PAGE. LINE.
ERRATTÀ.
17
3
29.
·12
for spred read spread.
for woods, wood.
34
152
64
15
for woos, wooes. :
for ascanse, askance.
66——————— 13———————for e'er, ere.
8914 for sighs, sigh.
90- - 5——for robes, thro'; robes, or thro”.
96
96-
3--for thined, thinned.
6-for slow, low.
109
119
6.
for etheriel, etherial.
for assigned, assigned to.
130 2.
1833for that, who.
12.
-15:
145
158.
159————10—
161
20
162: 13
162-
16
169
175
2
177
3.8.
for MKlenzie, MKenzie.
for christians; christian's.
for come, yonder; come,
for that deck, which decks.
for dwells, dwelt.
for feeble, feebler.
when yonder.
7-for Let the waters, Let waters,
-for delight, delights.
18for humble, humbler,
-Note-for this, the.
$
CUM per errorem redundarent in principio aliquot
paginae, ne omnino vacarent, lectori erudito subjeci.
mus specimen aliquod poematis ex Ossiano celeber
rimo poeta Graecis versibus redditi; quod typis des-
tituti Graecis, characteribus Latinis exhibere necesse
habuimus, vocalibus Graecis natura longis per Itali-
cas, (quas vocant) hypsilon per y, ou Graecorum per
u expressis.
蹑
​DARTHYLE TU OSSIANU.
E kale sy ge thygater uranu essi idesthai,
Kai ra mal' himeroess' opos seo esti siope,
Kai eriera prophaine, sen de t' ar amphi keleuthon
Pamphanoonta agalletai astra te, gethosyne te
Eeroenta nephe leucainetai uranōthi pro.
Soi nyctos hieres thugater tis en urano isos ;
Phainomenen gar panta s' agazetai as¹ra phaeina,
Aidesthenta d'apotrepet' ommata lampetoonta.
Pe de apoichomene paton ulympų alceineis,
Hemos epi charienti prosopo kidnatai achlys ;
Naieis de eut' Ossianos en domati lygro
Pentheos argaleoio, adelphas uranothende pesusas"
Myromene; hoti ukeți soi hama nyctos en hore
DARTHYLE TU OSSIANU.
1
{
Gethesusin ariprepees, epeson gar ap' astron.
To kai pollaki pentheos eis tyne elythas aulen,
Achlyn d'amphiesasa odyre ptomata taon.
All' aute pote moira pesein, kai lampra keleutha
Uranu ekleipein: tote d'asteres au areusi karéna
Soio pesuses, ede charesontai pote aidesthentes.
Nun d'augen periblesai, uranu ek ra pylaon
Ekblepson. Pykinon nephos uroi rexat' aentes,
Hos ra phane nyctos thygater, hos urea makra
Ekphaines', aridel' ide kumata leuka thalasses
Plei Nathos eurea ponton, kai to phaos neotetos
Althos, adelpheiois de paristatai Ardanos heros.
}
Nyctor hoige ep' eeroenta pleusi keleutha,
Menin aleuomenoi tu Iernáiu basileos
Karbaru: he de tis anch' hesteken en aeri pollò ;
Nyx orphnaie eidos ageton amphikalypsen,
En de kome roizei pnoie ligyre anemoiù :/
Kai gar epuranio mal' eoiken daimon' agaue
En dnopherois eilymene eidos ptygmas' omichles,
Darthyle' kurais met Iernes eidos ariste:
Karbaru hege Natho ham' anakti pheuxen erota.
Alla se Darthyle apata, anemoio keleutha,
Kai seo histi aposphel' Ethes hyleesses.
U men gar ra Nathoio hypeluthes urea makra,
Ud ara eionos polyphloisbu eklyes echen
Hysnothoio gerontos. Karharu d' eggythen aule,
Plesia dysmeneon pyrgon aipeina karenao
Es de thalassan Terne etein' eritheleas akras,
Kai Tures limeni anemos seo nea pelazei.
Pu de ete Notoi hote mol erieres hetairoi
Exapaphonto; athyret' ep' hymmes aloais
Telose, kai skolymoio meta pogona hepesthe.
་
DARTHYLE TU OSSIANU.
xi
f
Aithe Nathoio eph' histia leuka ophellet' aesthai,
Hos ken' ephenato Ethes urea hyleenta, i
Kai koryphas ar hyp' ek nepheon egeire, kai eide
Nostesanta anakt. E den Nathe phile apessi
Patridos ales, soi de apoleto nostimon hemar.
Michtheis d' allodapoisin agassetos ephaanthes.
Kallos echonta kai enories erikydea timen
Darthyle siden ed' himeireto eisoroosa.
Eoi gar r'enaligkion opos epleto kydos,
Kyaneai de triches karakos pterygessin omoiai,
En de stethesi thymos agenor epios een,
Nenyme heelioio dyontos aligkios hore :
Aude d', hos zephyros bathes' en donakessin aesi,
Ec Lores hos hydat en agkesi mormyronta.
All' hote aute mache eni daiomenephi migeies,
Pontu de ra tot' estha mega sthenos egromenoio,
Deima pheron, deinon periechesen de te teuche.
Darthyle se orat' alapazonta stichas andron
Patron ek megaron eiden, Selames apo pyrgon;
En d'apalon stethessin orineto hetor iduse.
Hos kalos thynei neos ampedion polemistes,
Deilu Kormantös ktamenoio philoisin aregon.
Tiph' huto, neotetos epeimene kalon aoton,
Eikon so thymo toson maineai en dai lygre
Deioi amphi poleis, pauroi de toi eisin arogoi :
Polloi Karbaru aneres. Ei tu deinu erota
Hetor iantheien ke Nathoio phygusa kat aulen,
makares petrai Ethes, therent' opsusai.
Ton Nathon ed' hote tas chaitas kradaesi melainas
Uros, stetheos argennu chroa kalon ideisthe
Toion epos phes, Darthyle, Selames eni pyrgois :
Nun de se nyx ekalyps' eribenne, ed' apatesan
:
xii
DARTHYLE TU OSSIANU,
;
Histia dysmenees anemoi, deine te thyélla.
Legete tytthon entes uroi, hos opa kures
Peusoimen ken erannes, lygron gar ti kai hedy
Pnoiais en ligyrais minyrizei heg' opi kale,
Hautai de' ra Nathu petrai, kai dupon akusa
Toio roon, ed' elthe selas Husthonu ap aulon
Phos men amauron, kai nyktos peri eilyt' omichle,
Autar emoi phaos estineni phresi koiranos Ethes.
Hysthonu pai, ti, stenei en toi hetori thýmos;
Ei ara gaian es allodapon de hikometh' andron: »
Uď hautaj ge Nathu petrai, ud eklyes echen
Toio roon, ud' elthe selas Hysthonu ap' aulon,
Telos' euson. Allodapon eis hikometh' aian,
Karbaru aïan: dysmenees anemoi apatesan :
Úllinos emprosthen arithelees eisi kolonai.
Arktoa pros baine tachys skopos Althe adelphe;
Aigialen-k. t. 1.
#
*
*
1
RURAL POEMS,
MORAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
$
4
REFLECTIONS OF THE AUTHOR UPON RETURN-
ING TO THE PLACE OF HIS NATIVITY.
1
WELCOME, ye peaceful shades, ye bliss-
ful vales
Where pass'd my infant days; ye happy scenes
Of innocence and joy: the' to these eyes
Now long forbidden, and unfrequent grown ;
Sacred to mem❜ry still, dear to my heart,
The pleasing theme of many a wishful thought :
B

*
14
RURAL POEMS..
}
Tho' time's all-conquering hand has greatly
changed
Your former face; tho' many a well known
>
tree,
And copse familiar, and frequented shade,
-
I seek in vain; yet as I trace you o'er,
What sad, what pleasing thoughts crowd on
my mind,
Of happier days, that I shall know no more!
Here first creation's works, yet new and
strange,
Engaged my curious eye, unskilled to judge;
Hele first, O sun, I saw thy radiant orb
Perform his daily round; thee, placid moon
And stars of ève, or midnight's solemn scène,
Here first to nature's charms my mind awoke,
Pleased, tho' unconscious why; first on these
plains

7
I culled the flower, or marked the rising plant.
Here first, my God, I learn'd to seek thy
I face,
To trace thee in thy works, and raise my mind
To search thy wondrous nature, and thy love.
Here first affection swelled my willing heart,
اسر
RURAL POEMS.
I'S
With kindly warmth; here first with friend-
ship glowed,
J
My infant mind-friendship devoid of guile.
Here too, as rolled the varying seasons past,
I marked their changes still; stormy or mild,
Alike to me 'twas peace and pleasure all.
But chief, when spring revisited the plains
With mildest beam, diffusing joy around,
With pleasing transport still my heart would
* sivell.
In this lone vale, beneath the autumnal shade,
Far from the world retired, let me recall
Those happy days, and live them o'er again;
Before my fancy let the years o'erpast
With all their changes roll, and spread afresh
Their charms. Delightful spring, of seasons

first,
A
Reviving nature's joy, be my first theme.
To thee, O Davidson, a grateful muse
Presents her first essay: beneath thy care
She tuned her reed; and much to thee she
owęs,
If aught or solid, or correct, or true
Her verse contains. Deign, tho? the sacred
cause
16
RURAL POEMS.
Of truth divine, and learning's interests crave
Thy ceaseless toils) a while to lend an ear,
- And smile indulgent on the rustic lay.
2
And ye, loved few, in academic shades
Companions once, whom still my heart holds
dear;
#
r
With whom the social hour, the devious walk
I shared full oft; where reared patriot, zeal
Thy spacious mansion, Dickinson, erects
It's ample front, and crowns the verdant plains;
Receive the song, and with a partial eye.
Its imperfections scan; where e'er ye may,
Defend its author from the critic's ire,
And where ye cannot exculpate, excuse.
by
1
SPRINGS
WHEN now thro' Aries roll the lengthening
suns
With genial warmth, and gentle western gales
From the hoar, mount, dissolve it's icy load;
1
*1
1
RURAL POEMS.
17
The fields lift up their verdant heads, and sinks
嗉
​The snowy deluge; thro' the winding dale
The wide-spred torrent roars. On evening
wing
The red-breast stooping to the naked field,
And skipping gladsome, earth's new surface
greets;
The black-bird whistles in the leafles bough;
And now first heard the dove's soft melting
strains
(side
Salute the morn. Now glows the mountain's
With quickening beams; deep verdure clothes
the corn;
And o'er the settled pasture ground appears
*Shooting the grassy spire. With joy the swain
Joins to the long neglected plough his steers,
And drives afield; the mellow glebe upturned
Behind him lies; glistens his brightened share.
Winter is fled; vanished the sluggish ice;
Spring reigns. The humble songsters of the
fen,
Re-animated in their miry beds,
Wake from their sleep, and sing their old
complaint.
B 2
18
RURAL POEMS.
Nature revives; yet short the smile of spring:
From earth's moist bosom by the sun exhaled
Thick vapours rise, and load the darkened air;
From all the skies down rush the tepid showers,
And drown the fields; but soon the vapour
cools;
And from the bleak north-east the chilling blast
Drives fierce the beating hail, or flaky snow.
Spring disappears; winter resumes his reign;
White grow the fields, the vales, and moun-
tain tops.
All night the tempest raves, till morn appears,
And wide to view unfolds the wintry scene.
Close in the stall the cattle feed; the sheep
Bleat at the rack, and wait their keeper's
hand;
Beneath the hedge the shivering robin droops,
Or tamed by want, flies to the farm-house
door,
1
And feeds on crumbs; the little songsters leave
The half-built nest, and shivering on the
boughs,
Eye the bleak storm, and mourn the absent
spring.
RURAL POEMS.
10
Hushed are the winds; the sun appears;
the snow
Is fled, and spring looks forth again, and
smiles.
Now springs the verdant mead; the lessened
stream
Sparkling divides the plain with limpid course;
Along the fence-row blooms the early flower.
Forth fly the bees, and sport in vernal suns;
On flowery willows by the brooks they feed,
With busy hum, or cull the maple's sweets
Industrious. Now swells the budding grove;
And o'er the pastures play the sportive lambs.
But hark! the thunder sounds, and o'er the
sky,
Borne on the zephyr, crowds the deepening
gloom.
Music from thousand throats awakes, and fills
The leafles wood. Soft the mild shower de-
scends;
Green are the fields, flushes the gladdened
mead.
The shower has ceased, and lo! the setting
sun
2
30
RURAL POEMS.
Gilds the mild landscape with his evening ray!
Forth in soft beauty walks the moon, and
sheds,
O'er the still plains and streams, her placid
light.
Calm is the air, and still; till Boreas breaks
His northern prison, and with sweeping blasts
The groves resound. Groaning the troubled
X
oaks
Wave on the mountain tops, and frequent bow
Their naked trunks; while thro' the winding
vale
Loud the rough whirlwind roars. The gather-
ed leaves
In eddies play, or swept high in the air,
Ride on the blast aloft to distant plains.
The swelling river rolls from bank to bank,,
Tumultuous, and lashing round the shore
The waves resound. All night the lengthened
blasts
+
Sigh o'er the house, and thro' the forest roar.
Checked is the meadow's growth, the buds
have ceased
To swell, and not one songster hails the morn.
'
RURAL POEMS;
21
3
The north has spent his rage, his fury
sleeps;
Mild is the evening sun, and calm the air;
Thro' night, soft-breathing, fostering zephyrs
fan
The fields; swelling apace the tender leaf
Unfolds, and from its wintry covert peeps
The redd'ning blossom; yet full oft the frost
Descends, and chilling blasts, at intervals,
Deter the flower, impatient to break forth.
Now fast in prison bound the northern blást,
On wings ambrosial wafted from the skies,
Descends the genius of the spring; gay hope
Exults before her, round, the smiling loves
Their purple, pinions wave, and in her train
Joy, beauty, and the graces dance. First on
The mount she lights; wide blooms the forest
**< round,
And opes its foliage to the vernal gale.
Beneath her steps the earth unlocks her stores,
And spreads profusely o'er the hills and dales
Thick new-born flowers. Next along the lakes
And riv❜lets she her verdant mantle throws;
Then wide o'er all the earth she walks abroad,
22
RURAL POEMS.
Opes her fair bosom, and with liberal hand
O'er meadows, hills and plains, where'er she
treads
4
Sheds roses down, and every flowery sweet.
At her approach, unnumbered beauties wake
**
From winter's sleep; the world is life and
joy:
And on the raptured eye now all the charms,
The endless charms of wondrous nature break.
All nature teems with life; the barren rock,
The mount, the plain, the hill, the winding
vale,
Pour gay profusion forth in endless store.
Burst from their buds, the tender downy
leaves
Redden the wood, nor yet arrest the beams
Of fervid noon, that smite the glistening earth;
Till reared by genial suns, and swelled apace
By vernal showers, they drink a deeper green,
Expanded full, and spread dark umbrage
round:
?
And now arrayed in all its verdant pride,
The boundless forest sighs before the wind.
Commingled with the forest's waving boughs,
1
RURAL POEMS.
20
+
Along the slope hill's side, the dog-tree blooms,
Seen from afar, as thro' the branches shine
Her snowy flowers, shook, by the vernal breeze.
Now robed in milky white the orchard stands;
Along the brooks the flowry plum-trees dance
Before the wind, and from their branches
shake:
f
Celestial sweets; The meads ope to the sun
Unnumbered beauties, there the violet droops, #
The flame-tipped scarlet* waves; here deck'd
in gold
The vallies glow, here clothed in spotless
white,
Here richly covered with profusion wild
Of nameless flowers of beauteous tints and
forms;
Unnumbered, which with each returning spring
O'er fair Columbia bounteous Flora breathes.
Such were the pleasing scenes, in childish
years
When lovely May in lavish beauty decked
My native plains, and to th' enraptured sight
* The popular name of a flower.
-
4
RURAL POEMS.
The mead disclosing all its vernal pride,
2-
Oft lured my steps to wander mid the sweets
Profusely spread, and mark the opening flowers,
That bler ded on the eye their mingled charms,
And breathed united fragrance. There to chase
The butterfly, that hovering round displayed
Her gilded wings, or blooming chaplets weave,
Employed my happy day's unknown to care.
* Nor yellow flower, that waving o'er the fields
Neglected bloomed, or clo hed the barren rock
With beauties wild, or mid surrounding shades
Smiling unseen displayed its lonely charms,
And lost in air its sweets escaped my search.
Unable then this solemn truth to scan,
Or draw a lesson from the flowering grass;
Myself a flower, like those I thoughtless tiode
Beneath my feet, as frail, as transient too.
Thick-flowering hopes my early prospects
decked
In bloom eternal, and to roseate bowers
Of unknown bliss inviting on, reproved
The lingering years, and bade time spread his
wing.
Vanished those hopes, those fairy prospects fled,
RURAL POEMS.
25
But where, alas! the fruit, the promised bliss!
New scenes now rise in soberer colours clad,
That speak more temperate joys; yet these
perhaps
Fallacious too. Of mortals this the doom,
From childhood's vernal bloom, to withering
age,
And death's chill wintry blast, the sport of hope,
Deluded oft, but never undeceived!
How happy he, whose steady eye can pierce
The shadowy phantoms of this mortal state,
And far beyond descry that happy land,
Where crowned with endless bloom the trees of
life
Yield fruit substantial; while triumphant hope
Well founded here, unveils the smiling scene
With golden beams, and leads him boldly on!
Now, when, o'er the blue vault sublimely
swelled
Mount up the clouds, with fleecy turrets
crowned,
Dappling the sky, and spring's enlivening
breath
New-robes the joyous woodlands; day by day
C
26
RURAL POEMS.
In numerous bands, arrive the plumy tribes,
Companions of the spring, that yearly trace
Her progress north from ocean's blissful isles,
Crowned with eternal green, and those fair
· realms
Where Montezuma reigned: there while the
blast,
Pouring relentless from the bleak north-west,
Saddened our plains, they fluttered in the beams
Of brighter suns, and now return to cheer
Their native climes; the balmy air receives
And wafts the welcome guests from grove to
>
grove.
+
}
The robin, black-bird, and the plaintive dove
With spring's first smile return of tend'rer
frame,
And by the lavish hand of nature cloathed
With richer dyes, some wait for milder suns.
