The poems and songs of William Hamilton of Bangour collated with the ms. volume of his poems, and containing several pieces hitherto unpublished; with illustrative notes, and an account of the life of the author. By James Paterson |
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THE RHONE AND THE ARAR. |
 | The poems and songs of William Hamilton of Bangour |  |
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THE RHONE AND THE ARAR.
Two rivers in famed Gallia's bounds are known,The gentle Arar and the rapid Rhone;
Thro' pleasing banks, where love-sick shepherds dream,
Mild Arar softly steals her lingering stream—
Her wave so still, the exploring eye deceives,
That sees not if it comes, or if it leaves—
With silver graces ever dimpled o'er,
Reflects each flower, and smiles on every shore;
Each youth with joy the enchanting scene surveys,
And thinks for him the amorous stream delays;
While the sly nymph above unseen to flow,
To her own purpose true, steals calm below.
More rapid rolls the Rhone, tumultuous flood,
All raging, unwithheld and unwithstood;
In vain or fertile fields invite its stay,
In vain or roughest rocks oppose its way;
It bounds o'er all, and, insolent of force,
Still hurries headlong on, a downward course.
Sometimes, 'tis true, we snatch with painful sight,
Across the working foam a moment's light;
The momentary vision snatched again,
The troubled river boils and froths amain.
To which of these, alas! shall I confide?
Say, shall I plunge in Rhone's impetuous tide,
And by the various eddies rolled about,
Just as the whirlpools guide, sucked in, cast out?
Till, through a thousand giddy circles tossed,
In the broad ocean's boundless floods I'm lost?
Or, tell me, friend—less venturous, shall I lave
My glowing limbs in Arar's gentle wave?
In whose fair bosom beauteous prospects rise,
The earth in verdure, and in smiles the skies:
With thoughtless rapture every charm explore,
Heaved by no breeze, or wafted to no shore;
Till, trusting credulous to the false serene,
I sink to ruin in the pleasing scene.
| The poems and songs of William Hamilton of Bangour | |