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The Wiccamical Chaplet

a selection of original poetry; comprising smaller poems, serious and comic; classical trifles; sonnets; inscriptions and epitaphs; songs and ballads; mock-heroics, epigrams, fragments, &c. &c. Edited by George Huddesford
  
  

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ODE, ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND,
  
  
  
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 VIII. 
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 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
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13

ODE, ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND,

On an unexpected Separation.

[_]

The attribution of this poem is questionable.

D---, in sweet friendship's firmest bands
Link'd to my inmost soul! now pensive Eve
Steals slowly thro' yon misty meads,
What polish'd page of Rome, or wiser Greece,
Say, shall we next enraptur'd turn?
Shall we by murm'ring Mincio rove? or sit
Beneath the darksome pines that Pan
Planted in that Sicilian valley wild,
True region of poetic bliss?
Or in Achilles' loudly-thund'ring car
Be whirl'd o'er Troy's ensanguin'd plain;
Or see him strive Patroclus' shrieking ghost,
Poor unsubstantial shade! to clasp
With eager arms?—But let us never fail
Nightly to visit the soft bard
Best suited to the tender, feeling heart,
Compassion's throne: O joy refin'd!
To watch the big tear from thy meaning eye
Steal secret, while Medea's soul
With jealousy, maternal love, with rage
And haughty indignation fir'd,

14

Now points the dagger to her smiling babes,
Now, touch'd with nature, hurls away
The deathful steel! Or while Orestes starts
In madness from the opiate couch
Where his fond Pylades for many a day,
And many a bitter night, had watch'd
His limbs convuls'd, and ghastly staring eyes
Fix'd on the Furies! Milder scenes
Invite us next—the grove where Comus built
His magic dome, and Echo heard
The nymph's distress:—or where, in cavern deep
Sweet Melancholy sits, to hear
The bubb'ling brook, or awful bell, or plaint
Of ever-wakeful Philomel.—
Thus with the Muses pass the blissful hours
Till, dearest Youth, snatch'd far away,
In solitude thou leav'st thy weeping Friend.
Who then with cordial looks and smiles
Can lull my cares? To whom can I unfold
My secret breast? Whom else can trust?
Whom else can love? Beneath cold Midnight's gleam
Thy absence will I oft lament,
Stretch'd in thy fav'rite grove, near Itchin's stream,
Close to those ivy'd mould'ring walls,
While the lone Cloysters echo to my woes.