The rugged and the keen:
Samfon's young foxes might as well
In bonds of chearful wedlock dwell,
With firebrands ty'd between.
Nor let the cruel fetters bind
A gentle to a favage mind;
For Love abhors the fight:
Loofe the fierce tiger from the deer,
For native rage and native fear
Rife and forbid delight.
Two kindeft fouls alone must meet,
'Tis friendship makes the bondage fweet,
And feeds their mutual loves:
Bright Venus on her rolling throne
Is drawn by gentleft birds alone,
And Cupids yoke the doves.
ET ufelefs fouls to woods retreat; Polhill should leave a country feat When virtue bids him dare be great.
Nor Kent*, nor Suffex*, fhould have charms,
While liberty, with loud alarms,
Calls you to counfels and to arms.
Lewis, by fawning flaves ador'd,
Bids you receive a † base-born lord ;
Awake your cares! awake your fword!
Factions amongst the ‡ Britons rise,
And warring tongues, and wild furmife,
And burning zeal without her eyes.
A vote decides the blind debate;
Refolv'd, "tis of diviner weight,
“To save the steeple, than the state.”
The bold § machine is form'd and join'd
To stretch the conscience, and to bind
The native freedom of the mind.
Your grandfire fhades with jealous eye
Frown down to fee their offspring lie
Careless, and let their country die.
His country-feat and dwelling.
The Pretender, proclaimed King in France.
The parliament.
The bill againft occafional conformity, 1702.
Against the Gaul with spear in hand,
At least † Petition for the land.
The celebrated Victory of the Poles over Ofman the Turkish Emperor in the Dacian Battle.
Tranflated from Cafimire, B. IV. Od. 4. with large Additions.
ADOR the old, the wealthy, and the strong,
Chearful in years (nor of the heroic Mufe
Unknowing, nor unknown) held fair poffeffions
Where flows the fruitful Danube: Seventy springs
Smil'd on his feed, and feventy harvest-moons
Fill'd his wide granaries with autumnal joy :
Still he refun'd the toil and fame reports,
While he broke up new ground, and tir'd his plough
In graffy furrows, the torn earth disclos'd
Helmets, and fwords (bright furniture of war
Sleeping in ruft) and heaps of mighty bones.
The fun descending to the western deep
Bid him lie down and reft; he loos'd the yoke,
Yet held his wearied oxen from their food
With charming numbers, and uncommon fong.
* Mrs. Polhill of the family of Lord Trevor.
Mr. Polhill was one of thofe five zealous gentlemen who presented the famous Kentish petition to the parliament, in the reign of King William, to haften their fupplies in order to fupport the king in his war with France.
Go, fellow-labourers, you may rove secure,
Or feed beside me; taste the greens and boughs
That you have long forgot; crop the fweet herb,
And graze in fafety, while the victor Pole
Leans on his fpear, and breathes; yet still his eye
Jealous and fierce. How large, old foldier, fay,
How fair a harvest of the slaughter'd Turks
Strew'd the Moldavian fields? What mighty piles
Of vast destruction, and of Thracian dead,
Fill and amaze my eyes? Broad bucklers lie
(A vain defence) fpread o'er the pathlefs hills,
And coats of fcaly fteel, and hard habergeon,
Deep-bruis'd and empty of Mahometan limbs.
This the fierce Saracen wore, (for when a boy,
I was their captive, and remind their dress:)
Here the Polonians dreadful march'd along
In august port, and regular array,
Led on to conqueft: Here the Turkish chief
Prefumptuous trod, and in rude order rang'd
His long battalions, while his populous towns
Pour'd out fresh troops perpetual, drest in arms,
Horrent in mail, and gay in spangled pride.
O the dire image of the bloody fight
These eyes have feen, when the capacious plain
Was throng'd with Dacian fpears; when polifh'd helms
And convex gold blaz'd thick against the fun
Reftoring all his beams! but frowning War
All gloomy, like a gather'd tempeft, flood
Wavering, and doubtful where to bend its fall.
The storm of missive steel delay'd a while
By wife command; fledg'd arrows on the nerve;
And scymiter and sabre bore the sheath
Reluctant; till the hollow brazen clouds
Had bellow'd from each quarter of the field
Loud thunder, and difgorg'd their fulphurous fire.
Then banners wav'd, and arms were mix'd with arms;
Then javelins anfwer'd javelins as they fled,
For both fled hiffing death: With adverse edge
The crooked fauchions met; and hideous noise
From clashing fhields, through the long ranks of war,
Clang'd horrible. A thoufand iron storms
and in harsh confufion drown
The trumpet's filver found. O rude effort
Of harmony! not all the frozen ftores
Of the cold North, when pour'd in rattling hail,
Lash with fuch madness the Norwegian plains,
Or fo torment the ear. Scarce founds fo far
The direful fragor, when fome fouthern blast
Tears from the Alps a ridge of knotty oaks
Deep fang'd, and ancient tenants of the rock :
The maffy fragment, many a rood in length,
With hideous crash, rolls down the rugged cliff
Refiftlefs, plunging in the fubject lake
Como, or Lugaine; th' afflicted waters roar,
And various thunder all the valley fills,
Such was the noife of war: the troubled air
Complains aloud, and propagates the din
To neighbouring regions; rocks and lofty hills
Beat the impetuous echoes round the sky.
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