stores

In ruin seen. The frost-concocted glebe

The long-resounding course. Meantime, to raise Draws in abundant vegetable soul,

The manly strife, with highly blooming charms, And gathers vigor for the coming year.

Flush'd by the season, Scandinavia's dames, A stronger glow sits on the lively cheek

Or Russia's buxom daughters, glow around. Of ruddy fire: and luculent along

Pure, quick, and sportful, is the wholesome day; The purer rivers flow; their sullen deeps,

But soon elaps'd. The horizontal Sun, Transparent, open to the shepherd's gaze,

Broad o'er the south, hangs at his utmost noon : And murmur hoarser at the fixing frost.

And, ineffectual, strikes the gelid cliff: What art thou, frost ? and whence are thy keen His azure gloss the mountain still maintains,

Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale Deriv'd, thou secret all-invading power,

Relents awhile to the reflected ray ; Whom ev'n th' illusive fluid cannot fly?

Or from the forest falls the cluster'd snow, Is not thy potent energy, unseen,

Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam Myriads of liule salts, or hook'd, or shap'd

Gay-lwinkle as they scatter. Thick around Like double wedges, and diffus'd immense Thunders the sport of those, who with the gun, Through water, earth, and ether? Hence at eve, And dog impatient bounding at the shot, Steam'd eager from the red horizon round,

Worse than the season, desolate the fields :
With the fierce rage of Winter deep suffus'd, And, adding to the ruins of the year,
An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool

Distress the footed or the feather'd game.
Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career

But what is this? Our infant Winter sinks, Arrests the bickering stream. The loosen'd ice, Divested of his grandeur, should our eye Let down the flood, and half dissolv'd by day, Astonish'd shoot into the frigid zone ; Rustles no more ; but to the sedgy bank

Where, for relentless months, continual Night Fast grows, or gathers round the pointed stone, Holds o'er the glittering waste her starry reign. A crystal pavement, by the breath of Heaven There, through the prison of unbounded wilds Cemented firm ; till, seiz'd from shore to shore, Barr’d by the hand of Nature from escape, The whole imprison'd river growls below.

Wide roams the Russian exile. Nought around Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects Strikes his sad eye, but deserts lost in snow ; A double noise ; while, at his evening watch, And heavy-loaded groves; and solid noods, The village dog deters the nightly thief;

That stretch athwart the solitary vast, The heifer lows ; the distant water-fall

Their icy horrors to the frozen main; Swells in the breeze; and, with the hasty tread And cheerless towns far distant, never bless'd, of traveller, the hollow-sounding plain

Save when its annual course the caravan Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round, Bends to the golden coast of rich Cathay, * Infinite worlds disclosing to the view,

With news of human-kind. Yet there ise glows : Shines out intensely keen; and, all one cope Yet cherish'd there, beneath the shining waste, Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole.

The furry nations harbor : tipt with jet, From pole to pole the rigid influence falls, Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press; Through the still night, incessant, heavy, strong, Sables, of glossy black; and dark-embrown'd, And seizes Nature fast. It freezes on ;

Or beauteous freakt with many a mingled hue, Till Morn, late rising o'er the drooping world, Thousands besides, the costly pride of courts. Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears There, warm together press'd, the trooping deer The various labor of the silent Night:

Sleep on the new-fall’n snows; and, scarce his head Prone from the dripping cave, and dumb cascade, Rais d o'er the heapy wreath, the branching elk Whose idle torrents only seem to roar,

Lies slumbering sullen in the white abyss. The pendent icicle; the frost-work fair,

The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils, Where transient hues and fancied figures rise ; Nor with the dread of sounding bows he drives Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen brook, The fearful flying race: with ponderous clubs, A livid tract, cold-gleaming on the morn;

As weak against the mountain-heaps they push The forest bent beneath the plumy wave;

Their beating breast in vain, and piteous bray, And by the frost refind the whiter snow,

He lays them quivering on the ensanguin'd snows, Incrusted hard, and sounding to the tread

And with loud shouts rejoicing bears them home. Of early shepherd, as he pensive seeks

There, through the piny forest half-absorpt, His pining flock, or from the mountain-top, Rough tenant of these shades, the shapeless bear, Pleas'd with the slippery surface, swift descends.

