Category Archives: Poems

Mary Leapor, “Nature undone by Art”

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MARY LEAPOR

“NATURE undone by ART”

 

WHEN first Alexis bless’d our wond’ring Eyes,
Like some young De’ty of the pregnant Skies;
His blooming Form by Nature richly dress’d;
Nor purple Crime had stain’d his iv’ry Breast:
His pleasing Voice diffus’d a gen’ral Joy,                                                5
And list’ning Virgins bless’d the charming Boy.
His just Reflections, while they taught, allur’d;
His Smiles were harmless, and his Language pure:
He learn’d with Pleasure, and he taught with Ease:
Whate’er Alexis did, was sure to please.                                                10
Gorgonian Malice found a soothing Charm;
No envious Tongue could wish Alexis Harm:
For thrifty Nature, like a partial Mother,
To form one lovely Image, strips another;
And makes the beauteous Darling of her Breast                                  15
Perfection only, while she starves the rest.
On this gay Youth she lavish’d all her Pride,
Till he, ingrateful, wander’d from her Side:
Then polish’d Art, with her affected Train
Of glitt’ring Shadows, won the cheated Swain;                                      20
Dissimulation roll’d her leering Eyes,
With courteous Knavery, and well-bred Lyes;
Affectation, Pride; a motly Throng;
And smiling Flatt’ry, with her silver Tongue:
These taught those once engaging Eyes to roll,                                     25
And cast Pollution on his tainted Soul.
In his dark Breast tumultuous Passions rise,
Where guilty Flame and smother’d Hatred lies.
Now the chang’d Idiot can his Rhet’ric spend
To praise a Coxcomb, or deceive his Friend.                                          30
His Heart, whence Truths eternal us’d to spring,
Where Honour reign’d as undisputed King,
Is now a Dungeon for the Dregs of Sin.
Deceit, Ingratitude, and Av’rice, now
Have stain’d the Whiteness of his alter’d Brow:                                     35
Not worth our Pity, and below Disdain;
We look with Loathing, and we hear with Pain.

NOTES:

4 purple “Of the colour of blood; bloody” (OED).

11 Gorgonian Malice “Of or pertaining to the malevolence of the three mythical female personages, with snakes for hair, whose look turned the beholder into stone” (OED).

21 Dissimulation “Concealment of what really is, under a feigned semblance of something different; feigning, hypocrisy” (OED).

24 silver Tongue “A tendency to be eloquent and persuasive in speaking” (OED).

30 Coxcomb “A vain, conceited, or pretentious man; a man of ostentatiously affected
mannerisms or appearance; a fop” (OED).

33 Dregs “Residue” (OED).

Source:  Poems Upon Several Occasions (London, 1751), pp. 98-100.  [Hathi Trust]

Edited by Beck Serna

Mary Leapor, “On Sickness”

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MARY LEAPOR

“On Sickness”

 

WHEN Heav’n’s almighty King prepares,
The angry Shaft to throw;
Ev’n Fortitude itself despairs
To bear the deadly Blow.

Cold Tremors shake each fainting Limb,                                  5
That weeps a sickly Dew;
The Features, chang’d to pale and dim,
Resign their cheerful Hue.

No more soft Eloquence shall flow,
Nor dress the silent Tongue;                                               10
But the dull Heart refuse to glow,
Tho’ charm’d by melting Song.

Those laughing Eyes, that lately shone
So sprightly and so gay,
Sunk down with Sickness, faint and wan,                                  15
Decline the piercing Day.

And scarcely bear a cheerful Beam,
To light the drooping Soul;
While round the weak afflicted Brain
Romantick Vapours roll.                                                          20

Deceitful Earth and all its Joys
Elude our grasping Hands:
Tho’ Nature all her Skill employs,
To bind the failing Bands.

Death drives us to the horrid Steep;                                             25
And while we vainly mourn,
He pointing shews th’ unmeasur’d Deep,
From whence we ne’er return.

There the grim Spectre, with a Smile,
His panting Victim fees:                                                             30
Who fain wou’d linger here a while,
To swallow nauseous Lees.

Who Death’s great Empire wou’d dispute,
And hugs the gilded Pill,
Not knowing That his faithful Mute,                                                35
Whose Business is to kill.

The lost, the slipp’ry Hold to save,
To lenient Arts we run;
They cast us headlong on the Wave,
And we are twice undone.                                                          40

The Pow’r who stamp’d the reas’ning Mind,
Its Partner can restore;
There we a lasting Cordial find,
And learn to sigh no more.

But if the slow-consuming Ill                                                               45
Shou’d lead us to the Grave,
Our Faith persuades us that he will
The trembling Spirit save.

O thou, whose Bounty all things taste,
Whose Anger none can bear;                                                        50
Revive the melancholy Breast,
Nor let the Wretch despair.

NOTES:

6 Dew  “Perspiration, sweat” (OED).

8  Hue  “External appearance of the face and skin, complexion,” color (OED).

15 wan  “Lacking light, or lustre” (OED).

20 Romantick “Fantastic, extravagant, quixotic” (OED).

29 Spectre  “An apparition, phantom, or ghost” (OED).

32 Lees  “Basest part, ‘dregs’, ‘refuse’” (OED).

38 lenient Arts Here a reference to gentle, or “soothing” medical practices (OED).

