Miscellanies in Verse and Prose :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sicilian Muse exalt thy tuneful Voice:
Not always make the Woods and Groves thy Choice.
Or, if that humbler Theme you still persue,
Make the Groves worthy of a Consul's View.

The Time is come, the Sybil long foretold,
Restoring the Saturnian Age of Gold.
Again Astræa is return'd to Earth:
And a new Race descends of Heav'nly Birth.
O Chaste Lucina! thy kind Aid bestow;
(Lo! thy Apollo rules the World below)
Discharge the Mother of her pregnant Load,
And quick Reveal to Light the Infant God.
And thou, O Pollio! chose by smiling Fate,
From thy great Consulship shall give this Æra Date.

If any Seeds of Vice shall dare appear,
Thy bright Example, and successful Care,
Shall free the World at once from Guilt, and Fear.
Th' Illustrious Babe for future Sway decreed,
Belov'd by Gods, the Life of Gods shall lead:
Long with Hereditary Virtues reign;
And late ascend his native Skies again.

The grateful Earth to greet her Infant King
Shall sacred Wreaths of Circling Ivy bring:
While Flora decks with various Art the Ground,
And Zephyrs scatter Her Perfumes around.
At thy Approach, blest Boy! shall strait remove
Each rougher Kind that's Enemy to Love.
The Prowling Wolf no more shall hunt for Prey;
The Ox and Lyon shall together play;
The Serpent lose his Sting; each pois'nous Weed
Shall die, and Syrian Roses flourish in their Stead.

But when, contemplating thy Father's Praise,
Thy ripen'd Thought shall Emulation raise
To urge thy Fate the same Heroic Ways:

The dreary Waste shall rise with wavy Corn;
The blushing Grape in Clusters load the Thorn;
And Pearls of Honey-Dew the rugged Oak adorn.
Yet still some Footsteps shall of Fraud remain.
The greedy Mariner, in hopes of Gain,
Shall tempt the Dangers of the faithless Main;
Cities with Walls shall be incompass'd round;
Troops shall embark, and Martial Trumpets sound;
Greece shall again a new Achilles boast,
And Troy once more lament her Glory lost.

But as thy firmer Years to Manhood rise,
The Port no more shall hear the Sailor's Cries;
Traffick shall cease; alike in ev'ry Land
All things shall be produc'd by Nature's bounteous Hand
The sharpned Share no more shall vex the Soil,
Nor the luxuriant Vine demand the Pruner's Toil.
The lusty Hind no more shall yoke the Ox,
Nor for the Tyrian Merchant sheer his Flocks.
Unborrow'd Lustre shall the Fleece adorn,
And native Gold and Purple shall be Shorn.

In Fate's eternal Volume 'tis decreed:
And the glad Years come rowling on with happy Speed.

Advance; and to thy destin'd Honours move,
O Darling Care! O genuine Seed of Jove!
Aloft behold the Gods inthron'd in State,
While Heav'n inclines beneath the glorious Weight!
Gay looks the Earth; the Skies serenely fair;
Calm are the Seas, and Breezes fan the Air.
Each jarring Element forgets its Rage,
Pleas'd with the Prospect of the coming Age.

O! that kind Heaven, propitious to my Vow,
Would to my Life so long a Space allow:
To celebrate the Blessings of thy Reign!
Not Thracian Orpheus with his pow'rful Strain,
Nor Linus should the envy'd Prize obtain:
Tho' each great Parent did their Sons inspire,
And Phoebus with Calliope conspire.
Should Pan's own Song be with my Numbers try'd,
And his own Arcady the Prize decide;

Ev'n Pan himself, who with my Numbers vy'd,
Should lose the Prize, tho' Arcady decide.

See! See! thy Mother smiles, Auspicious Boy!
She owns her Ten Months Qualms o'erpaid with Joy.
The Parents Frowns the hapless Child should dread:
No God shall grace his Board, nor Goddess bless his Bed.