Et tibi forma datur procerior omnibus, inquit, His ubi sedatus furor est, petit utraque nympham, THE POPLAR FIELD. THE poplars are fell'd, farewell to the shade, Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade. The blackbird has fled to another retreat, Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat, And the scene where his melody charm'd me before Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more. My fugitive years are all hasting away, With a turf on my breast, and a stone at my head, 'Tis a sight to engage me, if any thing can, To muse on the perishing pleasures of man; Though his life be a dream, his enjoyments, I see, Have a being less durable even than he.* IDEM LATINE REDDITUM. POPULEÆ cecidit gratissima copia silvæ, Hei mihi! bis senos dum luctu torqueor annos, Ah ubi nunc merulæ cantus? Felicior illum Cowper afterwards altered this last stanza in the following manner:— The change both my heart and my fancy employs, Sed qui succisas doleo succidar et ipse, VOTUM. O MATUTINI rores, auræque salubres, avebat, Ante larem proprium placidam expectare senectam Tum demùm, exactis non infeliciter annis, Sortiri tacitum lapidem, aut sub cespite condi! TRANSLATION OF PRIOR'S CHLOE AND MERCATOR, vigiles oculos ut fallere possit, Ad speculum ornabat nitidos Euphelia crines, Cum dixit, mea lux, heus, cane, sume lyram. Namque lyram juxtà positam cum carmine vidit, Suave quidem carmen dulcisonamque lyram. Fila lyræ vocemque paro, suspiria surgunt, Et miscent numeris murmura mæsta meis, Dumque tuæ memoro laudes, Euphelia, formæ, Tota anima intereà pendet ab ore Chlöes. Subrubet illa pudore, et contrahit altera frontem, Me torquet mea mens conscia, psallo, tremo; Atque Cupidineâ dixit Dea cincta coronâ, Heu! fallendi artem quam didicere parum. VERSES TO THE MEMORY OF DR. LLOYD. SPOKEN AT THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION NEXT OUR good old friend is gone; gone to his rest, How once ye loved, and eyed him with respect, In morals blameless, as in manners meek, He knew no wish that he might blush to speak, And richer than the rich in being so, Obtain'd the hearts of all, and such a meed The brows of those, whose more exalted lot ABIIT senex. Periit senex amabilis, Quo non fuit jucundior. Lugete vos, ætas quibus maturior Senem colendum præstitit; Florentiori vos juventute excolens Seu quando, fractus, jamque donatus rude, Miscere gaudebat suas facetias His annuis leporibus. He was usher and under-master of Westminster near fifty years, and retired from his occupation when he was near seventy, with a handsome pension from the king. |