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"Be every youth like royal Abbas mov'd,

"And every Georgian maid like Abra lov'd!"

ECLOGUE IV.

AGIB AND SECANDER;

OR, THE FUGITIVES.

Scene, A Mountain in Circassia. Time, Midnight. IN fair Circassia, where, to love inclin❜d, Each swain was blest, for every maid was kind; At that still hour when awful midnight reigns, And none but wretches haunt the twilight plains; What time the moon had hung her lamp on high, And past in radiance thro' the cloudless sky, Sad o'er the dews two brother shepherds fled, Where wild'ring Fear and desp'rate Sorrow led: Fast as they prest their flight behind them lay Wild ravag'd plains, and valleys stole away. Along the mountain's bending sides they ran, Till, faint and weak, Secander thus began:

Secan. O stay thee, Agib! for my feet deny, No longer friendly to my life, to fly.

Friend of my heart! O turn thee and survey,

Trace our sad flight through all its length of way!

And first review that long-extended plain,
And yon wide groves, already past with pain;
Yon ragged cliff, whose dang'rous path we try'd,
And last this lofty mountain's weary side.

Agib. Weak as thou art, yet, hapless! must thou, know

The toils of flight, or some severer woe.

Still as I haste the Tartar shouts behind,

And shrieks and sorrows load the sadd'ning wind:
In rage of heart, with ruin in his hand,

He blasts our harvests and deforms our land.
Yon citron grove, whence first in fear we came,
Droops its fair honours to the conquering flame :
Far fly the swains, like us, in deep despair,
And leave to ruffian bands their fleecy care.

Secan. Unhappy land! whose blessings tempt the sword;

In vain, unheard, thou call'st thy Persian Lord!
In vain thou court'st him, helpless, to thine aid,
To shield the shepherd and protect the maid!
Far off, in thoughtless indolence resign'd,
Soft dreams of love and pleasure sooth his mind;
'Midst fair sultanas lost in idle joy,

No wars alarm him, and no fears annoy.

Agib. Yet these green hills in summer's sultry heat Have lent the monarch oft a cool retreat.

Sweet to the sight is Zabran's flow'ry plain,
And once by maids and shepherds lov'd in vain !
No more the virgins shall delight to rove

By Sargis' banks or Irwan's shady grove;
On Tarkie's mountain catch the cooling gale,
Or breathe the sweets of Aly's flow'ry vale:
Fair scenes! but, ah! no more with peace possess❜d,
With ease alluring, and with plenty bless'd:
No more the shepherds' whitening tents appear,
Nor the kind products of a bounteous year;
No more the date, with snowy blossoms crown'd,
But ruin spreads her baleful fires around.

Secan. In vain Circassia boasts her spicy groves,
For ever fam'd for pure and happy loves;
In vain she boasts her fairest of the fair,

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair : Those eyes in tears their fruitless grief must send; Those hairs the Tartar's cruel hands shall rend.

Agib. Ye Georgian Swains! that piteous learn from far

Circassia's ruin and the waste of war,

Some weightier arms than crooks and staffs prepare
To shield your harvests and defend your fair ;
The Turk and Tartar like designs pursue,
Fix'd to destroy, and stedfast to undo.
Wild as his land, in native deserts bred,

By lust incited, or by malice led,

The villain Arab! as he prowls for prey,

Oft marks with blood and wasting flames the way; Yet none so cruel as the Tartar foe,

To death inur'd, and nurst in scenes of woe.

He said; when loud along the vale was heard A shriller shriek, and nearer fires appear'd; Th' affrighted shepherds thro' the dews of night

Wide o'er the moon-light hills renew'd their flight.

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ODES

DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL.

ODE I. TO PITY.

O THOU! the friend of man, assign'd
With balmy hands his wounds to bind,
And charm his frantic woe,

When first Distress, with dagger keen,
Broke forth to waste his destin'd scene,
His wild unsated foe!

By Pella's bard, a magic name!

By all the griefs his thought could frame,
Receive my humble rite!

Long, Pity! let the nations view

Thy sky-worn robes of tend'rest blue,

And eyes of dewy light.

But wherefore need I wander wide
To old Ilissus' distant side?

Deserted stream and mute!

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