43 Cordial “A medicine, food or beverage which invigorates the heart and stimulates the circulation” (OED).

Source:  Poems Upon Several Occasions (London, 1748), pp. 263-266. [Google Books]  

Edited by Kaitlan Gomez  

Thomas George Ingall, “The Negroe’s Complaint”

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THOMAS GEORGE INGALL

“The Negroe’s Complaint”

The sun had long sunk in the west,
The moon in her splendor shone bright,
The crew had retired to rest,
In their hammocks to pass the long night;

When Oran, but late made a slave,                                                     5
Contriv’d to escape from the hold,
And as he hung o’er the wild wave
He thus did his sorrows unfold.

“With anguish my heart does now bleed,
Thus depriv’d of my liberty sweet,                                              10
To slavery now I’m decreed,
Yet death with more pleasure I’ll meet.

The white man who, thirsting for gold,
Hopes to barter my freedom for gain,
My loss with regret shall be told,                                                         15
And seek me, but seek me in vain.

By the light of the moon still I view
That shore where with freedom I rov’d;
Ye hills and ye vallies adieu!
It was there I met Orra, and lov’d.                                                20

Sweet maid to be from thee thus torn;
My grief is more than I can bear,
My fate is too hard to be born;
I give myself up to despair.

T’was for thee that the leopard I forc’d                                                  25
To rise from the couch where he lay;
T’was for thee that the tiger I cours’d,
That thou with their spoils might’st be gay.

As I follow’d the pard o’er the field,
The men who in ambush where laid,                                             30
Rush’d forth and compell’d me to yield
And in chains to their vessel convey’d.

But sooner than suffer their chain
To death I will chearfully fly,
And free me from sorrow and pain:                                                      35
For Orra alone now I sigh.

To P’Shaphon my god I return,
That spirit which to me he gave;
For freedom and death now I burn:”
So saying, he plung’d in the wave.                                                   40

NOTES:

5 Oran This name likely alludes to a city in present day Algeria, located in North Africa (Encyclopedia Britannica).

20 Orra This name possibly alludes to a female “Indian” (i.e. black, non-slave) character in Charles Dibdin’s comic opera The Islanders (1780). Her lover Yanko, also an “Indian,” is forcibly separated from her.  It may also be a play on the word “orra” which refers to “a person, esp. a servant or laborer” (OED).

23 born “To suffer (pain, hardship, or adversity) without being overcome or overwhelmed” (OED).

26 couch “The lair or den of a wild beast” (OED).

27 cours’d A variant spelling of “coursed” which means “to chase, pursue, run after” (OED).

29 pard “A panther, a leopard” (OED).

37 P’Shaphon “An Indian idol” [Author’s Note].

SOURCE: The Lady’s Magazine, vol. 23 (February, 1792), p. 101.  [Google Books]

Edited by Teresa Diviacchi

Thomas Tickell, “To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison”

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THOMAS TICKELL

“To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison”

 

IF, dumb too long, the drooping muse hath stay’d,
And left her debt to Addison unpaid,
Blame not her silence, Warwick, but bemoan,
And judge, oh judge, my bosom by your own.
What mourner ever felt poetic fires!                                               5
Slow comes the verse that real woe inspires:
Grief unaffected suits but ill with art,
Or flowing numbers with a bleeding heart.
Can I forget the dismal night that gave
My soul’s best part for ever to the grave!                                       10
How silent did his old companions tread,
By mid-night lamps, the mansions of the dead,
Thro’ breathing statues, then unheeded things,
Thro’ rows of warriors, and thro’ walks of kings!
What awe did the slow solemn knell inspire;                                 15
The pealing organ, and the pausing choir;
The duties by the lawn-rob’d prelate paid;
And the last words, that dust to dust convey’d!
While speechless o’er thy closing grave we bend,
Accept these tears, thou dear departed friend,                            20
Oh gone for ever, take this long adieu;
And sleep in peace, next thy lov’d Montagu.
To strew fresh laurels let the task be mine,
A frequent pilgrim, at thy sacred shrine;
Mine with true sighs thy absence to bemoan,                               25
And grave with faithful epitaphs thy stone.
If e’er from me thy lov’d memorial part,
May shame afflict this alienated heart;
Of thee forgetful if I form a song,
My lyre be broken, and untun’d my tongue,                                  30
My grief be doubled from thy image free,
And mirth a torment, unchastis’d by thee.
Oft let me range the gloomy isles alone
Sad luxury! to vulgar minds unknown,
Along the walls where spreading marbles show                           35
What worthies form the hallow’d mould below;
Proud names, who once the reigns of empire held;
In arms who triumph’d; or in arts excell’d;
Chiefs, grac’d with scars, and prodigal of blood;
Stern patriots, who for sacred freedom stood;                              40
Just men, by whom impartial laws were given;
And saints who taught, and led, the way to heav’n;
Ne’er to these chambers, where the mighty rest,
Since their foundation, came a nobler guest;
Nor e’er was to the bow’rs of bliss convey’d                                   45
A fairer spirit or more welcome shade,
In what new region, to the just assign’d,
What new employments please th’ unbody’d mind;
A winged virtue, through the ethereal sky
From world to world unweary’d does he fly?                                  50
Or curious trace the long laborious maze
Of heaven’s decrees, where wond’ring angels gaze?
Does he delight to hear bold seraphs tell
How Michael battl’d, and the dragon fell;
Or mixt with milder cherubim, to glow                                             55
In hymns of love, not ill essay’d below?
Or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind,
A task well suited to thy gentle mind?
Oh ! if sometimes thy spotless form descend;
To me, thy aid, thou guardian genius, lend!                                      60
When rage misguides me, or when fear alarms,
When pain distresses, or when pleasure charms,
In silent whisp’rings purer thoughts impart,
And turn from ill a frail and feeble heart;
Lead through the paths thy virtue trod before,                                 65
Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more.
That awful form, which, so ye heav’ns decree,
Must still be lov’d and still deplor’d by me;
In nightly visions seldom fails to rise,
Or rous’d by fancy, meets my waking eyes.                                        70
If business calls, or crowded courts invite;
Th’ unblemish’d statesman seems to strike my sight;
If in the stage I seek to sooth my care;
I meet his soul which breathes in Cato there;
If pensive to the rural shades I rove;                                                   75
His shape o’ertakes me in the lonely grove:
’Twas there of just and good he reason’d strong,
Clear’d some great truth, or rais’d some serious song:
There patient show’d us the wise course to steer,
A candid censor, and a friend severe;                                                  80
There taught us how to live; and, oh ! too high
The price for knowledge, taught us how to die.
Thou hill, whose brow the antique structures grace,
Rear’d by bold chiefs of Warwick’s noble race.
Why, once so lov’d, when e’er thy bow’r appears,                              85
O’er my dim eye-balls glance the sudden tears!
How sweet were once thy prospects fresh and fair,
Thy sloping walks, and unpolluted air!
How sweet the glooms beneath thy aged trees,
Thy noon tide shadow, and thy ev’ning breeze!                                  90
His image thy forsaken bow’rs restore;
Thy walks and airy prospects charm no more;
No more the summer in thy glooms allay’d,
Thy evening breezes, and thy noon-day shade.
From other ills, however fortune frown’d;                                    95
Some refuge in the muse’s art I found;
Reluctant now I toucht the trembling string
Bereft of him, who taught me how to sing;
And these sad accents, murmur’d o’er his urn,
Betray that absence, they attempt to mourn.                                    100
Oh! must I then, now fresh my bosom bleeds
And Craggs in death to Addison succeeds,
The verse, begun to one lost friend, prolong;
And weep a second in th’ unfinish’d song!
These works divine, which on his death-bed laid                        105
To thee, O Craggs, th’ expiring sage convey’d,
Great, but ill omen’d monument of fame,
Nor he surviv’d to give, nor thou to claim.
Swift after him thy social spirit flies,
And close to his, how soon ! thy coffin lies.                                          110
Blest pair! whose union future bards shall tell
In future tongues: each others boast! farewel,
Farewel! whom join’d in fame in friendship try’d,
No chance could sever, nor the grave divide.

