Like flow'rs it withers with th' advancing year,
And age like winter robs the blooming fair.
Oh Araminta, cease thy wonted pride,
Nor longer in thy faithless charms confide ;
Ev'n while the glass reflects thy sparkling eyes,
Their luftre and thy rofy colour fies!
Thus on the fan the breathing figures shine,
And all the pow'rs applaud the wise defign.
The Cyprian queen the painted gift receives, And with a grateful bow the fynod leaves.To the low world she bends her steepy way, Where Strephon pass’d the solitary day; She found him in a melancholy grove, His down-caft eyes betray'd defponding love, The wounded bark confess'd his fighted flame, And ev'ry tree bore false. Corinna's name ; In a cool shade he lay with folded arms, Curses his fortune, and upbraids her charms, When Venus to his wond'ring eyes appears, And with these words relieves his am'rous cares :
Rise, happy youth, this bright machine survey,
Whole ratt’ling sticks my busy fingers sway,
This present shall thy cruel charmer move,
And in her, fickle bosom kindle love.
The fan fhall flutter in all female hands,
And various fashions learn from various lands.
For this, shall elephants their ivory shed;
And polish'd ficks the waving engine spread :
His clouded mail the tortoise shall resign,
And round the rivet pearly circles Mine.
On this shall Indians all their art employ,
And with bright colours stain the gaudy toy ;
Their paint hall here in wildest fancies flow,
Their dress, their customs, their religion show ;
So shall the British fair their minds improve,
And on the fan to distant climates rove.
Here China's ladies shall their pride display,
And silver figures gild their loose array ;
This boasts her little feet and winking eyes ;
That tunes the fife, or tinkling cymbal plies :
Here cross-leg'd nobles in rich state shall dine,
There in bright mail distorted heroes shine.
The peeping fan in modern times shall rise,
Through which unseen the female ogle Aiess
This fhall in temples the fly maid conceal,
And shelter love beneath devotion's veil.
Gay France shall make the fan her artist's care,
And with the costly trinket arm the fair.
As learned orators that touch the heart,
With various action raise their foothing art,
Both head and hand affect the lift'ning throng,
And humour each expression of the tongue ;
So shall each passion by the fan be seen,
From noisy anger to the fullen spleen.
While Venus spoke, joy shone in Strephon's eyes : Proud of the gift, he to Corinna flies.
But
But Cupid (who delights in am'rous ill,
Wounds hearts, and leaves them to a woman's will)
With certain aim a golden arrow drew,
Which to Leander's panting bosom flew :
Leander lov’d; and to the sprightly dame
In gentle fighs reveal'd his growing flame;
Sweet smiles Corinna to his fighs returns,
And for the fop in equal paflion burns.
Lo Strephon comes ! and with a suppliant bow,
Offers the present, and renews his vow.
When she the fate of Niobe beheld,
Why has my pride against my heart rebellid?
She sighing cry'd: disdain forsook her breast,
And Strephon now was thought a worthy guest.
In Procris' bosom when she saw the dart;
She justly blames her own suspicious heart,
Imputes her discontent to jealous fear,
And knows her Strephon's constancy fincere.
When on Camilla's fate her eye she turns,
No more for show and equipage she burns :
She learns Leander's passion to despise,
And looks on merit with discerning eyes.
Narciffus' change to the vain virgin shows,
Who trusts to beauty, trusts the fading rose.
Youth flies apace, with youth your beauty flies,
Love then, ye virgins, ere the blossom dies.
Thus Pallas taught her. Strephon weds the dame, And Hymen’s torch diffus’d the brightest Aame.
A WINTER
Addressed to the DUKE of DORSET.
ROM frozen climes, and endless tracts of snow,
From streams that northern winds forbid to flow;
What present shall the muse to Dorset bring,
Or how,, so near the pole, attempt to sing ?
The hoary winter here conceals from fight,
All pleasing objects that to verse invite.
The hills and dales, and the delightful woods,
The flow'ry plains, and silver streaming floods,
By snow disguis'd in bright confufion lie,
And with one dazzling waste fatigue the eye.
No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the defart region sing.
The ships unmov'd the boift'rous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vast leviathan wants room to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day,
The starving wolves along the main sea prowl,
And to the moon in icy vallies howl.
For many a shining league the level main
Here spreads itself into a glasly plain :
There solid billows of enormous size,
Alps of green ice in wild disorder rise.
And
And yet but lately have I seen ev'n here,
The winter in a lovely dress appear.
E'er
yet
the clouds let fall the treasur'd snow,
Or winds begun through hazy skies to blow.
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose ;
And the descending rain unfully'd froze.
Soon as the filent shades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn disclos’d at once to view
The face of nature in a rich disguise,
And brighten'd ev'ry object to my eyes :
For ev'ry shrub, and every blade of grass,
And ev'ry pointed thorn, seem'd wrought in glass,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show,
While through the ice the crimson berries glow.
The thick-sprung reeds the wat’ry marshes yield,
Seem polim'd lances in a hostile field.
The stag in limpid currents with surprize,
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise:
The spreading oak, the beach, and tow'sing pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther thine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches fhun,
That wave and glitter in the diftant sun.
When, if a sudden gust of wind arise,
The brittle forest into atoms Aies :
The crackling wood beneath the tempeft Bends,
And in a spangled show'r the prospect ends.
Or, if a fouthern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wint'ry. charm,
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