With dangling ice all horrid, stalks forlorn : On blithesome frolics bent, the youthful swains, Slow-pac'd, and sourer as the storms increase, While every work of man is laid at rest,

He makes his bed beneath th' inclement drift, Fond o'er the river crowd, in various sport

And, with stern patience, scorning weak complaint. And revelry dissolvèd ; where mixing glad, Hardens his heart against assailing want. Happiest of all the train! the raptur'd boy

Wide o'er the spacious regions of the north, Lashes the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine That sees Boites urge his tardy wain, Branch'd out in many a long canal extends, A boisterous race, by frosty Caurust piered, From every province swarming, void of care, Who little pleasure know, and fear no pain, Batavia rushes forth ; and as they sweep,

Prolific swarm. They once relum'd the flame On sounding skates, a thousand different ways, Of lost mankind in polish'd slavery sunk, In circling poise, swift as the winds, along,

Drove martial horde on horde,I with dreadful sweep The then gay land is madden'd all to joy.

Resistless rushing o'er th' enfeebled south,
Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er ihe snow,
Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid sleds,

• The old name for China. † The north-west wind Their vigorous youth in bold contention wheel

1 The wandering Scythian clans.

202

tents,

And gave the vanquish'd world another form. And through his airy hall the loud misrule
Not such the sons of Lapland : wisely they Of driving tempest is for ever heard :
Despise th' insensate barbarous trade of war; Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath ;
They ask no more than simple Nature gives ; Here arms his winds with all-subduing frost ;
They love their mountains, and enjoy their storms. Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows,
No false desires, no pride-created wants,

With which he now oppresses half the globe.
Disturb the peaceful current of their time,

Thence winding eastward to the Tartar's coast, And through the restless ever-tortur'd maze She sweeps the howling margin of the main ; of pleasure, or ambition, bid it rage.

Where undissolving, from the first of time, Their rein-deer forin their riches. These their Snows swell on snows amazing to the sky;

And icy mountains, high on mountains pild, Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth Seem to the shivering sailor from afar, Supply, their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups. Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds. Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe

Projected huge, and horrid, o'er the surge, Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift Alps frown on Alps, or rushing hideous down, O'er hill and dale, heap'd into one expanse

As if old Chaos was again return'd,
of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep, Wide-rend the deep, and shake the solid Pole.
With a blue crust of ice unbounded glaz'd.

Ocean itself no longer can resist
By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless shake The binding fury; but, in all its rage
A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens, of tempest, taken by the boundless frost,
And vivid moons, and stars that keener play Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd,
With double lustre from the glossy waste,

And bid to roar no more : a bleak expanse,
Ev'n in the depth of polar night, ihey find Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, cheerless, and vo:
A wondrous day : enough to light the chase, Of every life, that from the dreary months
Or guide their daring steps to Finland fairs.

Flies conscious southward. Miserable they, Wish'd Spring returns ; and from the hazy south, ;

Who, here entangled in the gathering ice, While dim Aurora slowly moves before,

Take their last look of the descending Sun; The welcome Sun, just verging up at first,

While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost By sroall degrees extends the swelling curve! The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads, Till seen at large for gay rejoicing months,

Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's ♡ fate, Still round and round his spiral course he winds, As with first prow (what have not Britons dar'd !) And as he nearly dips his flaming orb,

He for the passage sought, attempted since Wheels up again, and reascends the sky.

So much in vain, and seeming to be shut
In that glad season, from the lakes and floods, By jealous Nature with eternal bars.
Where pure Niemi*s* fairy mountains rise.

