James Thomson

Tell me, thou soul of her I love,
Ah! tell me, whither art thou fled;
To what delightful world above,
Appointed for the happy dead?Or dost thou, free, at pleasure, roam,…

In one diffusive band,
They drive the troubled flocks, by many a
Compell'd to where the mazy-running
Forms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high,

Ye fabled Muses, I your aid disclaim,
Your airy raptures, and your fancied flame;
True genuine woe my throbbing breast inspires,
Love prompts my lays, and filial duty fires;…

Let no presuming impious railer tax Creative wisdom, as if aught was
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce His works unwise, of which the smallest
Excceeds the narrow vision of her mind?

From those eternal regions bright,
Where suns, that never set in night,
Diffuse the golden day;
Where Spring, unfading, pours around,…

When last we parted, thou wert young and fair,
How beautiful let fond remembrance say!
Alas! since then old time has stolen away
Full thirty years, leaving my temples bare.--…

He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems,
Into his freshened soul; her genial
He full enjoys; and not a beauty
And not an opening blossom breathes in vain.

When Britain first, at Heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:…

Madam, the flower that I received from you,
Ere I came home, had lost its lovely hue:
As flowers deprived of the genial day,
Its sprightly bloom did wither and decay;…

"Ceste insigne fable et tragicque comedie."--RABELAISTHE sun was down, and twilight grey
Filled half the air; but in the room,
Whose curtain had been drawn all day,
The twilight was a dusky gloom:…

Oh! knew he but his happiness, of
The happiest he, who, far from public rage,
Deep in the vale, with a choice few
Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life.

In lowly dale, fast by a river's side,
With woody hill o'er hill encompass'd round,
A most enchanting wizard did abide,
Than whom a fiend more fell is nowhere found.

As I came through the desert thus it was,
As I came through the desert: All was black,
In heaven no single star, on earth no track;
A brooding hush without a stir or note,…

Приди ко мне, кумир желанья,
Но страсть умерь и остуди,
Когда в ответ на увещанья
Ты припадешь к моей груди.Как ангел дружеского рая,…

One day the god of fond desire,
On mischief bent, to Damon said,
‘Why not disclose your tender fire?
Not own it to the lovely maid?’The shepherd marked his treacherous art,…

Beauty deserves the homage of the muse:
Shall mine, rebellious, the dear theme refuse?
No; while my breast respires the vital air,
Wholly I am devoted to the fair.

The lovely young Lavinia once had friends;
And fortune smiled deceitful on her birth:
For, in her helpless years deprived of all,
Of every stay, save innocence and Heaven,

Confess'd from yonder slow-extinguish'd clouds,
All ether softening, sober Evening
Her wonted station in the middle air;
She sends on earth; then that of deeper

Come, gentle god of soft desire,
Come and possess my happy breast;
Not fury-like in flames and fire,
Or frantic folly’s wildness drest.But come in friendship’s angel-guise;…

The hoop, the darling justly of the fair,
Of every generous swain deserves the care.
It is unmanly to desert the weak,'Twould urge a stone, if possible, to speak;
To hear stanch hypocrites bawl out and cry,"This hoop's a…

Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky,
A thousand shapes, or glide athwart the dusk,
Or stalk majestic on.
Deep-roused

But see the fading many-colour'd woods,
Shade deepening over shade, the country
Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun,
Of every hue, from wan declining

Unless with my Amanda bless'd,
In vain I twine the woodbine bower;
Unless to deck her sweeter breast,
In vain I rear the breathing flower.

Come, gentle Spring! ethereal Mildness! come,
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,
While music wakes around, veil'd in a shower Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.
O Hertford, fitted or to shine in courts With…