FLORELLUS.

The grassy meads that smiled serenely gay,
Cheer'd by the ever-burning lamp of day,
In dusky hue attired, are cramp'd with colds,
And springing flowerlets shut their crimson folds.

AMYNTAS.

The west, yet tinged with Sol's effulgent ray,
With feeble light illumes our homeward way;
The glowing stars with keener lustre burn,
While round the earth their glowing axles turn.

FLORELLUS.

What mighty power conducts the stars on high?
Who bids these comets through our system fly?
Who wafts the lightning to the icy pole,

And through our regions bids the thunders roll?

AMYNTAS.

But say, what mightier power from nought could

raise

The earth, the sun, and all that fiery maze
Of distant stars, that gild the azure sky,
And through the void in settled orbits fly?

FLORELLUS.

That righteous power, before whose heavenly eye
The stars are nothing, and the planets die;
Whose breath divine supports our mortal frame,
Who made the lion wild and lambkin tame.

AMYNTAS.

At his command the bounteous spring returns;
Hot summer, raging o'er the Atlantic, burns;
The yellow autumn crowns our sultry toil,
And winter's snows prepare the cumbrous soil.

FLORELLUS.

By him the morning darts his purple ray;
To him the birds their early homage pay;
With vocal harmony the meadows ring,
While swains in concert heavenly praises sing.

AMYNTAS.

Sway'd by his word, the nutrient dews descend,
And growing pastures to the moisture bend;
The vernal blossoms sip his falling showers,
The meads are garnish'd with his opening flowers.

FLORELLUS.

For man, the object of his chiefest care,

Fowls he hath form'd to wing the ambient air;
For him the steer his lusty neck doth bend,
Fishes for him their scaly fins extend.

AMYNTAS.

Wide o'er the orient sky the moon appears,
A foe to darkness and his idle fears;

Around her orb the stars in clusters shine,
And distant planets 'tend her silver shrine.

FLORELLUS.

Hush'd are the busy members of the day,
On downy couch they sleep their hours away.
Hail, balmy sleep, that soothes the troubled mind!
Lock'd in thy arms our cares a refuge find.
Oft do you tempt us with delusive dreams,
When wildering fancy darts her dazzling beams;
Asleep, the lover with his mistress strays
Through lonely thickets and untrodden ways;
But when pale Cynthia's sable empire's fled,
And hovering slumbers shun the morning bed,
Roused by the dawn, he wakes with frequent sigh,
And all his flattering visions quickly fly.

AMYNTAS.

Now owls and bats infest the midnight scene,
Dire snakes, envenom'd, twine along the green:
Forsook by man the rivers mourning glide,
And groaning echoes swell the noisy tide.
Straight to our cottage let us bend our way,
My drowsy powers confess sleep's magic sway.
Easy and calm upon our couch we'll lie,

While sweet reviving slumbers round our pillows fly.

THE COMPLAINT.

A PASTORAL.

NEAR the heart of a fair spreading grove,

Whose foliage shaded the green,

A shepherd, repining at love,

In anguish was heard to complain:

"Oh Cupid! thou wanton young boy!
Since, with thy invisible dart,
Thou hast robb'd a fond youth of his joy,
In return grant the wish of his heart.

Send a shaft so severe from thy bow
(His pining, his sighs to remove),
That Stella, once wounded, may know
How keen are the arrows of love.

"No swain once so happy as I,

Nor tuned with more pleasure the reed; My breast never vented a sigh,

Till Stella approach'd the gay mead.

“With mirth, with contentment endow'd, My hours they flew wantonly by;

I sought no repose in the wood,

Nor from my few sheep would I fly.

"Now my reed I have carelessly broke, Its melody pleases no more:

I pay no regard to a flock

That seldom hath wander'd before.

"Oh Stella! whose beauty so fair Excels the bright splendour of day, Ah! have you no pity to share

With Damon thus fall'n to decay?

"For you have I quitted the plain,
Forsaken my sheep and my fold:
For you in dull languor and pain
My tedious moments are told.

'For you have my roses grown pale; They have faded untimely away: And will not such beauty bewail

A shepherd thus fall'n to decay?

Since your eyes still requite me with scorn, And kill with their merciless ray;

Like a star at the dawning of morn,

I fall to their lustre a prey..

Some swain who shall mournfully go To whisper love's sigh to the shade, Will haply some charity show,

And under the turf see me laid:

"Would my love but in pity appear
On the spot where he moulds my cold
And bedew the green sod with a tear,

'Tis all the remembrance I crave."

To the sward then his visage he turn'd;
'Twas wan as the lilies in May;
Fair Stella may see him inurn'd~~

He hath sigh'd all his sorrows away.

grave,

THE DECAY OF FRIENDSHIP.

A PASTORAL ELEGY.

WHEN Gold, man's sacred deity, did smile,
My friends were plenty, and my sorrows few;
Mirth, love, and bumpers, did my hours beguile,
And arrow'd Cupids round my slumbers flew.

What shepherd then could boast more happy days?
My lot was envied by each humbler swain;
Each bard in smooth eulogium sang my praise,
And Damon listen'd to the guileful strain.

Flattery! alluring as the Syren's lay,

And as deceitful thy enchanting tongue,
How have you taught my wavering mind to stray,
Charm'd and attracted by the baneful song!

My pleasant cottage, shelter'd from the gale,
Arose, with moss and rural ivy bound;
And scarce a floweret in my lowly vale

But was with bees of various colours crown'd.

Free o'er my lands the neighbouring flocks could

roam;

How welcome were the swains and flocks to me!

The shepherds kindly were invited home,

To chase the hours in merriment and glee.

To wake emotions in the youthful mind,

Strephon, with voice melodious, tuned the song; Each sylvan youth the sounding chorus join'd, Fraught with contentment 'midst the festive throng.

My clustering grape compensed their magic skill;
The bowl capacious swell'd in purple tide,
To shepherds, liberal as the crystal rill

Spontaneous gurgling from the mountain's side.