VERSES Written on a Paper which contained a Piece of Bride-cake. YE curious hands, that, hid from vulgar eyes, Nor dare a theft, for love and pity's sake! Beneath the shepherd's haunted pillow laid, Was meant by love to charm the silent hour, The secret present of a matchless maid, The Cyprian queen, at Hymen's fond request, Each nice ingredient chose with happiest art; Fears, sighs, and wishes of th' enamour'd breast, And pains that please, are mixt in every part. With rosy hand the spicy fruit she brought, From Paphian hills, and fair Cytherea's isle; And temper'd sweet with these the melting thought, The kiss ambrosial, and the yielding smile. Ambiguous looks, that scorn and yet relent, Denials mild, and firm unalter'd truth; Reluctant pride, and amorous faint consent, And meeting ardours, and exulting youth. Sleep, wayward god! hath sworn, while these remain, With fairy songs shall soothe his pensive ear. O, much entreated, leave this fatal place! Sweet Peace, who long hath shunn'd my plaintive lay, And grief with raven note usurp the night. AN ODE ON THE POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. I. HOME! thou return'st from Thames, whose Naiads long Have seen thee ling'ring with a fond delay, Mid those soft friends, whose hearts some future day Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song. Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth, Whom, long endear'd, thou leavest by Lavant's side; Together let us wish him lasting truth, And joy untainted, with his destined bride. Go! nor regardless, while these numbers boast My short-lived bliss, forget my social name; But think, far off, how, on the southern coast, I met thy friendship with an equal flame! Fresh to that soil thou turn'st, where ev'ry vale Shall prompt the poet, and his song demand: Thou need'st but take thy pencil to thy hand, II. There must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill; While airy minstrels warble jocund notes. How, wing'd with Fate, their elf-shot arrows fly, When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes, Or, stretch'd on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie. A gentleman of the name of Barrow, who introduced Home to Collins, Such airy beings awe th' untutor'd swain: [neglect ; Nor thou, though learn'd, his homelier thoughts Let thy sweet Muse the rural faith sustain ; These are the themes of simple, sure effect, That add new conquests to her boundless reign, And fill, with double force, her heart-commanding strain. III. E'en yet preserved, how often may'st thou hear, Where to the pole the Boreal mountains run, Taught by the father to his list'ning son, [ear. Strange lays, whose power had charm'd a Spenser's At ev'ry pause, before thy mind possest, Old Runic bards shall seem to rise around, With uncouth lyres, in many-colour'd vest, Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crown'd: Whether thou bidd'st the well-taught hind repeat The choral dirge, that mourns some chieftain brave, When ev'ry shrieking maid her bosom beat, And strew'd with choicest herbs his scented grave; Or whether, sitting in the shepherd's shiel,* Thou hear'st some sounding tale of war's alarms; When at the bugle's call, with fire and steel, The sturdy clans pour'd forth their brawny swarms, And hostile brothers met to prove each others' arms. IV. 'Tis thine to sing, how, framing hideous spells, In Sky's lone isle, the gifted wizard-seer, Lodged in the wintry cave, with Fate's fell spear, Or in the depth of Uist's dark forest dwells: How they, whose sight such dreary dreams engross, With their own visions oft astonish'd droop, When, o'er the wat'ry strath or quaggy moss, * A summer hut, built in the high part of the mountains, to tend their flocks in the warm season, when the pasture is fine. D For them the viewless forms of air obey, Their bidding heed, and at their beck repair: They know what spirit brews the stormful day, And heartless, oft like moody madness, stare To see the phantom train their secret work prepare. V. 'Or on some bellying rock that shades the deep, They view the lurid signs that cross the sky, Where, in the west, the brooding tempests lie: And hear their first, faint, rustling pennons sweep. 'Or in the arched cave, where deep and dark The broad, unbroken billows heave and swell, 'In horrid musings wrapt, they sit to mark The lab'ring moon; or list the nightly yell Of that dread spirit, whose gigantic form The seer's entranced eye can well survey, Through the dim air who guides the driving storm, And points the wretched bark its destined prey. Or him who hovers on his flagging wing 'O'er the dire whirlpool, that, in ocean's waste, 'Draws instant down whate'er devoted thing The failing breeze within its reach hath placedThe distant seaman hears, and flies with trembling haste. VI. Or, if on land the fiend exerts his sway, Silent he broods o'er quicksand, bog, or fen, Far from the shelt'ring roof and haunts of men, When witched darkness shuts the eye of day, And shrouds each star that wont to cheer the night; Or, if the drifted snow perplex the way, With treach'rous gleam he lures the fated wight, 'And leads him flound'ring on and quite astray." VII. To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray, As Boreas threw his young Aurora forth, Saw, at sad Falkirk, all their hopes near crown'd! They raved! divining, through their second sight, Pale, red Culloden, where these hopes were drown'd! Illustrious William! Britain's guardian name! One William saved us from a tyrant's stroke; He, for a sceptre, gain'd heroic fame, But thou, more glorious, Slavery's chain hast broke, To reign a private man, and bow to Freedom's yoke! VIII. These, too, thou'lt sing! for well thy magic muse He glows, to draw you downward to your death, His glimmering mazes cheer th' excursive sight, Yet turn, ye wanderers, turn your steps aside, Nor trust the guidance of that faithless light; For watchful, lurking, mid th' unrustling reed, At those murk hours the wily monster lies, And listens oft to hear the passing steed, And frequent round him rolls his sullen eyes, [prise. If chance his savage wrath may some weak wretch sur IX. Ah, luckless swain! o'er all unblest, indeed! Whom late bewilder'd in the dank, dark fen, Far from his flocks, and smoking hamlet, then! To that sad spot where hums the sedgy weed: On him, enraged, the fiend, in angry mood, Shall never look with pity's kind concern, But instant, furious, raise the whelming flood O'er its drown'd banks, forbidding all return! |