From morn to ev'n, ceaseless the woodlands
ring
With thousand cheering notes; some wild and
shrill;
Some poured in mellow sounds; harmonious
some,
:
RURAL POEMS.
2+7
>
Or plaintive, breathing from the distant hills;
Or tuneful warbled through a varied length
Of ceaseless music, from the neighbouring
copse.
***
But who is she, whose wildly joyous notes,
Heard in the forest's topmost boughs, attract
The ear from various parts, as restless she
Pursues from spray to spray the insect tribes!
Stay, beauteous stranger, let me catch a glimpse
Of thy bright plumes, pride of Columbia's
woods;
Thy plumes, which, like the flaming ruby, dart
A vivid ray, gleamed thro' the thin-spread
leaves
Sight rarely seen! full conscious of thy charms,
Coy, devious beauty, thou art passing wise,
-To shun the haunts of cruel-hearted man.
Too tempting were the prize; thy dazzling
hues,
The plumy honours nature o'er thee spread,
Would cost thee dear; of liberty bereft,
No more to wing at large thy airy way,
Enjoy thy loves, or taste the sweets of spring.
Retired from view, the forest's deep retreats
*
28
RURAL POEMS.
Thou lov'st to haunt, mid thickest boughs to
pour
Thy notes. If haply by the school-boy seen,
As thro' the winding solitary path,
O'erarched with trees, he slowly creeps to
school,
Fixt in wild rapt'rous gaze his sparkling eyė
Insatiate pores, and when thy envious wing
Bears thee away, eager pursues. He longs,
But longs in vain to win so rich a prize.
More frequent she, with plumes of paler red,
The orchard's friend, the caterpillar's plague ;
Artist of no mean skill, whose nest, close.
wrought
Of flaxen fibres, and suspended high,
Where o'er the flood the stately elm extends
Her pendant boughs, hangs floating in the
wind,
Defying all access; attached by threads
So strong, and well secured, that undissolved
For passing years, it braves th' inclement skies.
By what strange art her feet or slender beak
Can twine and weave a tissue so compact,
گے
A mystery yet to rustic or to sage,
A
RURAL POEMS.
29
Next comes the finch, with neck and breast of
gold,
Voracious bird. The sparrow's numerous
tribes
Chatter in every bough; of various plume,
The yellow and the brown; but most admired
And rare is he, arrayed in glossy green.
Songless and wild, then come the woodpeck
tribes:
In some still night, when zephyrs gently
breathe,
And cloudless Phebe silvers all the plain,
Chirping aloft in air, on sounding wing,
Are heard the passing bands. Next morn,.
from far
The hollow oak resounds; with mellow notes
Echoes the woods, as round in wanton wheels,,
On restless wing, the noisy wanderers play.
Of all the race the most distinguished he,
With crimson head, and neck of snowy white,,
And jetty wing: ill-fated bird, whose dyes,
So bright, and glaringly contrasted, tempt
The wanton boy to fling the whizzing stone,,
Or ruthless aim the more unerring lead→ -
C. 2.
30
RURAL POEMS.
While on some. stake, conspicuous far, the
bird
Still loves to perch, a silly, fearless mark-
Then comes at length the herald of the spring:
On some delightful eve, when all the air
Is balm, hovering beneath a silvery cloud
She's heard aloft, as thro' th' aerial fields
Swift she pursues her unseen prey; what time
The hazle copse protrudes the tender leaf.
The dusky eve descends, and from the grove
Her welcome notes resound; first faint and
slow;
But soon, responsive from a neighbouring
copse,
Begins a rival songster; then full fast
The contest grows, till wide around the plain,
Contending strains ring thro' the echoing
wood..
The boy delighted hurries home to tell
The joyful news, and e'en the hoary swain
With pleasure listens to the gladsome sound.
But why does superstition in the strain
Hear death and woes? or why class with the
Lowl
RURAL POEMS.
31
The harmless bird, that loves the haunts of
men,
And not unfrequent, at the farm-house door
The live-long night, repeats her cheering
song?
Time was, when I have oft foregone my sleep,
To hearken to her cry. Why to the ear
Ungrateful deemed the strain monotonous?
Simpler the cuckoo's note; yet she by all
With pleasure heard, sweet messenger of
spring.
More just the Indian tribes; they hail with
joy
The long expected bird, and gladly hear
Her echoing notes, sure pledge of spring's
return.
Last comes the least of all the feathered tribes,
The wonder of the world. When gardens
ope
Their flowery stores, and pinks and roses
breathe
Thro' all the fragrant air a rich perfume,
Then comes the heaven-fed guest, and from
the flower
32
RURAL POEMS.
Sips nectar: kindling in the sun's bright beams,
Loose glories float o'er all his changeful
plumes,
Burnished with azure, hyacinth and gold.
Season of sweets, of beauty, and of song!
How light the moments fly, of him, whose
heart,
At ease from pining care, from passion's bane,
Can feel thy beauties, and enjoy thy sweets!
Such were the blissful days, the season such,
When first the new-formed earth, in bridal
bloom
Adorned, sprang joyous from her maker's.
hand,
Along th' etherial path, and dancing round
The source of day, measured her golden years.
Then spring eternal reigned: the balmy air,
Pure, and elastic, and replete with life,
Embraced the tender orb; then vernal gales
Still spread their infant wings, and day by day
Whispering soft music on the rising woods,
Fanned the fresh flowers, and wantoned o'er.
the plains.
Nor
9.
yet had Boreas learned with wintry breath
RURAL POEMS.
3$
1
To blast the fields, and ravage nature's bloom;
Nor yet distempered skies, with vapours
thronged,
To frown terrific; nor their awful voice
Thunders to raise, and mortal hearts appal.
As yet nor storms, nor saddening rains de-
formed
The face of day, nor sullen vapour stained
The pure etherial fields; for yet the earth,
Replete with genial moisture, needed not
Refreshing showers; but drank in lucid streams
The solar ray, and poured luxuriance round.
Then lived a happy race, exempt from toil;
By nature's bounty fed, or with small pains
Their wants supplied: no wants they knew,
beyond
What nature knows. Their drink the crystal
stream,
The flowery bank their couch, where some tall
oak,
Or spreading fig-tree cast a night of shade.
Diseases then were not; the countless swarms,
On baleful errand sent, which hover round
Our helpless race, and ceaseless night or day,
34
RURAL POEMS.
Glide thro' th' unconscious air on silent wing,
Dire messengers to men. Age too remote
Advanced with tardy steps; nor on his brow
Sat such a weight of woe; nor trembled thus
His tottering knees. A length of happy years
They told, which now full oft successive lays
In silent dust the proudest sons of earth;
Sweeps towering empires from their stable
base,
And spreads the rank grass o'er the desert
streets,
Where thronging nations hailed with loud ac-
claims
The conquering chief. At length, when na-
ture spent,
By slow degrees, by many an unfelt stroke,
No more could feed life's fluttering, sinking
lamp;
Soft as the infant on the nurse's breast
Sweet slumber woos, or swain by murm'ring
stream,
Death's gentle slumbers stole upon their frame.
Grateful and mild the dewy eve descends;
Clear is the liquid air; the woodland choirs
f
RURAL POEMS.
35
Warbling attune the groves; the eastern
cloud,
Dyed in the evening beam, sheds rosy light,
And stains the limpid flood; ambrosial gales,
Charged with the sweets of every new-blown
flower,
Outspread their wings, and whispering thro'
the trees,
Wide o'er the sky their balmy odours fling.
The day retires apace, and deeper shades
Spread o'er the vale; not like the winter
night,
A dreary, silent, solitary scene:
Nature still wakes, and spreads her charms
abroad.
Such are the scenes poetic fancy draws,
Where nymphs and graces moving hand in
hand,
Light-footed beat the plain in joyous dance;
Looks on and smiles the beauteous queen of
love.
High in the azure star-bespangled vault
Hangs the fair moon above; beneath her
beams
+36
RURAL POEMS.
Glitters the lawn; the distant wood resounds
The night-bird's strains. How to be pityed
he!
How dead to nature's charms! who now con-
fined
In the close hall, by the dull taper's light,
Kills the sweet hours; in senseless, childish
sport,
These soft, these silken-footed moments
wastes!
Or in the glittering ball-room pent, or e'en
The theatre, has not a heart to feel
These innocent, these more transporting
charms;
Nor eye t' admire the far sublimer scenes,
Which nature here displays. Give me but
health,
And peace of mind, beneath the moon's soft
beams
To stray with solitary steps, and mark
Nature's fair charms, I envy not their joys.
Let no intruding care the hallowed walk
Molest; it were impiety to lose
These precious hours, to contemplation due.
}
་་་
RURAL POEMS.
87
As, round, I view the lovely solemn scene;
The woods and lawns in paler verdure clothed;
The blooming orchard, half illumined grove;
The broad, deep shadow spread, of horrent
gloom,
Inspiring awe; the mystic shapes that rise
Before the dubious sight; the distant mount,
In softer light unveiled; the sparkling flood,
In restless undulation broad diffused,
Shedding a tremulous gleam; then to the vault,
The blue expanse suffused with placid light,
Thro' which the stars dim-twinkling thin dis-
close
Their half extinguished fires, and thee, fair
queen
Of night, in radiant beauty throned, I lift
My eye; what pleasing awful thoughts pervade
My heart! Can aught of turb'lent passion
here,
Or low desire, or discontent e'er reach
The high-bent thought, the full-expanded
soul,
Composed to solemn peace, and themes sub.
lime!
D
ૐ.
RURAL POEMS.
Mid scenes so pure, so grand, so all divine,
Nought but the present deity can fill
The mighty mind thro' all her rising powers;
Nought but devotion here can find a place.
Now sinks the world to rest, and silence
deep
Reigns all around; save that the tinkling bell,
In dull and distant sounds, at intervals,
Breaks on the ear; and from the ground be-.
neath,
In low and solemn voice the insects raise
Their long protracted notes, or 'mid the grove
The night-birds in alternate strains contend,
Courting their mates beneath the chequered
shade,
And tune their love-songs till the break of
dawn.
The feathered tribes, thro'out the groves, and
on
The limpid pools, and all the bestial kind,
Peaceful repose, beneath the silent night;
* The bird called a Whip-poor-will-this name
here is ambiguous, but the author uses it for want of
a better.
RURAL POEMS.
89
Man rests secure, in balmy slumbers lost,
Heaven's gracious boon ordained to ease his
heart
Of daily care, and soothe his wearied limbs;
But secret-working nature knows no rest:
Th' ambrosial breath of spring still creeps
abroad;
Now shoots the tender blade, the leaf unfolds;
Now from its bud the scented flower breaks
forth,
Surcharged with odorous sweets, and in the
air
Still-breathing opes its balmy stores around.
No more the dull fire-side delights the
swain ;
The morn appears; the zephyr's breezy call,
"With song of earliest bird" lightly disperse
His downy sleep. Light clad, with lighter
heart,
He goes, and o'er the dewy pasture drives
His steers, that from their smoaking nostrils
breathe
The meadow's fragrance. By the neighbour-
ing gate
40
RURAL POEMS.
The milk-maid sings, and from the udder
drains
The milky rill. Unpent the bleating flocks
Move in long row, and pouring spread wide
o'er
The whitened field. Now in its warmed soil
The ground receives the maize; forth to the
task
Early the swains and jocund nymphs repair,
With rustic arms; foremost the farmer guides
The steady plough, and opes the mellow glebe.
Strutting close at his heels, the lisping child.
With harmless prattle entertains his ear;
And joys the opening furrow round to tread
With infant steps; till weariness allure
The playful rambler to the neighbouring shade,
Stretched on the turf, and lost in slumbers
sweet..
Follows the gleeful band, with frequent hoes
Spreading the light earth o'er its precious
trust
And many a tale, and many a humorous joke
Cheers their gay toils; while from the neigh-
bouring tree
RURAL POEMS.
The mock-bird pours his lay, and all day
long
The joyous woods resound the tale of love.
Before, the sturdy lad his basket bears,
And in the furrow drops the yellow grain.
Oft to the race his fellows he provokes ;
Reproves the tardy swains; looks o'er the
field,
•
Then to the sun, and in his mind computes
The time: finished the task the swains propose
To angle in the brook-in eager hopes
Of promised sport, he illy brooks delay;
While from the flood with bending reed he
seems
To pull the writhing eel, or speckled trout.
Hovering around, the thievish black-bird eyes
The shining grain, or in the furrow stalks
Unnoticed, and oft scared away, returns
As oft; nor cease his depredations then
When pointing thro' the clay the tender blade.
Appears; hence yonder harmless centinel,
Composed of rags, and graced with huge
cock'd-hat,
Waves round the field his formidable arms..
D.2
42
RURAL POEMS.
Oft in a grassy field the husbandman,
Too hasty draws at equal intervals
Four furrows, and th' unbroken ridges piles
Together; while the verd'rous turf between
Stands undisturbed, then in th' unmellowed
ridge
Buries the seed, which disappoints his hopes:
The grass defrauds the yellow dwindling plant,
And the stiff sod prevents its growth. More
wise,
Who deep upturns the lawn with labouring
steers,
With frequent harrows breaks the stubborn
clods
;
Then covers light the grain: the spreading
roots
Strike deep into the loosened soil, and draw
Abundant nutriment; in healthy hue
Of darkest green, úprises vigorous
The sturdy stalk, and waves its rustling blades.
The farmer, worthy of the name, now sees
O'er his rich grounds, the blooming trefoil
spread :
And while his neighbour's cattle low for want,
RURAL POEMS.
43)
Or roam beneath the noon-day heat, to pick
A scanty morsel from the barren field;
Beneath the spreading elm his well-fed herds
At leisure ruminate, and home each eve
Full udders bear, with copious nectar swelled.
Then late he breaks his fallow ground, and
leaves
Th' inverted plants to rot; the fattened soil
Next year pours a luxuriant harvest forth
Of choicest wheat, nor can his barns contain
Th' abundant crop. Or else he mows the
field,
And for the winter plenteous storé provides
Of fragrant hay; then when the snow lies
deep,
And Caurus breathes, his wanton cattle play
Before his barn, with milk o'erflow his pails;
His steeds high-spirited breathe strength, and
proud,
Strangers to want, deride the northern blast.
In vernal robes arrayed luxuriant blooms
All nature; bending wave before the wind
The deep corn-fields, and in the blade appears
The tender ear; in every field is heard
44
RURAL POEMS.
The piping quail, responsive to his mate;
Clothed in deep verdure smile the woodlands
round.
Advancing near the beaming orb of day
Rides in mild radiance thro' the blushing sky;:
While every tribe thro'out th' extended earth,
Of animal or vegetable life
Joys in his beams, and grateful homage pays.
Thou wondrous source of light and life
below,
Great emblem of thy greater God, say, why
The dreary waste before thy presence blooms,
The fields and groves at thy command array
In verdant robes, and wait thee as thou mov'st
In the majestic course around the world!
Why springs the tender blade of grass, that
slept
While winter frowned, rejoicing in thy
beams!:
Why breaks the blossom from its bud, and
spreads,
1
At thy approach, its balmy sweets abroad!"
Not by thy power, O sun, these are the works:
Of Him, who formed thy vast unwieldy orb,
RURAL POEMS.
45
And clothed thee in his dazzling beams. He
bids
The earth to smile, he binds the northern blast,
He opes the flower, he forms the curious leaf,
And sends his balmy zephyrs o'er the world.
How wonderful his works! how glorious then
is he!
Whose store supplies those wondrous lamps
on high,
Those orbs immense of living flame, that burn
Thro' every age with undiminished blaze;
Whose strong, almighty hand sustains the
spheres
High in the empty space; whose finger guides
This ponderous earth thro' her stupendous
round.
Awful that power, which on this cumbrous
mass,
Of mounts, and plains, and isles, and seas,
impressed
Velocity, which wondering thought in vain
Labours to comprehend, compared to which
Slow moves the ball, and sleeps the winged
shaft:
CUP %%%
46
RURAL POEMS.
Which had his potent word but bid to rest,
Vain were the efforts of assembled worlds,
To move one hairbreadth from her place; as
ants
That strive to overturn the mountain's height.
Compared with him, how vain is mortal
strength!
Who's this, with pride elate, whom nations
dread?
With men well may he boast his matchless
might,
And strive with vessels of the self-same clay;
But ah! before the world's great sovereign
Lord
Let him not dare to lift a boastful eye,
But tremble in his sight! For know, vain man,
He whose decree confines th' indignant main,
In narrow limits circumscribes thy power.
To earth confined, composed of brittle dust,
Dar'st thou contend with him, whose match-
less hand
}
Fashioned this globe, and all the spacious
worlds,
Which roll high o'er thy head in radient state,
1
RURAL POEMS.
47
And guides their movements thro' the bound-
less void.
How laugh the dwellers of the worlds of light,
Unless their scorn that laughter should with-
hold!
When from their awful distance they look
down
Upon this dusky spot, this mole-hill, earth,
And see an insect, groveling in the dust,
With pride fantastic swell his little heart!
High titles, honour, worth superior claim;
Erect his minute stature o'er a clod,
With haughty air turn round his eyes of scorn
On brother worms, who tremble and admire.
Lord, when we view thy heavens, stupen-
dous works
Of thine almighty hands, the suns that blaze,
And worlds that roll, obedient to thy will;
In number, and in distance, far beyond
The reach of thought, their glories hid in
space
From human eye, or philosophic tube;
Can we believe that thou, exalted thus
In awful majesty and power, should deign
1
RURAL POEMS.
To visit man, or mind a mortal worm!
For what has he that can thy notice claim!
Nay, what's this earth, or what yon radiant
sun,
That rolls thro' heaven sublime! Extinguish-
ed from
Thy works, no blank perceivable were left:
Still would the heavens thy glories spread
abroad;
Still suns unnumbered blaze at thy command,
And boundless space thy endless wonders tell.
Vain the research of reason uninspired
To teach us thee: philosophy but shows
What distance separates us from our God.
Vain she believes it to presume that he
Who guides the spheres, should lend his ear
to man,
Should hear his cry, or mind his humble
wants.
Lost in amaze, she views his awful height,
Sinks in despair, nor hopes to reach his ear.
