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 sighs reveal'd his growing flame;
Sweet smiles Corinna to his fighs returns,
And for the fop in equal passion 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 fufpicious 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.
Narcissus' change to the vain virgin shows,
Who trusts to beauty, trufts 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 filver streaming floods,
By snow disguis’d in bright confusion lie,
And with one dazzling waste fatigue the eye.
No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the desart 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 glassy 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 Mrub, 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 ftag in limpid currents with surprize,
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise.
The spreading oak, the beach, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches fhun,
That wave and glitter in the distant fun.
When, if a sudden guft of wind arise,
The brittle forest into atoms flies :
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,
The
The traveller a miry country sees,
And journies sad beneath the dropping trees.
Like fome deluded peasant, Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and through delicious meads;
While here enchanted gardens to him rise,
And airy fabricks there attract his eyes,
His wand'ring feet the magic paths pursue ;
And, while he thinks the fair illusion true,
The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air,
And woods and wilds, and thorny ways appear.
A tedious road the
weary
wretch returns, And as he goes, the transient vifion mourns.
Copenhagen, March 9, 1709.
On the Friendship betwixt SACHARISSA and
AMORET.
ELL me, lovely loving pair!
Why so kind, and fo fevere? Why so careless of our care,
Only to yourselves so dear?
By this cunning change of hearts,
You the pow'r of love controul ; While the boy's deluded darts
Can arrive at neither soul.
For in vain to either breast
Still beguiled Love does come : Where he finds a foreign guest ;
Neither of your hearts at home.
Debtors thus with like design,
When they never mean to pay, That they may the law decline,
To some friend make all away.
Not the silver doves that ily,
Yok'd in Cytherea's car ;
Not the wings that lift so high;
And
convey
her fon so far ;
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