Poetry. Alexander Pope

On you their gifts are all bestow'd again. For you the swains the fairest flowers design, And in one garland all their beauties join; Accept the wreath which you deserve alone, In whom all beauties are comprised in one. See what delights in sylvan scenes appear! Descending gods have found Elysium here. 60 In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray'd, And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade. Come, lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours, When swains from shearing seek their nightly bowers, When weary reapers quit the sultry field, And crown'd with corn their thanks to Ceres yield; This harmless grove no lurking viper hides, But in my breast the serpent love abides. Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew, But your Alexis knows no sweets but you. 70 Oh, deign to visit our forsaken seats, The mossy fountains, and the green retreats! Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade, Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade: Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. Oh, how I long with you to pass my days, Invoke the Muses, and resound your praise! Your praise the birds shall chant in every grove, And winds shall waft it to the Powers above. 80 But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain, The wondering forests soon should dance again, The moving mountains hear the powerful call, And headlong streams hang listening in their fall! But see, the shepherds shun the noonday heat, The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat, To closer shades the panting flocks remove; Ye gods! and is there no relief for love? But soon the sun with milder rays descends To the cool ocean, where his journey ends: 90 On me Love's fiercer flames for ever prey, By night he scorches, as he burns by day.

VARIATIONS.

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      VER. 1–4 were thus printed in the first edition—

       A faithful swain, whom Love had taught to sing,

       Bewail'd his fate beside a silver spring;

       Where gentle Thames his winding waters leads

       Through verdant forests, and through flowery meads.

       VER. 3, 4. Originally thus in the MS.—

       There to the winds he plain'd his hapless love,

       And Amaryllis fill'd the vocal grove.

       VER. 27–29—

       Oft in the crystal spring I cast a view,

       And equall'd Hylas, if the glass be true;

       But since those graces meet my eyes no more

       I shun, &c.

       VER. 79, 80—

       Your praise the tuneful birds to heaven shall bear,

       And listening wolves grow milder as they hear.

       VER. 91—

       Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay.

AUTUMN. — THE THIRD PASTORAL, Or HYLAS AND ÆGON.

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TO MR WYCHERLEY.11

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      Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,

       Hylas and Ægon sung their rural lays;

       This mourn'd a faithless, that an absent love.

       And Delia's name and Doris' fill'd the grove.

       Ye Mantuan nymphs, your sacred succour bring;

       Hylas and Ægon's rural lays I sing.

       Thou, whom the Nine with Plautus' wit inspire,

       The art of Terence, and Menander's fire;

       Whose sense instructs us, and whose humour charms,

       Whose judgment sways us, and whose spirit warms! 10

       Oh, skill'd in Nature! see the hearts of swains,

       Their artless passions, and their tender pains.

       Now setting Phoebus shone serenely bright,

       And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light;

       When tuneful Hylas, with melodious moan,

       Taught rocks to weep, and made the mountains groan.

       Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!

       To Delia's ear the tender notes convey.

       As some sad turtle his lost love deplores,

       And with deep murmurs fills the sounding shores, 20

       Thus, far from Delia, to the winds I mourn,

       Alike unheard, unpitied, and forlorn.

       Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along!

       For her, the feather'd choirs neglect their song:

       For her, the limes their pleasing shades deny;

       For her, the lilies hang their heads and die.

       Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring,

       Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing,

       Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove,

       Say, is not absence death to those who love? 30

       Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!

       Cursed be the fields that cause my Delia's stay;

       Fade every blossom, wither every tree,

       Die every flower, and perish all but she.

       What have I said? Where'er my Delia flies,

       Let spring attend, and sudden flowers arise;

       Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn,

       And liquid amber drop from every thorn.

       Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs along!

       The birds shall cease to tune their evening song, 40

       The winds to breathe, the waving woods to move,

       And streams to murmur, ere I cease to love.

       Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain,

       Not balmy sleep to labourers faint with pain,

       Not showers to larks, or sunshine to the bee,

       Are half so charming as thy sight to me.

       Go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!

       Come, Delia, come; ah, why this long delay?

       Through rocks and caves the name of Delia sounds,

       Delia, each care and echoing rock rebounds. 50

       Ye Powers, what pleasing frenzy soothes my mind!

       Do lovers dream, or is my Delia kind?

       She comes, my Delia comes!—Now cease, my lay,

       And cease, ye gales, to bear my sighs away!

       Next Ægon sung, while Windsor groves admired;

       Rehearse, ye Muses, what yourselves inspired.

       Resound, ye hills, resound my mournful strain!

       Of perjured Doris, dying I complain:

       Here where the mountains, lessening as they rise,

       Lose the low vales, and steal into the skies: 60

       While labouring oxen, spent with toil and heat,

       In their loose traces from the field retreat: