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The works, in verse and prose, of William Shenstone, Esq

In two volumes. With Decorations. The fourth edition
Shenstone, William (1714-1763)

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VOL. I.
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ELEGIES, WRITTEN ON Many different Occasions.
 I. 
ELEGY I. He arrives at his retirement in the country, and takes occasion to expatiate in praise of simplicity.
 II. 
ELEGY II. On posthumous reputation.
 III. 
ELEGY III. On the untimely death of a certain learned acquaintance.
 IV. 
ELEGY IV. Ophelia's urn. To Mr. G---.
 V. 
ELEGY V. He compares the turbulence of love with the tranquillity of friendship.
 VI. 
ELEGY VI. To a lady on the language of birds.
 VII. 
ELEGY VII. He describes his vision to an acquaintance.
 VIII. 
ELEGY VIII. He describes his early love of poetry, and its consequences. To Mr. G---. 1745.
 IX. 
ELEGY IX. He describes his disinterestedness to a friend.
 X. 
ELEGY X. To fortune, suggesting his motive for repining at her dispensations.
 XI. 
ELEGY XI. He complains how soon the pleasing novelty of life is over.
 XII. 
ELEGY XII. His recantation.
 XIII. 
ELEGY XIII. To a friend, on some slight occasion estranged from him.
 XIV. 
ELEGY XIV. Declining an invitation to visit foreign countries, he takes occasion to intimate the advantages of his own.
 XV. 
ELEGY XV. In memory of a private family in Worcestershire.
 XVI. 
ELEGY XVI. He suggests the advantages of birth to a person of merit, and the folly of a superciliousness that is built upon that sole foundation.
 XVII. 
ELEGY XVII. He indulges the suggestions of spleen: an elegy to the winds.
 XVIII. 
ELEGY XVIII. He repeats the song of Collin, a discerning shepherd; lamenting the state of the woollen manufactury.
 XIX. 
ELEGY XIX. Written in spring 1743.
 XX. 
ELEGY XX. He compares his humble fortune with the distress of others; and his subjection to Delia, with the miserable servitude of an African slave.
 XXI. 
ELEGY XXI. Taking a view of the country from his retirement, he is led to meditate on the character of the ancient Britons. Written at the time of a rumoured tax upon luxury, 1746.
 XXII. 
ELEGY XXII. Written in the year --- when the rights of sepulture were so frequently violated.
 XXIII. 
ELEGY XXIII. Reflections suggested by his situation.
 XXIV. 
ELEGY XXIV. He takes occasion from the fate of Eleanor of Bretagne , to suggest the imperfect pleasures of a solitary life.
 XXV. 
ELEGY XXV. To Delia, with some flowers; complaining how much his benevolence suffers on account of his humble fortune.
 XXVI. 
ELEGY XXVI. Describing the sorrow of an ingenuous mind, on the melancholy event of a licentious amour.
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ODES, SONGS, BALLADS, &c.
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VOL. II.

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57

ELEGY XIII. To a friend, on some slight occasion estranged from him.

Health to my friend, and many a chearful day
Around his seat may peaceful shades abide!
Smooth flow the minutes, fraught with smiles, away,
And, till they crown our union, gently glide.
Ah me! too swiftly fleets our vernal bloom!
Lost to our wonted friendship, lost to joy!
Soon may thy breast the cordial wish resume,
Ere wintry doubt its tender warmth destroy.
Say, were it ours, by fortune's wild command,
By chance to meet beneath the torrid zone;
Would'st thou reject thy Damon's plighted hand?
Would'st thou with scorn thy once lov'd friend disown?
Life is that stranger land, that alien clime:
Shall kindred souls forego their social claim?
Launch'd in the vast abyss of space and time,
Shall dark suspicion quench the gen'rous flame?
Myriads of souls, that knew one parent mold,
See sadly sever'd by the laws of chance!
Myriads, in time's perennial list enroll'd,
Forbid by fate to change one transient glance!
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But we have met—where ills of every form,
Where passions rage, and hurricanes descend:
Say, shall we nurse the rage, assist the storm?
And guide them to the bosom—of a friend!
Yes, we have met—thro' rapine, fraud, and wrong:
Might our joint aid the paths of peace explore!
Why leave thy friend amid the boist'rous throng,
Ere death divide us, and we part no more?
For oh! pale sickness warns thy friend away;
For me no more the vernal roses bloom!
I see stern fate his ebon wand display;
And point the wither'd regions of the tomb.
Then the keen anguish from thine eye shall start,
Sad as thou follow'st my untimely bier;
“Fool that I was—if friends so soon must part,
“To let suspicion intermix a fear.”
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