ANGER, in hafty words, or blows,
Itfelf discharges on our foes:
And forrow too finds fome relief
In tears, which wait upon our grief :
So every paffion, but fond Love,
Unto its own redrefs does move:
But that alone the wretch inclines
To what prevents his own designs;
Makes him lament, and figh, and weep,
Disorder'd, tremble, fawn, and creep;
Poftures which render him despis'd,
Where he endeavours to be priz'd.
For women (born to be control'd)
Stoop to the forward and the bold:
Affect the haughty and the proud,
The gay, the frolic, and the loud.
Who first the generous steed opprest,
Not kneeling did falute the beaft;
But with high courage, life, and force,
Approaching, tam'd th' unruly horse.
Unwifely we the wiser East
Pity, fuppofing them oppreft
With tyrants' force, whofe law is will,
By which they govern, spoil, and kill :
Each nymph, but moderately fair,
Commands with no lefs rigos here.
Should fome brave Turk, that walks among
His twenty laffes, bright and young;
And beckons to the willing dame,
Preferr'd to quench his prefent flame;
Behold as many Gallants here,
With modeft guife, and filent fear,
All to one female idol bend:
While her high pride does scarce defcend
To mark their follies; he would fwear
That these her guard of eunuchs were:
And that a more majestic Queen,
Or humbler flaves, he had not feen.
All this with indignation spoke,
In vain I ftruggled with the yoke
Of mighty Love: that conquering look,
When next beheld, like lightning strook
My blasted foul; and made me bow,
Lower than those I pity'd now.
So the tall ftag, upon the brink
Of fome smooth ftream, about to drink,
Surveying there his armed head,
With fhame remembers that he fled
The fcorned dogs; refolves to try
The combat next: but, if their cry
Invades again his trembling ear,
He ftrait refumes his wonted care;
Leaves the untafted fpring behind,
And, wing'd with fear, out-flies the wind.
HYLLIS! why should we delay
Pleasures fhorter than the day?
Could we (which we never can!)
Stretch our lives beyond their span
Beauty like a fhadow flies,
And our youth before us dies.
Or, would youth and beauty stay,
Love hath wings, and will away.
Love hath swifter wings than Time:
Change in love to heaven does climb
Gods, that never change their state,
Vary oft their love and hate.
Phyllis to this truth we owe
All the love betwixt us two:
Let not you and I enquire,
What has been our past defire:
On what shepherd you have fmil'd,
Or what nymphs I have beguil'd:
Leave it to the planets too,
What we fhall hereafter do:
For the joys we now may prove,
Take advice of prefent love.
TO MY LORD OF FALKLAND.
BRAVE Holland leads, and with him Falkland
Who hears this told, and does not strait suppose
We fend the Graces and the Muses forth,
To civilize and to inftruct the North?
Not that these ornaments make fwords lefs fharp;
Apollo bears as well his bow as harp :
And though he be the patron of that spring,
Where in calm peace the facred virgins sing;
He courage had to guard th' invaded throne
Of Jove, and caft the ambitious giant down.
Ah, noble friend! with what impatience all
That know thy worth, and know how prodigal
Of thy great foul thou art (longing to twist
Bays with that ivy, which fo early kiss'd
Thy youthful temples) with what horror we
Think on the blind events of war and thee !
To fate expofing that all-knowing breast
Among the throng, as cheaply as the rest:
Where oaks and brambles (if the copse be burn'd)
Confounded lie, to the fame ashes turn'd.
Some happy wind over the ocean blow
This tempeft yet, which frights our island fo!
Guarded with ships, and all the fea our own,
From Heaven this mifchief on our heads is thrown.
In a late dream, the Genius of this land,
Amaz'd, I faw, like the fair Hebrew stand;
TO LORD FALKLAND.
When first she felt the twins begin to jar,
And found her womb the feat of civil war.
Inclin'd to whose relief, and with presage
Of better fortune for the prefent age,
Heaven fends, quoth I, this difcord for our good;
To warm, perhaps, but not to waste our blood:
'To raise our drooping spirits, grown the scorn
Of our proud neighbours; who ere long shall mourn
(Though now they joy in our expected harms)
We had occafion to refume our arms.
A lion fo with felf-provoking fmart
(His rebel tail fcourging his nobler part)
Calls up his courage; then begins to roar,
And charge his foes, who thought him mad before.
FOR DRINKING OF HEALTHS.
ET brutes and vegetals, that cannot think,
So far as drought and nature urges, drink:
A more indulgent mistress guides our fp'rits,
Reason, that dares beyond our appetites:
She would our care, as well as thirst, redrefs;
And with Divinity rewards excess.
Deserted Ariadne, thus fupply'd,
Did perjur'd Thefeus' cruelty deride:
Bacchus embrac'd, from her exalted thought
Banish'd the man, her paffion, and his fault.
Bacchus and Phoebus are by Jove ally'd,
And each by other's timely heat supply'd:
All that the grapes owe to his ripening fires,
Is paid in Numbers which their juice infpires,
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