19.

20.

21.

TO A YOUNG LADY

Sweet stream, that winds through yonder glade,

Apt emblem of a virtuous maid

Silent and chaste she steals along,

Far from the world's gay busy throng:
With gentle yet prevailing force,
Intent upon her destined course;
Graceful and useful all she does,
Blessing and blest where'er she goes;
Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass,
And Heaven reflected in her face.

CLXX.

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10

W. Couper

CLXXI.

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

Sleep on, and dream of Heaven awhile-
Tho' shut so close thy laughing eyes,
Thy rosy lips still wear a smile
And move, and breathe delicious sighs!

Ah, now soft blushes tinge her cheeks
And mantle o'er her neck of snow:
Ah, now she murmurs, now she speaks
What most I wish-and fear to know!

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She starts, she trembles, and she weeps!
Her fair hands folded on her breast:
-And now, how like a saint she sleeps!
A seraph in the realms of rest!

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Sleep on secure! Above controul

Thy thoughts belong to Heaven and thee:
And may the secret of thy soul
Remain within its sanctuary!

For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
An unrelenting foe to Love,
And when we meet a mutual heart
Come in between, and bid us part?

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S. Rogers

CLXXII.

23.

5

That I should sing, that I should play.

My lyre I tune, my voice I raise,
But with my numbers mix my sighs

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And whilst I sing Euphelia's praise,

I fix my soul on Cloe's eyes.

Fair Cloe blush'd; Euphelia frown'd.

I

sung, and gazed; I play'd, and trembled: And Venus to the Loves around

15

Remark'd how ill we all dissembled.

M. Prior

CLXXIV.

LOVE'S SECRET

Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be ;
For the gentle wind doth move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,

Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears :—
Ah! she did depart.

Soon after she was gone from me
A traveller came by,

Silently, invisibly :

He took her with a sigh.

W. Blake

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10

24.

When lovely woman stoops to folly
And finds too late that men betray,-
What charm can soothe her melancholy,
What art can wash her guilt away?

The only art her guilt to cover,
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover
And wring his bosom, is-to die.

CLXXV.

O. Goldsmith

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Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake,

And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's harmonious springs

A thousand rills their mazy progress take.

The laughing flowers that round them blow
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.

Now the rich stream of music winds along
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,

Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;

Now rolling down the steep amain

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour

The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the roar.

Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul,

Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,
Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares

And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul.

On Thracia's hills the Lord of War
Has curb'd the fury of his car

And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command.
Perching on the sceptred hand

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king
With ruffled plumes, and flagging wing:
Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie

The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.

Thee the voice, the dance, obey

Temper'd to thy warbled lay.
O'er Idalia's velvet-green

The rosy-crowned Loves are seen
On Cytherea's day;

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With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures,
Frisking light in frolic measures;
Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet:

To brisk notes in cadence beating

Glance their many-twinkling feet.

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Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare:

Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay:

With arms sublime that float upon the air

In gliding state she wins her easy way :

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move

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The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

Man's feeble race what ills await!

Labour, and Penury, the racks of pain,

Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,

And Death, sad refuge from the storms of fate !

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The fond complaint, my song, disprove,

And justify the laws of Jove.

Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse

Night, and all her sickly dews,

Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry

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He gives to range the dreary sky :

Till down the eastern cliffs afar

In climes beyond the solar road

Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war.

Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,

In loose numbers wildly sweet

Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves.

Her track, where'er the goddess roves,

Glory pursue, and generous Shame,

Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. 65

Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,
Isles, that crown th' Aegean deep,
Fields that cool Ilissus laves,

Or where Maeander's amber waves
In lingering labyrinths creep,

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