 | The Poetical Works of John Scott |  |
329
THE SHEPHERD's ELEGY;
OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF AN INGENIOUS FRIEND.
Upon a bank with spreading boughs o'erhung,
Of pollard oak, brown elm, and hornbeam grey,
The faded fern and russet grass among,
While rude winds swept the yellow leaves away,
And scatter'd o'er the ground the wild fruits lay;
As from the churchyard came the village throng,
Down sat a rural bard, and rais'd his mournful song.
Of pollard oak, brown elm, and hornbeam grey,
The faded fern and russet grass among,
While rude winds swept the yellow leaves away,
And scatter'd o'er the ground the wild fruits lay;
As from the churchyard came the village throng,
Down sat a rural bard, and rais'd his mournful song.
‘Nature's best gifts, alas, in vain we prize!
‘The powers that please, the powers that pleasure gain!
‘For O with them, in full proportion, rise
‘The powers of giving and of feeling pain!
‘Why from my breast now bursts this plaintive strain?
‘Genius, my Friend! with all its charms was thine,
‘And sensibility too exquisite is mine!
‘The powers that please, the powers that pleasure gain!
‘For O with them, in full proportion, rise
‘The powers of giving and of feeling pain!
‘Why from my breast now bursts this plaintive strain?
330
‘And sensibility too exquisite is mine!
‘There low he lies!—that head in dust repos'd,
‘Whose active thought scann'd every various theme!
‘Clos'd is that eye, for ever, ever clos'd,
‘Whence wont the blaze of sentiment to beam!
‘Mute is that tongue, whence flow'd the copious stream
‘Of eloquence, whose moral lore so rare
‘Delighted and improv'd the listening Young and Fair.
‘Whose active thought scann'd every various theme!
‘Clos'd is that eye, for ever, ever clos'd,
‘Whence wont the blaze of sentiment to beam!
‘Mute is that tongue, whence flow'd the copious stream
‘Of eloquence, whose moral lore so rare
‘Delighted and improv'd the listening Young and Fair.
‘Witness for me, ye rain-polluted rills;
‘Ye desart meads, that one brown hue display;
‘Ye rude east-winds, whose breath the dank air chills;
‘Ye hovering clouds, that veil the Sun's faint ray!
‘Witness, as annual here my steps shall stray,
‘How his dear image thought shall still recall,
‘And oft the sigh shall heave, and oft the tear shall fall!’
‘Ye desart meads, that one brown hue display;
‘Ye rude east-winds, whose breath the dank air chills;
‘Ye hovering clouds, that veil the Sun's faint ray!
‘Witness, as annual here my steps shall stray,
‘How his dear image thought shall still recall,
‘And oft the sigh shall heave, and oft the tear shall fall!’
331
As cease the murmurs of the mantling pool,
As cease the whispers of the poplar spray,
While o'er the vale the white mist rises cool
At the calm sunset of a summer's day—
So softly, sweetly ceas'd the Shepherd's lay:
While down the pathway to the hamlet plain
Return'd, with lingering steps, the pensive rural train.
As cease the whispers of the poplar spray,
While o'er the vale the white mist rises cool
At the calm sunset of a summer's day—
So softly, sweetly ceas'd the Shepherd's lay:
While down the pathway to the hamlet plain
Return'd, with lingering steps, the pensive rural train.
| The Poetical Works of John Scott | |