Hope, at the frown aghast, yet lingering, flies, And, dash'd on Terror's rocks, Fate's best dependance lies.
But ah!-too thick they crowd,-too close they
Objects of pity and affright!—
Spare farther the descriptive song-
Nature shudders at the sight:-
--
Protract not, curious ears, the mournful tale, But o'er the hapless group, low drop Compassion's
SUN of the soul! whose cheerful ray
Darts o'er this gloom of life a smile; Sweet Hope, yet further gild my way,
Yet light my weary steps awhile,
Till thy fair lamp dissolve in endless day.
O, come with such an eye and mien
As when by amorous shepherd seen;
While in the violet-breathing vale
He meditates his evening tale!
Nor leave behind thy fairy train,
Repose, Belief, and Fancy vain,
That, towering on her wing sublime,
Outstrips the lazy flight of Time,
Riots on distant days with thee,
And opens all futurity.
O, come! and to my pensive eye
Thy far foreseeing tube apply,
Whose kind deception steals us o'er
The gloomy waste that lies before;
Still opening to the distant sight
The sunshine of the mountain's height;
Where scenes of fairer aspect rise,
Elysian groves and azure skies.
Nor, gentle Hope, forget to bring
The family of Youth and Spring;
The hours that glide in sprightly round,
The mountain nymphs with wild thyme crown'd;
Delight that dwells with raptured eye
On stream or flower or field or sky:
And foremost in thy train advance
The Loves and Joys in jovial dance;
Nor last be Expectation seen,
That wears a wreath of evergreen.
Attended thus by Belau's streams,
Oft hast thou soothed my waking dreams,
When, prone beneath an osier shade,
At large my vacant limbs were laid;
To thee and Fancy all resign'd,
What visions wander'd o'er my mind!
Illusions dear, adieu! no more
Shall I your fairy haunts explore;
For Hope withholds her golden ray,
And Fancy's colours faint away.
To Eden's shores, to Enon's groves,
Resounding once with Delia's loves,
Adieu! that name shall sound no more
O'er Enon's groves or Eden's shore :
For Hope withholds her golden ray,
And Fancy's colours faint away.
Life's ocean slept, the liquid gale
Gently moved the waving sail.
Fallacious Hope! with flattering eye
You smiled to see the streamers fly.
The thunder bursts, the mad wind raves:
From slumber wake the frighted waves:
You saw me, fled me thus distress'd,
And tore your anchor from my breast.
Yet come, fair fugitive, again!
I love thee still, though false and vain:
Forgive me, gentle Hope, and tell
Where, far from me, you deign to dwell.-
To soothe Ambition's wild desires;
To feed the lover's eager fires;
To swell the miser's mouldy store;
To gild the dreaming chemist's ore;
Are these thy cares? or, more humane,
To loose the war-worn captive's chain,
And bring before his languid sight
The charms of liberty and light:
The tears of drooping Grief to dry;
And hold thy glass to Sorrow's eye?
Or dost thou more delight to dwell
With Silence in the hermit's cell?
To teach Devotion's flame to rise,
And wing her vespers to the skies;
To urge, with still returning care,
The holy violence of prayer;
In rapturous visions to display
The realms of everlasting day,
And snatch from Time the golden key,
That opens all eternity?
Perchance, on some unpeopled strand
Whose rocks the raging tide withstand,
Thy soothing smile, in deserts drear,
A lonely mariner may cheer,
Who bravely holds his feeble breath,
Attack'd by Famine, Pain, and Death.
With thee, he bears each tedious day
Along the dreary beach to stray:
Whence their wide way his toil'd eyes strain
O'er the blue bosom of the main;
And meet, where distant surges rave,
A white sail in each foaming wave.
Doom'd from each native joy to part,
Each dear connexion of the heart,
You the poor exile's steps attend,
The only undeserting friend:
You wing the slow declining year;
You dry the solitary tear;
And oft, with pious guile, restore
Those scenes he must behold no more.
O most adored of earth or skies!
To thee ten thousand temples rise;
By age retain'd, by youth caress'd,
The same dear idol of the breast:
Deprived of thee, the wretch were poor
That rolls in heaps of Lydian ore;
With thee the simple hind is gay,
Whose toil supports the passing day.
The rose-lipp'd Loves that, round their queen, Dance o'er Cythera's smiling green
Thy aid implore, thy power display
In many a sweetly warbled lay.
For ever in thy sacred shrine
Their unextinguish'd torches shine;
Idalian flowers their sweets diffuse,
And myrtles shed their balmy dews.
Ah! still propitious, mayst thou deign
To soothe an anxious lover's pain!
By thee deserted, well I know,
His heart would feel no common woe.
His gentle prayer propitious hear,
And stop the frequent-falling tear.
For me, fair Hope, if once again,
Perchance, to smile on me you deign,
Be such your sweetly rural air,
And such a graceful visage wear,
As when, with Truth and young Desire,
You waked the lord of Hagley's lyre;
And painted to her Poet's mind
The charms of Lucy fair and kind.
But ah! too early lost!-then go,
Vain Hope, thou harbinger of woe.
Ah! no;-that thought distracts my heart:
Indulge me, Hope, we must not part.
Direct the future as you please;
But give me, give me present ease.
Sun of the soul! whose cheerful ray
Darts o'er this gloom of life a smile;
Sweet Hope, yet further gild my way,
Yet light my weary steps a while,
Till thy fair lamp dissolve in endless day.
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