She sees th' Almighty king too high for aught,
But fate of worlds, to claim his sovereign care.
'Tis by thy word alone we learn to trust
RURAL POEMS.
Thee, and with admiration to believe
That angels, and that worms, insects and
worlds
Alike thy fatherly protection share;
That not an atom of thy works can fail,
Or unknown suffer; all are numbered, weighed,
And in the book' of thy remembrance kept;
That far as heaven is distant from the earth,
So distant are the ways of God from ours,
So far his thoughts the thoughts of men tran-
scend.
SUMME R.
}
Now long expected, from his southern halls
Walks forth the lordly summer in his strength,
Sovereign confessed, and rules the vigorous
year.
Retiring spring abashed from his keen sight
Turns swift away, and hides her, blushing face.
- E
59
RURAL POEMS.
Him heat attends, the morn's soft fragrant
breath,
The whispering zephyr, and the grateful calm
Of summer evenings mild: kindled by him
The skies above with brighter colors glow;
Joys the luxuriant earth, and decks herself
In all her pride. Stayed are the clouds, and
calm
The settled air, clear the transparent skies.
)
Ere yet withdrawn the curtains of the
night,
And doubtful morn faint hovers in the east;
The solitary red-breast from the oak
Whistling announces her approach; the strain
Caught by the neighbouring songsters spreads
around,
Wide o'er the fields; and every grove iš life
And
sparrow chatters in the bough
That shades the cot; the swallow's noisy
song: the
brood
Fly twittering from the barn on early wing;
The languid night-birds now strike up again,
In general choir, their interrupted song,
And fill wide with their notes the echoing wood.
2
RURAL POEMS.
41
Ungrateful sleep, now let me break thy
chains;
For who, bound in thy dull embraces, could
endure
(
Senseless to lie, toss restless o'er his bed,
Or lost to reason, life and joy, pursue
Wild fancy's airy phantoms crude, perplext;
Till aching limbs, the busy hum of flies
That gather round his head, and sweltering
heat.
Force him dissatisfied, with listless yawn,
To crawl in beaming day from bed of sloth!
Is there, whose mind's attuned to nature's
charmis,
Would thus indulge; while every blooming
sweet,
Unnumbered beauties from the womb of morn,
Call him abroad, and wait the early walk!
In thro' my window breaks a boundless song
From all the groves around; the morn's sóft
breath
Whispers abroad, or thro' the lifted sash
My pillow fans: ah! let me haste away!
The hour of prime will soon be past, the wind
1
1
RURAL POEMS.
་
.!
Shake from the flower the pearly drops, and
waste
Its balmy sweets.
With rosy light.
moon
Now glows the liquid sky
Shorn of her beams the
Pale in the west retires.. Close by the wood,
Around the blooming pastures let me stray;
Where bathed in dew the clover blossoms nod
Before the gale, and breathe a rich perfume."
In wanton pride elate, th' approaching steed.
Snorts at the passenger; or flying o'er
$
The smoking field, devours the ground with
speed:
High in the wind his head; the flaky hair
Lightens along his proudly arched neck;
His fiery nostrils smoke; his waving mane
Like streamers round his sturdy shoulders
plays.
Noisy, above my head, on frequent wing
The woodpecks rove, in playful freaks en
gaged;
Round, thro' the boughs, and leaves, and
sky,
open
They urge the sportive chase; till gathered on
:
RURAL POEMS;
50
Some aged bough, loud the mock quarrel
sounds
In harsh and scolding notes: then parting
wide
Each fastens on some bare decayed trunk;
And with their beaks resounds the hardened
oak.
Rising on balanced wing the towering lark
Sings gaily thro' the sky. Along the brooks
The fluttering black-bird spreads his crimson
plumes,
And, perching on a thorn, shakes in thick
shower
"The snowy blossoms mingled with the dew."
But now, behold, the dazzling orb of day
Flames in the east. Down to the dewy green
The feathered tribes repair; or to the wood
Silent retire; all but the tuneful bird;
That sings melodious from the lofty elm :
Charmer of groves, that, on some airy top
Sole seated, sings thro' all the live-long day,
And warbling o'er a thousand varied notes,
Pours her sweet melody around. Oft too,
When all is hushed amid the silent hours,
E 2
$4
RURAL POEMS.
Serenely bright o'er 'nature's midnight rest
Smiles the fair moon, and from the distant
wood
Scarce heard the night-bird's interrupted strain;
Soft breaks her music from the sleeping grove,
And charms the ear of night. The beaming
sun
Vigorous ascends the sky, and wheeling round
His lengthened circuit, pours his vital beams;
The fertile earth deep feels his quickening
power,
And spreads o'er hills and dales luxuriant
green.
Rising with morn, the breezy zephyrs shake
The spangled mead, play o'er the bending corn,
And murmur thro' the grove; or on the
floods
Gently disport, and curl the restless waves..
Increasing with the heat, all day they stretch
Their balmy wings; but chief the sultry hour
Of noon feels the invigorating blast
Of nature's fan: Nor less, when prone the sun
O'er western hills shoots faint his streamy
rays,
RURAL POEMS.
$5
Creeping along the winding brook they shake
The willow's top, or 'mid the darksome grove
The sigh reponsive to the turtle's strains.
Now sacred eve extends her cooling shade :
Home from his daily toil the whistling swain
Repairs. Low in the vale above the cot,
The rising smoke spreads out a lengthened
train
Of dusky grey, balanced amid the air;
And slow along the margin of the wood,
Shaped like an airy phantom, moves away.
Now has the lingering summer sun his
round
Diurnal wheeled, and in the west is sunk
The glorious orb; no more his dazzling
beams
Around th' horizon flow; and the dim cloud.
Faintly imprints its image on the wave;
O'er whose smooth, crystal brink the willow
hangs
Her pendant boughs, that kiss the sleeping
flood.
And now comes on the grateful evening cool;
And twilight, monisher of serious thoughts,
56,
RURAL POEMS.
'Gins spread her pleasing veil o'er nature's face,
Imposing grateful rest on all her works.
And now still deeper shades, begin to press
The humid fields; save where amid the sprays
The glimmering insects glance, or o'er the
meads
Light their alternate lamps. A stillness reigns
Wide thro' the dusky atmosphere; save where
}
The bird of eve low hovering plays around,
In wanton circles, or amid the grove,
That echoes wide, begins her cheering song;
Still are the branchy trees; the evening airs
Have fanned themselves to rest, and not a
breath
Shakes the deep fields of corn: this, the sweet
hour
Sacred to musing and the lonely walk.
Retiring from the world, blest solitude,
Thy charms I court: the busy scenes of day
Are fled. Inspired by thee, adown the vale
Thoughtful I wander, and upon my mind,
In plenteous tide, these meditations roll.
Happy the man, who in the humble vale
Retired, kind nature's gifts enjoys, and on
RURAL POEMS.
Her voice attends; who, when the evening
spreads
Her cooling shades, can thus her sweets en-
joy....
Or seated with a friend, before his door,
In pleasing, useful conversation spend
The happy hours; till deeper night invites
To seek repose, by labour made more sweet,
Soon as the morn, shedding ambrosial dews,
Begins to paint the east, nimbly he quits
His couch, and forth to the fresh-breathing
field
Repairs; there to pursue his daily toil.
Thus pass his days, while vigorous summer
rules +
The sultry plains; till bounteous autumn
comes,
With golden crown to recompense his toil.
Then, when the dreary winter spread around
Disfigures nature's face, by the warm hearth
With plenteous fuel heaped, amidst his
*friends,
He spends the hours; nor does his heart
morose
58
RURAL POEMS.
Or song, or dance, refuse, or harmless jest,
Or innocent amusement gay, before
The cheering fire, amidst his flowing cups;
Till joyous spring returns to cheer the plains
"And with the general joy his heart distends.”
Then by the turtle's voice invited, forth
1
He springs with glowing heart, to contemplate
The budding grove, the rising plants and
flowers;
!
And the great labour of the year begins.
What, tho' in learning's deep researches he
Can boast no skill? more undisturbed his
mind:
Nor less does he enjoy each rural sweet,
The charms of morn, or evening's tranquil
hour,
The various gifts which circling seasons shed
On nature's bosom, free alike to all.
Or if on noble science he attends,
And makes the muse his care, what place
more fit
For contemplation can he find; where peace
More undisturbed, or friendship more sincere,
Than in the rural shades? The muse prefers
I
مرارا
RURAL POEMS.
59
The rural walks, and blissful green retreats;
The lonely winding stream, the silent shade
She loves to haunt; nor sometimes hath dis-
dained
The fleecy flocks, the simple shepherd swain;
Nor him whose, hands, with rustic toils are
worn™,
Whose hours, with useful labours filled,
glide, on
In sweet content, thro'out the various year.
Such, O Columbia, was the hardy life
Of thy first heroes, frugal, virtuous, brave:
While yet the savage hordes around thee
raged;
And oft called forth thy brave unwearied sons,
The dangerous wild far penetrating, fought
Against the cruel foe: while cottages yet stood
In woods obscure, where now proud cities
rear
Their heads; ere European luxuries
Had reached our shores. Such were thy hardy
sons,
Whose free-born offspring dared their native
rights
60
RURAL POEMS.
With arms to hold against th' oppressive handl
Of foreign tyranny, and left to us,
}
Their sons, of liberty the glorious prize.
When first, our fathers, o'er th' Atlantic surge
Advent❜rous led by the unconquered love
Of darling freedom, on thy distant shores
Arrived, a wild uncultivated scene
A
Before them lay; thy wide-extended plains
One boundless forest gloomed, where savage
beasts
Roamed unconfined, and owls in dismal notes
Screamed from afar; save where upon the bank
Of pleasant stream, gliding 'mid towering
shades,✰
The strolling savages had reared their huts.
€
They 'scaped from tyranny, with joy salute
The solitary wilds unknown, and bid
The gloomy forests, hail! then swear, hence-
forth
Sacred to freedom and the rights of man,
Their new-adopted country ne'er should feel
Dire European bondage. 'Midst thy woods
They fixed their seat; these by industrious
hands
RURAL POEMS.
61
They soon transformed. Thundering aloud
the oaks
Forsake the cumbered soil, where countless
years
Their growth enormous stood, and proudly
reared
Its summit to the sky; rolled on the flame
Whole forests blaze around, and now the
plain
Deep waves beneath a load of golden corn.
Thy woody vales, transformed to flowery meads,
Unnumbered herds within their bosoms fed:
Where savage beasts were wont to lurk secure,
And midnight owls complained, there play the
lambs;
There graze the peaceful flocks; there shep.
herds sing,
And warbling birds pour forth their cheering
notes.
Thy fertile plains now with abundance crown
Each passing year, and with rich produce fill
Far distant shores. In thee fair liberty,
With all her bright attendants joined, hath fixed
Her firm abode; beneath whose smiling reign
F
62
RURAL POEMS..
Each virtue blooms, beneath whose patronage
The arts and sciences delight to dwell.
Already has thy boasted Franklin's name,
To science, and to freedom ever dear,
Whose eye explored the clouds, and learned t
avert
The thunder's awful stroke, with just applause
Resounded thro' the philosophic world.
Thine was a philanthropic Rittenhouse,
Whose genius, beaming as the vernal sun,
With every milder grace attempered shone;
Softly uniting in assemblage fair
The friend, the husband, patriot, and
sage.
A long illustrious list of heroes thine,
In dangers tried, thro' war's long arduous
toils
Dauntless and firm, in freedom's noble cause.
But chief thy Washington claims highest
praise :
Ah! who shall dare to sing th' exalted theme,
Columbia's hero! Heaven inspired bards
Of future times shall dignify their song
With his bright name, and sing his mighty
deeds,
:.
RURAL POEMS.
63
That well tried mind, on which dependent hung
The trembling fates of a new rising world;
That firm, as Allegany's steadfast brow
Unmoved amidst eternal storms, upheld
Our rising empire's tottering fabric, 'gainst
Th' enormous burst of Britain's fury swelled
With all the triumphs of the vanquished main!
How glows our admiration, when we view,
On Jersey's plains, his little host, exposed
To the rude wintry blast, by hunger, toil
And vigilance deep worn, yet curb the pride
Of haughty British troops, superior foe !
And when, at length, beneath the urgent
calls
Of suffering nature, sunk the patriot sense;
His presence, voice, and great example, rouse
And animate his fainting troops to bear
Ills more than human, for their country's
cause!
Immortal patriots, heaven descended band!
The tongue of bards, thro' the long lapse of
time,
Shall dwell upon your praise, and every son
Columbia rears, to dear-bought freedom bort,
1
64
RURAL POEMS.
་
Enraptured hear; while, big with gratitude,
His heart a blessing to your memories heaves.
What muse, on more than mortal wing,
would dare
10*
Extend her bold adventurous flight o'er all
Thy lengthened mounts, thy wide extended
plains,
And streams, which o'er th' Atlantic coasts,
· and thro'
f
The western regions roll their mighty floods,
Watering full many a vale unknown to song!
Within thy woody bosom deep embraced
Broad lakes stretch their capacious beds, and
form
Bays, isles, and shores, to Nereus yet un
.known.
All climes see thy domain, from where this
` earth
Turns with broad front to meet the orb of day,
And gladdens in his beaming smiles, to where
Half turned as if abashed, with eye ascance,
She views him distant skirt the southern hills.
Whatever fruits, by potent suns refined
To tastes delicious, and hues of gold,
RURAL POEMS.
65
Burnish the southern plains, and spicy groves,
Or by the sober cold to solid worth
Matured, drop from the northern bough, or
clothe
The yellow-waving harvest fields, are thine,
E'en in thy barren mounts, content and peace
And joy are found; their hardy sons, to toil
Inured, with simple manners, envy not
The southern sons of slavery,, tho' embraced
In earth's luxuriant lap, and in the sweets
Wallowing, of ease, of luxury, and debauch.
Peaceful thy land: no tyrant here, to feed
His vile ambition, stains thy fields with blood
Of thy own sons, and into ruin turns
The fairest works of industry and-art.
No plains are here disfigured with marks
Of odious triumphs, famed for fatal deeds;
Where neighbouring cities fraught with dire
revenge,
Together meet to lay their brethren in the
dust;
To perpetrate, with more than hostile rage,
Fell deeds of fury and relentless hate;
F 2
66
RURAL POEMS.
}.
Perhaps, for some few acres more of land,
Some seeming insult, pride and honor false
Have swelled to mighty magnitude; perhaps,
(O shame to man degraded!) to avengé
Some haughty tyrant's fancied wrongs, or aid
His mad and cruel schemes of selfish pride.
Not so Columbia's sons: no scenes like these
They ever knew; but they in friendly ties
Of
peace and harmony united live.
Fearless thy farmer sows his fields, nor dreads,
Ere the returning sun his crop mature,
Lest hostile bands tread down his rising hopes.;
Or, e'er the loaded sheaves are to his barns
Brought home, some plundering crew with
lawless hands.
Should seize the well earned price of honest
toil.
Secure he lays him down, nor ever dreads,
Lest midnight noise of some hostile alarm
Should rouse him from his peaceful couch; or
lest
Some more insidious foe, some famished
wretch
From thick recesses of the wood, or from
RURAL POEMS.
67
Some dismal hut, by hunger driven, or hope
Of plunder drawn, should break his door,
and in
:
The blood of sleeping innocence imbrue
His unrelenting hands. Few such thy woods,
Columbia, contain; here justice vigorous
Protects; here agriculture and the arts,
Which in a growing country crave fresh aid,
To all thy sons alike the golden prize
Present, of industry the sure reward :
While honour and respect to crown their toil
Th' impartial public yield: here liberty
To all preserves their native right t' enjoy
The fruits of industry, the power to shine
In virtue, and by honest means to gain
Wealth and renown: few then these pleasing
hopes
Rejecting, rather choose precarious life
To live by rapine and contempt of right,
And on themselves sure infamy to draw.
Far hence, the brinded lion's savage brood,
The ruthless tiger, and hyæna dire,
The scorpion's fiery bane, and fateful fangs,
Menacing horrid death, and other pests
68
RURAL POEMS.
Which burning. Afric breeds. Thy watered
vales
The bounding deer, and lusty bison feed;
The stately elk, and pride of northern plains,
The tall majestic moose; the snorting steed,
In numerous herds, that wantons unconfined
Wild as the winds, and owns no master's
care.'
Nor less thy plains with fleecy flocks are
crowned,
That fearless graze, and herds of fruitful
kine.
Fain would I rise, as on prophetic wing,
And see the time, perhaps not distant far,
When thy wide plains in lofty forests clothed,
Where yet rude nature reigns, and yearly
pours
Profusion o'er the desert wild, shall be
The pleasing haunts, of sweet domestic bliss,
Of friendship, love, and every social joy.
When streams which long in pathless shades-
retired,
Winding thro' many an unfrequented tract,
1
RURAL POEMS.
69
With silent lapse have sought the distant main,
Shall see, as if by magic hand transformed,
Their shaggy sides with cultivation smile;
Fair, glittering towns rise on the distant hills,
And all the boundless champaign laugh around
With beauteous villas, fields and blooming
herds;
And feel their loaded bosoms.crouded thick
With numerous barks, and joyous crews, that
waft
Thy rich, exhaustless stores to distant worlds.
But youth forbids the inexperienced muse
To try such daring themes, unused to sing
Of states or empires, themes for nobler bards;
And to the humble plain bids her return,
There to pursue, content, an easier task.
Her moisture dryed, the glowing earth now
feels
The sun's too potent ray: from the parched
plains
The upturned fallow brown, and sultry mount,
As from a hearth, the steaming vapours breathe;
Wide o'er the ground ascends the sultry
breath
1
190
RURAL POEMS
Up to the skies; while round the spacious
vault,
Like brass, the heavens with heat intensely
glow.
Pierced to their centre with the burning ray
Languish the fields; the morning flower
droops
Its fading head, forgetful of its sweets;
Vanished the dew, the dying maize furls up
Its shrivelled blade, and withers on the plain.
Day after day, the still increasing heat
Cleaves deep the burning glebe, and dries
away
The genial moisture; languishes the wood;
Early the cattle leave the dying grass,
Fly to the elm, and restless stamp all day;
Or mad with heat, from the enclosure break,
Roam thro' the wood, and search the willow
brake,
Or course of vanished stream, in quest of
drink.
