Then when foft ideas rife,

And the gay defires grow ftrong; Let them fparkle in thy eyes,

Let them murmur from thy tongue.
To my breaft with rapture cling,
Look with tranfport on my face;
Kifs me, prefs mc, ev'ry thing

To endear the fond embrace.
Ev'ry tender name of love,
In foft whispers let me hear;
And let fpeaking nature prøve
Ev'ry extacy fincere.

-524

CELIA, too late you wou'd repent:

The offering all your ftore, Is now but like a pardon fent

To one that's dead before.

While at the firft you cruel prov'd,
And grant the blifs too late,
You hinder me of one I lov'd,
To give me one I hate.

I thought you innocent as fair,
When firft my court I made;
But when falfhoods plain appear,
My love no longer flay'd.

Your bounty of thefe favours shown,
Whofe worth you first deface,
Is melting valu'd medals down,
And giving us the brass.

O! fince the thing we beg's a toy,
That's priz'd by love alone,
Why cannot women grant the joy,
Before the love is gone?

Not all the bloom of smiling May
Can charm fo much as you.

Where'er you tread, the warblers fweet
Melodious fill the grove;

And fmiling nature feems to greet
The prefence of my love.
But blafted ev'ry flow'r appears,

When you forfake these plains;
No grove the feather'd ftongfter chears,
In fweet mellifluous ftrains.
Come, dearest Nancy! come and Bay!
From you my joys arife;

Your face gives brightness to the day,
And luftre to the skies.

For you I figh, and waste my prime;
Then hafte, and let us prove,
That rolling years, and fleeting time,
Are far too short for love.

CYPRIAN

526

goddefs, take the lyre, Attune yourself each trembling string; My judgment guide, my fancy fire, With lovely Rachel s charms I fing. Let others boaft a beauteous face,

A fhape, a neck, a graceful air;
Good-fenfe and prudence give her grace,
These make her more than blooming fair.
Benevolence, that heav'n born pow'r, ·
Her words and all her actions guide;
'Tis this that claims each leifure hour,
This conftitutes her only pride.
Ye fair-ones hence a truth confefs,

No charms with virtue can compare;
Be cautious when the beaux adress.
When mifery fues, his forrows fhate.
Then, like my Rachel, you will be
Beyond the reach of flattery's lore;
Inconilancy will bend the knee,
And wond'ring infidels adore.

COM

527

COME, my Sylvia! come and bless
This fpot, which I have toil'd to dress
all that chaims the gazer's eye,
In ev'ry tint that wears a dye.

In peace we'll dwell, and placid cafe,
We'll do whatever each fhall please;
Free as the feas our fenfes roll,
And speak a boundless, fluent foul.
Nor time fhall waft our love away,
Swift as the threads of life decay;
Ech gale that flirts the hours along,
Shall bring fresh wreathes to deck, our fong.
From virtue's sweets, that never cloy;
From rural scenes, extatic joy!
Or turn the mind-inftructing page,
And learn to live a good old age.

528
COME Phœbus, and tune thy foft lyre;
Ye mufes, come join in the long ;
While Celia the theme fhall infpire,
The fairest of all the gay throng;
The goddefs of virtue and grace,

The queen of all beauty and charms;
'Tis tranfport to gaze on her face,
'Tis heaven to reft in her arms.
O could I charm Pluto's dull ears,
Like Orpheus of old, with my lay,
Or with Milton foar up to the spheres,
I then might her merits difplay:
While her charms I attempt to rehearse,
A field fo unbounded doth rife,
The fubject's too great for my verse,
I fink, and am loft with surprize.
Urania, my bofom inspire,

My genius enlarge it's degrees,

To the height that my theme doth require,
Tho' I am not the criticks to please.
Tis Celia, the theme of my ftrain,
Whose plaudits I only can prize.

Could I but her favor obtain,
Let envy my fonnets defpife.

530

LOVELY maid! fair beauty's pride,
Do not thus my blifs denyi
Ceafe, my tender love, to chide;
Why fo cruel, Daphne, why? /
Kindly to my with incline,
Why will Daphne faithless prove?
Know my foul is wholly thine,

And my heart is form'd for love.
Why, thus flight a faithful fwain,
Who to love was ever true;
Why thus give that bofom pain,
Which to long hath figh'd for you?
531

WHERE the blithe bee er honey figo,
In cowflip dale, in vi'let shade;
Dear Chloe there I've kifs'd thy lips,
While no rude eye my blifs furvey'd.
Kifs, love! (you cry'd ;) more kiffes give;
Thy Chloe's pleasure still increase:

O could our bloom for ever live,

I'd never bid my Damon ceafe.

The tongue that spoke your fhepherd blefs'd s What mortal could refift fuch charms!

Thy bofem to my heart I prefs'd,

And, panting, dy'd in Chloe's arms.

