Unheard, unnotic'd, let me rove

Thy trembling osier wreaths among,

And woo the Muse where none reprove Affection's unambitious song,

Nor chide the plaint of hopeless love.

There, when the day's dim eyelids close, Hide me within some shadowy cave; And, minist'ring to calm repose,

Ah softly bid thy babbling wave

Kiss the dank sedge that round it grows!

No angler's cruel arts are mine,

Ye timid tenants of the brook!

Thrown from my hand no viewless line, Disguis'd by me no treacherous hook, Bids you your little lives resign.

Nor this pellucid rill refrain
To sip, ye minstrels of the air!

Your downy plumage to distain
With blood no fatal tube I bear,
Nor

pay with death your artless strain.

That breast no savage joys can share,
Where glow Affection's generous fires:
Soft Pity finds her mansion there,
All whom the breath of life inspires
By her own sorrows taught to spare,

Mine, gentle NAIAD! be the dell
Whose clear stream laves thy chrystal grot:
Within its confines let me dwell,

By all but One dear Maid forgot,
And bid a world of cares farewell.

Oft let me view thy trembling tide
Chequer'd with Cynthia's silver light,
What time, in Fancy's train descried,
Before my fascinated sight

Past Joy's illusive phantoms glide.

Hopeless of happier hours to come,
No more array'd in flattering hues
For me the buds of Pleasure bloom :
Yet deigns, at Fancy's call, the Muse
To gild Affliction's deepening gloom.

With LESBIA's praise the strain shall glow;
Oh may she taste each bliss supreme
That hope can paint, or love bestow;
And calm as Glym's sequester'd stream
May her life's gentle current flow!

Wind, lovely Brook, thy murmuring way,
Still with my sorrows sympathize:
So may thy banks fresh flow'rs inlay,
Thy waves in rich redundance rise,
Mild Zephyrs on thy bosom play!

If Zephyr should his breath deny,
My sighs shall fan thy flowery beds:
If parching rays thy channel dry,
The tears desponding Passion sheds
Shall its exhausted stream supply.

ELEGY.

WRITTEN AT SEA.

ON sapphire throne, o'er Heav'n's unnumber'd fires The moon in full-orb'd majesty presides;

Calm are the seas, a favouring breeze transpires, While thro' the waves the Vessel smoothly glides :

Beyond th' horizon's bound the mind extends,
To the sought shores where Hope delusive leads;
And flattering Fancy keen regret suspends
For absent kindred, friends, and native meads:

Till Sympathy from brooding Memory's stores
Culls thorns, and plants them in the bleeding breast;
Sunk into gloom the mind no more explores

Hope's future dawn, and pants in vain for rest.

What tho' the seas are calm, the skies serene,
Thus anguish dictates the desponding strain:
"To Friendship fear presents a gloomier scene,
"The whirlwind's fury and tempestuous main.

"Ev'n now perhaps from many a kindred eye "My dubious fate compels the generous tear, "And ev'ry passing cloud that veils the sky "Chills some fond anxious breast with boding fear.

"In my

Love's bosom deeper sorrows roll,

"Frantic with dread she sighs, implores, she raves; "Whilst Horror paints me, to her sickening soul, "Dash'd on a rock, or whelm'd beneath the waves."

Father of Heav'n, whose power controls the storms,
O let thy mercy hear a wanderer's pray'r!
Check the wild fears connubial fondness forms,
And save the tender Mourner from despair!

For Me,-whate'er thy sov'reign will shall doom,
Still give me faith to bear that lot resign'd:
That faith which bursts the confines of the tomb,
And, heav'n-aspiring, sooths th' afflicted mind.