Thrown, amid drooping lilies, fwells the breeze
With fighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in foft anguish he confumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon
Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east,
Enlighten'd by degrees, and in her train

Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks,
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam,
With foften'd foul, and wooes the bird of eve
To mingle woes with his : or while the world
And all the fons of Care lie hufh'd in sleep,
Affociates with the midnight fhadows drear;
And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours
His idly-tortur'd heart into the

page,

Meant for the moving messenger of love;
Where rapture burns on rapture, every line
With rifing frenzy fir'd. But if on bed

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Delirious flung, fleep from his pillow flies.
All night he toffes, nor the balmy power
In any posture finds; till the grey morn
Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch,
Exanimate by love: and then perhaps
Exhaufted Nature finks a while to reft,
Still interrupted by distracted dreams,

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That o'er the fick imagination rife,

And in black colours paint the mimic scene.
Oft with th' enchantrefs of his foul he talks ;
Sometimes in crowds diftrefs'd; or if retir'd
To fecret winding flower-enwoven bowers,
Far from the dull impertinence of Man,

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Juft

Juft as he, credulous, his endless cares

Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love,

Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Through forefts huge, and long untravel'd heaths
With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempeft wrapt; or shrinks aghast,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and ftrives to reach
The farther fhore; where fuccourless, and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores;
But strives in vain: borne by th' outrageous flood
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,

1065

Or whelm❜d beneath the boiling eddy finks.
These are the charming agonies of love,

1070

Whofe mifery delights. But through the heart
Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse,

'Tis then delightful misery no more,
But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blafting all
Love's paradise. Ye fairy profpects, then,
Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace,

1075

Shine out your last! The yellow-tinging plague 1080 Internal vifion taints, and in a night

Of livid gloom imagination wraps.

Ah, then instead of love-enliven'd cheeks,

Of funny features, and of ardent eyes

With flowing rapture bright, dark looks succeed, 1085

Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire;

A clouded aspect, and a burning cheek,

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Where the whole poifon'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away.
Ten thoufand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondness, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and refolution frail,
Giving falfe peace a moment. Fancy pours,
Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought,
Her first endearments twining round the foul,
With all the witchcraft of enfnaring love.
Straight the fierce ftorm involves his mind anew,
Flames through the nerves, and boils along the veins;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For ev'n the fad affurance of his fears

1100

Were eafe to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom Love deludes into his thorny wilds,

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Through flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care;

His brightest flames extinguish'd all, and all
His lively moments running down to waste.

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But happy they! the happieft of their kind!
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their paffions into love;
Where friendship full-exerts her foftest power,

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Perfe&

Perfect esteem enliven'd by defire

Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;

Thought meeting thought,, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence: for nought but love

Can answer love, and render blifs fecure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To bless himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days :
Let barbarous nations, whofe inhuman love
Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel;
Let eastern tyrants, from the light of heaven
Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a mere, lifelefs, violated form:

While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal tranfport, free as Nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all!
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven.
Meantime a fmiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls

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For

For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

Το
pour
the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.

1150

Oh, speak the joy! ye, whom the sudden tear
Surprizes often, while you look around,

1155

And nothing strikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various Nature preffing on the heart:

An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,

Progreffive virtue, and approving Heaven.
These are the matchlefs joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads :
Till evening comes at laft, ferene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle fpirits fly

To fcenes where love and blifs immortal reign.

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SUMMER.