And quell the rebels of the heart.
MIDSUMMER; AN ODE.
O Phoebus! down the western sky,
Far hence diffuse thy burning ray,
Thy light to distant worlds supply,
And wake them to the cares of day.
Come, gentle eve, the friend of care,
Come, Cynthia, lovely queen of night!
Refresh me with a cooling air,
And cheer me with a lambent light:
Lay me, where o’er the verdant ground
Her living carpet nature spreads;
Where the green bow’r, with roses crown’d,
In show’rs its fragrant foliage sheds;
Improve the peaceful hour with wine;
Let musick die along the grove;
Around the bowl let myrtles twine,
And ev’ry strain be tun’d to love.
Come, Stella, queen of all my heart!
Come, born to fill its vast desires!
Thy looks perpetual joys impart,
Thy voice perpetual love inspires.
Whilst, all my wish and thine complete,
By turns we languish and we burn,
Let sighing gales our sighs repeat,
Our murmurs — murmuring brooks return,
Let me, when nature calls to rest,
And blushing skies the morn foretell,
Sink on the down of Stella’s breast,
And bid the waking world farewell.
AUTUMN; AN ODE.
Alas! with swift and silent pace,
Impatient time rolls on the year;
The seasons change, and nature’s face
Now sweetly smiles, now frowns severe,
’Twas spring, ’twas summer, all was gay,
Now autumn bends a cloudy brow;
The flow’rs of spring are swept away,
And summer-fruits desert the bough.
The verdant leaves, that play’d on high,
And wanton’d on the western breeze,
Now, trod in dust, neglected lie,
As Boreas strips the bending trees.
The fields, that way’d with golden grain,
As russet heaths, are wild and bare;
Not moist with dew, but drench’d with rain,
Nor health, nor pleasure, wanders there.
No more, while through the midnight shade,
Beneath the moon’s pale orb I stray,
Soft pleasing woes my heart invade,
As Progne pours the melting lay.
From this capricious clime she soars,
Oh! would some god but wings supply!
To where each morn the spring restores,
Companion of her flight I’d fly.
Vain wish! me fate compels to bear
The downward season’s iron reign;
Compels to breathe polluted air,
And shiver on a blasted plain.
What bliss to life can autumn yield,
If glooms, and show’rs, and storms prevail,
And Ceres flies the naked field,
And flowers, and fruits, and Phoebus fail?
Oh! what remains, what lingers yet,
To cheer me in the dark’ning hour!
The grape remains! the friend of wit,
In love, and mirth, of mighty pow’r.
Haste — press the clusters, fill the bowl;
Apollo! shoot thy parting ray:
This gives the sunshine of the soul,
This god of health, and verse, and day.
Still — still the jocund strain shall flow,
The pulse with vig’rous rapture beat;
My Stella with new charms shall glow,
And ev’ry bliss in wine shall meet.
WINTER; AN ODE.
No more tire morn, with tepid rays,
Unfolds the flow’r of various hue;
Noon spreads no more the genial blaze,
Nor gentle eve distils the dew.
The ling’ring hours prolong the night,
Usurping darkness shares the day;
Her mists restrain the force of light,
And Phoebus holds a doubtful sway.
By gloomy twilight, half reveal’d,
With sighs we view the hoary hill,
The leafless wood, the naked field,
The snow-topp’d cot, the frozen rill.
No musick warbles through the grove,
No vivid colours paint the plain;
No more, with devious steps, I rove
Through verdant paths, now sought in vain.
Aloud the driving tempest roars,
Congeal’d, impetuous show’rs descend;
Haste, close the window, bar the doors,
Fate leaves me Stella, and a friend.
In nature’s aid, let art supply
With light and heat my little sphere;
Rouse, rouse the fire, and pile it high,
Light up a constellation here.
Let musick sound the voice of joy,
Or mirth repeat the jocund tale;
Let love his wanton wiles employ,
And o’er the season wine prevail.
Yet time life’s dreary winter brings,
When mirth’s gay tale shall please no more
Nor musick charm — though Stella sings;
Nor love, nor wine, the spring restore.
Catch, then, Oh! catch the transient hour,
Improve each moment as it flies;
Life’s a short summer — man a flow’r:
He dies — alas! how soon he dies!
THE WINTER’S WALK.
Behold, my fair, where’er we rove,
What dreary prospects round us rise;
The naked hill, the leafless grove,
The hoary ground, the frowning skies!
Nor only through the wasted plain,
Stern winter! is thy force confess’d;
Still wider spreads thy horrid reign,
I feel thy pow’r usurp my breast.
Enliv’ning hope, and fond desire,
Resign the heart to spleen and care;
Scarce frighted love maintains her fire,
And rapture saddens to despair.