آ
Fled are the streams; and in their dusty
beds
The ants reside, or 'mid a gaping chink
RURAL POEMS.
71
The spider dwells retired, and spreads his
toils
To catch the wandering insect. Disappears
The morning's scanty dew, and to the shade
The lowing herds dissatisfied retire :
Far o'er the western hills the clouds upheave
Their summits tinged with deepest copper;
wide
Removed in fields of ether, yet unseen
By the laborious swain, they slowly rise,
Form in fantastic shapes. 'Tis now broad
noon :
1
Nature's at rest, o'er-tired with heat. The
swain
Reposes in the shade, and in the stall
His restless oxen prance.
Silent the woods;
No sound is heard; the birds droop on the
boughs,
Panting beneath the cumbrous shade. At
length
A breezy gale conveys the rumbling sound
Of thunder to the ear.
Their whitened leaves,
blast.
The woods upturn
and murmur in the
72
RURAL POEMS.
Scarce yet believes the swain, but views the
cloud
Distant; forth to his toil repairs.; and whilst
The distant thunder murmurs on the wind,
Slow move his steers along. With joy he
hears
The sound; oft turns his longing eyes, and
views
The promised shower, slow rising on the gale.
With hollow murmuring sound the whitened
woods
Wave in the blast. Nature already seems
Refreshed, and plants to lift their languid heads.
Sunk in the cloud the sun retires: blest cool,
The farmer cries, nature's kind rest; how
sweet
Thy shade, thrice welcome to these aching
brows!
Vain are, alas! his pleasing hopes! the cloud
Moves distant far to water other lands;
Or lost in ether, vanishes away.
With triple ardour looks the sun abroad
On the parched fields, and herbs and trees and
corn
1
RURAL POEMS.
73
Languish beneath his beams. Thro' all night
long
Blow the dry sultry gales, nor evening dews
Descend; e'en in the night, hot vapours breathe
From all the ground. Rising again the sun
Darts forth his sickening beams, and all is
heat.
Turned into dust the pasture, brown the mead,
And languishing the corn, forgets to grow.
Poor helpless man, where shall he seek re-
1
lief!
Black with despair, he mourns his useless toil,
And sees dread famine ghastly stare around.
To heaven he lifts a supplicating eye,
And asks the Lord of nature for his bread.
The God who rules the seasons, had withheld
Refreshing rains, nor heard the suffering field;
Now moved with pity for a fainting world,
He bids the air adust in showers to melt,
And quench the thirsty ground. At his com-
mand,
Rising the southern gale with watry wings
Blows thro' the night, and shakes the rustling
fields;
G
2
24
RURAL POEMS.
Roars on the swelling flood, and breaks against
The shore the dashing wave; bellows along
The distant wood, and up the leavy mount.
Mild is the breath of morn; the broken clouds
With splendid colours tinged assemble round
The sun's bright eastern gate; the morn's
grey mists
Skim lightly o'er the sky on sounding wing
The wedded doves, light flitting, nimbly sweep
The watery atmosphere; in gathered troops
The goldfinch chattering flies. A thickening
gloom
Enwraps. th horizon round; borne o'er the
sky,
The full-swoln clouds with countless blessings
stored
Drop fatness on the year. Deep drinks the
mead,
And thirsty field; the gladdened corn lifts up
It's head; the watered forest joy's thro'out.
Bound o'er the fields the joyous herds, and all
Is gladness round. The cock before the barn
Lifts his bold front, and meets the coming
shower;
:
RURAL POEMS.
75
While down his plumage roll the cooling
drops.
Deep to the moistened roots of trees and corn
The shower descends; the earth new vigor
feels,
"
And renovated nature shows a deeper green.
With mildest ray looks forth the evening sun;
Now all the music of the groves awakes,
And joyous notes enliven every field.
The waving forest, and the drooping corn
Glitter before the wind; the meadow glows
With deepest green: what heart but feels new
life!
Impatient to the streets the children fly,
Sportive, and thro' the gathered puddles play.
Brightening the showery arch attracts their
view :.
As o'er the fields the radiant phantom bends,
And on the plains distils its golden dews;
In idiot wonder fixt, th' attentive throng
Delighted gaze, and big with childish hopes
Expect hard by to grasp th' aerial prize.
Their noisy sport goes on; unknowing they,
What cause attunes their little hearts to mirth.
}
76
RURAL POEMS.
}
Forth comes the aged sire, and bending o'er
His staff, surveys the scene; his brightening
face
Wears a gay smile; and waving in the breeze
Glisten his silvery locks. Around his fields
Pleased walks the grateful husbandman
Contemplative, and sees his harvests rise.
In pleasing converse, up the winding path
See Damon and his Celia move; oft stand,
And gaze around; till the green summit
gained,
They turn wide round a raptured eye, o'er
all
The smiling plains in boundless prospect
spread.
Then hills engage, on which the sinking sun
Darts thro' the cloud his sweet, attractive
beams,
And wide displays the eastern landscape cloth-
ed
In softest light; on which th' expanding eye
Delights to dwell, and, in perspective fair,
See hills o'er hills, like fairy scenes, arise,
Till far remote the landscape fades in air.
RURAL POEMS.
Arrayed in gold, and flame, and sanguine
dyes,
The eastern cloud sheds from it's dazzling
folds'
A varied lustre o'er the fields and woods,
Changing the hue of plants and `drooping
flowers.
At length, the setting sun and fading sky
Warn the blest pair to seek their peaceful
home.
Above the dewy mead, the winding stream,
And glancing thro' the sprays on busy wing,
Millions of insects lighten all around;
With gliding tapers all the living wood
Seems in a blaze, and countless changeful
stars
Illume the dusky vale, a mimic sky :
£
Some shine intense with broad expansive glow,
Then quench their lamps; some, twinkling
thro' the gloom
}
Active disclose and hide th' alternate fires.
Rising at length the moon spreads o'er the sky
Her silver beams; out shines the mountain's
top,
G 2
78
RURAL PÕEMS.
हूँ
The glittering rock, the verdant woods and
lawns ;
The mazy river rolls in sparkling light.
Ah! how unlike the scene, when, to chas-
tise
17
A guilty land, the skies with vengeance charged
Ravage the plains, and blast the hopeful year!
From the chill east, or south, the wind with
blast
Ungenial blows; in pale and watery skies
The sun uprising sheds a languid beam:
The swàin his winter vest thrown useless by
Now buttons on; to the neglected fire
The housewife draws, and feels a pleasing
warmth.
O'er western hills remote, the clouds 'uprear
Their dusky summits, and the hollow sound
Of thunder murmurs faintly on the ear.
The watery hosts augment, and rising slow
Invest th' horizon, like a towery wall
With battlements high reared; while under
neath,
}
Playing, before the wind, the scattered clouds
Move rapidly athwart the threatening gloom.
L
**
RURAL POEMS.
79
+
There all the baleful stores of heaven's wrath,
Collected, and by struggling winds condensed,
Brood; tossed from cloud to cloud a murmur
rolls.
Ceaseless, till, settled in the night that shrouds
The lurid mount, the deep-toned, lengthened
peal
1
In hollow accents mutters dreadful things.
Earth trembling hears, and round the listening
hills
人
​A boding echo runs. Mustering his strength
Louder the thunder swells, and frequent show-
ers,
+
In swift succession, crowd upon the wind
Along the northern skies. At length the
weight
Of congregated vapours rolling vast
Moves on; heaved o'er heaven's vault the
towering clouds
Blot out the day; but fraught with dire event
They seem, and more than usual rage: still
+
dwells
The thunder in their angry skirts, and growls
Incessant with tremendous threatening note.
RURAL POEMS.
Scarce have they reached the zenith, when
with crash
As of dissolving elements, resistless bursts
The ragged lightning's stream; tears the proud
oak,
And scatters wide around her sturdy limbs;
Fires the dry mountain; rends the lofty rock,
Or wraps in flames the peaceful mansion's top.
All now is bustle in the mead; each face
Wears deep dismay; the farm-house vacant
stands:
A mingled band of every age and sex
With nimble rakes and hay-forks ply the task,
In rolling billows urged; th' industrious boy,
Pushing amain, drives on th' encreasing load;
While thick behind the fast built hay-cocks
rise.
But now concentred in the blackening west
The storm's whole force unites; the burthen-
ed clouds
2
From each side roll to swell th' encreasing
gloom,
Impending, horrible. Shuddering the farmer
views
梦
​2
RURAL POEMS.
81
น
Th' approaching tempest; in 'mid furrow fixt
Forsakes his plough, and drives his panting
steers
Swift to the stall. With hasty steps the
swains
Fly from the meads, and leave the scattered
hay,
The sport of winds. The traveller winged
with fears
Speeds for the inn; urged by the frequent
spur
His headlong courser flies athwart the plain.
Advancing swift the dark deep-folded clouds
Roll awfully sublime; gloom deep as night.
Involves the frighted world. And now let
loose,
Fierce as Æolian storms, the madding winds
Come roaring on: the wild uproar of waves
Lashing the trembling shores, the crashing
oaks,
And tumbling edifices mark their course.
In rattling vollies the impetuous hail
Pours down amain; start from their seats at
once
82
RURAL POEMS.
Th' affrighted swains; thickens the tempest
round,
And winds ply their redoubled rage; above
Loud the triumphant thunder rends the sky.
Hapless the flock that now is found unpent!
They to the spreading elm for shelter fly;
In vain of leaves and fruit at once the trees
Are stripped; while thro' their boughs loud
howls
The furious-blast, and drives the beating hail.
In vain, beneath the hospitable boughs,
Their wonted seat, the birds a shelter seek:
While with her wings the dove protects her
nest,
She dies, a victim of parental love.
In thro' the window gleams the lurid blaze,
And glares against the wall with hideous
light;
Succeeding quick, the vast redoubled peal
Roars thro' the air: the shrieking matron,
pale,
Close clasps the infant to her heaving breast:
L
Thank heavens, one dread bolt has harmless
passed!
RURAL POEMS:
સુદ
But ah! where is the next to light!
Instant, the hissing flames impetuous fill
The tottering hall; loud cracks the parting
dome
Above their heads, and sulphur smokes
around:
:
While all the terrors of the thunder joined
Burst in dread tumult on th' astounded ear.
Trembling, aghast, behold the wretches stand!
Or in some corner pent in vain, to shun
Inevitable doom: but ah! behold
That piteous sight! the child of fondest hope,
The tender parent, or the loving spouse,
A lifeless victim stretched.
Hear, how with frantic grief they shriek around
The blackened corse! In vain they call by
name
The senseless form, in vain attempt to raise
The supple neck, with streaming eyes survey
The ghastly death-cold face;
And lift to heaven their unavailing hands.
The storm is past, the winds have ceased,
the rage
Of elements is hushed. Deep in the streets
1
$4
RURAL POEMS.
Lies piled the hail; till rolled away the clouds,
The sun looks forth with genial warmth, and
opes
To the sad view a dreary prospect round;
A second winter rising on the sight.
Forth walks the pensive farmer, and surveys
His ravaged fields, the labours of the year
In one dread hour destroyed, his rising hopes
Laid prostrate, victims to the angry skies.
Stripped stand the oaks upon the mountain's
brow,
And rear to heaven their bare and shattered
limbs.
1
Such desolations spread, when heaven lets
loose
The elements, to bow man's heart of pride:
The God, who in the genial shower descends,
And, whispering in the vernal breeze, full oft
All bounty comes abroad, can, when he will,
In thunder speak, and rock the world's great
frame.
7
Yet rare these scenes, to narrow bounds con-
H
fined :
For he who formed this earth for man's abode,
RURAL POEMS.
85
In mercy judges, knowing he is dust;
Rules the proud storm, nor bids it rage too
wide.
Another annual round of life is run!
And bounteous harvest once more crowns the
plains:
Half unexpected, as each day the fields
Display a riper hue, and nodding call
The reaper's hand, the busy husbandman
Thoughtful looks back upon his days of toil:
How short! how fleeting! fled another year!
In anxious toils engaged each busy day
Slipped unperceived away; and now a year,
Important portion of a human life,
Is past recovery gone. In prospect long
It seemed, and smiling promised countless
store
Of coming hours, unfathomed wealth of time;
Now past, ah! how unlike the cheat appears,
In it's true light! an empty, dwindled shade!
A scanty, poor, unsatisfying hour!
Now wide beneath the noon-tide's dazzling
beams
H·
}
}
-86
RURAL POEMS,
K
+
Wave the brown fields, before the westerm
gale;
ག
Clear are the glowing skies. The husband-
man
*
Impatient views his ripening crop, and bids
The dilatory swain prepare to save
The labours of the year. The sultry heat.
Deep cleaves the fields,: the fainting swain fore-
sees,
>
With dread, approaching days of toil and
sweat.
Th' expected morn appears; at early dawn
Loud to the field the farmer calls his train:
Ranged in long row, before the dewy corn
Each takes his destined place; and now at
oncę
They bend their sturdy backs, and from their
hands
Thick fall the sheaves. With mirth and rustic
glee
Their labours they beguile; the hapless clown,
Doomed to sustain all day some witling's joaks
Moves sullen, or with awkward repartee
Excites the loud redoubled laughter round.
RURAL POEMS.
87
Behind, the master, with observant eye,
Walks, and directs their toil; gathers in heaps
The sheaves, or calls the reapers to partake,
Beneath the neighbouring shade, a cooling
draught.
Sent by kind providence, a breezy gale,
יצ
Fresh from the chambers of the enlivening
north,
Blows o'er the fields, and bends the waving
corn:
The fainting swains new vigour feel, lift up
Their naked breasts, and bless the coming
breeze.
In Europe's milder climes the fair one shares
The labours of the field; and every swain
Beside his favourite lass, all day her task
Alleviates; while many a smile repays
His kind attentions, many a heart-felt glance,
Soft love's delicious language, soothes
Their mutual toils: for there the milder sun
With Libra rides, and from his distant car
Scatters thro' fleecy clouds a gentler day.
There, softer light invests the temperate skies,
And smiling plains, and mellow autumn fans
i
28
RURAL POEMS.
;
The shadowy fields. Not so where harvest
waves
Beneath a glowing sky, and from his throne
The noon-day sun pours down direct a flood
Of dazzling rays, and cleaves the burning
glebe.
Ah! let not there the tender sex be called
To toils like these! their fitter task, at home,
With busy hand, and various skill to dress
The wholesome viands, and the smiling board
With joyous plenty crown; each savory herb
To cull that summer yields, each luscious fruit,
That quickens appetite, or cools the rage
•
Of burning veins: Then, when the sultry eve
Exhausts the fainting swain, spent with the toils
Of day; welcome to meet him, where the hedge
Extends it's length of shade, with clean, white
pails
Filled with the dairy's stores, and with fair
hand
Distribute cups of wholesome beverage round.
While on the cool green turf, white napkins
spread
Display their stores; where knives in order laid
RURAL POEMS.
89
Invite his hasty hand the wheaten loaf
៥
To seize, or in the neighbouring ham to make
Incision deep; meantime hard by, to whet
His appetite, the fragrant coffee smokes.
Such various stores nature for you provides,
To cheer your hearts, your wasted strength
repair;
But what is that, which ends the plain repast;
Be greatly cautious, swains, how ye indulge
The treacherous draught, better could harm
less cups
Content; but if pernicious habit crave
Indulgence, guard, ah! guard against excess !
Lest th❞ aching head, and the enfeebled arm,
Trembling, unstrung for toil, next day recall-
The deed to mind, and force the fruitless sighs;
Lest harmless mirth, and social pleasure scared
Fly from your fields, and loud-tongued strife
Usurp their room, and wounds and rueful
deeds:
毯
​Embitter life, and rob your days of peace:
Now to secure the sheaves from dreaded ills,
That changeful skies might bring, all hands
repair,
H 2
90
RURAL POEMS,
With quick dispatch; nor let the fair disdain
Here to assist for now the sinking sun
Lengthens the grateful shades; his fainter-
beams
Dance on the quivering multitude of leaves,
The forest's robes, thro' the opening glade
Far streaming mark with luminous streaks
The evening air, and glancing on the trees
Alternate, tip their foliage with gold.
From every quarter of the busy field
Are various voices heard; while nimble feet
Traverse the new-rept ridge; there too the
maid
With ruddy cheek, staggering beneath the load
Of well filled sheaves, with emulous speed
assays
To reach the heap; meantime the elder swains
The thick built shocks in rows successive
rear.
And now with joyous hearts the social band
Forsakes the scenes of toil: seen from afar,
The lighted tapers gleaming from the hall,
Thro' open doors, and windows lifted high,
Invite their view: full in the centre placed,
RURAL POEMS.
91
The lengthy table richly covered stands,
And waits their coming; seated at the head
The farmer stirs the full capacious bowl;
Which first he quaffs, and then in order round
The weighty charge, from guest to guest con-
veyed
With either hand, salutes each smiling lip.
And now, forgot the labours of the day,
The laugh, the jest, the rustic song goes
round:
Age brightening too forgets his weight of
years,
And garrulous recounts the feats of youth.
Forsaking these, one sprightly youth pro-
ceeds
Homeward to hie beneath the friendly moon:
For, far remote, beyond yon spreading wood,
Beside a garden trim, a cottage stands
Enclosed with fruit-trees round; there lonely
dwells
His widowed mother, and to her he brings
The well earned profits of his harvest toils.
Now past the well known lane of tedious
length,
RURAL POEMS.
He enters brisk the lonely winding path,
That leads across the wood; and darkling
speeds
With timorous steps, till broad before him
shines
The opening glade, and rising in the midst
Rustle two aspen trees-suspected spot!
Between, so deem the neighbouring swains,
appears
1
A grave obscure. Arrived at th' other side
Darker and darker still the forest throws
It's horrent gloom, heightened by the pale light
Of moon-beams glancing from the distant
rock.
Entering these shades, reason itself is filled
With reverential awe, and o'er the mind.
At every step a chilling horror creeps..
Involuntary now he whistles shrill
His favorite air; till starting at the noise.
Of squirrel-playing thro' the rattling leaves,
He pauses, summons all his courage up,
And sings aloud, with palpitating heart,
The cheering ditty. Now dispelled his fears,
He treads with bolder strides the winding
path.