NOTES:

Title The Earl of Warwick Edward Rich, 7th Earl of Warwick (1698-1721), was a British aristocrat and the stepson of Joseph Addison. His early death makes him a relatively unknown historical figure. Warwick and Addison seem to have been estranged for some years preceding Addison’s death, at which point they reunited; Addison Joseph Addison (1672-1719), a leading periodical essayist, dramatist, and poet.

1 dumb Lacking the faculty of speech (OED).

15 knell “The sound made by a bell when struck or rung, esp. when rung slowly and solemnly (as) for a death or at a funeral” (OED).

16 peal “A stroke on or ringing of a bell as a call or summons, esp. to prayer or church” (OED).

17 lawn-rob’d prelate Lawn is an Italian fabric from which the sleeves of a bishop or archbishop’s robe were made (OED).

22 Montagu Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu (1638-1709), was an English noble and evidently a friend of Addison’s who had died a decade earlier.

30 lyre A plucked stringed musical instrument (OED).

32 mirth “Merriment, hilarity, laughter” (OED). 

35 marbles Presumably marble statues of statesmen. 

39 prodigal Extravagant.

45 bower “A dwelling, a habitation; esp. an ideal abode. Now chiefly poetic” (OED).

54 Michael battl’d, and the dragon fell An allusion to Revelation 12:7-8: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,/And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven”; battl’d Emended from “battel’d” in the copy text (printer’s error).

55 Cherubim Plural of cherub, a kind of angel.

70 fancy Creative imagination (OED).

74 Cato Addison wrote Cato, A Tragedy in 1712. It takes its name from Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95-46 BC), an ancient Roman orator, stoic philosopher, and senator known as Cato the Younger who committed suicide as his enemy, Julius Caesar, overthrew the Roman Republic. The play is a sober work on the value of individual liberty and republicanism.

80 censor A person who exercises supervision or judgement over the conduct or morals of others (OED).

98 Bereft Lacking.

102 Craggs James Craggs the Younger (1686-1721), an English statesman who died a few months before Addison.

SOURCE: The Works of the most celebrated Minor Poets. Volume the Second. Containing the Works of George Stepney, Esq; William Walsh, Esq; Thomas Tickell, Esq. (London, 1749), pp. 237-240. [ECCO]

Edited by John Lisovsky

John Hoy, Junior, “Delia’s Farewel, An Elegy”

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JOHN HOY, JUNIOR

“DELIA’s FAREWEL, An Elegy”

 

Once more, O Muses! ere you leave this grove,
Awake the strain, but sing in accents new:
DELIA no more attends the tale of love,
Such love as flows from DAMON or from you.

But tune to nobler themes the heav’nly lyre,                                        5
And, unreprov’d, the darling strain prolong;
Swell the big note with Friendship’s sacred fire,
Or sound in DELIA’s ear the moral song.

Alas! alas! Love’s subtle lurking flame,
Which feeble Reason never can control,                                       10
Kindles anew at DELIA’s long lov’d name,
And fills again, and warms my raptur’d soul.

In ev’ry tender tie to Friendship known,
In all the kind endearments Love affords,
How many years together we have grown,                                          15
Ye Muses know, and still your song records.

