And fits in measures such as Virgil's Muse
To place thee near him might be fond to chuse.
How might he tune th' alternate reed with thee,
Perhaps a Strephon thou, a Daphnis he;
While fome old Damon, o'er the vulgar wife,
Thinks he deserves, and thou deferv'it the Prize?
Rapt with the thought, my fancy seeks the plains, And turns me shepherd while I hear the strains.
Indulgent nurse of ev'ry tender gale,
Parent of flowrets, old Arcadia, hail!
Here in the cool my limbs at ease I fpread,
Here let thy poplars whisper o'er my head :
Still flide thy waters, foft among the trees,
Thy afpins quiver in a breathing breeze!
Smile, all ye valleys, in eternal spring,
Be hufh'd, ye winds, while Pope and Virgil fing.
In English lays, and all fublimely great,
Thy Homes warms with all his ancient heat;
He shines in Council, thunders in the Fight,
And flames with ev'ry sense of great delight.
Long has that Poet reign'd, and long unknown,
Like Monarchs sparkling on a diftant throne;
In all the Majesty of Greek retir'd,
Himfelf unknown, his nighty name admir'd;
His language failing, wrapt him round with night;
Thine, rais'd by thee, recalls the work to light,
So wealthy Mines, that ages long before
Fed the large realins around with golden Ore.
When choak'd by finking banks, no more appear,
And shepherds only say, The mines were here: 60
Should fome rich youth (if nature warım his heart,
And all his projects stand inform'd with art)
Here clear the caves, there ope the leading vein;
The mines detected flame with gold again.
How vast, how copious, are thy new designs! 65
How ev'ry Music varies in thy lines!
Still, as I read, I feel my bosom beat,
And rife in raptures by another's heat.
Thus in the wood, when fummer dress'd the days,
While Windfor lent us tuneful hours of ease,
Our ears the lark, the thrush, the turtle blest,
And Philomela sweetest o'er the reft:
The shades resound with song - O foftly tread,
While a whole season warbles round my head.
This to my Friend--and when a friend inspires,
My filent harp its master's hand requires.
Shakes off the duft, and makes these rocks refound;
For fortune plac'd me in unfertile ground:
Far from the joys that with my foul agree,
From wit, from learning - very far from thee. 80
Here moss-grown trees expand the finallest leaf;
Here half an acre's corn is half a sheaf;
Here hills with naked heads the tempeft meet,
Rocks at their fides, and torrents at their feet;
Or lazy lakes unconscious of a flood,
Whose dull brown Naiads ever fleep in mud.
Yet here Content can dwell, and learned Eafe,
A Friend delight me, and an Author please;
Ev'n here I fing, when POPE supplies the theme,
Shew my own love, tho' not increase his fame. 90
ET vulgar fouls triumphal arches raise,
Or speaking marbles, to record their praife;
And picture (to the voice of Fame unknown)
The inimic Feature on the breathing stone;
Mere mortals; subject to death's total sway,
Reptiles of earth, and beings of a day!
'Tis thine, on ev'ry heart to grave thy praise,
A monument which Worth alone can raife:
Sure to furvive, when time shall whelm in dust
The arch, the marble, and the mimic bust:
Nor 'till the volumes of th' expanded sky
Blaze in one flame, shalt thou and Homer die:
Then fink together in the world's last fires,
What heav'n created, and what heav'n inspires.
If aught on earth, when once this breath is fled,
With human transport touch the mighty dead,
Shakespear, rejoice! his hand thy page refines;
Now ev'ry scene with native brightness shines;
Just to thy fame, he gives thy genuine thought;
So Tully publish'd what Lucretius wrote;
Prun'd by his care, thy laurels loftier grow,
And bloom afresh on thy immortal brow.
Thus when thy draughts, O Raphael! time in
And the bold figure from the canvass fades,
A rival hand recalls from ev'ry part
Some latent grace, and equals art with arti
Transported we survey the dubious strife,
While each fair image starts again to life.
How long, untun'd, had Homer's facred lyre Jarr'd grating difcord, all extinct his fire? 30 This you beheld; and, taught by heav'n to fing, Call'd the loud music from the founding string. Now wak'd from flumbers of three thousand years, Once more Achilles in dread pomp appears, Tours o'er the field of death; as fierce he turns, 35 Keen flash his arms, and all the Hero burns; With martial stalk, and more than mortal might, He ftrides along, and meets the Gods in fight: Then the pale Titans, chain'd on burning floors, Start at the din that rends th' infernal shores, 40 Tremble the tow'rs of Heav'n, earth rocks her
And gloomy Pluto shakes with all his ghosts.
To ev'ry theme responds thy various lay;
Here rolls a torrent, there Meanders play;
Sonorous as the storin thy numbers rise,
Toss the wild waves, and thunder in the skies;
Or fofter than a yielding virgin's figh,
The gentle breezes breathe away and die.
Thus, like the radiant God who sheds the day,
You paint the vale, or gild the azure way;
And while with ev'ry theme the verse complies,
Sink without groveling; without rafhness rife.
Proceed, great Bard! awake th' harmonious string.
Be ours all Homer! still Ulyffes fing,
How long that Hero a), by unskilful hands,
Strip'd of his robes, a beggar trod our lands?
Such as he wander'd o'er his native coaft,
Shrunk by the wand, and all the warrior loft:
O'er his fmooth skin a bark of wrinkles spread;
Old age disgrac'd the honours of his head;
Nor longer in his heavy eye ball shin'd
The glance divine, forth beaming from the mind.
But you, like Pallas, ev'ry limb infold
With royal robes, and bid him shine in gold; Touch'd by your hand, his manly frame improves With grace divine, and like a God he moves.
Ev'n I, the meanest of the Muse's train, Inflam'd by thee, attempt a nobler strain;
Advent'rous waken the Mæonian iyre,
Tun'd by your hand, and fing as you inspire:
So arm'd by great Achilles for the fight,
Patroclus conquer'd in Achilles' right:
Like theirs, our Friendship! and I boaft my naine
To thine united for thy Friendship's Fame.
This labour past, of heav'nly fubjects fing,
While hov'ring angels liften on the wing.
To hear from earth such hearr - felt raptures rise,
As, when they sing, fufpended hold the skies:
Or nobly rifing in fair Virtue's cause,
From thy own life transcribe th' unerring laws:
Teach a bad world beneath her fway to bend:
To verse like thine fierce savages attend,
And men more fierce: when Orpheus tunes the lay,
Ev'n fiends relenting hear their rage away.
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