RURAL POEMS.
93
Obscure, till from the hollow dingle gleams
Full on his view the ruined dwelling, drear,
And waste, where fiends and troubled ghosts
each night
Their revels hold. Ah! there, 'tis said, there
lived
A wretch!-and yet the shuddering neigh-
bours tell
His murderous deeds-'till by the secret hand
Divine, of ever waking justice, found,
On direful purpose bent he met his fate;
And breathed indignant forth his guilty soul,
Urged with a load of unrepented crimes.
There oft, the story runs, his ghost at eve
Drives in the whirlwind thro' the cracking
trees;
:
Or howling vengeful rolls along the ground,
In hollow shape cylindric, dimly seen!
Sometimes, between two fierce encountering
balls
Of dark-red fire, that meeting flash, rebound,
And still renew the charge, starts pale to view,
Seen ever and anon, his haggard form;
While troops of fiends exulting yell around.
94
RURAL POEMS.
Sudden, at this dread sight, with quaking
seized,
The little hero stops, and calls to mind
These various rumors; thousand spectres fill
His frighted fancy; long he hesitates
What course to take; or to return, or brave
The dreaded danger; here his fears dissuade,
And shame forbids retreat. Resolved at length,
He rushes headlong, nor to either side
E'er turns his eye; while busy fancy paints
Grim bands of goblins ever at his heels;
Nor slacks his pace, nor ever looks behind,
Till from the wood emerging glad he views
The opening fields. Now all the dangers past
He ponders o'er, and much congratulates
Him on his blest escape. His lightened heart
Throbs gentler, and resumes it's wonted seat.
Then gaily singing o'er his gladsome way
Nimbly he treads, and finds his welcome
home:
The busy scene is o'er, and the last shock
To the full barn conveyed, there rests secure.
The empty stubble field neglected shines,
A solitary, unattractive scene.
RURAL POEMS.
9.5
From morn to eve, o'er all the slumbering
plains
Tranquillity spreads wide her silent reign:
Nor plough-man's voice, nor rattling wheel,
nor crack
Of driver's whip disturbs the stillness deep:
So that from distant grove, thundering afar
Is heard the sportsman's gun; who now re-
leased
From harvest's toils thus wastes his idle hours,
And bids the squirrel, pert and fearless grown
By long repose, to dread his mortal foe.
The year relaxes, and their watery stores
The melting skies in gladd'ning showers dis-
till :
The withering pastures, and the smooth-shorn
mead
Resume their green; the maize luxuriant
O'erspreads the fields, and waves aloft in air
It's golden tassels; pendant from the ear
•
In wanton curls the silken fibres hang.
But should the genial skies their influence
Withhold, while Sirius burns the thirsty fields;
Then nature languishes; then dire disease
३.
96
RURAL POEMS.
1
Lifts the pale head, and frights the trembling
land:
Such, as of late the fated city fill'd
}
With sore dismay, and thined her crowded
streets.
From foreign climes the embryo monster
came,
'Tis said, in secret hatched, and nursed secure,
Yet unperceived; till from her dark retreat
She issued forth to-day, aloft in air
Reared her fell head, and stalking ghastly
round,
Each day more fatal swelled the heaps of slain,
Adown that dark and silent street, who dares
To walk? death fills the air; and pestilence
From her black jaws breathes steaming poison
round:
I shrink at every step, and fear to breathe.
Where are the crowds, that nightly fluttered
here
Gay sons of mirth, and frolic loving fair!
Far fled away, or in yon awful field
Furrowed with graves, the silent sleep, and
hear
RURAL POEMS.
97
Of joy no more! The din of industry
Is hushed, the hum of moving crowds, the
voice:
Of song, and laughter bursting from the inn
In doubled peals. What lonely taper pale
From yon high window gleams? 'Tis dead of
night.
There by the suffering victim silent sits.
Some faithful friend, and waits his dying
gasp.
}
"
But hark! that groan! Ah me! some helpless
wretch
}
Abandoned breathes his last no friend is
near
To soothe his pains, or close his dying eyes!
What torches thro' yon lonely alley, slow,
In long procession move? All night they bear
The dead away. Nor rages less by day
The wasting plague: the blackened houses
mourn,
Closed and forsaken; o'er the joyless streets
Silence at noon-day broods with lonely wing.
Awful in all his ways, the great supreme,
And universal judge, with power and skill
I
98
RURAL POEMS.
Too marvellous for humble man to know,
His schemes of mercy and of wrath fulfils.
"His paths are in the deep," and mercy still
Tempers his judgments to the sons of men.
Him all things serve; the clouds, th' impetu--
eus winds,
The wings of lightning, and th' indignant
strength
Of ocean's vast domain, as ministers
Wait on his will. His smile diffuses joy
Thro' heaven and earth, and bids man rest
secure;
Pours balmy health into the vital breeze,
And crowns the year with peace. He hides
his face;
The nations tremble, faint, and sink to dust. *
In prosperous days, when man's proud päm
pered heart,
Enclosed with fatness round, and lulled se-
54
cure
In pleasure's lap, grows wanton, and forgets
The source that feeds and crowns his life with
good;
With wholesome discipline his chastening hand
RURAL POEMS.
99
Teaches the trembling wretch to know from
whom:
His blessings flow, and own his master, "God.
The ambient element, that feeds the blood-
With pure etherial balm, and bids it flow
In crimson streams, when he commands, is
4
filled
With death; and raging thro' the veins ex-
cites
Dire tortures, and exhausts the springs of life.
Hither, ye thoughtless crouds, whom plea-
sure's cup
Intoxicates, who trust to fortune's smile,
And vainly dream that you shall never taste
Of human woe; here learn to know your
selves ::
Here see, how soon the unpitying hand of death
May seize unwarned, and tear you from the
joys
You fondly hoped, or sad disease consign
To beds, where wealth of worlds no aid can
give.
Happy, if such reflexions reached the hearts
Of some spectators of the mournful scene;
1
100
RURAL POEMS.
Turned from his beastly joys, if vile debauch
Has been reformed, and scared into a man;
If dissipation in his mad career
Been taught to think; if avarice relaxed
His deadly gripe, and learned at length to feel
For others' woe; struck thro' his iron heart
With strange remorse, if dire extortion stayed
His worse than tiger's fangs, and from their
grasp
Let 'scape his victim; if effects like these
Our sufferings wrought; then may we fondly
hope
That we have not been visited in vain.
AUTUMN
AUTUMN at length appears; the chilly eve
Bespeaks him come; and from the lonely vale
The owl first heard, in long and mournful
notes:
KURAL POEMS.
101
Proclaims his reign. Athwart the evening
shade,
The hearth new kindled shoots a lengthened
gleam,
Cheering the hall.. Yet slow the change, scarce
felt,
While summer gently into autumn blends.
Clear are the skies, and not a streaky cloud
Stains the pure blue expanse, spread round
immense,
1
To where it seems to touch the dim-seen
mounts,
เ
That heave their dusky heads in other lands.
O'er the still woods, and silent fields, mild
suns
A mellower lustre shed. Now autumn spreads
His ripening stores abroad: high on the tree
Blooms the red apple, and the luscious peach
Nectarious hangs, inviting to the taste;
Beneath its vine the ponderous melon swells,
Stor'd with rich juice; pendant the yellow
pear
Bends the dark bough above; and from the
husk
I 2
*102
KURAL POENIS.
Dropt the brown nut rebounds, Seen from
afar,
The buck-wheat fields display their flowery
robes &
Of purest white, and breathe a rich perfume.
The mildness of the season now invites
{
To roam abroad, by idle musing led;
To climb the hill, or rugged mountain's brow,
And view the plains: but most the lonely
}
grove
Attracts my steps; if any grove escape's
The murdering fowler's piece, whom wanton
sport
Prompts, at the little songsters of the spring,
Unworthy mark, to point his mimic thunder.
Amid surrounding shades, where o'er the
rock
>
Some crystal stream its babbling water pours,
There on the long grown grass reclined, let
me,
Sweet meditation, thy inspiring aid
Invoke; here oft in silence wrapped thou
deign'st
To meet the good, the truly wise, and bless.
RURAL POEMS.
10
Their happy hours; here taught by thee they
learn
Virtue's fair charms to prize here to attain
Fresh resolution, and with great designs
To glow; here by thy aid the learned
Tread science' flowery paths, new heights
Attain; and vast ideas bursting on
Th' enlarged mind, fill the delighted soul.
How full of wonder and delight art thou,
Great nature, in thy every varied form !
What nameless pleasures fill his peaceful hours,.
'Who studies thee, and from thy ample page
Not bare delight, but rich instruction draws;
Thy page, with wisdom stored, to virtue's
cause
A steady friend. Nor shall thy bard regret
**
The lonely hours, when full of thee he
strayed,
And poured his artless lay. Tho' weak his
voice,
Successless still, and cold his languid strain,
Yet is his heart not cold, nor can it not
With ardor glow witness ye secret shades,
His frequent haunt; witness ye radiant fires
RURAL POEMS.
*
Of night; since first your beauties won his soul
In early youth, if he has ceased to court
Your silent charms, if he has ceased to tread/
"The woods and lawns by. living stream at
eve."
་
Ah! could he write as he can feel! but vain
The fond desire, to pour into his song.
The transports of his breast.. Oft words refuse
Their friendly aid, and long pursued with care
Are hardly found at length; nor these convey.
Half the idea labouring in the mind.
The hardest task, amid the various scene - ર્યું
Which fancy draws, with judgment to select`
What most may strike the reader's active mind,
Or touch his heart, and leave his wakened
powers
With heightened pleasure to conceive the rest.
Here lies the poet's skill; nor higher praise
He claims, who well-succeeds, for what he has,
Than what he has not sung: two simple words ]
Of Homer's muse, can strike at once the heart,
And waken all the soul, that lingers fond,
And loves to dwell on the delightful woe:.
Dacruoen gela sasa.
J

RURAL POEMS.
105
While two high laboured lines of softest verse
Scarce faintly touch the idle listless mind.
But who can tell, while thousand objects
throng
The glowing fancy, what the pains and skill
Required to make a choice! Meantime, too oft
Amid the labours of the busy muse,
Her fire decays; and when the task is done,
The faithless copy scare preserves a trace
Of those fair forms, which in the model
shone.
And are there those, to whom great nature's
page
Is daily spread in vain, over whose heads
"The glorious pomp that decks the nightly sky
Unheeded rolls! while groveling thoughts
engross
The sordid soul; or lawless passion's rage'
E'en in the sweet, the sacred hour, unawed
By all the conscious eyes of night divine,
Hurries precipitate to scenes of guilt!
There are, alas! nor yet the hapless clown
Unblest with science' beams; but those on
whom
;
106
RURAL POEMS..
Indulgent heaven bestowed a milder fate;
Who falsely boast high converse with the
muse;
*
Who deem, her rich and soul-refining lore
They've made their own, and with insulting air
Contemptuous on the wiser peasant smile.
Not so the child, to nature ever true :
Soon as the light of dawning reason beams
On the young mind, soon as the infant tongue
Can lisp its guileless meaning, what the
thoughts,
That labour in the breast, and prompt full oft
Enquiries, which the parent's listening ear
Surprize! 'Tis nature's wonders which engage
Th' enquiring, busy mind; nor these alone:
Nature's great authors too, in anxious search
It longs to know; and oft demands from
whence
*
The host of heaven, the mounts, the verdant
plains,
And various forms of life. which fill the globe
These are the seeds of wisdom; cherished
well
2...
These shall in time produce substantial fruit,
RURAL POEMS.
107
Virtue and science and religion fair,
But youth, too soon by our example taught
To prize the bawbles which the world ad-
mires,
Forgets, or grows ashamed, of nature's works,
Or author to enquire. Thus in the bud
We poison genius' tender shoots, pervert
The principles which nature, still a friend
To human worth, implanted in the breast,
And form a...coxcomb, whom she meant a
man.
+
See, where the sower to his faithful ground
挑
​Commits the seed, prepared fierce winter's
- frosts
Unhurt to bear, to bloom in other suns,
To wave beneath a summer yet unborn,
And fill with sheaves a future autumn's barns.
Taught for the future wisely to provide,
(Tho' fade the woodlands round, and winter
stern,
Distant, sends certain tokens that he comes
With desolating hand to sweep the plains)
He thro' the glooms extends his lengthened
view,
108
RURAL POEMS.
Sees milder suns arise, fresh verdure clothe
The blooming fields, and future harvests
wave.'
Blest agriculture surest source of life,
[
Of peace, of virtue, every good, to man
Parent of polished life, of science, arts,
Of laws, great mother of society!
By thee the wandering savages first taught
Domestic bliss to know, the shaggy fur
1
"Stript off, and laid the blood-stained javelin by.
<<
Then rights, then laws were, known, then
cities rose;
And his joint efforts for the public good
Combined, admiring man first knew
Those native powers, that erst had idly slept.
In his unconscious frame. A lengthened
train
Of sister arts sprang up; that cherish life,
That polish and adorn; and commerce last
Bound distant nations in her friendly chain,
And crowned the circle wide of human bliss.
Sacred, primeval life, by ancient kings,
And patriarchs led!, what numerous blessings
wait
RURAL POEMS.
109
The happy race, devoted to thy cares!
Peace undisturbed, simplicity of life,
And morals pure.; remote from painful pomp,
And empty show, ambitions friv❜lous train;
That hide the native feelings of the heart,
To slow disguise, and servile cringing trained.*
To crown their friendly board a rich supply
The bounteous earth around their dwelling
pours;
Salubrious labours brace their sturdy limbs,
And banish far disease's baleful train,
That lux'ry, feels. Light slumbers theirs,
Sweetened by toil, the dewy morning's prime,
ނ
The song of birds, the riv'let's flowery bank,
And whispering grove at noon, or sacred eve.;
The vigorous limb, the rosy hue of health,
Content, and ease of mind, the cheerful heart,
Portrayed in smiles upon the blooming face;
A youth of innocence, and useful toil,
Disciplined well, a vig'rous manhood theirs,
Theirs, too, a healthful, nor a useless age;
Theirs, sweet domestic joys; the virtuous
wife,
The tender husband, and a numerous train
"
K
110
RURAL POEMS.
Of happy progeny, diffused around;
The reverend parent and the duteous child.
Theirs, nature's changeful scenes with new
delight
Ever to view, as roll the years around.
1
Too happy mortals, did you know your
bliss!
Ah! be persuaded, bounteous nature's stores,
That your own lands supply, content to use!
Nor waste your strength for India's gaudy
toys;
Nor for extraneous luxuries, to feed
Pernicious pride of table, and of dress,
Barter your peace, your comfort, and your
wealth;
While desert fields, and ruined fam❜lies mourn.
But chiefly, from your dwellings banish far
Th' intoxicating draught, the fiery drug,
Jamaica sends, or Gaul's luxurious shores ;
Curse to domestic bliss, to social joy,
The bane of industry, of wealth, of fame,
Of every comfort, every good in life.
Nor let your idle feet learn from the plough,
Or axe to stray, and haunt the noisy inn.
RURAL POEMS.
Nor impious, nature's choicest gift pervert,
A pois'nous liquid to obtain, wherewith
To murder health, and ruin weeping friends.
The seed-time o'er; when now the idle
plough
Rests in the shed, and from his toils released -
The wanton steed plays o'er the level green;
Ere autumn ends, one labour yet remains ;
Nor that, the meanest of the circling year.
Yon field of maize, where ranged in comely
rows
The large, full ears, diffused from naked stalks
Stript of their summer robes, bending o'er-
arch
The furrows, must resign it's precious load.
Home to the yard conveyed in loaded wains,
The ears thick tumbling swell the lengthened
heap.
The appointed evening comes; red in the east
The full-orbed moon, brightening as day
retires,
Unfolds her beams, and clothes in softer light
The autumnal plains; beneath her friendly
light,
112.
RURAL POEMS.
True to their word, the neighbouring swains
convene.
Thickening around the pile, each takes his
place
As chance or love of company directs;
And from the husks, which fast he throws.
behind,
+
Soon forms a seat. Thick flung from nume-
rous hands
The new-stript ears, incessant falling swell
The shining pile, and glisten to the moon.
The fair one too is there; where yet by pride
Untainted, ancient, simple manners reign.
The band fast closing round on every side,
With dauntless hearts, and nimble hands assail
The included task, and in the solid pile
Make inroads deep. A welcome messenger,
Where e'er it comes, from time to time goes.
round
/
The well filled flask. And now from either
end
←
Loud challenges are heard; in mingled sounds
The conversation swells; the rustic song
In merry strains ascends; in bursting peals
RURAL POEMS.
118
From various quarters, ever and anon,
The laugh resounds:
Heard from afar the heart enlivening sound
Directs th' approaching swain, who coming
late
Winds thro' the lonely path his hasty steps,
And whistling as he goes looks on the moon.
But ah! 'tis not the music of the song,
The jest, or merry tale, that occupies
His busy thoughts: 'tis she whom there he
hopes
To meet; 'twas for her sake he came : e'en
now
ز
His panting heart beats high, between the
hope
Of promised bliss, and fear lest hope deceive.
Arrived hard by, he stands with listening
ear,
And tries, amid the mingled sounds, to catch
The accents of her tongue. Ah! should he
hear
The well known voice, still heard with new
delight,
K 2
114
RURAL POEMS.
What transports thro' his crouded breast would
run!
But should she not be there, the hapless
wretch
Could taste no joy; nor jest, nor song could
cheer
His pensive soul, absorbed in tender thoughts.
Sad in the midst of mirth, he'd silent sit,
Nor mind the scoffs of his companions round.
Now seated by her side, he hears no voice
But hers; nor minds th' applauded pointless
- wit,
That with such rapture fills, the merry
throng,
Easy to please, unskilled in critic's rules,
Resolved to laugh, nor care they for what
cause.
But should kind fortune to his hand convey
The envied prize, the much desired red ear,
Ah! then, the fair the forfeit kiss shall pay;
Which, deprecating hard, and struggling long,
At length,, she with a feigned reluctance, yields.
Here seated on a pile of husks, high raised,
The aged swain with slow, but constant hand
RURAL POEMS.
