ES not my Love, how time resumes The glory which he lent these flowers? ugh none should taste of their perfumes, et muft they live but fome few hours:
ime, what we forbear, devours!
d Helen, or th* Egyptian Queen, Been near so thrifty of their graces ; hose beauties must at length have been The fpoil of age, which finds out faces In the most retired places.
Should fome malignant planet bring
A barren drought, or ceaseless shower,
Upon the autumn, or the spring,
And spare us neither fruit nor flower;
Winter would not stay an hour.
Could the refolve of love's neglect
Preferve you from the violation
Of coming years, then more respect
Were due to fo divine a fathion ;
Nor would I indulge my paffion.
S lately i on filver Thames did ride,
Sad Galatea on the bank I spy'd:
Such was her look as forrow taught to shine;
And thus the grac'd me with a voice divine.
You that can tune your founding ftrings fo well, Of Ladies' beauties, and of love to tell,
Once change your note; and let
The juftest grief that ever touch'd the Court.
Fair nymph! I have in your delights no share
Nor ought to be concerned in your care;
Yet would I fing, if I your forrows knew;
And to my aid invoke no Muse but you.
Hear then, and let your fong augment our grief,
Which is fo great, as not to wish relief.
She that had all which nature gives, or chance;
Whom fortune join'd with virtue to advance
To all the joys this island could afford,
The greatest Mistress, and the kindest Lord :
Who with the royal, mixt her noble, blood;
And in high grace with Gloriana stood:
Her bounty, fweetnefs, beauty, goodness, fuch,
That none e'er thought her happiness too much :
So well inclin'd her favours to confer,
And kind to all, as Heaven had been to her!
The virgin's part, the mother, and the wife,
So well fhe acted in the span of life,
That though few years (too few alas !) fhe told,
She feem'd in all things, but in beauty, old.
As unripe fruit, whofe verdant stalks do cleave
Close to the tree, which grieves no lefs to leave
The smiling pendant which adorns her so,
And until autumn, on the bough should grow::
So feem'd her youthful foul not cafily forc'd,
Or from fo fair, so sweet, a feat divorc'd.
Her fate at once did hafty feem, and flow;
At once too cruel, and unwilling too.
Under how hard a law are mortals born!
Whom now we envy, we anon must mourn :
What Heaven fets highest, and seems most to prize,
Is foon removed from our wondering eyes!
But fince the * Sifters did fo foon untwine
So fair a thread, I'll ftrive to piece the line.
Vouchfafe, fad nymph!: to let me know the dame,
And to the Mufes I'll commend her name:
Make the wide country echo to your moan,
The listening trees, and favage mountains, groan;,
What rock's not moved when the death is fung
Of one fo good, fo lovely, and fo young?
'Twas Hamilton !-whom I had nam'd before, But naming her, grief lets me fay no more.
O we fome antique Hero's ftrength
Learn by his lance's weight, and length;
As these vaft beams exprefs the beast,
Whofe fhady brows alive they dreft.
Such game, while yet the world was new,
The mighty Nimrod did pursue.
What, huntfman of our feeble race,
Or dogs, dare fuch a monfter chase?
Refembling, with each blow he strikes,
The charge of a whole troop of pikes.
O fertile head! which every year
Could fuch a crop of wonder bear!
The teeming earth did never bring,
So foon, so hard, fo huge a thing:
Which might it never have been caft,
(Each year's growth added to the laft).
These lofty branches had supply'd
The Earth's bold fons' prodigious pride:
Heaven with thefe engines had been scal'd,
When mountains heap'd on mountains fail'd.
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