My song was DELIA’s praise when first I lov’d,
And DELIA listen’d to the tender strain;
Yes, DELIA listen’d! and my song approv’d,
Nor scorn’d the passion of a simple swain.                                   20

‘Twas DELIA’s love inspir’d the early song,
And kindled rapture in my infant breast:–
Alas! why could I not the strain prolong?
Ah! why has Heav’n forbid me to be blest?

Fond wish! I hop’d to call young DELIA mine;                                         25
But, ah! can wishes thwart eternal fate?
Would mortals regulate the deep design
Of Heav’n, presiding wisely o’er our state?

Now DELIA’s gone! and each dejected muse,
In sullen sounds, the absent nymph deplores:                                30
The sad remembrance of my loss renews,
Where ev’ry scene her memory restores.

Methinks I see her still in virgin charms —
Such as no more these faded eyes shall view;
Such as no more shall raise the soft alarms,                                            35
And Love’s sweet passion in my breast renew.

Can I forget those soft enchanting smiles?
Those cordial looks beam’d from the inmost soul?
Those gentle offices, and friendly toils,
With which she strove my sorrows to control?                                 40

How oft, O DELIA! has thy tender care
Giv’n to my sense of pain a kind relief?
How oft thy sympathy repress’d despair,
And wip’d the drops from my pale cheek of grief?

(Thy pity still I claim, for still ’tis dear,                                                         45
And Pity, sure, is due to misery!
Ah! shall one sigh, or shall one tender tear,
Be deem’d too much to DAMON’s memory?)

Oft as I watch’d the lonely midnight hour,
Each black idea fled when thou wast nigh :                                        50
No more I languish’d for the balmy pow’r;
And Night’s dull wheels roll’d swifter o’er the sky.

But now, alas! the melancholy scene
(How chang’d!) presents me with a dreary waste,
Save where my absent friend, by fancy seen,                                            55
Augments the horrors of my tortur’d breast.

I blame not DELIA:– DELIA’s soul was kind: —
‘Twas envious Fortune tore my love away: —
But still thou’rt here, and from my sadden’d mind
My DELIA’s image never shall decay.                                                   60

I saw what anguish swell’d her gentle breast,
What horrors shook her when she slow withdrew;
What load of grief her fainting voice supprest,
When Fate oblig’d her to pronounce,–Adieu !

Thrice o’er her face the waving crimson spread,                                        65
And thrice her visage chang’d to deadly pale;
Her speech forsook her when she wou’d have said,
“Farewel, ye groves! and, DAMON, O farewel!”

Ah! then, what anguish tore my bursting heart!
Scarce could my breast its tide of grief control,                                   70
When, beam’d tremendous, like a mortal dart,
Her parting look transfix’d me to the soul.

Less cruel pangs had pierc’d my wounded breast,
Had Fate’s dread mandate stopt thy vital breath;
Less had I griev’d to see my DELIA drest                                                       75
In all the sad and awful pomp of death.

I then a pleasing melancholy joy
Had felt, to wander near my DELIA’s tomb;
To press the turf where her dear dust should lie,
And tell my woes to Night’s surrounding gloom.                                 80

Quick Fancy, fir’d, should mount th’ etherial height,
And view the lovely maid, my DELIA there,
Array’d in robes for mortal eyes too bright,
Alive, immortal, more divinely fair!

But now I see the idol of my soul                                                                  85
For ever ravish’d from my longing arms,
Another’s joy to share, his griefs control; —
–Another’s raptures kindle at her charms!

My deep distresses all relief refuse:
Ev’n gentle STREPHON’s friendship is in vain,                                     90
Tho’ to his aid he call th’ inspiring muse,
And cheer his DAMON with the rural strain.

In vain, to soothe the troubles of my breast,
Fair Science opens all her copious store ;
Soft magic song no more can give me rest,                                                  95
And wit and genius charm my soul no more.

No more bold MILTON, on the car of morn,
Whirls my rapt soul above th’ etherial sphere,
Where fiery seraphs fierce for combat burn,
While front to front the shadowy hosts draw near.                            100

In vain great SHAKESPEARE, taught of Heav’n alone,
Unfolds the scene of Nature to my view: —
Fly! magic pictures! and, with DELIA gone,
Farewel the ecstasy which once I knew!

Perhaps the lenient hand of Time may ease                                               105
The lively sense of grief which now I feel,
That peace restore which makes ev’n sorrow please,
And wipes the gall from keen affliction’s steel.

If not, — should ev’ry other refuge fail,
O Death! thou still remain’st to give relief: —                                        110
In vain thy all-composing pow’rs assail
The frowns of Fortune, and the stings of grief.

To thee, O melancholy pow’r! I call;
To thee, with hasty steps, impatient fly: —
O grant a shelter in thy dusky hall,                                                                 115
To me the child of pain and misery!

NOTES:

1 Muses “In greek mythology each of the nine goddesses regarded as presiding over and inspiring learning and the arts, esp. poetry and music” (OED).

20 swain “A country gallant or lover” (OED).

51 balmy “Deliciously soft and soothing” (OED).

65 crimson “Of or relating to blood; sanguinary” (OED).

76 pomp “Splendid display or celebration; magnificent show or ceremony” (OED).

94 Science “Knowledge or understanding acquired by study; acquaintance with or mastery of any branch of learning” (OED).

97 No “Mo” emended to “No” (printer’s error); MILTON John Milton (1608–1674), poet and polemicist; the following lines in this stanza appear to reference Paradise Lost (1667).