T
115
His labour plies; and shakes his hoary locks,
And to the listening group around directs
His grave discourse: much of the days of yore
He talks, and much deplores the change
Of life and manners, since his youthful years.
Here neighbouring farmers met, in social chat,
Of husbandry, of cattle and of flocks
Converse; commend th' industrious swain,
Whose barns are filled, whose neat enclosures
smile
With cultivation; and lament the fate
Of him, whom hapless love of drink impels
To haunt the taverns, and neglect his lands;
While mouldering fences, and an empty barn
Publish to all that pass his shame and woe.
But here, in noisy strains, a youthful band
Their jokes, their tales, and their adventures
tell;
Engage in contest, or with boastful cries
Provoke their fellows and proclaim their
deeds.
The task is finished; and the crouded hall
Receives the guests; where on the loaded
board
116
RURAL POEMS.
The supper smokes. The farmers seated
round
In decent silence wait; till by request,
Placed at the head in elbow chair, the sire
For sense and piety long known and prized,
With solemn voice, and looks devoutly grave
Entreats a blessing on their bread. And
now
Dismissed with thanks, they quit the socia
hall,
And guided by the moon's soft beams, each
takes
His separate way, and seeks his peaceful home
Seen from the mountain's side, the wooded
vale,
In autumn's splendid livery drest, displays
A motley'd scene; remnant of summer
pride,
Here fading green along the rivulet's brink
Yet lingers; here wide glooms the sombre
brown;
Here glows the orange, here the saffron hue;
Here flaming scarlet darts a vivid ray :
Thick interspersed o'er all the varied plain,
RURAL POEMS.
117
The full farm-yard and verdurous corn-field
shine.
-
Delightful autumn! how thy aspect mild,
Thy temperate suns, and clear, expanded skies,
And peaceful plains, still charm my roving
sight!·
None with more rapture sees young, blooming
spring
зіў
With rosy hand deck the reviving year;
Pour gay profusion o'er the enamelled vale;
The teeming forests clothe in robes of green,
Fresh-wrought by nature's secret hand; while
taught
By her, wild music bursts from every grove:
But, venerable autumn, thy mild scenes
}
To far more solemn thought can elevate
The musing soul. Inspired by thee my mind,
Each passion hushed, stilled each tumultuous
thought,
Delights to rove on contemplation's wings,
And pour spontaneous forth poetic lays.
No more high-beaming summer fires the skies,
And burns with ray direct the sultry plain;
Nor vapours gathering in the threating west
118
RURAL POEMS.
With awful gloom o'erspread the blackening
poles :
But sinking in the south, the sun beam's forth
A parting smile, on the declining year;
While, as in mourning, the fast changing woods
Their fading honours shed on every breeze.
Clear as a mirror, smooth as sleeping waves,
Immensely swelled, a pure cerulean field,
Appears the broad etherial arch sublime.
The heats are 'bated; nature almost spent
By summer's too oppressive suns, now seems
Refreshed from toil, and the soft western gale
Seems o'er the fields to breathe a second
spring.
The birds that wait (their cares parental o'er)
With their new families, at winters frown,
To wing their flight to happier climes, in-
spired
By the mild season, now resume the song,
And cheer their groves with a sweet parting
lay.
On the slope hill, beneath some aged oak,
That rustles to the autumn's gentle gale,
Now let me lie, and view the russet mead
RURAL POEMS.
119.
Covered with grazing herds of sturdy kine;
See rows of maize here load th' autumnal
fields,
Here rising corn, a future harvest hopes,
O'erspread the mellow glebe; or stretched
supine
To the blue vault direct my careless eye,
And think on wonders of th' etheriel world;
Or wander idly o'er the plains, and mark
Late flowers, last beauties of the fading year;
Or muse amid the thought-inspiring grove,
Secret, and contemplate the falling leaf.
Delightful scene, with peace and plenty
crowned!
Fair emblem of the good man's latter days!
So the mild sage on the last verge of life
Grateful and calm, reviews the scenes o'erpast,
Content o'erspreads his reverend face, and joy
Beams in his fading eye; to him sweet hope,
The nurse of age, that feasts the exulting heart,
Still whispers peace, and talks in heavenly
strains,
Which none but holy ears e'er heard; his soul
*
120™™
RURAL POEMS.
Serenely smiling at approaching fate,
Looks forward with delight to future scenes,
Where beauty, joy and youth, immortal, reign.
да
im
(
WINTER.
AND must stern winter too be sung! what
theme
For song thro'out his rough domains shall
tempt
The wandering muse! where now the flowery
B
lawns;
A
¿
The woodland choirs, the grateful shade at
/
་
noon,
The dewy morn's, or placid evening's charms!
Of these no more. A barren, dreary scene
Rises to view, and winter's surly frown
Kills every grace, and withers nature's bloom..
Hark! in the blast I hear his tyrant voice
کے
RURAL POEMS.
121
Howl o'er the woods, and fright the ravaged
plains.
Yet to the muse his solemn scenes are found
Not barren; nor amid the cheering haunts
Of men, has not the winter too his joys:
Nor has the swelling flood, the hoary mount,
The boundless waste of snows, no charms to
hold
The thoughtful mind; nor to the mental powers
Unfriendly is the chilling blast; it fans
The languid fire of genius, and bids
Th' etherial spark glow with a brighter flame.
Not wrapt in fogs, 'mid ever frowning storms,
And deepening glooms, in sullen state en-
throned,
Our winter reigns; of piercing eye, and stern,
Tho' cloudless aspect, on the northern blast,
He rides sublime, and rules with iron rod
The prostrate world. But ere he yet arrives
To rule the year, he sends his harbingers,
November's rains, poured down in copious
floods
From leaden skies. All night the ceaseless
shower
C
L
122
RURAL POEMS.
Beats on the wood, and fast at every drop
Struck from the boughs, the withered leaves
descend.
Next morn the forest waves it's naked arms
Before the blast; stretched o'er the vale
immense
تم
The torrent glitters to the morning sun:
Proud of a transient greatness, not it's own,
It foams, and boils, and roars along the plain;
The frighted traveller impatient waits,
Nor dares approach; for should he rashly
brave
>
The angry flood, swept headlong down, before
The pale spectators, craving aid in vain,
And whelmed beneath the stream he'd rise no
more.
In vain a tender spouse with anxious care
Should count the tedious days, each evening late
Wander abroad with pensive steps, and look,
And long to meet him on the lonely path
Returning glad, and filled with thoughts of
home;
Upbraid, excuse his tardiness; despair,
And hope, and sicken at his long delay.
RÚRAL POEMS.
123
Heard high amid the clouds, the nightly cry
Of banded wild-geese, thro' the pathless air
Steering with heaven-taught wing their annual
course,
Forewarns the swain of winter's near ap-
proach.
Heart-piercing sound to him whose slothful
hand
Has spared to scatter liberal his seed
In season due! to him-improvident
While sumner smiled, who sees his hungry
herds
!
Gather and low around an empty barn!
Now far remote the sun with oblique ray
Scarce warms the air, and soon the long drear
night
Returns, silent and deep and chill, save that
The owl, whose wild and melancholy screams
Are heard afar, oft frights the silence round.
Seized with instinctive terrors, on the roost,
The poultry shriek. Oft too the foreigner,
Who travels late, has felt unusual fears,
And fled with nimble feet the fancied monster.
Condensed in the red sky the vapours chill
-194
RURAL POEMS.
Nightly descend, and fasten on the vale
In hoary frosts, which scarce the languid sus
With noon-tide ray dispels, filling the air
With damps ungenial. Now fermenting storms
Crowd on the sky, and from the bleak north-
east
The joyless vapours rise; a boding blast
Whistles along the withered heath, and shakes
The arid leaf; thro' all the sighing grove
Frequent a melancholy murmur runs.
Leaving the pasture home the herds repair,
With murmuring low, and ask of man their
food.
Seized with strange freak, the clamorous goose
Extends her wings in vain, and half in air
こ
​Suspended, moves her oary feet to reach
The farm-yard. There sagacious the swine
Tosses the sheaf, or squeeling to his bed
Conveys the rattling husk. A sombre gloom
Invests the world, and night in deepening
shades.
Closes around, Scarce yet perceived, mi-
nute,
And rare the snowy particles descend;
RURAL POEMS,
125
Felt on the hand of busy swain, as to
His nightly charge he bears the fragrant hay. -
Now let the fire be trimmed, and social chat
Drive past the hours, the song and rustic tale
Go merry round; while heard without the
storm
Sighs unregarded, on the face of things
Effecting change unseen; 'till from his door
The swain surprised sees by his taper's light
The whitened ground, and fast descending
snow..
:
Whence is it that this scene has charms, and
o'er
The musing soul a pensive pleasure spreads,
Inspiring happy thought! These precious
hours
I steal from sleep; while silence dwells around;
My windows closed, the blazing hearth emits
A cheering ray, I ruminating sit;
And from the blast that sadly sighs abroad
Catch inspiration; thro' the boundless fields
Of fancy stray; in Athens or in Rome,
Converse with sages born in other days.
Or to the fairy world of fiction wrapt
L2
1
126
RURAL POEMS.
Paint to my mind, far in the watery waste,
Some happy isle, where spring forever blooms.
Thus on my mind poetic raptures swell,
Too big for utterance; emotions strange
Struggle within my breast, and transports high;
A sweet delirium, known to bards alone.
Oft too, the songs of ancient bards return¨v
To mem❜ry, which in younger days I read
With wild delight. Say, which amid the band
Shall raise the song: shall Milton's heavenly
muse,
Or Virgil's polished strains, or Shakespear's
lavs
Demand my ear? these too I love; but these
Must yield, when to my view the Grecian
bard
Unfolds his page, and in harmonious song
Pours his resistless soul.
Father of bards,
Whose boundless mind surveyed the wide
extent
Of nature's field, and swelled his matchless
song
With all her choicest stores! Majestic, broad
And deep, thus rolls the Mississippi's flood
RURAL POEMS.
19
Thro' southern plains, swelled with the watery
wealth
Of half a world. White'er in song divine
Has moved the soul, since first her heavenly
harp
Urania strung, to charm the listening world,
Is here contained; hence other bards derived
Their borrowed wealth, yet ne'er could half
exhaust
The golden mine. Vain were the feeble voice
Of mortal bard to sing the Iliad's praise:
Who reads, nor feels it's power, Parnassus
heights
Shall ne'er ascend; on him the muse ne'er
cast
A favouring smile. Yet with no less delight
I trace the wanderings of the wondrous nan,
B adverse fate o'er various lands and seas
T
Destined to roam; by frowning fortune's
threats
Unmoved, and proof against th' insidious lures
Of tempting pleasure, still his steadfast soul
Incessant longs to see his native land.
RURAL POEMS..
Retiring from the joyous throng, and all
The gay allurements of his amorous dame,
High on the sea-beat shore he lonely sits,
The live-long day, in pensive musing lost.
Far o'er the restless multitude of waves
He bends his eye, to where the distant surge
Meets the descending skies; there to his mind
He paints his native shore. Ah! could his
eye
Of the dear land but catch a transient glimpse,
And from his mansion see the distant smoke
Ascend, charmed with the sight he'd die con
tent!
And yield his life, such rapturous bliss to
know!
But hark! methinks, a lonely strain athwart
The desert comes, in mournful, pleasing
· sounds!
Do parted spirits descend in airy choir
7
To charm the wilds, or is it Cona's voice ?**
On other times still dwells the pensive lay:
When blooming heroes, in the young career
Of glory slain, he mourns; or weeps the fate:
Ossian.
RURAL POEMS.
199
Of withering age that has survived its fame;
Loaded with woe, the mournful numbers
move,
And melt the soul with all the joy of grief;
But when the rage of battle fires his lays,
As pealing heaven, or roar of ocean's strength,
Impetuous bursts the loud, the lofty song.
When clothed in horror, on a fiery stream,
Moves the dread messenger of th' unseen
world,
Amid the silent gloom, and o'er the chief
Lifts the pale hand, and summons him
away
To death's dark mansion, thro' his shadowy
form
The stars dim twinkle; on the solemn strain
What terror dwells, and chills the trembling
soul!
When in a sun-beam o'er the silent heath
The happy spirit moves; th' enchanted eye
Of fancy gazes on the blissful sight,
And pleasing rapture swells the throbbing
breast.
Great son of nature, bard of deathless fame!
In blest elisian plains (so fables tell)
130
RURAL POEMS.
When seated on his throne, august, the prince
Of bards assigned-to the attending throug
Their several ranks; tho' with approving
smiles
He looked on Mantua's, and on Britain's son;
To thee a brother's hand he freely gave,
And placed thee by his side: his equal thou,
As in thy fate, so in immortal song.
Or let me try with aching eyes to trace
The bold Bocotian's flight, pure living spark
Of Phoebus self ascending thro' the skies.
Scarce can the native language of the muse,
Strong, rich and full, and flexible beneath
The poet's plastic hand, to change, combine
In thousand forms, and pour the varied flow
Of harmony, sustain his boundless rage.
Nor would I, Milton, thy high-sounding
muse,
The awful grandeur of thy soaring thoughts,
And thy rich fancy's ne'er exhausted stores,
Neglect, or lightly pass: whether the deep
Tartarian gulph, or heaven's refulgent fields
Thy verse depict, or Eden's rosy bowers.
Nor bards of later times, illustrious heirs
RURAL POEMS."
131
Of deathless fame, lights of Britannia's isle:
Cowper, thy moral and descriptive lay,
Repeated oft, yet still with new delight;
Nor thee, great bard* of evangelic song,
Thou stored with lofty thought, and soaring
high
Above terrestrial things: the world retires,
And vast eternity her awful scenes -
Unfolds; till in the boundless view I'm lost;
And wonder, how th immortal high-born
› mind,
....
Her dignity forgot, can, with such zeal,
Pursue the bawbles of so vain a world.
Thee, sont of Celsus, too I love to read;
Thy muse correct, thy diction pure enchant :
But ah! why didst thou, with unwary hand,
Slacken the reins to wild unthinking youth!
Th' impetuous current in the youthful veins,
Th' enchanting guise that vicious pleasure
wears
To youth's fond eye, and the contagion dire
Of foul example, are not these enough?
But must the muse forget her high descent,
Dr. Armstrong.
* Dr. Young.
L
RURAL POEMS:
And sacred charge, and prostitute her powers,
To advocate the cause of vile debauch!
No crime, to sip at Circe's poisoned cup,
Unless we swill it to the dregs, and changed
To loathsome brutes, in sordid kennels howl.
Rare wisdom this, which few could e'er attain;
Fatal experiment, which oft has proved
The bane of virtue, talents, and renown,
And source of dire disease! But grant that
health
From such indulgence should no harm sus-
tain;
The sweet delight, which springs from consci
ence pure,
Unstained by vice; the bright serene within
That sooths the breast, from vicious passions
free;
The conscious dignity, which swells the soul,
Firm and erect, where reason governs all ;
Are these no blessings? thro' this feeble frame
Can these diffuse no salutary balm?
Possessed of these the soul can meet unmoved
Death's harbingers, nor half their tortures feel;
Can, struggling in the grasp of terror's king,
RURAL POEMS.
133
Serenely smile, nor fear his icy hand.
But ah! a wounded conscience all the arts
Of Paean cannot heal! to him that feels
The ruthless pangs, that soon or late o'ertake
The guilty soul, not all the balmy stores
Of nature's womb, can give a moment's ease!
Many thy sons of song, Scotia renowned:
Foremost, let Ramsey tune his rural reed;
The self-same reed, that in Sicilia's plains
First breathed soft music, nor with meaner skill
In Scotia tuned. Why to the scornful ear
Of critic pride, offensive is his lay?
Or why barbarian term his mother tongue,
The simple dialect of Scotia's plains?
None blames the famed Sicilian's Doric song,
Tho' harsh and rude. His better sense for-
bade
The shepherd swains on Clyde or Tay to
speak
As Isis' sons. Nor wants the Scottish muse
Or harmony, or grace, or power to point
Keen satire's piercing sting, or breathe
Nature's soft language thro' the feeling breast,
With energy, which southern bards in vain
M
134.
RURAL POEMS.
Would emulate.
Nor be Columbia's bards"
Forgot. Her bards Columbia too can boast,
Bards of no feeble wing, no common powers,
Of lofty thought, and wide capacious soul,
As her tall mountains, and her boundless
plains;
Whose rapid numbers, winged with patriot
zeal,
And fired by freedom's flame, resistless roll,
With bold indignant rage. What time her
bands
Proud Albion poured upon our distant shore,
Madly resolved t' inslave Columbia's sons ;
Then rose the sons of song, a patriot choir
Of brother bards; with glowing hands they
swept
The sounding strings, and waked the rage of
4.
war.
Immortal Dwight, whose muse on solemn
themes
Delights to dwell; nor less was Humphry's
song:
With these in merit as in friendship joined,
Great Barlow too, who sang the patriot's toils,
RURAL POEMS,
135
And crowned the hero with deserved bays.
Why sleep forgotten these, and foreign songs
Alone engage? Shall Wolcott's shameless
muse,
Offspring of lewdness, infidelity,
And each low feeling that degrades the soul,
Britannia's disgrace, on every board
Shine splendidly attired, affront the eye
Of modesty, and virtue's ear profane !
While heaven-taught bards, whose hallowed
breast was fired
By virtue's, and by freedom's noble flame,
Neglected lie, or by a happy few
Read and admired. Do thus Columbians
Cherish their country's muse, and thus re
quite
The labours of her patriotic bards!
With softer grace, but with no meaner skill,
The pensive muse of Conno-'s winding bank
Touches the obedient strings, and wakes the
soul
Of harmony, breathed soft thro' all her strains
Sacred to friendship, or on wings of love,
Ascending grateful to the source of good.
;
136
RURAL POEMS.
With soul that vibrates to the finer touch
Of nature's hand, would she descend to sing
The flowery lawn, the various rural charms,
My muse would then suppress her harsher
voice,
And listen to the song: to nobler themes
She tunes the lyre, and idle deems the strain
That warbles not her loved redeemer's praise.
Happy is he, the youth, who smit with love
Of sacred song, devotes his secret hours
To court the muse, and fondly hopes to frame
Immortal verse: tho" future years correct
Th' ambitious hope, and teach more worthy
aims.