In these fell regions, in Arzina caught,
And fring'd with roses 'Tengliot rolls his stream, And to the stony deep his idle ship
They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve, Immediate seal'd, he with his hapless crew
They cheerful loaded to their tenis repair;

Each full-exerted at his several task,
Where, all day long in useful care employ'd, Froze into statues ; to the cordage glued
Their kind unblemish'd wives the fire prepare. The sailor, and the pilot to the helm.
Thrice-happy race! by poverty secur'd

Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezia From legal plunder and rapacious power: In whom fell interest never yet has sown

Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of men; The seeds of vice : whose spotless swains ne'er knew And half-enliven'd by the distant Sun, Injurious deed, nor, blasted by the breath

That rears and ripens man, as well as plants, Of faithless love, their blooming daughters woe. Here human nature wears its rudest form. Still pressing on, beyond Tornea's lake,

Deep from the piercing season sunk in caves, And Hecla flaming through a waste of snow, Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer, And farthest Greenland, to the pole itself,

They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs, Where, failing gradual, life at length goes out, Doze the gross race. Nor sprightly jest, nor song, The Muse expands her solitary flight;

Nor tenderness they know ; nor aught of life, And, hovering o'er the wild stupendous scene, Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without. Beholds new seas beneath another sky.

Till Morn at length, her roses drooping all, Thron'd in his palace of cerulean ice,

Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er their fields, Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court;

And calls the quiver'd savage to the chase.

What cannot active government perform, * M. de Maupertuis, in his book on the Figure of the New-moulding man? Wide-stretching from these Earth, after having described the beautiful lake and

shores, mountain of Niemi in Lapland, says, “ From this height A people savage from remotest time, we had opportunity several times to see those vapors rise A huge neglected empire, one vast mind, from the lake, which the people of the country call Hal. By Heaven inspir’d, from Gothic darkness call'd. tios, and which they deem to be the guardian spirits of Immorial Peter! first of monarchs! He the mountains. We had been frighted with stories of His stubborn country tam’d, her rocks, her fens, bears that haunted this place, but saw none. It seemed Her foods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons ; rather a place of resort for Fairies and Genii, than And while the fierce barbarian he subdued, bears."

To more exalted soul he rais'd the man. + The same author observes ;--" I was surprised to see Ye shades of ancient heroes, ye who toil'd upon the banks of this river (the Tenglio) roses of as tively a red as any that are in our gardens."

$ Sir Hugh Willoughby, sent by Queen Elizabeth to 1 The other hemisphere.

discover the north-east passage.

stream

:

Through long successive ages to build up Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent
A laboring plan of state, behold at once

strength,
The wonder done! behold the matchless prince! Thy sober Autumn fading into age,
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
A mighty shadow of unreal power;

And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled Who greatly spurn’d the slothful pomp of courts ; Those dreams of greatness ? those unsolid hopes And, roaming every land, in every port

Of happiness ? those longings after fame? His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand

Those restless cares? those busy bustling days ? Unwearied plying the mechanic tool,

Those gay-spent, festive nights ? those veering Gather'd the seeds of trade, of useful arts,

thoughts, Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.

Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life? Charg'd with the stores of Europe, home he goes ; All now are vanish'd! Virtue sole survives, Then cities rise amid th' illumin'd waste :

Inmortal, never-failing friend of man,
O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign; His guide to happiness on high. And see!
Far-distant food to flood is social join'd;

"Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth
Th' astonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar; or Heaven and Earth! awakening Nature hears
Proud navies ride on seas that never foam'd The new-creating word, and starts to life,
With daring keel before ; and armies stretch In every heighten'd form, from pain and death
Each way their dazzling files, repressing here For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
The frantic Alexander of the north,

Involving all, and in a perfect whole And awing there stern Othman's shrinking sons. Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads, Sloth fies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice, To reason's eye refind clears up apace. Or old dishonor proud : it glows around,

Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now, Taught by the royal hand that rous'd the whole, Confounded in the dust, adore that Power, One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade : And Wisdom oft arraign'd: see now the cause, For what his wisdom plann'd, and power enforc'd, Why unassuming Worih in secret liv'd, More potent still, his great example show'd. And died neglected: why the good man's share

Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point, In life was gall and bitterness of soul : Blow hollow-blustering from the south. Subdued, Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd The frost resolves into a trickling thaw.