99 seraphs Angels.

101 SHAKESPEARE, taught of Heav’n alone Shakespeare was considered a “natural genius” in this period, a notion popularized by Joseph Addison in Spectator no. 160 (1711).

SOURCE:  Poems on Various Subjects (Edinburgh, 1781), pp. 52-57. [Google Books]

Edited by Yesenia Rodriguez

Rev. Anthony Freston, “The Poet’s Farewell to his Muse”

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REV. ANTHONY FRESTON

“The Poet’s Farewell to his Muse”

 

FAREWELL sweet Muse, that oft in slipshod guise
Hast led astray my song-enraptur’d soul;
Oft call’d me forth beneath the Moon’s pale rise,
Or turn’d my wrapt eye to the starry pole.

IN giddy youth by partial friends misled,                                     5
I trod (adventurous wight) poetic ground;
But soon the green bay wither’d on my head,
I got five shillings, and I lost five pound.

NO longer can the Bard a patron find,
Poor Merit, now neglected, droops, I cried;                                         10
False-flattering Fancy fill’d my feeble mind,
And what I took for merit was but pride.

PRIDE led me on to snatch poetic fame,
To crop with daring hand Parnassian bays;
T’intrude with Dryden’s and with Pope’s my name,                             15
And live to future times in living lays.

TO climb the summit of cold Haemus’ hill,
“Of antique Bards the arduous steps to try;”
And largely quaffing the Pierian rill,
Meet the keen glances of the public eye.                                               20

BUT sober Reason now resumes her reign,
Tells me ‘tis better far to read than write;
One may reap pleasure, t’other must bear pain,
The world’s neglect, the critic’s ranc’rous spite:

ENVY that pines at merit not her own,                                            25
Low purse-proud Ignorance’ consequential sneer;
Exalted Meanness frowning into stone,
The grin of Folly, and the gibe severe.

FAREWELL sweet Muse, henceforth beguile no more,
No Critic “hangs me on his turn’d-up nose;”                                            30
No flattering gale shall tempt me from the shore,
Or lure me from the land of humble prose.

NOTES:

1 slipshod “Untidy” (OED).

4 starry pole “The polestar […] a guiding light” (OED).

6 wight An archaic term for a human being (OED).

7 green bay The bay laurel. In classical antiquity, its leaves were “woven into a wreath or garland to reward a conqueror or poet” (OED).

11 Fancy “The process, and the faculty, of forming mental representations of things not present to the senses; fancy and imagination […] are commonly distinguished: fancy being used to express aptitude for the invention of illustrative or decorative imagery, while imagination is the power of giving to ideal creations the inner consistency of realities” (OED).

14 Parnassian bays Symbolic of poetic excellence. In ancient Greece, Mount Parnassus was “the source of literary, esp. poetic, inspiration” as well the home of the Muses (OED).

15 Dryden John Dryden (1631-1700), English poet, dramatist, and essayist; Pope Alexander Pope (1688-1744), English poet and critic (Encyclopedia Britannica).

16 living lays That is, his published poetry.

17 Haemus’ hill The Balkan Mountains, known during the classical period by the Latin name, Haemus Mons (Encyclopedia Britannica).

18 try “Contracta sequi vestigia vatum. The word contracta has singular force and beauty: it brings to our view the shortened and careful steps of those who walk in dangerous, narrow, and slippery paths” [Author’s note].  Possibly also an allusion to lines in Pope’s Essay on Criticism (1711): “Hear how learn’d Greece her useful rules indites, / When to repress, and when indulge our flights: / High on Parnassus’ top her sons she show’d, / And pointed out those arduous paths they trod; / Held from afar, aloft, th’ immortal prize, / And urg’d the rest by equal steps to rise” (ll. 91-95).

19 Pierian rill Variation of “Pierian spring,” a metaphorical source of knowledge sacred to the Greek Muses.

28 gibe Alternate spelling of “jibe,” a taunt, flout, or jeer (OED).

30 “hangs me on his turn’d up nose” Unable to trace this as a quotation; to turn one’s nose up at something is to be disdainful or scornful of it.

SOURCE:  Poems on Several Subjects (London, 1787), pp. 80-82. [Google Books]

Edited by Michael Shufro

William Whitehead, “The Enthusiast. An Ode”

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William Whitehead

“The Enthusiast. An Ode”

 

Once, I remember well the day,
‘Twas ere the blooming sweets of May
Had lost their freshest hues,
When every flower on every hill,
In every vale, had drank its fill                                                 5
Of sun-shine, and of dews.

In short, ‘twas that sweet season’s prime
When Spring gives up the reins of time
To Summer’s glowing hand,
And doubting mortals hardly know                                        10
By whose command the breezes blow
Which fan the smiling land.

‘Twas then beside a green-wood shade
Which cloath’d a lawn’s aspiring head
I urg’d my devious way,                                                      15
With loitering steps regardless where,
So soft, so genial was the air,
So wond’rous bright the day.

And now my eyes with transport rove
O’er all the blue expanse above,                                                20
Unbroken by a cloud!
And now beneath delighted pass,
Where winding through the deep-green grass
A full-brim’d river flow’d.

I stop, I gaze; in accents rude                                                      25
To thee, serenest Solitude,
Bursts forth th’ unbidden lay;
Begone, vile world; the learn’d, the wise,
The great, the busy I despise,
And pity ev’n the gay.                                                            30

These, these are joys alone, I cry;
‘Tis here, divine Philosophy,
Thou deign’st to fix thy throne!
Here Contemplation points the road
Thro’ Nature’s charms to Nature’s God!                                     35
These, these are joys alone!

