FALI
AIN would my verse, Tyrconnel, boast thy name,
Brownlowe, at once iny subject and my

fame!
Oh! could that fpirit, which thy bosom warms,
Whose ftrength surprizes, and whose goodness charms!
That various worth ! could that inspire my lays, 5
Envy Mould smile, and Censure learn to praise :
Yet, though unequal to a soul like thine,
A generous foul, approaching to divine,
Wiren bless d beneath such patronage I write,
Great my attempt, though hazardous my flight.

O'er ample Nature I extend my views ;
Nature to rural scenes invites the Muse :
She flies all public care, all venal strife,
To try the still, compar'd with active life;
To prove, by these the sons of men may owe
The fruits of bliss to bursting clouds of woe;
That ev’n calamity, by thought' refin’d,
Inspirits and adorns the thinking mind.

Come,

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Come, Contemplation, whofe unbounded gaze, Swift in a glance, the courfe of things surveys; Who in thyself the various view canst find Of sea, land, air, and heaven, and human-kind; What tides of passion in the bosom roll; What thoughts debase, and what exalt the soul, Whose peneil paints, obfequious to thy will, 2.5 All thou survey'st, with a creative skill ! Oh, leave awhile thy lov’d, fequester'd shade! Awhile in wintery wilds vouchsafe thy aid ! Then waf: me to some olive, bowery green, Where, cloath'din white, thou mew'ít a mind ferene; 30 Where kind Content from noise and court retires, And smiling fits, while Muses tune their lyres : Where Zephyrs gently breathe, while Sleep profound To their soft fanning nods, with poppies crown'd; Sleep, on a treasure of bright dreams reclines, By thee bestow'd; whence Fancy colour'd shines, And flutters round his brow a hovering flight, Varying her plumes in visionary light.

The solar fires now faint and watery burn, Just where with ice Aquarius frets his urn ! 40 If thaw'd, forth iflue, from its mouth severe, Raw clouds, that sadden all th’inverted year.

When Frost and Fire with martial powers engag'd, Frost, northward, fled the war, unequal wag'd ! Beneath the Pole his legions urg'd their flight, 45 And gain’d a cave profound and wide as night. O’er cheerless scenes by Desolation own'd, High on an Alp of ice he fits enthron'd!

One

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One clay-cold hand, his crystal beard sustains,
And scepter'd one, o’er wind and tempest reigns; 50
O'er stony magazines of hail, that storm
The blossom’d fruit, and flowery Spring deform.
His languid eyes like frozen lakes appear,
Dim-gleaming all the light that wanders here.
His robe snow-wrought, and hoard with age; his
breath

55 A nitrous damp, that ftrikes petrific death. .

Far hence lies, ever-freez’d, the northern main,
That checks, and renders navigation vain,
That, fhnt against the sun's dissolving ray,
Scatters the trembling tides of vanquish'd day,
And stretching eastward half the world fecuves,
Defies discovery, and like time endures !

Now Frost fent boreal blasts to scourge the air,
To bind the streams, and leave the landfcape bare ;
Yet when, far west, his violence declines, 65
Though here the brook, or lake, his power confines;
To rocky pools, to cataracts are unknown
His chains !--to rivers, rapid like the Rhone !

The falling moon cast, cold, a quivering light, Just filver'd o'er the snow, and funk!--pale night 70 Retir'd. The dawn in light-grey mists arose ! Shrill chants the cock !-the hungry heifer lows ! Slow blush yon breaking clouds ;-the sun 's uprollid! Th'expansive grey turns azure, chas’d with gold; White-glittering ice, chang'd like the topaz, gleams, 75 Reflecting fatfron luftre from his beams.

O Con.

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o Contemplation, teach me to explore,
From Britain far remote, some distant shore !
From Sleep a dream distinct and lively claim;
Clear let the vision strike the moral's aim !
It comes! I feel it o'er my soul ferene !
Still Morn begins, and Frost retains the scene !

Hark!the loud horn's enlivening note's begun!
From rock to vale sweet-wandering echoes run !
Still floats the found thrill-winding from afar !
Wild beasts astonish'd dread the fylvan war!
Spears to the sun in files embattled play,
March on, charge briskly, and enjoy the fray!

Swans, ducks, and geese, and the wing’d winter-brood, Chatter discordant on yon echoing flood !

१० At Babel thus, when heaven the tongue confounds, Sudden a thousand different jargon-sounds, Like jangling bells, harsh mingling, grate the ear! All stare ! all talk ! all mean ; but none cohere! Mark! wiley fowlers meditate their doom,

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And smoaky Fate speeds thundering through the gloom!
Stop'd short, they cease in airy rings to fly,
Whirl o'er and o’er, and, fluttering, fall and die.

Still Fancy wafts me on! deceiv'd I stand,
Efrang'd, adventurous on a foreign land !
Wide and more wide extends the scene unknown !
Where shall I turn, a WANDERER, and alone ?

From hilly wilds, and depths where Inows remain,
My winding steps up a steep mountain strain !
Emers d a-top, I mark, the hills subside,
And towers afpire, but with inferior pride!

On

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On this bleak height tall firs, with ice-work crown'd,
Bend, while their flaky winter shades the ground !
Hoarse, and direct, a blustering north-wind blows !
On boughs, thick-ruftling, crack the crisped snows! 116
'Tangles of frost half-fright the wilder'd eye,
By heat oft-blacken'd like a lowering sky!
Hence down the side two turbid rivulets pour,
And devious two, in one huge cataract roar!
While pleas'd the watery progress I pursue, I15
Yon rocks in rough assemblage rush in view !
In form an amphitheatre they rise ;
And a dark gulf in their broad centre lies.
There the dim'd fight with dizzy weakness fails,
And horror o'er the firmest brain prevails !
Thither these mountain-streams their passage take,
Headlong foam down, and form a dreadful lake!
The lake, high-swelling, so redundant

grows,
From the heap'd store deriv’d, a river flows;
Which, deepening, travels through a distant wood, 125
And thence emerging, meets a sister-flood;
Mingled they flash on a wide-opening plain,
And pass yon city to the far-seen main.

So blend two fouls by heaven for union made, A:nd strengthening forward, lend a mutual aid, 130 And prove in every transient turn their aim, Through finite life to infinite the same.

Nor ends the landscape-Ocean, to my sight, Points a blue arm, where failing ships delight, In prospect lessen'd!--Now new rocks, rear'd high, 135 Siretch a cross-ridge, and bar the curious eye ;

There

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