In starving solitude; while Luxury, Spotted the mountains shine ; loose sleet descends, In palaces, lay straining her low thought, And noods the country round. The rivers swell, To form unreal wants : why heaven-born Truth, Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills, And Moderation fair, wore the red marks O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts, Of Superstition's scourge: why licens'd Pain, A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once ; That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe, And, where they rush, ihe wide-resounding plain Imbitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distrest! Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen seas, Ye noble few! who here unbending stand That wash'd th' ungenial Pole, will rest no more Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile, Beneath the shackles of the mighty north ;

And what your bounded view, which only saw But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. A little part, deem'd evil, is no more : And hark: the lengthening roar continuous runs The storms of Wintry Time will quickly pass, Aibwart the rified deep : at once it bursts, And one unbounded Spring encircle all. And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds. Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd, That, tost amid the floating fragments, moops

A HYMN. Beneath the shelter of an icy isle, While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks These, as they change, Almighty Father, these More horrible. Can human force endure

Are but the varied God. The rolling year Th'assembled mischiefs that besiege them round ? Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, Wide Alush the fields; the softening air is balm; Now ceasing, now renew'd with louder rage, Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles ; And in dire echoes bellowing round the main. And every sense, and every heart, is joy. More to embroil the deep, Leviathan

Then comes thy glory in the Summer-months, And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport,

With light and heat refulgent. Then thy Sun Tempest the loosen'd brine, while through the gloom, Shoots full perfection through the swelling year : Far from the bleak inhospitable shore,

And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks ; Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks. By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales. Yet Providence, that ever-waking eye,

Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfin'd. Looks down with pity on the feeble toil

And spreads a common feast for all that lives. of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe, In Winter awful thou! with clouds and sto me Through all this dreary labyrinth of fate.

Around thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest rollid. 'Tis done! dread Winter spreads his latest glooms, Majestic darkness ! on the whirlwind's wing, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. Riding sublime, thou bidd'st the world adore, How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!

And humblest nature with thy northern blast. How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine His desolate domain. Behold, fond man!

Deep-felt, in these appear! a simple train, See here thy pictur'd life ; pass some few years, Yet so delightful mix'd, with such kind art,

Such beauty and beneficence combin'd ;

The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre, Shade, unperceiv'd, so softening into shade ; Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll. And all so forming an harmonious whole;

For me, when I forget the darling theme, That, as they still succeed, they ravish still. Whether the blossom blows, the Summer-ray But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams; Man marks not thee, marks not the mighty hand, Or Winter rises in the blackening east; That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres ; Be my longue mute, my fancy paint no more, Works in the secret deep; shoots, steaming, thence And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat. The fair profusion that o'erspreads the Spring : Should Fale command me to the farthest verge Flings from the Sun direct the flaming day; of the green carth, to distant barbarous climes, Feeds every creature; hurls the tempests forth ; Rivers unknown to song; where first the Sun And, as on Earth this grateful change revolves, Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam With transport touches all the springs of life. Flames on th' Atlantic isles ; 'tis nought to me Nature, attend ! join every living soul,

Since God is ever present, ever felt, Beneath the spacious temple of the sky,

In the void waste, as in the city full; In adoration join ; and, ardent, raise

And where he viral breathes, there must be joy. One general song! To him, ye vocal gales, When ev'n at last the solemn hour shall come, Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathes: And wing my mystic flight to future worlds, Oh, talk of him in solitary glooms;

I cheerful will obey : there, with new powers, Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely-waving pine Will rising wonders sing: I cannot go Fills the brown shade with a religious awe.