My Phillis fuch charms does impart,
Such beauties difplay to the view!
From me the has ftolen a heart;

A heart that will ever prove true,
She lends a kind ear to my tale;
With fmile the my toil does reward;
And when I my paffion reveal,

Her looks fully speak her regard. What mortal more happy can be!

What cares can my bofom alarm! Whilft Phillis, dear girl, is fo free; Poffeffing each power to charm.

But should the e'er flight her fond fwain, And leave me her lofs to deplore, Then, Letbe, relieve me from pain,

And let me not think of her more. Not think of her more did I fay?

How vain fuch an effort would prove! For, long as I live, I each day

Muft think of her charms, and ftill love.

533

WHILST on forbidden fruit I gaze,
And look my heart away,
Behold my star of Venus blaze,
And rife upon the day:
Fair as the purple-bluthing hours,
That paint the morning eye;
Or cheek of evening after-how'rs,
That flush the western sky.

I fend a figh with ev'ry glance,
And drop a fofter tear;
Hard fate, no farther to advance,
And yet to be fo near:

So Mofes, from fair Pyga's height,
The land of Canaan ey'd';
Survey'd the region of delight,
He faw, came down and dy'd.

Averse to freedom, love and play,
None other beauties ftrike mine eye,
The lilies droop, the rofes die.

But when, difclaiming art, the fair
Affumes a foft engaging air;
Mild as the op'ning morn of May,
Familiar, friendly, free and gay:
The fcene improves, where'er the goes,
More fweetly fmile the pink and rose,
O lovely maid! propitious hear;
Nor deem thy fhepherd infincere;
Pity a wild illufive flame,
That varies objects fill the fame :
And let heir very changes prove
The never-vary'd force of love.

In hopes to ease my care: The bufy town but mocks my pain, It's gayeft pleafures all are vain,

For Harriot haunte me there.
The labours of the learned fage,
The comic clamour of the ftage,
By turns my time employ;

I relifh not the fage's fore,
The ftage's humours please no more,
For Harriot's all my joy.

Sometimes I try'd the jovial throng,
Sometimes the female train among,
To chace her form äway :
The jovial throng, is noify, rude,
Nor other females dare intrude,

Where Harriet bears the fway.

In her we ev'ry virtue fee,

Refplendent with her youth.

Thrice happy he who gains the maid,
For wedlock to incline;
But happier I, could it be faid

That heav'n had ftamp'd her mind !..

538 THOU fetting fun, that calls my fair

To take the cool and ev'ning air,

With joy 1 hail thy latest rays,
That fhew me where my Chloe ftrays.
O, let no clouds obfcure the skies,
Or noxious exhalations rife!

But may fweet flow'rs uprear their heads,
And rofes bloffom, where the treads,
Let ev'ry tenant of the grove,
Remind her youthful heart of love;"
And ev'ry breeze convey a figh,'
And whifper 'tis for her I die.
O! fweet, tormenting love, I feel
Thy wound, which reafon cannot heal
Thy fire, conceal'd within my breaft,
Deprives my Autt'ring heart of reft.
At ev'ry glance of Chloe's eyes,
My boafted refolution flies:
And ftill I'm diffident to name
My inward racks, and fecret flamet

While Philomela fad complains,
And pours out all her plaintive ftrains;
I likewife mourn, in lays fincere

As ever reach'd a female ear.

Thou fon of Venus, hear my pray❜r,
And with thy dart transfix my fair;
With her fond fwain, O! make her prove
The lafting blifs of 'ardent love.

540

[fame,
WHen the nymphs were contending for beauty &
Bright Sylvia ftood foremost in right of her claim;
At court she was envy'd, and toasted at White's;
At court she was envy'd, and toafted at White's.
But now fhall I whisper the fair one's fad cafe;
A cruel difeafe has deftroy'd her sweet face;
Her vermillion chang'd to a dull fettled red,
And all her gay graces of beauty are fled;
And all, &c.

Take heed, all ye fair, left you triumph in vain ;
For Sylvia, tho' altered from pre ty to plain,
Is now more engaging. fince reafon took place,
Than when the poffefs'd the perfections of face;
Than when, &c..

No longer I a flave remain,

A Chloe's captive as before: But go, and other hearts beguile,

Go, and fome other conqueft find! "Tis you that fhow a flatt'ring fmile, 'Tis you can kill while yet you're kind. 543

WHEN first thy foft lips but civilly preft,

Eliza, how great was my blifs!

The fatal contagion van quick to my breast;
I loft my poor heart with a kiss.

And now, when fupremely thus bleft with your fight,
I fcarce cau my tranfports reftrain;
I wish, and I pant, to repeat the delight;
And kifs you again and again.

raptures I wish to enjoy all those charms;
Still ftealing from favour to favour-
Now, now, O ye gods! let me fly to your arms,
And kifs you for ever and ever.

544

WHEN Galia chants the rural lay,

What tranfports fire my breast, Whene'er the ftrikes he trembling string, Methinks I'm more than bleft,

Methinks, &c.