 | A Collection of Poems |  |
69
A Pastoral ODE.
I
As DICKY a languishing Swain,Sat pensive alone in a Grove;
Thus mournfully told he the Pain,
His Heart felt in Absence and Love.
Alas how uneasy am I,
How lumpish and dull is my Heart!
It knows not a Corner of Joy,
But sorrows in every Part.
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II
For PEGGY, my fair one, is gone,She's gone, and has left me behind;
Where plaintively lying alone,
I joyn the sad wispering Wind.
Each murmuring Blast that comes near,
I fill with soft Notes of my Pain:
The Grottos my Murmurings hear,
And sadly re-murmur again.
III
But all is in vain, silly Lad!For PEGGY perceives not thy Moan:
She sees not thy Coutenance sad,
Nor knows thou art mourning alone.
Perhaps now her DICKY's forgot,
And a Youth that's more happy than he,
Possesses her with a soft Thought,
Or clasps in his Arms on his Knee.
IV
And should it be so, can I blameA Nymph that's so charming as she?
She ne'er was design'd for a Swain,
So mean, and so wretched as me.
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Too much to an Angel refin'd;
To stoop to so humble a Wight,
Or center so lowly her Mind.
V
How silly was I, and how wild,To wish for so mighty a Prize!
To let my poor Heart be beguil'd,
And pant in the Warmth of her Eyes!
She suffer'd my Pride to advance,
And heard what my Bosom could say;
She smil'd, and I dy'd in a Trance;
She spoke, and I melted away.
VI
O had she not been so divine!Or else more severe to her Swain!
O had better Fortune been mine!
Or else had not I been so vain!
Then DICKY perhaps had been blest
In a Nymph more befitting his State:
Or known no dull Weight on his Breast,
Nor mourn'd the hard Laws of his Fate.
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VII
But rapt with his PEGGY, still heLong Days of Delight had enjoy'd;
From doubts and from Jealousies free,
Nor Absence his Bliss had destroy'd.
Alas, ye deluding dear Hours,
That slipt in short Moments away,
When PEGGY and I blest the Bow'rs,
And call'd you and begg'd you to stay!
VIII
You're gone, and no more will return,And Ages your Places supply;
In Moments I find Years to mourn,
Tho' Years fled in Moments of Joy.
How swiftly can Pleasure bear Time,
How shortly flit Ages away!
How dully Despair can confine,
And clogg a whole Age in a Day!
| A Collection of Poems | |