Adieu, ye vain low-thoughted cares,
Ye human hopes, and human fears,
Ye pleasures, and ye pains! —-
While thus I spake o’er all my soul                                               40
A philosophic calmness stole,
A Stoic stillness reigns.

The tyrant passions all subside,
Fear, anger, pity, shame and pride
No more my bosom move;                                                   45
Yet still I felt, or seem’d to feel
A kind of visionary zeal
Of universal love.

When lo! a voice! a voice I hear!
‘Twas Reason whisper’d in my ear                                               50
These monitory strains:
What mean’st thou, man? would’st thou unbind
The ties which constitute thy kind,
The pleasures and the pains?

The same Almighty Power unseen,                                              55
Who spreads the gay or solemn scene
To Contemplation’s eye,
Fix’d every movement of the soul,
Taught every wish its destin’d goal,
And quicken’d every joy.                                                         60

He bids the tyrant passions rage,
He bids them war eternal wage,
And combat each his foe:
Till from dissentions concords rise,
And beauties from deformities,                                                    65
And happiness from woe.

Art thou not man, and dar’st thou find
A bliss which leans not to mankind?
Presumptuous thought, and vain!
Each bliss unshar’d is unenjoy’d,                                                  70
Each power is weak, unless employ’d
Some social good to gain.

Shall light, and shade, and warmth, and air,
With those exalted joys compare
Which active virtue feels,                                                        75
When on she drags, as lawful prize,
Contempt, and Indolence, and Vice,
At her triumphant wheels.

As rest to labour still succeeds,
To man, while Virtue’s glorious deeds                                         80
Employ his toilsome day,
This fair variety of things
Are merely life’s refreshing springs
To sooth him on his way.

Enthusiast go, unstring thy lyre,                                                   85
In vain thou sing’st if none admire,
How sweet soe’er the strain.
And is not thy o’erflowing mind,
Unless thou mixest with thy kind,
Benevolent in vain?                                                                 90

Enthusiast go; try every sense,
If not thy bliss, thy excellence
Thou yet hast learn’d to scan;
And least thy wants, thy weakness know;
And see them all uniting show                                                     95
That man was made for man.

 NOTES:

Title Enthusiast “One who vainly imagines a private revelation; one of a hot imagination, or violent passions” (Johnson).

15 devious “Following a winding or erratic course; rambling, roving” (OED).

25 accents “The way in which anything is said or sung; a modulation or modification of voice expressing feeling” (OED); rude “Artless; inelegant” (Johnson).

37 low-thoughted Thought lowly of; pointless or worthless.

40 spake Archaic past tense of “speak.”

42 Stoic “Greek school of philosophy; one who practices repression of emotion, indifference to pleasure or pain, and patient endurance” (OED).

51 monitory “Conveying a warning” (OED).

Source: Poems on Several Occasions, with the Roman Father, A Tragedy (London, 1754) pp. 87-91. [Google Books]

Edited by Elyot Cotter

Stephen Duck, “On Two Young Ladies leaving the Country”

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STEPHEN DUCK

“On Two Young Ladies leaving the Country”

 

SAY, lovely Nymphs! who fly from rural Sweets,
To noisy Crowds, thick Air, and smoaky Streets,
Do Balls, or Plays, your graceful Steps invite?
Can Balls, or Plays, like Richmond Groves, delight?
No tuneful PHILOMEL, in Town, complains,                                                            5
To charm your list’ning Ear with vary’d Strains;
No fragrant Gales refresh the sick’ning Fields,
No chearful flow’ry Scenes the City yields:
But Mists, and lambent Fogs, where-e’er you pass,
Shall cloud the Graces, that adorn your Face;                                                         10
While those bright Eyes, like sully’d Gems, appear,
Or Stars, just glimm’ring thro’ the dusky Air.

NOR will you only Change of Beauty find;
Illusive Scenes will mock your pensive Mind:
In cloudless Mornings, when you’ve drank your Tea,                                             15
And read a Page in SHERLOCK, or in —– GAY;
Perhaps your Thoughts, transported, here may rove,
And, to your Mind, present the blissful Grove:
You’ll think to walk by silver Thames’s Shore;
Or trace the verdant Mead, as heretofore:                                                               20
When at the Door, the rural Vision flies,
Smoak, Coaches, Fops, and Carmen meets your Eyes:
Straight back you’ll turn, vex’d with the fruitless Search;
Bid ROBERT call a Chair, and go to Church.

NOTES:

4 Richmond Groves In the early eighteenth century, Richmond upon Thames was still considered a rural retreat from London, offering open spaces, groves of trees, and prospects from Richmond Hill.

5 PHILOMEL “A poetic or literary name for the nightingale (in allusion to the myth of the maiden Philomela’s transformation into that bird)” (OED).

9 lambent “Playing lightly upon or gliding over a surface” (OED).

16 SHERLOCK William Sherlock (c. 1641-1707), Anglican clergyman and religious writer, his A Practical Discourse Concerning Death (1689) went to many editions in the eighteenth century; GAY John Gay (1685-1732), poet and dramatist.

20 verdant Green-hued (OED).

22 Fops Foolish and vain persons, typically applied to men (OED); Carmen “Member of a Company of the City of London concerned with transportation” (OED).

24 ROBERT The Footman [Author’s note]; Chair “An enclosed chair or covered vehicle for one person, carried on poles by two men; a sedan” (OED).