Where Universal Love not smiles around,
And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar,

Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns;
Who shake th' astonish'd world, lift high to Heaven From seeming evil still educing good,
Th’impetuous song, and say from whom you rage. And better thence again, and better still,
His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills; In infinite progression. But I lose
And let me catch it as I muse along.

Myself in him, in Light ineffable ;
Ye headlong torrents, rapid and profound ;

Come then, expressive Silence, muse his praise. Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze Along the vale; and thou, majestic main, A secret world of wonders in thyself, Sound his stupendous praise; whose greater voice Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers,

AN ALLEGORICAL POEM.
In mingled clouds to him ; whose Sun exalts,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil

Advertisement.
paints.

This poem being writ in the manner of Spensed Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave, to him;

the obsolete words, and a simplicity of diction in still song into the reaper's heart,

some of the lines, which borders on the ludicrous, As home he goes beneath the joyous Moon.

were necessary, to make the imitation more perfect. Ye that keep watch in Heaven, as Earth asleep

And the style of that admirable poet, as well as the Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams, measure in which he wrote, are, as it were, approYe constellations, while your angels strike, priated by custom to allegorical poems writ in our Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre.

language; just as in French the style of Marot, Great source of day! best image here below who lived under Francis I., has been used in tales, of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,

and familiar epistles, by the politest writers of the From world to world, the vital ocean round,

age of Louis XIV. On Nature write with every beam his praise. The thunder rolls : be hush'd the prostrate world ;

EXPLANATION OF THE OBSOLETE WORDS USED IN While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn. Bleat out afresh, ye hills : ye mossy rocks,

ARCHIMAGE the chief Defily skilfully. Relain the sound: the broad responsive low,

or greatest of magicians Depainted — painted. Ye valleys, raise ; for the Great Shepherd reigns ;

or enchanters.

Drowsy-head drowsi. And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come. A paid - paid. Ye woodlands all, awake: a boundless song Appal — affright. Eath easy. Burst from the groves! and when the restless day, Atween - belween. Efisoons immediately, Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep,

Aye — always.

often afterwards. Sweetest of birds! sweet Philomela, charm

Bale
sorrow, trouble, Eke

also. The listening shades, and teach the night his praise. misfortune.

Fays — fairies. Ye chief, for whom the whole creation smiles, Benempt named. Gear or geer — - furniture, At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all, Blazon — painting, dis- equipage, dress Crown the great hymn! in swarming cities vast, playing.

Glaive sword. (Fr.) Assembled men, to the deep organ join

Breme - cold, raw. Glee - joy, pleasure. The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear, Carol to sing songs of Han have. At solemn pauses, through the swelling base ; joy.

Hight named, called ; And, as each mingling flame increases each, Caucus - the north-east and sometimes it is In one united ardor rise to Heaven.

wind.

used for is called. See Or if you rather choose the rural shade,

Certes — certainly.

stanza vii. And find a fane in every secret grove;

Dan — a word prefixed to Idless - idleness. There let the shepherd's Aute, the virgin's lay, names.

Breathe your

THIS POEM.

ness.

- more.

-nor.

-man.

Imp-child, or offspring ; Prick'd thro' the forest Was nought around but images of rest •

from the Saxon impan, rode through the forest. Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between ;

to graft or plant. Sear— dry. burnt up. And flowery beds that slumberous influence kest, Kest - for cast. Sheen - bright, shining. From poppies breath'd ; and beds of pleasant Lad — for led. Sicker - sure, surely.

green, Lea - - a piece of land, or Smackt savored.

Where never yet was creeping creature seen. meadow.

Soot

sweet, or sweetly. Meantime unnumber'd glittering streamlets play'd, Libbard - leopard. South — true, or truth. And hurled everywhere their waters sheen; Lig — to lie.

