 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
177
Invitation to the CHACE.
RECITATIVE.
Hark! the horn calls,—away!Come the grave; come the gay;
'Wake to music that 'wakens the skies;
Quit the bondage of sloth, and arise.
SONG.
I
From the east breaks the morn;See the sun-beams adorn
The wild heath, and the mountain so high!
Shrilly ope's the staunch hound,
The steed neighs to the sound,
And the floods, and the valleys reply.
II
Our fore-fathers, so good,Prov'd their greatness of blood
By encount'ring the pard and the boar;
Ruddy health bloom'd the face;
Age and youth urg'd the chace,
And taught woodlands and forests to roar.
178
III
Hence of noble descent,Hills and wilds we frequent,
Where the bosom of nature's reveal'd;
Tho' in life's busy day,
Man of man make a prey,
Still let ours be the prey of the field.
IV
With the chace full in sight,Gods, how great the delight!
How our mortal sensations refine!
Where is care? where is fear?
Like the winds, in the rear,
And the man's lost in something divine.
V
Now to horse, my brave boys!Lo, each pants for the joys,
That anon shall enliven the whole!
Then at eve we'll dismount,
Toils and pleasures recount,
And renew the chace over the bowl,
| Poems on Several Occasions | |