Source: Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1736), pp. 158-59.  [Google Books]

Edited by Clementine Johnson

Susanna Blamire, “Hope”

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SUSANNA BLAMIRE

 “Hope”

 

SEE, from yonder hill descending,
Hope, with all her train attending!
“Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles;”
Fancies light that tread on air,                                                                          5
Building fairy castles there;
Aeolus his harp new stringing,
Tuning to the breezes singing;
Zeph’rus sweeping softest chords;
Fancy setting airs to words;                                                                              10
Words that seem another sound,
And lighter than a breath are found.
Here Morpheus comes, a wandering guest,
By plaintive murmurs lull’d to rest;
Round him painted vapours stream,                                                              15
Weaving soft the chequer’d dream,
Which on silken wings they spread,
Shaking o’er his drowsy head;
Subtile fumes waft round the brain,
And fan these joys so light and vain,                                                               20
Which soft slumber loves to dress
In long robes of happiness.
See where come the dancing Hours,
Sprinkling Hope’s gay path with flowers;
“Thyme that loves the brown hill’s side,”                                                        25
Heath in lasting colours dyed;
Feathery sprays that softly blow,
And load the sweet gales as they go
Unheeded,—though the scented air
Fragrance steals we know not where.                                                             30
Sweet Hope! lightly dost thou tread,
Bending not the weak flower’s head;
Watching every changeful scene,
Sliding gilded shows between
Where new prospects open still,                                                                     35
Rising fair behind the hill.
‘Tis true stern Reason scorns thy sway,
Nor basks beneath thy sunny ray;
Nor hears thy accents clear and sweet,
Where sprightly airs and softness meet,                                                        40
Mixing with harmonic chords,
Pouring melody on words.
Nor will his fix’d eye deign to glance
On the mirthful mazy dance,
When the Hours, all hand in hand,                                                                  45
Link with thee, a jocund band;
When thy white robes float on air,
Catching rays that tremble there,
Tinted with the varying beam,
Ending in prismatic stream.                                                                              50
On thy head a wreath of flowers
Nods in time to dancing Hours,
Feathery-footed, trim, and light,
Flitting round from morn till night;
From morn till night, thou gaily leads                                                              55
Through dark green woods and painted meads,
With rose-ting’d cheeks, and clear blue eye
Looking through another sky,
Till we reach th’ enamell’d lawn
Round which a river journeys on,                                                                    60
Where many a bridge is taught to please
Gothic eyes, or gay Chinese,
Thrown in every point of view
Arch can add a beauty to,
While here and there an ashling weaves                                                        65
Verdant knots of summer leaves.
Now we reach thy mansion high,
Spiral turrets climb the sky,
Gilding clouds of varied light,
Changing underneath the sight.                                                                       70
See what crowds surround the gate,
See what Expectations wait;
And, running out, surround their queen,
Ask all at once where she has been ;
And if the promis’d Hours were found                                                           75
With Elysian garlands crown’d;
Or if yet she’d leave to tell
Where true Happiness would dwell;
Or yet had seen the promis’d Day
When Expectation, grave or gay,                                                                     80
In happy, blissful bands should be
United into Certainty.
She sweetly smil’d, and wav’d her hand,
At which a specious flattering band
(Quick through the ear their credence reaches)                                            85
Bow’d round, —and, full of soothing speeches
Declar’d the Hours would soon appear;
Then, whispering softly in the ear,
Taught smiles along the cheek to glow,
As if those Hours they well did know.                                                              90
Ye Promises! ye Flatterers vain!
That dress out Hope and varnish Pain,
And make the dullest things appear
Of shining surface, smooth and clear;
Handing the cup to Hope’s sweet lip,                                                               95
Of which we guests so fondly sip,
While seeing all the bottom shine,
Ne’er think there’s poison in the wine:—
Dark Lethe’s cup each grief subdues,
That used on former joys to muse;                                                                  100
For to Hope’s enchanted dome
Dreaded Ills dare never come;
Not one mask’d Sorrow can you see
In all her court of revelry: —
What though ye pull the careless sleeve,                                                       105
And would tempt us to believe
These noon-joys are waning fast,
Form’d only for an hour to last;
Hence, miscreants!—let me, while I may,
Enjoy the gewgaws of my day.                                                                         110
Descend, sweet Hope, from thy bright throne
Glittering with each precious stone,—
Rubies red, and sapphires blue,
Amethysts of purple hue,
Topazes of sun-like blaze,                                                                                 115
And diamonds with their thousand rays;
Descend! and mount yon hill with me,
There let me opening prospects see,
Which, step by step, shall fairer grow
The while as fades this scene below.                                                               120
Forests of immortal oak;
Rocks by tumbling torrents broke;
“Shallow brooks, and rivers wide,
Verdant meads, with daisies pied;”
Distant cities, large and proud;                                                                         125
Mountains dim, that seem a cloud;
Castles high, that live on hills;
Little cots, that seek the rills;
Upland grounds, where flocks are seen
Mixing white with darkest green;                                                                     130
What! though painted on the air,
Still they look serene and fair.
Though my foot be left to tread
Barren heaths with brambles spread,
Yet if thou check one falling tear,                                                                     135
Or bathe the eye till it grow clear,
I’ll freely pardon all thy wiles,
And fancy good in all thy smiles;
Still pleas’d to find the ills we dread
Thy fairy wing can overspread;                                                                        140
And though thy promises deceive,
Bless my kind stars that I believe;
Thy cranks and wiles who would not see!
For happy they who doubt not thee.

