The poems of Dr. Yalden :: :: University of Virginia Library

The man that's uncorrupt, and free from guilt,
That the remorse of secret crimes ne'er felt:
Whose breast was ne'er debauch'd with sin,
But finds all calm, and all at peace within:
In his integrity secure,
He fears no danger, dreads no power:
Useless are arms for his defence,
That keeps a faithful guard of innocence.

Secure the happy innocent may rove,
The care of every power above;
Although unarm'd he wanders o'er
The treacherous Libya's sands, and faithless shore:
Though o'er the inhospitable brows
Of savage Caucasus he goes;
Through Africk's flames, thro' Scythia's snows,
Or where Hydaspes, fam'd for monsters, flows.

For as, within an unfrequented grove,
I tun'd my willing lyre to love,
With pleasing amorous thoughts betray'd,
Beyond my bounds insensible I stray'd;
A wolf that view'd me fled away,
He fled from his defenceless prey!
When I invok'd Maria's aid,
Although unarm'd, the trembling monster fled.

Not Daunia's teeming sands, nor barbarous shore,
E'er such a dreadful native bore,
Nor Afric's nursing caves brought forth
So fierce a beast, of such amazing growth:
Yet vain did all his fury prove
Against a breast that's arm'd with love;
Though absent, fair Maria's name
Subdues the fierce, and makes the savage tame.

Commit me now to that abandon'd place
Where chearful light withdraws its rays;
No beams on barren Nature smile,
Nor fruitful winds refresh th' intemperate soil;
But tempests, with eternal frosts,
Still rage around the gloomy coast:
Whilst angry Jove infests the air,
And, black with clouds, deforms the sullen year.

Or place me now beneath the torrid zone,
To live a borderer on the Sun:
Send me to scorching sands, whose heat
Guards the destructive soil from human feet:
Yet there I'll sing Maria's name,
And sport, uninjur'd, 'midst the flame:
Maria's name! that will create, ev'n there,
A milder climate, and more temperate air.