In groundless hope, and causeless fear,
Unhappy man! behold thy doom;
Still changing with the changeful year,
The slave of sunshine and of gloom.
Tir’d with vain joys, and false alarms,
With mental and corporeal strife,
Snatch me, my Stella, to thy arms,
And screen me from the ills of life.
TO MISS **** ON HER GIVING THE AUTHOR A GOLD AND SILK NETWORK PURSE OF HER OWN WEAVING.
Though gold and silk their charms unite
To make thy curious web delight,
In vain the varied work would shine,
If wrought by any hand but thine;
Thy hand, that knows the subtler art
To weave those nets that catch the heart.
Spread out by me, the roving coin
Thy nets may catch, but not confine;
Nor can I hope thy silken chain
The glitt’ring vagrants shall restrain.
Why, Stella, was it then decreed,
The heart, once caught, should ne’er be freed?
TO MISS **** ON HER PLAYING UPON THE HARPSICHORD, IN A ROOM HUNG WITH FLOWER-PIECES OF HER OWN PAINTING.
When Stella strikes the tuneful string,
In scenes of imitated spring,
Where beauty lavishes her pow’rs
On beds of never-fading flow’rs,
And pleasure propagates around
Each charm of modulated sound;
Ah! think not, in the dang’rous hour,
The nymph fictitious as the flow’r;
But shun, rash youth, the gay alcove,
Nor tempt the snares of wily love.
When charms thus press on ev’ry sense,
What thought of flight, or of defence?
>
Deceitful hope, and vain desire,
For ever flutter o’er her lyre,
Delighting, as the youth draws nigh,
To point the glances of her eye,
And forming, with unerring art,
New chains to hold the captive heart.
But on those regions of delight
Might truth intrude with daring flight,
Could Stella, sprightly, fair, and young,
One moment hear the moral song,
Instruction, with her flowers, might spring,
And wisdom warble from her string.
Mark, when from thousand mingled dies
Thou seest one pleasing form arise,
How active light, and thoughtful shade
In greater scenes each other aid;
Mark, when the different notes agree
In friendly contrariety,
How passion’s well-accorded strife
Gives all the harmony of life;
Thy pictures shall thy conduct frame,
Consistent still, though not the same;
Thy musick teach the nobler art,
To tune the regulated heart.
EVENING; AN ODE. TO STELLA.
Ev’ning now from purple wings
Sheds the grateful gifts she brings;
Brilliant drops bedeck the mead,
Cooling breezes shake the reed;
Shake the reed, and curl the stream,
Silver’d o’er with Cynthia’s beam;
Near the checquer’d, lonely grove,
Hears, and keeps thy secrets, love.
Stella, thither let us stray,
Lightly o’er the dewy way.
Phoebus drives his burning car
Hence, my lovely Stella, far;
In his stead, the queen of night
Round us pours a lambent light;
Light, that seems but just to show
Breasts that beat, and cheeks that glow.
Let us now, in whisper’d joy,
Ev’ning’s silent hours employ;
Silence best, and conscious shades,
Please the hearts that love invades;
Other pleasures give them pain,
Lovers all but love disdain.
TO THE SAME.
Whether Stella’s eyes are found
Fix’d on earth, or glancing round,
If her face with pleasure glow,
If she sigh at others’ woe,
If her easy air express
Conscious worth, or soft distress,
Stella’s eyes, and air, and face,
Charm with undiminish’d grace.
If on her we see display’d
Pendent gems, and rich brocade;
If her chints with less expense
Flows in easy negligence;
Still she lights the conscious flame,
Still her charms appear the same;
If she strikes the vocal strings,
If she’s silent, speaks, or sings,
If she sit, or if she move,
Still we love, and still approve.
Vain the casual, transient glance,
Which alone can please by chance;
Beauty, which depends on art,
Changing with the changing heart,
Which demands the toilet’s aid,
Pendent gems and rich brocade.
I those charms alone can prize,
Which from constant nature rise,
Which nor circumstance, nor dress,
E’er can make, or more, or less.
TO A FRIEND.
No more thus brooding o’er yon heap,
With av’rice, painful vigils keep;
Still unenjoy’d the present store,
Still endless sighs are breath’d for more.
Oh! quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India’s treasure buys!
To purchase heav’n has gold the power?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life, can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship’s pleasures to be sold?
No — all that’s worth a wish — a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbrib’d, unbought.
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let nobler views engage thy mind.
With science tread the wondrous way,
Or learn the muses’ moral lay;
In social hours indulge thy soul,
Where mirth and temp’rance mix the bowl;
To virtuous love resign thy breast,
And be, by blessing beauty — blest.