NOTES:

3 Quips, and cranks “A sharp, sarcastic, or cutting remark, esp. one cleverly or wittily phrased” (OED).

3-4 A quotation from John Milton’s “L’Allegro,” ll. 27-28.

7 Aeolus  Greek keeper of the winds, and king of the island of Aeolia.  His musical instrument was a harp played by the winds instead of human hands (OED).

9 Zeph’rus Greek god of the West Wind (OED).

13 Morpheus Greek god associated with sleep and dreams; in Ovid’s Metamorphosis he is the son of Sleep (OED).

19 Subtile Variant spelling of “subtle” (OED).

25 A variant quotation from John Langhorne’s “Owen of Carron:” “With thyme that loves the brown hill’s breast,” l. 105 (The Poetical Works of J. Langhorne, D. D. with the Life of the Author [London, (1789?) ], p. 104).

44 mazy “Giddy, dizzy, confused” (OED).

46 jocund “Feeling, expressing, or communicating mirth or cheerfulness” (OED).

50 prismatic “Brightly colored, colorful, brilliant” (OED).

56 painted meads Meadows, bright and picturesque (OED).

62 Gothic “Belonging to, or characteristic of, the Middle Ages; mediæval, ‘romantic’, as opposed to classical. A style of architecture”; Chinese From Chinoiserie, “a Western decorative style, popular in the 18th century, that drew from Chinese forms, motifs and sometimes techniques,” and which was part of a trend of Orientalist architecture (OED).

65 ashling A young ash tree (OED).

76 Elysian “Relating to Elysium, an imagined, idyllic place often identified with Pastoral poetry; indicates Pastoral qualities” (OED).

99 Dark Lethe’s cup  “In Greek mythology Lethe is a river within Hades, whose water, when drunk, produces forgetfulness” (OED).

110 gewgaws  “A gaudy trifle, plaything, or ornament, a pretty thing of little value, a toy or bauble” (OED).

118 prospects “The view (of a landscape, etc.) afforded by a particular location or position; a vista; an extensive or commanding range of sight” (OED).

123-124 A quotation from John Milton’s “L’Allegro,” ll. 75-76.

124 with daisies pied Daisies multiplied.

128 Little cots A small house, a little cottage, now chiefly poetical, and connoting smallness and humbleness; rills A small stream, a rivulet, or a brook (OED).

SOURCE: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (Edinburgh, 1842), pp. 148-153. [HathiTrust]

Edited by Emily Nicol

Anonymous, “Verses occasion’d by a Horse’s biting a Lady’s Breast”

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ANONYMOUS

“Verses occasion’d by a Horse’s biting a Lady’s Breast”

 

See how unlimited is Beauty’s Sway!
An Ass once spoke (as antient Records say)
Charm’d with an Angel offer’d to his View,
The Story’s strange, but we must swear ‘tis true—
—I deal in Wonders of a merrier Kind,                                                   5
Not done by Angels, but by Woman-kind.
Nothing unnatural shall here accrue,
The Story’s strange, but not more strange than true,
—A Horse (descended from a long-told Race
Of well-bred Hunters, whom no Vice disgrace)                                     10
For Beauty fam’d, in Speed out strip’d by none,
A Creature fit to mount a Goddess on;
This Horse a mighty Favourite became
To a most Noble, Puissant, Princely Dame,
Illustrious for her Titles, Beauty, Fame;                                                      15
Pleas’d oft she’d tell his well-descended Race,
Smooth his fine Neck, his Main in Ringlets trace,
Nor lies the Muse who sings she kiss’d his Face.
He by those dear repeated Favours fir’d,
By the warm Stroaks of her soft Hand inspir’d,                                      20
Conceiv’d (strange of a Horse to tell) a Flame
For his fond Lady—and who dare him blame,
Or who so kindly us’d, but must have had the same—
—His Love unable longer to suppress,
He furiously the charming D——s press’d,                                              25
And mark’d his Kisses on her bleeding breast—
—She frighten’d at the Creature’s rude Embrace,
Scream’d out for Aid, and fled the dangerous Place—
Away the disappointed Horse was led,
He neigh’d aloud, and wanton turn’d his Head—                                  30
—The D——s sigh’d, and went alone to Bed—
Which Tale’s most nat’ral, which most hits your Taste,
Which does in Beauty, which in Sense surpass,
B————d the Angel, or the Horse the Ass?

NOTES:

2-3 An Ass once spoke . . . View  These lines allude to a portion of a biblical story in Numbers 22. Balaam, riding his donkey, is blocked three times by an angel as he tries to follow the princes of Moab. Balaam cannot see the angel, and beats his donkey when she balks. Finally, she is given the ability to speak and asks what she has done to deserve the three beatings. He threatens to kill her, but the angel reveals himself, and rebukes Balaam (Numbers 22: 21-34).

10 Hunters  Horses trained to be used for foxhunting.

14 Puissant  “Possessed of or wielding power; having great authority or influence” (OED).

17 Main  Variant spelling of “mane”: the hair flowing from a horse’s crest, or top of the neck.

25 D——s  Probably “Duchess” (see note to line 34 below).

34 B——–d  Possibly a reference to Diana Russell (nee Spencer) (1710-1735).  She was known for her beauty in this period, but did not become Duchess of Bedford until October 1732.  The poet may be taking the liberty of referring to her future title knowing that her husband was the sole heir to the Bedford dukedom (Massey, The First Lady Diana).

SOURCE:  Gentleman’s Magazine (vol. 2, March 1732), p. 672.  [Google Books]

Edited by Elizabeth Eckert