Ah!-better far, than by that fiare overpow'd,
Had fands engulf'd me, or had seas devour'd.
Far from that fhore, where fyren-beauty dwells, And wraps fweet ruin in resistless spells;
From Cambrian plains; which Chloe's luftre boast, Me native England yields a safer coast.
Chloe, farewell!-Now feas, with boisterous pride, Divide us, and will ever far divide:
Yet while each plant, which vernal youth refumes, 25
Feels the green blood afcend in future blooms;
While little feather'd fongsters of the air
In woodlands tuneful woo and fondly pair,
The Mufe exults, to beauty tunes the lyre,
And willing Loves the fwelling notes infpire.
Sure on this day, when hope attains success, Bright Venus first did young Adonis bless. Her charms not brighter, Chloe, fure than thine; Though flush'd his youth, not more his warmth than mine.
Sequefter'd far within a myrtle grove,
Whose blooming bofom courts retiring love;
Where a clear fun, the blue ferene displays,
And fheds, through vernal air, attemper'd rays;
Where flowers their aromatic incense bring,
And fragrant flourish in eternal spring;
There mate to mate each dove refponfive coos,
While this affents, as that enamour'd woos.
There rills amufive, fend from rocks around,
A folitary, pleafing, murmuring found;
Then form a limpid lake. The lake ferene
Reflects the wonders of the blissful fcene.
To love the birds attune their chirping throats,
And on each breeze immortal music floats.
There, feated on a rifing turf is seen,
Graceful, in loose array, the Cyprian queen ;
All fresh and fair, all mild, as Ocean gave
The goddess, rising from the azure wave;
Difhevel'd locks diftil celeftial dews,
And all her limbs, divine perfumes diffuse.
Her voice so charms, the plumy, warbling throngs, 55
In listening wonder lost, suspend their songs.
It founds "Why loiters my
Why loiters my Adonis ?"-rocks reply.
"Oh, come away!"—they thrice, repeating, say;
And Echo thrice repeats,-" Oh, come away !”-
Kind zephyrs waft them to her lover's ears;
Who, instant at th' inchanting call, appears.
Her placid eye, where sparkling joy refines,
Benignant, with alluring luftre fhines.
His locks, which, in loose ringlets, charm the view, 65 Float careless, lucid from their amber hue.
A myrtle wreath her rofy fingers frame,
Which, from her hand, his polish'd temples claim;
His temples fair, a ftreaking beauty stains,
As smooth white marble fhines with azure veins. 70
He kneel'd. Her fnowy hand he trembling feiz'd,
Juft lifted to his lip, and gently squeez'd;
The meaning squeeze return'd, love caught its lore
And enter'd, at his palm, through every pore.
Then swell'd her downy breasts, till then enclos'd, 75
Fast-heaving, half-conceal'd and half-expos'd :
Soft the reclines. He, as they fall and rife,
Hangs, hovering o'er them, with enamour'd eyes,
And, warm'd, grows wanton-As he thus admir'd,
He pry'd, he touch'd, and, with the touch was fir'd.
Half-angry, yet half-pleas'd, her frown beguiles
The boy to fear; but, at his fear, the fmiles.
The youth less timorous and the fair loss coy,
Supinely amorous they reclining toy.
More amorous ftill his fanguine meanings Lole
In wistful glances, to her foftening foul:
In her fair eye her foftening foul he reads:
To freedom, freedom, boon, to boon, fucceeds.
With conscious blush, th' impassion'd charmer burns ;
And, blush for blush, th' impaffion'd youth returns. 90
They look, they languish, figh with pleasing pain,
And wish and gaze, and gaze and with again.
'Twixt her white, parting bofom steals the boy,
And more than hope preludes tumultuous joy;
Through every vein the vigorous transport ran,
Strung every nerve, and brac'd the boy to man.
Struggling, yet yielding, half o'erpower'd, the pants,
Seems to deny, and yet, denying, grants.
Quick, like the tendrils of a curling vine,
Fond limbs with limbs, in amorous folds, entwine. 100
Lips prefs on lips, careffing and careft,
Now eye darts flame to eye, and breast to breast.
All the refigns, as dear defires incite,
And rapt he reach'd the brink of full delight.
Her waist compress'd in his exulting arms,
He ftorms, explores, and rifles all her charms;
Clafps in ecstatic blifs th' expiring fair,
And, thrilling, melting, neftling, riots there.
How long the rapture lafts, how foon it fleets,
How oft it paufes, and how oft repeats;
What joys they both receive and both bestow,
Virgins may guess, but wives experienc'd know :
From joys, like thefe, (ah, why deny'd to me?)
Sprung a fresh, blooming boy, my fair, from thee.
May he, a new Adonis, lift his creft,
In all the florid grace of youth confeft!
First let him learn to lifp your lover's name,
And, when he reads, here annual read my flame.
When beauty firft fhall wake his genial fire,
And the firft tingling sense excite defire;
When the dear object, of his peace poffeft,
Gains and still gains on his unguarded breast :
Then may he fay, as he this verfe reviews,
So my bright mother charm'd the poet's Mufe.
His heart thus flutter'd oft 'twixt doubt and fear, 125
Lighten'd with hope, and fadden'd with despair.
Say, on fome rival did fhe fimile too kind?
Ah, read—what jealousy diftracts his mind!
Smil'd the on him? He imag'd rays divine,
And gaz'd and gladden'd with a love like mine. 130
How dwelt her praife upon his raptur'd tongue!
Ah!-when the frown'd, what plaintive notes he fung!
And could the frown on him-Ah, wherefore, tell!
On him, whofe only crime was loving well ?
Thus may thy fon his pangs with mine compare; Then with his mother had been kind as fair. For him may Love the myrtle wreath entwine; Though the fad willow fuits a woe like mine! Ne'er may the filial hope, like me, complain! Ah! never figh and bleed, like me, in vain!— 140 When death affords that peace which love denies, Ah, no!-far other scenes my fate supplies; When earth to earth my lifeless corse is laid, And o'er it hangs the yew or cypress shade : When pale I flit along the dreary coast, An helpless lover's pining plaintive ghoft; Here annual on this dear returning day, While feather'd choirs renew the melting lay; May you, my fair, when you these strains shall fee, Just spare one figh, one tear, to love and me,
Me, who, in absence or in death, adore
Those heavenly charms I must behold no more.
JOHN POWELL, ESQ.
BARRISTER AT LAW.
me long abfent, long with anguish fraught,
In me, though filence long has deaden'd thought, Yet memory lives, and calls the Muse's aid,
To snatch our friendship from oblivion's shade.
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