Poems to Thespia :: :: University of Virginia Library

Thy prayers are granted; Heaven again bestows
Firmness, and active nerves, the sparkling eye;
Quick thro my veins the genial current flows,
My features reassume a clearer dye.

Now freed from self, imagination roves,
Paints fairy forms, ideal scenes renews,
Strikes the gay lyre, invokes the smiling loves,
And bathes her forehead in Pierian dews.

With sympathy again my breast is fraught,
To feelings not its own once more expands,
Exults in warm vivacity of thought,
And longs to mingle with the social bands.

Yet, in it's kindness, cruel, fate denies
This intercourse of freedom unrestrain'd,
Forbids the struggling soul at once to rise,
Still braced with shackles tho less strictly chain'd.

109

But shall I therefore pine, and not enjoy
Retirement's solid good, and learned ease?
Will not philosophy her balm employ,
And give the deepest solitude to please?

Revoke the word—what solitude is mine?
Am I not blest beyond a Monarch's lot?
Possessing thee, what radiant sun-beams shine,
And gild with happiness our rural cot!

With thee my Thespia crouded courts attend,
Their polisht graces, not their mean desires,
The bland companion, and the festive friend,
The charms of converse, and it's brighter fires.

With thee my humble dwelling all contains,
And more than cities boast; not turgid pride;
But sweet tranquillity which loves the plains,
And seeks the murmuring stream's sequester'd side.

110

How grateful is the peasant's honest nod
Compared with servile cringes, feign'd respect!
How far superior he who breaks the clod
To those who shine with sordid honours deckt!

With thee, what joy, to hear the choral lay
Which nature prompts the feather'd tribe to pour,
When they exulting hail the morning ray,
Or bless the milder eve's declining hour!

Such melody let sapient taste despise,
The complex knot of harmony unfold;
Our's be each simpler pleasure, our's to prize
This lowly roof beyond the fretted gold.

Our's o'er the hill, or thro the lawns to walk,
Give common objects more than common praise.
The hedge-closed lane enliven with our talk,
While o'er our cheeks the mutual transport plays.

111

From inward bliss to embellish every scene,
With livelier tints the prospect to adorn,
To cloathe the meadows with a fresher green,
And hang with sweeter blossoms every thorn.

Our's to the neighbouring village to repair,
Lift the slight latch, and ope the fragile door,
Heed the complaints of industry and care,
And soothe the painful anguish of the poor.

Oh wretch! who much possessing, wilt not give
From thy luxurious waste with liberal mind!
Oh wretch! who having little, darest to live,
While to thyself that little is confined!

Or be it our's, when drives bleak winter's sleet,
Or hoary frosts incrust the faded grass,
As now, with joy the wrinkled sire to greet,
And bid with careless laugh his terrors pass.

112

Or by the blazing hearth, in cheerful mood
Recall the pleasing deeds of younger times,
With temperate cup impell the lazy blood,
Read idle tales, or carp at idle rhimes.

Pull down the buildings fancied wisdom rears,
Turn o'er the historian's, or the traveller's page,
Measure the earth, dart upward to the spheres,
Pity the sceptic, and admire the sage.

Contemplate man, each different being trace,
How various, how distinct, yet how combined!
The unerring laws controuling every race,
How groveling, matter! how ennobled, mind!

Then cast each system, reason cast aside,
And in ourselves all human pleasure view,
Whim, frolic fancy, or caprice the guide,
They take the lead, and playful we pursue.

113

Ah! who shall tempt me to life's wider road
From these more circumscribed, but happy bounds?
The abject throng let tyrant lucre goad,
Me with her golden vest content surrounds.

In thee, my Thespia, a far mightier power
Than Plutus, hath lock'd up his plenteous store,
The riches of the soul thy native dower,
Virtue's chaste essence, and love's purest ore.