O DE IV.

HEARING MUSIC.

ON organ! hark!-how foft, how sweet,

YON

The warbling notes in concert meet!

The found my fancy leads

To climes where Phoebus' brightest beams

Gild jafmine groves and chrystal streams

And lily-mantled meads;

Where myrtle bowers their bloom unfold, Where citrons bend with fruit of gold,

Where grapes deprefs the vines;

Where, on the bank with roses gay,

Love, Innocence, and Pleasure play,

And Beauty's form reclines.

Now different tones and measures flow,

And, gravely deep, and sadly flow,

Involve the mind in gloom;

I seem to join the mournful train,

Attendant round the couch of Pain,
Or leaning o'er the tomb:

To where the orphan'd infant fleeps,

To where the love-lorn damfel weeps,

I pitying seem to stray;

Methinks I watch his cradle near;

Methinks her drooping thoughts I chear,

And wipe her tears away.

Now loud the tuneful thunders roll,

And roufe and elevate the foul

O'er earth and all its care;

I seem to hear from heavenly plains

Angelic choirs responsive strains,

And in their raptures share.

ON

Spreads the rural hamlet wide;

'Cross the vale, where willows rise,

Further ftill another lies;

And, beneath a steeper hill,

Lies another further ftill:

Near them many a field and grove

Scenes where Health and Labour rove!

Northward fwelling flopes are feen, Clad with corn-fields neat and green; There, thro' graffy plains below,

Broad and fmooth the waters flow;

While the town, their banks along,
Bids its clustering houses throng,

In the funfhine glittering fair;

Haunts of Bufinefs, haunts of Care!

Weftward o'er the yellow meads

Wind the rills thro' waving reeds;

From dark elms a fhadow falls

On the abbey's whiten'd walls:

Wide the park's green lawns expand;
Thick its tufted lindens ftand:

Fair retreat! that well might please
Wealth, and Elegance, and Ease.

Hark! amidst the diftant fhades Murmuring drop the deep cascades; Hark! amidst the rustling trees

Softly fighs the gentle breeze;

And the Eolian harp, reclin'd
Obvious to the stream of wind,

Pours its wildly-warbled ftrain,
Rifing now, now funk again.

How

How the view detains the fight!

How the founds the ear delight!

Sweet the scene! but think not there

Happiness fincere to share:

Reason still regrets the day

Paffing rapidly away;

Leffening Life's too little ftore;

Paffing, to return no more!