Behind a cloud retires! FLORA is fled! Thou lov'st in vain! Ah! foolish STREPHON! change thy strain! Hope beguiling, Like the morn and ocean smiling, Like the morn and ocean changing, APOLLO AND DAPHNE. DAPHNE, the beautiful and coy, Along the winding shore of Peneus flew, To shun Love's tender offered joy; Though 'twas a God that did her charms pursue : While thus APOLLO, in a moving strain, Awaked his lyre; and softly breathed his amorous pain. 'Fairest mortal! stay and hear! Turn thee! Leave thy trembling fear! The river's echoing banks, with pleasure did prolong a Song. DAPHNE fled swifter, in despair, Father PENEUS! hear me! aid me! APOLLO wond'ring stood, to see The Nymph transformed into a tree! Vain were his lyre, his voice, his tuneful art, His Passion, and his race divine! Nor could th' eternal beams, that round his temples shine, Melt the cold Virgin's frozen heart! Nature alone can love inspire! Art is vain to move desire! If Nature does the Fair incline, To their own Passion they'll resign! Art is vain to move desire! THE SONG OF POLYPHEMUS. O, RUDDIER than the cherry! Like kidlings blithe and merry! Ripe as the melting cluster! Yet hard to tame As raging flame; And fierce as storms that bluster! THE POET AND THE ROSE. Go, rose, my CHLOE's bosom grace! There, Phoenix-like, beneath her eye, Involved in fragrance, burn and die! 4 'Know, hapless flower! that thou shalt find More fragrant roses there! I see thy with'ring head reclined With envy and despair! One common fate we both must prove! You die, with envy; I, with love!' SWEET WILLIAM'S FAREWELL TO BLACK-EYED SUSAN ALL in the Downs the Fleet was moored, 'O, where shall I my True Love find? WILLIAM, who, high upon the yard, Rocked with the billow to and fro, Soon as her well-known voice he heard, He sighed, and cast his eyes below. The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands; And, quick as lightning, on the deck he stands. So the sweet lark, high poised in air, The noblest Captain in the British Fleet 1720, |