When o'er his soul the vivid impulse spreads,
Kindling her
powers, and thro' th' astonished
breast
Danted, at times, emotions new and strange
Heave the full heart with wild extatic throb;
Ah! then no more the noisy sports that charm
His youthful comrades can attract his mind!
The secret grove, the lone romantic stream,
In soft meanders winding down the vale,
His favorite haunt; there on th' inspiring page
RURAL POEMS.
137
He feasts delighted; and full oft o'erpowered
With bursting rapture, drops the volume
down,
And starts transported, with uplifted hands,
And wildly stares, and mutters to himself
He knows not what. Oft too he musing
strays,
And tries to stretch th' untrained poetic wing.
Pleased with success, he pours th' untutored
lay
Warm from his heart, and conscious of his
powers
Some future Iliad in his mind conceives.
Presumptuous hope! But ah! discourage not
His daring flights, his wild ungoverned muse;
Nor with stern critic's eye, relentless mark
His every fault: 'Twere cruel to destroy
Th' ennobling hope that fires his panting
breast;
That animates him in the toilsome path
Of science, prompts him to forego the joys
O playful youth, the gifts of balmy rest;
And binds him faithful to the midnight task.
'Tis this that lifts him high above the aims
M 2
138
RURAL POEMS.
Of vulgar minds, and bids him look with
scorn,
}
And mingled pity, on the fluttering tribes,
The children of a day, whom gay attire,
And vain distinctions swell with short-lived
pride.
With nobler emulation fired he courts
Th' illustrious dead, with these associates,
These brethren calls, and hopes in future time
To hold a place among their shining ranks.
Reading th' immortal works of these, he
drinks
The author's spirit thro' his kindling breast,
And glows with equal fires; till, all his soul
Warmed and refined, he learns with raptured
eye
To trace great nature in her every form,
From th' insect fluttering in the summer ray
Up to the shining orbs that gild the sky.
Then thro' the moral, or historic page,
Or noble song, enchanted he pursues
The forms of godlike virtue, the sublime,
The beautiful, or true, in action found,
Or sentiment; the tale of varied woe
RURAL POEMS.
139
Y
Steals all his soul in sweet affliction whelmed;
And with electric touch he catches quick
The nameless feelings of the mazy heart,
That live and breath in the immortal lays
By masters framed of nature and of
song.
Ah! then with what indifference he views
The gay amusements of a giddy world,
Insipid nonsense all! or if a while,
By reigning fashion led, or soft constraint,
In harmless mirth he joins, and glad retires,
His soul refined, and feelingly alive
To nature's, truth's and virtue's charms divine
Can ne'er descend to foul, degrading vice.
Say, ye who know, say, when the bard beguiles
His happy hours; when on the conscious
soul
Sudden, full oft, the mighty numbers break
"Resistless, and severe excess of joy,
Piercing the heart with keen, exquisite pang,
Shoots thro' the shivering frame, exhausts the
veins
That warm the cheek, and in the sparkling
eye
Starts the big tear of rapture; could he then
2
440
RURAL POEMS.
Endure the thought, a moment to exchange
The sweet, the pure, the rational delight,
That dignifies the mind, for all the joys
In dissipation's, and in folly's train ;
For all the transports e'er the gamester felt
Amid the clamours of his noisy crew.
Too high he prizes intellectual joys;
And these once felt and cherished so exalt
The mind, impart a taste, so just, so pure,
So delicate; that conscious of her worth,
Her high original, and deathless powers,
The soul with scorn from joys that would de-
grade
Her nature turns. These fruits the muse be-
stows
Upon her votaries; who found not these
Ne'er wooed her right. What animates the
bard ?
What secret charm bids heaven-taught num-
bers flow?
'Tis beauty, grandeur, that inspire his song:
And these to virtue are so near allied,
That he who knows not her, who never learned
RURAL POEMS.
141
Her charms to prize, ne'er felt the power of
these.
Thro' every cranny now the opening morn
Into my chamber peeps; and fainter still
The taper throws its trembling light around
The whitening wall; till in the copious day,
Poured thro' the open window quite absorbed,
And idly quivering stands the useless blaze.
Ah! what a change! how sudden! in one night,
The world in wintry robes arrayed! the works
Of men beneath the dazzling deluge lost!
The various hues that erst the landscape
marked,
The mount, the green corn-field, the russet
mead,
Extinguished! universal white in stead
Meets the pained eye, far as the view extends.
How pure the surface! how intensely white!
How smooth! save where along the light-
spread mass
The winter sparrow hops, and from the herb,
Loaded with seed, and bending in the snow,
Gad picks a plentious meal; or where the dog
Early abroad has trod his mazy round,
149
RURAL POEMS.
And now stands ready at the door, to hail
%
With blithsome frisk, and many a sign of joy,
The swain, who towards his log-built crib well
stored
With lusty ears repairs. At his approach
The woodpeck startled chirps aloud, and darts
Up to the neighbouring tree: 'tis he arrayed
In suit of gray: 'tis winter's hardy son,
That braves his keenest blast; nor yet to man
Is he indebted, or for house, or food.
The hollow tree his bed, from mouldering.
wood
He pecks his scanty fare, the worm that sleeps
Beneath the sheltering bark, or from a chink
The torpid insect draws with barbed tongue.
Yet time shall come, when more delicious food
He'll find; what time the warmer sun
Attracts, with kindly beam, the refluent sap
Into the boughs; he drills the porous wood
With many a pit, deep in th' indented trunk
In rings successive ranged; then when the ray
Potent at noon, draws forth the liquid juice,
With sugar stored, from thousand flowing
cups
RURAL FÒEMS.
143
He quaffs nectareous draughts: the orchards
hence,
On every farm, bear deep impressed the marks,
The harmless plunderer's depredations made.
Yon ragged cloud that skirts the leafless
wood,
Kindled into a crimson blush, declares
The suns approach. Seen thro' the forest
trees,
Flaming, like some great city in a blaze,
His broadened disk appears, and o'er the plain
Shoots far his weak and horizontal beams.
E'er now, the hardy hunter clothed in furs,
Thro' woods and pathless wilds pursues his
game;
With trusty rifle glittering in his hand ;
No other arms he needs, whate'er assails,
Or man, or beast; with such unerring aim,
It wings the secret messenger of fate.
O'er many a lengthened hill, and winding dale,
With persevering step, the wand'ring deer
He traces; or the feathered bands pursues,
That range the boundless wood, with lengthy
strides,
144
RURAL POEMS.
To seek the berry or the sumach seeds
In scarlet clusters pointing thro' the snow.
Where'er the treacherous waste their early
walks
Betrays, hard by, the hunter plants his steps,
In keen pursuit, and crouching thro' the trees,
With piercing eye explores the sunny glade,
And slope hill's side; but oft in vain :
Still on th' alert, behind some fallen tree,
Or rock, or rising ground, they lift the head,
And, with keen glance, descry the approach
ing foe.
Rising at once they spread their sounding fans,
And mounting high above the trees, forsake
Th' indignant follower fixed in stupid gaze.
Few now the tenants of the leafless boughs,
A scanty remnant of th' unnumbered tribes,
That filled them once, and these but rarely
seen:
Heard in some thicket sheltered from the
storm,
The screaming solitary jay; the crow,
Stalking around the marsh, or fountain head,
To pick the grassy spire; beating the wood
RURAL POEMS.
145
+
With lusty strokes, the largest of his kind,
The bird adorned with tuft of crimson plumes,
And armed with iron beak, polished and
sharp,
With widened edge, to chip the solid oak;
Scarce louder sounds the wood-man's axe,
and oft
Struck from the tree, the rattling fragment
falls,
Startling the hunter as he walks below.
Still more admired, his brother of the woods,
Whose smooth, white beake as polished ivory
shines-
Poured forth continuous from the frozen
tracts,
Beyond Superior, and the inland seas,
That feed broad Laurence, and M'Klnzie's
flood,
Where winter stores his magazines of cold,
And reigns relentless o'er the groaning year,
The dread Northwest extends his icy blasts
O'er many a hoary mount, and frozen lake;
Till stooping from the Apalachian's brow,
N
146
RURAL POEMS.
Prone on the plains he rushes down, and
sweeps
Th' Atlantic coast, thro'out its wide extent;
From Labrador (clad in eternal snows,
A dreary waste, to where, with crystal tide
St. Juan laves Acadia's flowery plains.
Relentless still, and with increasing force,
From the bleak mount descends the piercing
blast.
All nature groans; the forest's savage sons
The prowling wolf, and panther fell, pierced
thro'
Their furry vestments, shrink, and feel their
thirst
Of blood, by want, and stimulating cold,
Kindled to rage. Then doleful cries by night
Fill the lone wood, the listening traveller
Fancies some wandering female calls for aid,
And answers loud; the hollow-vaulted night
Sullen re-echoes; pleased the monster grim
Repeats his plaintive yell, till far decoyed
Thro' pathless wilds, he springs with eager
fangs
Upon his helpless, unsuspecting prey;
RURAL POEMS.
147
And, dreadful thought! growling with horrid
joy,
Laves his fell jaws in the life-streaming gore!
The cattle too to shun the chilling storm
Crowd the full farm-yard, by the sheltering
barn
Protected, and exposed to noon-day suns;
Waiting till evening brings the liberal swain,
To fill the racks, and ope the welcome stalls.
The hardy dog no longer loves to range
His wonted plains; but close beside the barn
Stretched on the hay, basks in the cheering
sun;
Or shivering at the door, with suppliant eye
Demands a corner by the social fire.
Nor less, man feels the all-pervading breath
Of piercing cold, with quicker step he treads
The sounding path: his trembling knees for
get
The stately stride; the shrinking neck, the
arms
Pressed to the shivering side, and folded o'er
The breast, humble his bold and graceful
mein.
148
RURAL POEMS.
With frequent spur, the traveller goads his
steed,
To reach the inn; and in the flying sleigh,
The fair one folds the woolly covert warm,
Nor coyly shuns the lap and sheltering arms
Of happy swain, too blessed with such a
charge.
Tired at length the blast abates it's rage;
With gentler gusts it shakes th' unfrequent
wing,
In dying murmurs, sobbing o'er the trees.
A softer azure clothes the morning skies:
Slow rolls the village smoke, and in 'mid air
Suspended spreads a dusky wreathe along
The mountain's side; warm thro' the settled
air
Th' ascending sun a mellower radiance sheds.
With softer touch, the woolly vestments press
The cherished limb, diffusing thro' the frame
A génial warmth, felt to the expanding heart;
The mouldering hearth, and half neglected,
burns
With slow and lazy flame; heard from the
wood
RURAL POEMS.
The ceaseless axe resounds a livelier din ;
And oft the crash of stately oak o'erturned
In lengthened echoes runs along the dale.
Twangs past the ear the bee on sounding
wings;
For now, from every hive, with pious care,
They lead the mournful funerals, and convey
Suspended by the feet, a pitious sight,
The lifeless brother. On the house-top first
Relents the hardened snow, and from the eaves
Poures down in copious rain. Now springs.
the south,
Heaven's mild breath, and with resistless
power,
Unbinds the earth, and tames the rugged
skies.
Smit with th' etherial touch winter relents,
Thro' all his wide domain: the hoary waste
Pierced thro' its icy bosom sinks apace,
O'er all the hills, and silent steals away.
Down every steep, a thousand trickling rills
Incessant pour, and deluge all the plan.
The noonday sun o'er all the dazzling world
His genial influence spreads; when lo! released!
N 2.
·
*** 1:50,
RURAL POEMS.
From tedious hours, forth rush the playful band,
Vociferous, on various sports intent;
Some, labouring, roll in huge unwieldy piles.
The yielding mass, and sweating o'er their toils
Industrious build th' enormous man of snow.
With features of rude sculpture, and uncouth,
The grinning giant stands, by valiant knights
Assailed on every side. Full thick the balls
Fly round his head; and many a ghastly scar
Deep marks his form. At length a weighty
blow,
•
Aimed at his breast by some puissant arm,
Lays him in scattered fragments on the ground..
Here little warriers ranged in adverse lines
In combat fierce engage: foremost the chief
With dauntless heart leads on his daring band.
Around his hollow breast, and reddening ears
A thousand bursting balls resound; yet he
Fearless advances: 'till some lucky hand
Strikes off his furry helm, and on the plain
Inverted lays; while round the combat-
ants:
A
In boastful shouts proclaim the valiant deed.
RURAL POEMS.
151
Let none fastidious scorn the simple sports
Of youth; 'tis they alone can taste unmixed
The sweets of play, the innocent delight;
Can pluck the rose, nor feel the piercing thorn,
The restless nights, the pangs of keen remorse,
And fell corroding cares, that wait his sports,
The child of larger growth. Nor can the round
Of disipation, which our riper years
Too oft employs, e'er yield the solid joy,
The heart-felt pleasure which our childhood
knew.
Dark envy's bane, and fierce ambition's goad,
And disappointment's sting; these are the
fiends,
The pests of joy, that oft lurk unpreceived.
In gay assemblies, rankling in the breast;
Where empty show, mere mockery of mirth,
And dull formality oft clothe the face
In outward smiles, while torment dwells within.
Silly their sports; is his more rational,
Whole nights engaged in shifting to and fro
The painted card, with solemn face and sad,
As one who paired the Sibil's leaves divine,
And anxious scanned a mighty empire's fate,
RURAL POEMS.
No sordid love of gain e'er interrupts
Their social harmony, nor on their brow
Plants lowering sadness, and dispells the smile
Of friendship and of peace. The soul, the life,
The substance theirs; ours but an empty
shade..
'Tis nature prompts them, and at her command
Sated they cease, nor e'er forego the gift
Of downy rest: our sports consume our time,
Thwart nature's laws, exhaust the balmy stores.
That cherish life, and thro' the languid frame
Scatter the seeds of fell disease, and death.
Ye harmless men, what pensive pleasure
dwells
In the remembrance of the days o'erpast,
Which numbered me among your sprightly
train
E'en since, when no censorious eye was near
To note th' offence, with pleasure have I sat,
And viewed your sports, and shared your harm
less mirth;
Have marked the eye wild-sparkling with a joy
Too big for utterance, the active limb,
And full of life, that speaks the vigorous soul-
RURAL POEMS.
153
Tho' now a silly band, yet these in time
Or in the senate shall direct the state,
Or in the field defend. To these is due,
As our successors on this busy stage,
Reverence from all. Ye statesmen reverencê
these:
For these you legislate, and as you plan,
These shall or virtuous and happy live,
Or plunged in vice beneath a tyrant groan.
These too shall judge with scrutiny severe
Your public life; when interest no more
Shall plead your cause, when party spirit sleeps,
And envy dies, these shall unfold the springs,
That governed all your acts, and give your
names
To endless infamy, or just renown.
And
ye who would th' important task assume,
T' instruct mankind; ye bards divine, and all
Who consecrate to future years your toils;
Ah! reverence these! and let religion pure,
The love of virtue, and of man still guide
Your sacred pens: then for your brows a
wreath
Immortal these shall twine, and dear to fame
154
RURAL POEMS
Your honoured names shall in their mem'ries
live.
And reverence these, ah! ye, on whom de
›pends.
*
Their weal or woe! on whom devolves the
task,
To guard their childish years, to form their
"
minds,
And fit them for the various busy scenes
Of future days; to teach them how to shun
The rocks, the quicksands and the whirlpools,
dire
On life's wide ocean, and to guard against
Delusive pleasure's ever tempting snare.
Ye favoured of mankind, by heaven ordained.
His agents here, to rear his rising sons;
Greatly responsible, think what high charge,
What precious trust is to your care assigned
Ah! ponder well, how the tremendous task
Ye execute; and think what dread account
Your God, your country, and the future age
Shall at your hands require! Their tender
minds
Nought, but your kind attention need, to rise
}
1
RURAL POEMS.
145
To every excellence. Still to your voice
Full confidence, and ready faith they yield;
Nor need incitement to perform whate'er
Can merit praise, direction, all they crave.
In the expanding breast, deep-fixed the
springs
Of action move with energy divine,
Impelling still to every noble aim.
Why in the youthful mind unbounded glows
Ambition high, and hopes to reach the gods
Why with such dear delight the voice of
praise
Thrills thro' the heart, and lights the glowing
cheek?
Why on the features sits the lively smile
Of self-applause, and in the concious eye
High-sparkling beams? why swells the heart
With emulation strong; indignant why
Drops down the tear, wrung by the painful
sense
Of falling short? This is the fertile soil
By culture tamed, and watered by the showers
Of grace divine, in which with ease to rear
The blooming virtues springing up to heaven.
156
RURAL POEMS.
But should false principles pollute the mind,
Blindly impetuous, down the headlong steep
Of vice it rushes with mistaken zeal;
'Till in the gulf o'erwhelmed, ne'er to retnrn,
To virtue lost, hér flowery paths unknown.
Now when the watery south with potent
breath
Softens a frozen world, let swains beware
To tempt the surface of the ice-bound stream;
Where beat by numerouss steeds for many a
mile,
The smooth-worn road winds o'er the harden-
ed flood,
Stretched like a boundless mead, and covered
deep
With snow.
secure
Oft while the gliding sleigh
Flies o'er its way, and mirth and song em-
ploys
The joyous crew; bursts with tremendous
roar
The parting ice, swift as the lightning's glance
Athwart the flood the widening fissure runs
Down sinks the faithless surface, and at once
RURAL POEMS.
157
Engulphs the hapless swain, the shrieking fair,
The struggling generous steed; soon o'er their
heads
Closes the mass, and in a watery grave
Entombs them, down the hollow-murmuring
wave
Rolled many a mile, beneath the solid crust.
From day to day the sun's encreasing strength,
Extends its conquests o'er the yielding snow,
That slowly quits the hills, and long maintains
The dubious strife, as loath to yield the ground
To rival power. Behind the sheltering mount
Lingers the stubborn mass, yet firm and hard,
And oft the changeful eve, with vapours
fraught,
Pours down fresh aid, and robes the fields
anew
In white, and saddens the impatient swain ;
'Till from the copse the whistling robbin heard
Welcome announces the approach of spring.
Thus roll the seasons in their ceaseless round,
From year to year, unerring, as at first
Ordained by his decree, who bade them roll;
And by his word assured the sons of men,
O
158
RURAL POEMS.
