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A Masque, written at the Warm-Springs, in Virginia, in the year 1784.
The Genius of the Wood.I am the Genius of the shady wood;
Whose care it is to crown the swelling rivers,
And bid the mountains hide them from the heat
Of the solstitial ray; the Delaware
I crown with poplar and with boughs of oak;
The Susquehannah with the cherry tree;
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And Rappahannock and the river James,
I crown with branches of the lofty pine:
The great Ohio, with her thousand sons
To Mississippi rolling on, I crown
With leaves of ash-wood and the sugar-tree
This is the day and this the well known place
Your presence is expected.
Potomack.
These springs we annually revisit;
But where the Genius of the tepid streams?
Whose task it is to warm them for the bath,
And touch them, with the sacred ore, which gives
Salubrious quality; this is his task,
In those recesses and deep caverns fram'd
By Neptune, where the mountain base o'erspreads.
his naiads there attend him and each brings
Her urn, and pours it where th' embosom'd rock
Gives current to the tide.
Genius of the Springs.
Great sire of fountains, on this annual day
I greet your presence.
Delaware.
You know, my son, this is the happy season,
When from our banks the gayest citizens,
To taste the water of the spring repair.
Is every drop ting'd with the mountain ore
And made medicinal? Is every drop
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Of those who drink may be transparent with it?
Genius of the Springs.
The wave is nine times purified by fire;
The hundred naiads of th' embowering rocks
With pitchers from the subterranean flood
Have drawn the tide; the' alembic has distill'd
The tide to vapour; the mountain cistern
Has receiv'd the liquid current. Beds of ore
Have ting'd and sand has filtrated the stream
That every drop with power of health impregnate
Dispels all pain, all shape of malady,
That racks the system or the mind subdues.
Ohio.
Then bid the naiads of the vocal powers,
Haste hither with the nimble dance and song,
The virtue of the springs to celebrate;
And bid the deities of these rude hills
With Triton whom the goddess Thetis sent
Attune their chords in symphony with these.
Potomack.
Go tell the naiads and the jocund deities,
To call their choicest flowers; a noble name,
Has come this day to do them honour.
That chief whose fame has oft been heard by them,
In contest with Britannia's arms; that chief
Whom I myself have seen quitting the farm,
By no ambition, but by virtue led,
Arising at his country's call, and swift
The challenge of the vet'ran foe receiving.
My brother streams have told me his atchievements,
The oak-crown'd Hudson told me that he saw him,
Walk like a God upon his well fought banks.
The Raritan in Jersey told me of him;
But most the Delaware, whose noble tide
Roll'd his indignant waves upon the bank
And triumph'd on the heroic days
Of Brandywine, of Germantown and Monmouth;
The Rappahannock told me of the chief
When great Cornwallis yielded. With him I shed
A tear of lucent joy. The Chesapeake,
Oh! bay divine, thou heardst the victory,
And through thy hundred islands far and wide,
Rejoicing, there was gladness,
To call their choicest flowers; a noble name,
Has come this day to do them honour.
That chief whose fame has oft been heard by them,
In contest with Britannia's arms; that chief
Whom I myself have seen quitting the farm,
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Arising at his country's call, and swift
The challenge of the vet'ran foe receiving.
My brother streams have told me his atchievements,
The oak-crown'd Hudson told me that he saw him,
Walk like a God upon his well fought banks.
The Raritan in Jersey told me of him;
But most the Delaware, whose noble tide
Roll'd his indignant waves upon the bank
And triumph'd on the heroic days
Of Brandywine, of Germantown and Monmouth;
The Rappahannock told me of the chief
When great Cornwallis yielded. With him I shed
A tear of lucent joy. The Chesapeake,
Oh! bay divine, thou heardst the victory,
And through thy hundred islands far and wide,
Rejoicing, there was gladness,
But when the rage of horrid war had ceas'd,
My son return'd; I mark'd his character....
No scorn appear'd upon his furrow'd brow,
his air was dignity and graceful ease
The same as when he left us, save that now
His visage worn with care shew'd more of age
I hail'd my son and bade him come with me
To taste the water of the healthful springs.
My son return'd; I mark'd his character....
No scorn appear'd upon his furrow'd brow,
his air was dignity and graceful ease
The same as when he left us, save that now
His visage worn with care shew'd more of age
I hail'd my son and bade him come with me
To taste the water of the healthful springs.
The Naiads
IN A DANCE.
Purest streams that gently flow
From the rock that covers you,
No decrease of tide you know,
Summer suns do not subdue.
From the rock that covers you,
No decrease of tide you know,
Summer suns do not subdue.
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Nor do storms fierce winter's brood
Rain or snow that comes with them,
Swell your current to a flood;
You are still, pure streams, the same.
Rain or snow that comes with them,
Swell your current to a flood;
You are still, pure streams, the same.
Emblem this of that great chief,
Washington who made us free,
Shewing 'midst our joy and grief
Equal equanimity.
Washington who made us free,
Shewing 'midst our joy and grief
Equal equanimity.
The gentle streams flowing,
The trees around growing
And shadows now showing
Themselves o'er the spring.
The trees around growing
And shadows now showing
Themselves o'er the spring.
No danger of wasting
Your water by tasting
Though many are hasting
To drink of the spring.
Your water by tasting
Though many are hasting
To drink of the spring.
Clear bursting fountains by you shall appear,
The gayest assemblies through each circling year;
To lead up the dance in these chearful abodes,
And live at their leisure the life of the Gods.
The gayest assemblies through each circling year;
To lead up the dance in these chearful abodes,
And live at their leisure the life of the Gods.
We taste of the streams and forget all our care:
Your virtues like Lethe, not fabulous are.
Your virtues expel all diseases and pain,
To those that are weak, they give vigour again.
Your virtues like Lethe, not fabulous are.
Your virtues expel all diseases and pain,
To those that are weak, they give vigour again.
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The lame that come hither their crutches forego:
They leap and exult like the wild mountain roe,
Here youth is confirm'd in his vigour and bloom,
To age is given years and days yet to come.
They leap and exult like the wild mountain roe,
Here youth is confirm'd in his vigour and bloom,
To age is given years and days yet to come.
They disappear.
Genius of the Woods.
Such is the virtue of these healthful springs,
Yet not in these alone salubrious quality.
Far west, and near thy source, Ohio, rising
There is a spring with copious oil embrown'd,
All chronic pain dispelling, at the touch,
And washing all scorbutic taint away,
As erst in Jordan was the Syrian king.
Th' inflexile joint, the fibre of old age
Relaxing, it gives youth and nimble motion.
The natives of the wood, my oldest sons,
Nor less than Hamadryades, my care;
All bathe in the smooth current, and receive
Returning health and vigour. Soon assembling
There, the modern race of men unnumber'd
In place of the discoloured native
Shall frequent its margin. The gods and naiads
There, as usual shall repair
While annually with festive song and dance,
They celebrate the virtue of the springs.
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