ODES ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS, IN TWO BOOKS.

Off yonder verdant hillock laid,

Where oaks and elms, a friendly shade,

O'erlook the falling stream,

O master of the Latin lyre,

A while with thee will I retire

From summer's noontide beam.

And, lo, within my lonely bower,

The industrious bee from many a flower

Collects her balmy dews:

‘ For me,’ she sings,‘ the gems are born,

For me their silken robe adorn,

Their fragrant breath diffuse.’

Sweet murmurer! may no rude storm

This hospitable scene deform,

Nor check thy gladsome toils;

Still may the buds unsullied spring,

Still showers and sunshine court thy wing

To these ambrosial spoils.

Nor shall my Muse hereafter fail

Her fellow labourer thee to hail;

And lucky be the strains!

For long ago did Nature frame

Your seasons and your arts the same,

Your pleasures and your pains.

Like thee, in lowly, sylvan scenes,

On river banks and flowery greens,

My Muse delighted plays;

Nor through the desert of the air,

Though swans or eagles triumph there,

With fond ambition strays.

Nor where the boding raven chaunts,

Nor near the owl's unhallow'd haunts

Will she her cares employ;

But flies from ruins and from tombs,

From Superstition's horrid glooms,

To day-light and to joy.

Nor will she tempt the barren waste;

Nor deigns the lurking strength to taste

Of any noxious thing;

But leaves with scorn to Envy's use

The insipid nightshade's baneful juice,

The nettle's sordid sting.

From all which Nature fairest knows,

The vernal blooms, the summer rose,

She draws her blameless wealth;

And, when the generous task is done,

She consecrates a double boon,

To Pleasure and to Health.