Thus taste the feast, by nature spread,
Ere youth, and all its joys are fled;
Come, taste with me the balm of life,
Secure from pomp, and wealth, and strife.
I boast whate’er for man was meant,
In health, and Stella, and content;
And scorn! oh! let that scorn be thine!
Mere things of clay that dig the mine.
STELLA IN MOURNING.
When lately Stella’s form display’d
The beauties of the gay brocade,
The nymphs, who found their pow’r decline,
Proclaim’d her not so fair as fine.
“Fate! snatch away the bright disguise,
And let the goddess trust her eyes.”
Thus blindly pray’d the fretful fair,
And fate malicious heard the pray’r;
But, brighten’d by the sable dress,
As virtue rises in distress,
Since Stella still extends her reign,
Ah! how shall envy sooth her pain?
Th’ adoring youth and envious fair,
Henceforth, shall form one common prayer:
And love and hate, alike, implore
The skies— “That Stella mourn no more.”
TO STELLA.
Not the soft sighs of vernal gales,
The fragrance of the flow’ry vales,
The murmurs of the crystal rill,
The vocal grove, the verdant hill;
Not all their charms, though all unite,
Can touch my bosom with delight.
Not all the gems on India’s shore,
Not all Peru’s unbounded store,
Not all the power, nor all the fame,
That heroes, kings, or poets claim;
Nor knowledge, which the learn’d approve;
To form one wish my soul can move.
Yet nature’s charms allure my eyes,
And knowledge, wealth, and fame I prize;
Fame, wealth, and knowledge I obtain,
Nor seek I nature’s charms in vain;
In lovely Stella all combine;
And, lovely Stella! thou art mine.
VERSES, WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN, TO WHOM A LADY HAD GIVEN A SPRIG OF MYRTLE .
What hopes, what terrours, does thy gift create!
Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate!
The myrtle (ensign of supreme command,
Consign’d by Venus to Melissa’s hand)
Not less capricious than a reigning fair,
Oft favours, oft rejects, a lover’s pray’r.
In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,
In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain.
The myrtle crowns the happy lovers’ heads,
Th’ unhappy lovers’ graves the myrtle spreads.
Oh! then, the meaning of thy gift impart,
And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart.
Soon must this bough, as you shall fix its doom,
Adorn Philander’s head, or grace his tomb.
These verses were first printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1768, p. 439, but were written many years earlier. Elegant as they are, Dr. Johnson assured me, they were composed in the short space of five minutes. — N.
TO LADY FIREBRACE. AT BURY ASSIZES.
At length, must Suffolk beauties shine in vain,
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br /> So long renown’d in B — n’s deathless strain?
Thy charms, at least, fair Firebrace, might inspire
Some zealous bard to wake the sleeping lyre;
For, such thy beauteous mind and lovely face,
Thou seem’st at once, bright nymph, a muse and grace.
This lady was Bridget, third daughter of Philip Bacon, esq. of
Ipswich, and relict of Philip Evers, esq. of that town. She became
the second wife of sir Cordell Firebrace, the last baronet of that
name, to whom she brought a fortune of 25,000 pounds, July 26, 1737.
Being again left a widow, in 1759, she was a third time married,
April 7, 1762, to William Campbell, esq. uncle to the late duke of
Argyle, and died July 3, 1782.
TO LYCE, AN ELDERLY LADY.
Ye nymphs, whom starry rays invest,
By flatt’ring poets given;
Who shine, by lavish lovers drest,
In all the pomp of heaven;
Engross not all the beams on high,
Which gild a lover’s lays;
But, as your sister of the sky,
Let Lyce share the praise.
Her silver locks display the moon,
Her brows a cloudy show,
Strip’d rainbows round her eyes are seen,
And show’rs from either flow.
Her teeth the night with darkness dies,
She’s starr’d with pimples o’er;
Her tongue, like nimble lightning, plies,
And can with thunder roar.
But some Zelinda, while I sing,
Denies my Lyce shines;
And all the pens of Cupid’s wing
Attack my gentle lines.
Yet, spite of fair Zelinda’s eye,
And all her bards express,
My Lyce makes as good a sky,
And I but flatter less.
ON THE DEATH OF MR. ROBERT LEVET, A PRACTISER IN PHYSICK.
Condemn’d to hope’s delusive mine,
As on we toil, from day to day,
By sudden blasts, or slow decline,
Our social comforts drop away.
Well try’d, through many a varying year,
See Levet to the grave descend,
Officious, innocent, sincere,
Of ev’ry friendless name the friend.
Yet still he fills affection’s eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind;
Nor, letter’d arrogance, deny
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 608