That long as earth endures, these should not
cease
Their various blessings round the world to
bear.
Tho' winter yearly ravages the plaïns,
Spring soon repairs the seeming loss, and
spreads
More fresh and gay their new-born charms
abroad.
Not so with man; no second spring restores
His faded prime. How wise, how strong, how
fair,
It nought avails; not all his boasted powers
Can save him from the tomb; nor vernal suns,
Nor showers, nor balmy gales shall wake
The mouldering form, nor from his dreary bed
Recall him to the beams of cheering day-
So sang the heathen bard* in doleful strains,
Bereft of hope, and wrapt in gloom profound.
But brighter prospects to the christians eye
Unfold, since from his heavenly throne on high,
With pity moved amazing love divine
Descending, ope'd to the astonished view
Moschus, epit. Bion.
f
RURAL POEMS.
159
Immortal life, and shed a cheering gleam
Thro' the long passage of the darksome tomb-
The glorious morn shall come (His word con-
firms
Th' important truth, which called the world
from nought,
And gave them being) when the sleeping dust
Shall hear his mighty voice, and man awake
With endless youth, and heavenly vigor
crowned.
The springs are numbered, which to earth are
given,
Nor can exceed the sum by fate ordained :
Yea, time shall come, yonder golden orb
His azure path in heaven shall cease to know,
Nor visit more the rosy gates of morn.—
But who regardful of the heavenly call,
His voice obeys, and treads with steadfast faith
In his blest steps, over the wreck of worlds
Shall smile uninjured, and triumphant borne
To realms of bliss, and more exalted life
Rejoice in regions of eternal day.
←
AN
ADDRESS. TO THE DEITY,
་
OR,
THE WONDERS OF CREATION.
SOVEREIGN of worlds! great Lord of all!
Or by what dreadful namè
Shall we presume that power to call,
Which formed this wondrous frame !
Almighty power-conspicuous shines
Tro' all thy works abroad;
But we, whom humble dust confines,
Can little know of God.
>
ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.
But yesterday thy spirit breathed
Us into life and sense,
And from unconscious nothing raised
To taste thy love immense.
Opening our eyes amid the blaze
Of thy all-chearing day,
With feeble ken around we gaze
Thy wonders to survey.
While yet in thy vast mind contained
Unformed creation lay;
And darkness o'er the void maintained
An uncontested sway:
Ere yet thy kindling breath had blown,
To wake the heavenly throng :
Or stars of morn arouud thy throne
Begun their endless song:
Ere yet thy potent word's command
Had called the worlds from nought;
Summoned by name the countless band,
That nightly deck the vault:
02
18)
102
ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.
Had clothed the sun in dazzling rays
Of thy celestial light,
And bid him pour th' unbounded blaze
And chace the gloom of night;
Or formed the moon with softer robes
To cheer the nightly sky;
And sowed with distant twinkling globes
The azure fields on high :
Ere had the radiant orbs to tread
Their stated rounds begun,
At thy command rejoiced, and sped
Their destined race to run :
Then thy dread being dwells alone,
And filled the boundless space;
Nor needed angels round thy throne,
Nor feeble mortal race.
In solemn state, thou reigning sole
Saw'st from thy throne on high,
Eternity in order roll
Before thy cloudless eye.
ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.
When time, thy glories to proclaim,
Fulfilled th' appointed round,
Called forth by thee, this wondrous frame
Burst from the dark profound.
The new-born orbs harmonious roll,
And in bright order shine;
163
God saw, well pleased, the beauteous whole,
And blessed the work divine.
With various riches earth was stored,
For man's distinguished race;
And loveliness divine he poured
O'er all his dwelling place.
How small the portion we can scan
Of wide creation's field!
And yet within that narrow span
What wonders are revealed!
If such the glorious works we see
Within this narrow space,
Thro'out the wide immensity
Who can thy wonders trace!
164
ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.
Beyond the limits of our day,
1
Where other suns give light,
And other stars in bright array
Adorn the face of night.
(
{
What glories has thy hand divine
On other systems poured!
What happy dwellers there may shine,
And praise the common Lord!
Favoured with far more bright displays
Of thy all glorious name,'
And blessed with nobler powers to praise,
Than humble man can claim.
Unbounded thus, canst thou delight -
Thy creatures to destroy!
Whom sov'reign goodness called to light,
And life, and sense, and joy.
Bid them rejoice in conscious thought,
And bless thy power divine;
Then, in the yawning gulph of nought
Their joys and hopes resign!
1
ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.
165
That heavenly flame which warms the breast,
Those hopes that swell the soul,
Those anxious thoughts, that without rest
Unbounded love to roll.
Must we resign! To senseless clay,
And endless night return!
Forever quit the cheering day,
And moulder in the urn!
Be far from me the dreadful thought,
That clothes in tenfold gloom
Grim-visaged death, with horrors fraught,
Which darken e'en the tomb!
Such wonders if thy hand display
Where humble mortals dwell,
Of those bright realms of endless day,
Who can the glories tell!
The blissful scenes who can unfold,
Which greet the ravished sight
Of those blest spirits who behold
Thy face in cloudless light!
₤66
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
What various bliss shall crown their days,
While time unceasing rolls!
Of thy dread name what new displays
Shall fill their wondering souls!
To what unmeasured heights they'll soar
Of knowledge love and joy!
Yet still new regions to explore
Shall endless years employ.
1
1
3
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
COMPOSED IN A TIME OF INDISPOSITION.
t
HAIL, Fancy, thou relief of the distressed,
Whose magic power can soothe the saddest
breast:
By thee the shivering wretch forgets he's poor,
Blest with ideal mines of golden ore :
The cottager by thee can be possessed
Of an estate, no lord can from him wrest:
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
167
He sees his manors spread on every side,
His stately mansion rise in regal pride,
His numerous servants, in his hall parade,
And all his orders punctually obeyed.
The slave condemned to hopeless toil and
pain
.
A freedom feels, which scorns the tyrants
chain;
f.
Borne on thy wings to his loved native shore,
Rejoiced he meets his long-lost friends once
more;
Those well known features which nor time,
nor place
Can from his dear remembrance e'er efface,
Lost in delight he views; those plains surveys,
Delightful haunts of his once happier days;
Forgets the scourge, the ruthless tyrant's hand,
And all the mis'ries of a barbarous land.
By thee sad sorrow oft beguiles his pain,
And lives the sunshine of his days again;
A long-lost spouse enfolds in raptured arms,
Or views a fateless chiid in blooming charms;
Recalls a friend from death's long cold embrace,
Hears him converse, and marks his cheering
face,
168
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
E'en hopeless love by thee forgets his care,
And clasps in happy arms th' ideal fair.
When various ills the life of man invade,
And clouds enwrap his sky in gloomy shade,
Thou canst transport him to gay worlds of
thine,
In peaceful skies where suns unclouded shine;
Where gay profusion clothes the smiling land,
And plains are decked by more than nature's
hand;
Where friendship, peace and innocence are
found,
And joy and plenty dance eternal round.
Oft, while I trode in childhood's flowery way,
Wrapt in thy scenes my hours have stolen
away:
Now, while disease my languid frame con-
sumes,
}
And in my dreary way no pleasure blooms,
Far from my home, scarce one kind friend re-
mains,
To ease my woes, or soothe my pining pains;
Now thy kind aid with humble suit I crave :
Of joys thou givest, none can me bereave.
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
169
Swift, hence upon thy active wings me bear-
Far from the world, and all its idle care;
Some cool sequester'd vale for me be found,
Where sweetest flowers adorn th' enamelled
ground;
Thick o'er my head extend the cumbrous
shade;
Let no rude sound the solemn place prevade;
Let the waters glide with murmuring lapse
along,
And zephyrs play the wavering boughs among.
Here with kind natures pleasing scenes, at ease,
Let me converse and breathe delightful peace:
Far from vain mirth, and folly's idle throng,
Loud strife, and slander's foul unhallowed
tongue.
Or to primeval ages me remove-
Those days of innocence, of joy, and love;
To see the flocks spread o'er the peaceful
plains,
Or hear a Corydon's enchanting strains.
Or let me, in the bold heroic age,
See the chiefs wisdom, and the warriors rage;
Behold the dazzling battle gleam from far,
170
ADDRESS TO FANCY
The order, strength and beauty of the war;
Hear Homer swell the dreadful combats sound,
See the fierce warriors tread the trembling
ground,
See dire confusion join the furious fight,
While swells my soul with terror and delight.
Or to more polished times direct my mind;
7
When Greece in learning and in arts refined,
Inspired by freedom's animating flame,
The haughty Persian's numerous bands o'er-
came;
When sages taught, illustrious statesmen rose,
And patriots bled in freedom's noble cause.
Lov'd Athens, in thy halls let me attend
To the sage words of wisdom's noble friend;
Hear how his tongue, almost divine, displays
Fair virtue's charms to th' unenlighten'd race:
Illustrious sage, whom God had rais'd to
show
That his great laws by reason's light we know.
What thundering voice my startled ear alarms!
What martial call excites the world to arms!
'Tis his, the patriot's, whose resistless flame
Enkindles Greece her native rights to claim:
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
171
Mark how his words, by mighty reason prest,
Enter and captivate each yielding breast-
Land of renown, where with unequall'd blaze,
Fair genius burn'd, and shed her warmest rays!
Here could I with unwearied pleasure stray;
Here, fancy, here, thy brightest scenes display.
Or in great Rome's illustrious walls me
place,
Amid the hardy, brave, intrepid race;
Whose private virtues as their public shone,
And made the empire of the world their
own.
Frugal and chaste, for their loved country
still
Do great designs their glowing bosoms fill
For her alone in dreadful arms they rose,
And danger but their dauntless spirit shows:
Inspired by a noble thirst of fame,
Bright virtue more than arms exalts their
name.
Such scenes, alas! now meet our eyes no
more
On Latium's plains, or blest Ilissus' shore.
There, dire oppression's unrelenting hand
172
ADDRESS TO FANCY
With iron sceptre rules the groaning land.
Fly, Fancy, fly from such a mournful sight!
And wise, restrain thy too licentious flight.
Thy wide excursions only tend to show
Th' extent of folly, impotence and woe.
Alas! thy aids no lasting pleasure bring!
Short are the joys which from delusion spring ;
-And if around this ample ball we fly,
AJ
Too much of vice and misery we descry.
Hast thou no solid pleasures at command?
Canst thou descry no blest, no peaceful land?
Thou canst. Not to earth's circle art thou
bound;
Thou rangest wide the whole creation's round.
Then to some distant happy world me bear,
A world unknown to misery, grief, or care.
Swift as a thought upon thy wings I rise,
Thro' the wide tracts of the unmeasur'd skies;
Beneath my feet the closing clouds appear,
Now sped beyond the sun's resplendent sphere.
Vain earth, thou nothing in the boundless void!
Where all thy pomp, thy splendor, and thy
pride!
As wide around I dart my wondering eyes,
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
173
Ten thousand suns beams thro' th' unbounded
skies;
Thy thrones, thy kingdoms, wealth, or titles,
now,
But move my mirth, or bid compassion flow.
But haste thee, fancy, other scenes are found,
Which call us hence, beyond creation's bound.
Awful th' ascent! what solemn thought sarise!
Already we're advanc'd beyond the starry
skies.
Far distant scenes now meet th' enraptur'd
sight,
Pure worlds enrob'd in beams of dazzling
light.
Here his firm throne th' Eternal fixt of old,
In glorious clothed no mortal can behold.
The sons of God, in purest light that dwell,
On golden harps his sounding praises tell;
Rivers of pleasure from his presence flow,
And bliss unmingled to the throng bestow.
Here dwells the lamb, who wash'd our sins
away,
For exiled man the new and living way,
To mercy, peace and favor with his God,
P 2
174
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
A way besprinkled with his precious blood.
See yet the marks his sacred body o'er
Of those fierce pains, which once for us he
bore.
Can I now more in hateful sin remain,
Which brought my Saviour blest to shame and
pain!
Be far from me the monstrous fiend abhorred,
Bane of my race, that bruised my dying lord!
Can I behold those streaming hands and side,
And in my heart thy bloody murderer hide!
Awful, great God, in this tremendous stroke,
Thy justice shone, when thy just laws were
broke;
Thy dreadful sword awoke to bathe thy son in
gore,
When sins of men he in his person bore.
Yet wondrous was that love of thine, which
gave
Thy darling son unworthy man to save.
Almighty friend of our rebellious race,
What love divine beams in thy smiling face!
What kind compassions in thy bosom flow!
How move thy bowels at turning sinners woe!
ADDRESS TO FANCY.
175
How dost thou call to turn our wandering eyes,
From vain delight to thy celestial joys!
To joys which far our highest thoughts trans-
cend,
Encreasing still, without the fear of end.
When ages their delightful round shall roll,
And still the theme fill the enraptur'd soul,
To contemplate her dear redeemer's love,
And wondrous name of him that lives above,
To nobler heights aspiring still she'll soar,
With new delight new mysteries explore.
Enlarging still, the wide capacious mind
No end of knowledge, joy, or love shall find:
Sole knowledge, which our serious thoughts
should claim,
To know and love the great Creator' name;
Sole knowledge which true pleasure can impart,
Or fill the cravings of man's boundless heart.
Vain world, can ought of thine ascend so high,
Or from those scenes turn off my raptur'd eye!
Thy wrongs move not, nor all thy ills dismay;
Too high above my soul has wing'd her way.
Let me these scenes in steady prospect keep,
And all the wrongs and woes of life shall sleep.
176
ODE TO GOLD.
7
ODE TO GOLD.
r
O GOLD, thy all-subduing power,
Thy matchless charms which all adore,
Assist the muse to sing;
Thy sovereign sway all hearts confess,
To thee alike their prayers address
The beggar and the king.
To thee devoted millions toil,
Encounter ills to share thy smile,
And hoard thy precious store;
Before thy shrine each mortal bends,
With rapture hugs what heaven sends,
And ardent prays for more.
Most cordial brothers armed by thee,
Father and son at thy decree
In fiercest strife engage;
And mighty states at thy command-
Deluge with blood each other's land
And mutual battles wage.
ODE TO GOLD.
177
The patriot, when thy aid inspires,
With bold harrangue a nation fires,
Their freedom to maintain ;
But when thou bid'st, his fury ends;
Submissive to thy will he bends,
And hugs a servile chain.
Led on by thee, in daring arms
The soldier meets death's dread alarms
Amid the battle's strife;
To win thy grace the sailor braves
The frowning storm, and to the waves
Commits his hopes and life.
For thee the miser lives in pain;
Thy envied gifts that he may gain
Is all the merchant's care;
And as the axe, or spade he plies,
To thee the labourer turns his eyes,
And sues with humble prayer.
For still on thee the graces wait,
Honor and fame and power and state
Thy smiling train compose;
178
ODE TO GOLD.
Learning and beauty, worth and sense,
And all the charms of eloquence:
Thy magic power bestows...
In vain may each attractive grace
Adorn the lovely femalé face,
If thou shouldst prove unkind;
Virtue and sense are worth no more
Than pebbles on the barren shore,
Unless with thee combined. :
The Cestus, which the queen of love
Gave to the consort of high Jove
Her fickle spouse to hold,
Truth if conjecture might explore,
I shrewdly guess, was nothing more
Than a long purse of gold.
بر
The little soul, the narrow mind,
To vulgar, groveling thoughts confined,
By thee with wisdom's filled;
His words suspend th' admiring throng,
Persuasion bland dwells on his tongue
In various science skilled.
ODE TO GOLD.
179
-
Tho' fraud debase, or crimes defile,
Should'st thou but deign on him to smile,
Behold, his fame how bright!
Virtue and truth adorn his mind,
Honor exalts his soul refined,
And all he does is right,
Such, mighty gold, thy sovereign power;
Yet I of thee will crave no more,
Than may my wants supply
Of food and raiment, while I live;
For this is all that thou canst give
To those who most enjoy.
Ne'er may, by love of thee engrossed,
My heart to generous feelings lost,
And sunk in sordid aims,
Forget, while life's warm current flows,
As mine, to feel each mortal's woes,
And own a brother's claims.
Ne'er may I learn with rigid hand
To seize what justice might demand
From those who ill can spare;
#
180. SONG, TO A SLEEPING BABE.
?
Nor meanly hold what I might give,
The modest sufferer to relieve,
Or dry the stranger's tear.
Debased to low and vulgar views,
Ne'er may my soul it's relish lose
For life's diviner joys;
Nor cease on contemplation's wings
To soar thro' past and future things,
And spurn earth's gilded toys.
SONG,
A MOTHER TO HER SLEEPING BABE,
SOFTLY repose, my infant dear,
In blissful visions, lulled to rest;
Secure from care, from guilty fear,
Let nought disturb thy guileless breast.
1
SONG, TO A SLEEPING BABE. 181
Kind guardian angels hover nigh
To shield my babe from dreaded harms;
Thy mother too, with raptured eye,
Hangs fondly o'er thy sleeping charms.
Unlike to thee the babe forlorn
Of her undone by faithless love;
To adverse fate, and misery born,
Doomed friendless thro' the world to rove.
Offspring of guilt, the hapless child
No fh on his knees caressed;
Nofh
No mother on the infant smiled,
No tender transports thrilled her breast.
With infamy, with want oppressed,
Fain would she hide her burning face;
The mother dies within her breast,
And yields to shame and anguish place.
But thou, sweet babe, thy parents' joy,
And richest treasure still shalt prove,
Their fondest thoughts each hour employ,
And bind their hearts with growing love.
Q
182 SONG, TO A SLEEPING BABE.
With new delight each day they'll mark
Thy opening charms more sweetly bloom;
But chief, when reason, heavenly spark,
Thy infant breast shall first illume.
Oh! then, what joy, in truth's bright ray,
To place fair virtue's form divine!
And guide thy steps in that blest way.
Which leads thee to her sacred shrine!
A father's love, a mother's care
Thy little wants shall all supply,
Thy infant smiles their toils shall cheer,
And fill their hearts with purest joy,

Softly repose, my infant dear,
In blissful visions lulled to rest;
Secure beneath a parent's care,
Let nought disturb thy guileless breast.
THE END.
*

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
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