Stound--misfortune, pang. That, as they bicker'd through the sunny shade, Losel I-a loose idle fellow. Sweltry — sultry,consum- Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur Louting — bowing, bend- ing with heat.

made. ing.

Swink- - to labor. Lithe - loose, lar. Thrall slave.

Join'd to the prattle of the purling rills, Mell — mingle.

Transmew’d-transformed. Were heard the lowing herds along the vale, Moe Vild - vile.

And flocks loud-bleating from the distant hills, Moil - to labor.

Unkempt (Lat. incomplus) And vacant shepherds piping in the dale : Mote — might.

- unadorned.

And now and then sweet Philomel would wail, Muchel or mochel-much, Ween — to think, be of Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep, great. opinion.

That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale ; Nathless - nevertheless. Weet - to know; to weet, And still a coil the grasshopper did keep ; Ne

to wit.

Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep. Needments — necessaries. Whilom — erewhile, forNoursling - a child that merly.

Full in the passage of the vale, above, is nursed. Wight

A sable, silent, solemn forest stood ; Noyance — harm. Wis, for wist - to know, Where nought but shadowy forms was seen to Prankı — colored, adorned think, understand.

move, gaily.

Wonne (a noun) — dwell- As Idless fancied in her dreaming mood : Perdie (Fr. par Dieu) ing.

And up the hills, on either side, a wood an old oath. Wroke - wreakt.

Of blackening pines, aye waving to and fro,

Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood ; N. B. The letter Y is frequently placed in the be- And where this valley winded out, below,

ginning of a word by Spenser, to lengthen it a The murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heard, syllable, and on at the end of a word, for the same

to flow. reason, as withouten, caslen, &c.

A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was,
Yborn - born.
Yfere — together.

of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; Yblent, or blent - blend- Ymolten - melted.

And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, ed, mingled.

Yode (preter tense of yede) For ever flushing round a summer-sky: Yclad - clad.

went.

There eke the soft delights, that witchingly Ycloped - called, named.

Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast,
And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh;

But whate'er smack'd of noyance, or unrest,

Was far far off expell’d from this delicious nest.
CANTO I.

The landskip such, inspiring perfect case,
The Castle height of Indolence,

Where Indolence (for so the wizard hight)
And its false luxury ;

Close hid his castle 'mid embowering trees,
Where for a little time, alas!

That half shut out the beams of Phæbus bright
We liv'd right jollily.

And made a kind of checker'd day and night ;

Meanwhile, unceasing at the massy gate, O MORTAL man, who livest here by toil,

Beneath a spacious palm, the wicked wight Do not complain of this thy hard estate ;

Was plac'd ; and to his lute, of cruel fate, That like an emmet thou must ever moil,. And labor harsh, complain'd, lamenting man's estate Is a sad sentence of an ancient date ; And, certes, there is for it reason great;

Thither continual pilgrims crowded still, For, tho' sometimes it makes thee weep and wail, From all the roads of Earth that pass'd thereby : And curse thy star, and early drudge and late, For, as they chaunc'd to breathe on neighboring Withouten that would come an heavier bale,

hill, Loose life, unruly passions and diseases pale. The freshness of this valley smote their eye,

And drew them ever and anon more nigh; In lowly dale, fast by a river's side,

Till clustering round th' enchanter false they hung With woody hill o'er hill encompass'd round, Ymolten with his syren melody; A most enchanting wizard did abide,

While o'er th' enfeebling lute his hand he fung, Than whom a fiend more fell is nowhere found. And to the trembling chords these tempting verses It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground;

sung: And there a season atween June and May, Half prankt with spring, with summer half em- “ Behold! ye pilgrims of this Earth, behold ! brown'd,

See all but man with unearn'd pleasure gay : A listless climate made, where, sooth to say, See her bright robes the butterfly unfold, No living wight could work, ne cared ev'n for play. Broke from her wintery tomb in prime of May!

a