While stray'd my eyes o'er Towy's flood,
Over mead, and over wood,
From houfe to houfe, from hill to hill,
'Till Contemplation had her fill.
About his chequer'd fides I wind, And leave his brooks and meads behind, and grottoes where I lay,
And viftoes shooting beams of day:
Wide and wider spreads the vale,
As circles on a smooth canal;
The mountains round, unhappy fate!
Soon or later, of all height,
Withdraw their fummits from the skies,
And leffen as the others rife ;
Still the profpect wider spreads,
Adds a thousand woods and meads,
Still it widens, widens kill,
And finks the newly-risen hill.
Now, I gain the mountain's brow ;
What a landscape lies below?
No clouds, no vapours intervene,
But the gay, the open scene
Does the face of Nature fhow,
In all the hues of Heav'n's bow!
And, fwelling to embrace the light,
Spreads around beneath the fight.
Old castles on the cliffs arife,
Proudly tow'ring in the skies;
Rufhing from the woods, the fpires
Seem from hence afcending fires!
Half his beams Apollo sheds
On the yellow mountain-heads!
Gilds the fleeces of the flocks,
And glitters on the broken rocks.
Below me trees unnumber'd rife,
Beautiful in various dyes:
The gloomy pine, the poplar blue,
The yellow beech, the fable yew,
The flender fir, that taper grows,
The sturdy oak, with broad-fpread boughs,
And beyond, the purple grove,
Haunt of Phillis, queen of love!
Gaudy as the op'ning dawn,
Lies a long and level lawn,
On which a dark hill, steep and high,
Holds and charms the wand'ring eye;
Deep are his feet in Towy's flood,
His fides are cloth'd with waving wood,
And ancient towers crown his brow,
That caft an awful look below;
Whofe ragged walls the ivy creeps,
And with her arms from falling keeps ;
So both a fafety from the wind
In mutual dependence find.
'Tis now the raven's bleak abode;
'Tis now th' apartment of the toad;
And there the fox fecurely feeds,
And there the pois'nous adder breeds,
Conceal'd in ruins, moss, and weeds:
While, ever and anon, there falls
Huge heaps of hoary moulder'd walls.
Yet time has been, that lifts the low,
And level lays the lofty brow,
Has feen the broken pile complete,
Big with the vanity of state;
But tranfient is the fmile of fate;
A little rule, a little fway,
A fun-beam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have
Between the cradle and the grave.
And fee the rivers how they run,
Through woods and meads, in fhade and fun,
Sometimes fwiftly, fometimes flow,
Wave fucceeding wave they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to endless fleep!
Thus is Nature's veflure wrought,
To inftruct our wand'ring thought;
Thus fhe dresses green and gay,
To difperfe our cares away.
Ever charming, ever new,
When will the landscape tire the view!
The fountain's fall, the river's flow,
The woody vallies warm and low;
The windy fummit, wild and high,
Roughly rushing on the sky;
The pleasant seat, the ruin'd tow'r,
The naked rock, the fhady bow'r;
The town and village, dome and farm,
Each gives each a double charm,
As pearls upon an Æthiop's arm.
See on the mountain's fouthern fide,
Where the profpect opens wide,
Where the ev'ning gilds the tide,
How clofe and fmall the hedges lie!
What ftreaks of meadows cross the eye!
A step methinks may pass the stream;
So little diftant dangers feem;
So we mistake the future's face,
Ey'd through hope's deluding glafs;
As yon fummits foft and fair,
Clad in colours of the air,
Which to those who journey pear,
Barren, brown, and rough appear;
Still we tread the fame coarse way,
The prefent's ftill-a cloudy day.
O may I with myself agree,
And never covet what I fee!
Content me with an humble shade,
My paffions tam'd, my wifhes laid;
For while our wishes wildly roll,
We banish quiet from the foul;
'Tis thus the busy beat the air;
And mifers gather wealth and care.
Now, ev'n now, my joys run high,
As on the mountain turf I lie ;
While the wanton Zephyr fings,
And in the vale perfumes his wings;
While the waters murmur deep;
While the fhepherd charms his sheep:
While the birds unbounded fly,
And with mufic fill the sky,
Now, ev'n now, my joys run high.
Be full, ye courts, be great who will,
Search for peace with all your
Open wide the lofty door,
Seek her on the marble floor;
In vain you search, she is not there;
In vain ye fearch the domes of care!
Grafs and flowers Quiet treads,
On the meads and mountain heads,
Along with Pleasure, close allied,
Ever by each other's fide:
And often, by the murm'ring rill,
Hears the thrush, while all is ftill,
Within the groves of Grongar Hill.
HYMN TO ADVERSITY.
DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless pow'r,
Thou tamer of the human breaft,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Bound in thy adamantine chain,
The proud are taught to tafte of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan
With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.
When first thy fire to fend on earth
Virtue, his darling child, defign'd,
To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
And bade thee form her infant mind.
Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore
With patience many a year the bore:
What forrow was, thou bad'ft her know:
And from her own fhe learn'd to melt at others' woe.
Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly Self-pleafing Folly's idle brood,
Wild Laughter, Noife, and thoughtless Joy,
And leave us leisure to be good.
Light they difperfe, and with them go
The fummer Friend, the flatt'ring Foe ;
By vain Prosperity receiv'd,
To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.
Wisdom in fable garb array'd,
Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,
And Melancholy, filent maid,
With leaden eye, that loves the ground,
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