Where Guilt her foul contagion spreads,
And golden spoils allure,
Unspotted still your garments shine,—
Your hands are ever pure.
Whene'er you touch the poet's lyre
A loftier strain is heard;
Each ardent thought is yours alone,
And every burning word.
Yours is the large expansive thought,
The high heroic deed;
Exile and chains to you are dear,
To you 'tis sweet to bleed.
You lift on high the warning voice,
When public ills prevail;
Yours is the writing on the wall,
That turns the tyrant pale.
The dogs of hell your steps pursue,
With scoff and shame and loss;
The hemlock bowl 'tis yours to drain,
To taste the bitter cross.
E'en yet the steaming scaffolds smoke
By Seine's polluted stream;
With your rich blood the fields are drench'd
Where Polish sabres gleam.
E'en now, through those accursed bars
In vain we send our sighs,
Where, deep in Olmutz' dungeon glooms,
The patriot martyr lies.
Yet yours is all, through History's rolls
The kindling bosom feels;
And at your tomb, with throbbing heart,
The fond enthusiast kneels.
In every faith, through every clime,
Your pilgrim steps we trace;
And shrines are dress'd, and temples rise,
Each hallow'd spot to grace:
And pæans loud, in every tongue,
And choral hymns resound;
And lengthening honours hand your name
To time's remotest bound.
Proceed! your race of glory run,
Your virtuous toils endure!
You come, commission'd from on high,
And your reward is sure.
QUEEN of every moving measure!
Sweetest source of purest pleasure!
Music! why thy powers employ
Only for the sons of Joy?
Only for the smiling guests
At natal or at nuptial feasts?
Rather thy lenient numbers pour
On those whom secret griefs devour;
Bid be still the throbbing hearts
Of those whom Death or Absence parts;
And with some softly whisper'd air
Smooth the brow of dumb Despair.
Subject proposed. Invocation of May. Description of her: her operations on Nature. Bounty recommended: in par. ticular at this season. Vernal apostrophe. Love the ruling passion in May. The celebration of Venus her birthday in this month. Rural retirement in spring. Conclusion.
ETHEREAL daughter of the lusty Spring
And sweet Favonius, ever gentle May!
Shall I, unblamed, presume of thee to sing,
And with thy living colours gild my lay?
Thy genial spirit mantles in my brain;
My numbers languish in a softer vein :
I pant, too emulous, to flow in Spenser's strain.
Say, mild Aurora of the blooming year,
With storms when Winter blackens Nature's face;
When whirling winds the howling forest tear,
And shake the solid mountains from their base;
Say, what refulgent chambers of the sky
Veil thy beloved glories from the eye,
For which the nations pine, and Earth's fair children die?
Where Leda's twins*, forth from their diamond
Alternate, o'er the Night their beams divide;
In light embosom'd, happy, and secure
From Winter rage, thou choosest to abide.
Bless'd residence! for there, as poets tell,
The powers of Poetry and Wisdom dwell*;
Apollo wakes the Arts; the Muses strike the shell.
Certest o'er Rhedicyna's laurel'd mead,
(For ever spread, ye laurels green and new!)
The brother stars their gracious nurture shed,
And secret blessings of poetic dew.
They bathe their horses in the learned flood,
With flame recruited for the' ethereal road;
And deem fair Isis' swans + fair as their father god.
No sooner April, trimm'd with girlands gay,
Rains fragrance o'er the world,and kindly showers;
But, in the eastern pride of beauty, May,
To gladden Earth, forsakes her heavenly bowers,
Restoring Nature from her palsied state.
April, retire; ne || longer, Nature, wait:
Soon may she issue from the Morning's golden gate.
Come, bounteous May! in fulness of thy might,
Lead briskly on the mirth-infusing hours,
All recent from the bosom of delight,
With nectar nurtured, and involved in flowers:
By Spring's sweet blush, by Nature's teeming
By Hebè's dimply smile, by Flora's bloom: [womb;
By Venus'self (for Venus' self demands thee) come!
By the warm sighs, in dewy eventide,
Of melting maidens, in the woodbine groves,
To pity loosen'd, soften'd down from pride;
By billing turtles, and by cooing doves;
The Gemini are supposed to preside over learned men. See Pontanus, in his beautiful poem called Urania. Lib. 2. De Gemini.
Ibid. Rhedicyna, Oxford. Jupiter deceived Leda in the shape of a swan, as she was bathing herself in the river Eurotas. || Nor.
By the youths' plainings stealing on the air (For youths will plain, though yielding be the fair), Hither, to bless the maidens and the youths, re
With dew bespangled, by the hawthorn buds,
With freshness breathing, by the daisied plains,
By the mix'd music of the warbling woods,
And jovial roundelays* of nymphs and swains;
In thy full energy and rich array,
Delight of earth and heaven, O blessed May! From heaven descend to earth: on earth vouchsafe to stay.
She comes!-a silken camus †, emerald green,
Gracefully loose, adown her shoulders flows
(Fit to enfold the limbs of Paphos' queen),
And with the labours of the needle glows,
Purfled by Nature's hand! The amorous air
And musky western breezes fast repair,
Her mantle proud to swell, and wanton with her
Her hair (but rather threads of light it seems),
With the gay honours of the Spring entwined,
Copious, unbound, in nectar'd ringlets streams,
Floats glittering on the sun, and scents the wind,
Lovesick with odours!-Now to order roll'd,
It melts upon her bosom's dainty mould,
Or, curling round her waist, disparts its wavy gold.
Young circling roses, blushing, round them throw
The sweet abundance of their purple rays,
And lilies, dipp'd in fragrance, freshly blow,
With blended beauties in her angel face.
Flourished with a needle.
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