ELEGANT EXTRACTS.

PART IV.

Descriptive, Pastoral, and Narrative.

THE EXTRAVAGANZA.

'OH, for a journey to the Antipodes; Or some lone region of remotest Ind; Where, sagely sad, in solitary ease

My weary sprite a safe retreat might find; Where nothing might perturb my pensive mind, But such delicious fantasies as please

The forming eye, when fiery flakes at eve
With wayward shapes the listless sense deceive!

'Then wingy-heel'd Imagination's flight

Would bear me devious through the lamping sky: Then haply should I feel no low delight From earthly Bonnibel's bewitching eye, Voluptuous in her dainty arms to lie;

Ne stoop inglorious from so proud a height; While my fond heart pour'd forth its vain distress, Snared in the fetters of a golden tress.'

VOL. II.

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Such was my wish, romantic wish I ween,
When that soft necromancer, baulmy Sleep,
Laid me, entraunced, amid a pleasant scene,
Where many a welling spring did murmurous
To lull me with its liquid lapses deep; [creep,

And, shaking their broad locks of glorious green, Tall trees their thick lascivious leaves entwined, To wooe with dalliaunce blithe the western wind. The western wind did, scant-respiring, sigh,

Ne ruffled with rude wing the' attemper'd air; But fuming from the fragrant flowers hard by, Prankt in all hues, and delicately fair, Did surging clouds of breathing incense bear: All summer's bravery refresh'd the eye, All musick's charms, above, beneath, around, Raptured the ear with fascinating sound.

Here cherries riper than thy leman's lip,

The ambrosial lip of love, thou mightst behold; Here purple plums their unctuous amber weep, And mellow pears their shapely size unfold; Here pensile balls of vegetable gold,

With blushes blent, through the fresh foliage At once luxurious to the taste and sight, [peep; Here loaded boughs with nodding head invite.

The nascent rose joined, prodigal of sweets,
The gaudy tulip, in rich broidered vest;
Here too the ambitious flaunting sunflower greets
Her garish lord with wide expanded breast;
Nor wanted crocus coy, in saffron drest;

Harebell, affecting most obscure retreats;
And of all leaf and verdure, myriads more,
Each alley, emerald-paved, that purfled o'er.

But viler than the sleeky sedge, that strews

The barren sand, uptorne from ocean-bed, Were all those baser gauds, and meaner views, To that sweet semblance, next its influence shed, Descending in a vale of roses red;

Delectable! not Grace, nor fabled Muse,
By Thespian spring, or in Thessalian shade,
Such peerless pomp of symmetry displaid.

Not she that, slighting her Idalian bowre,
Did with the rose-faced jolly huntsman toy;
Nor she, her rightful lord, in evil hour

Enchafing, who dismantled stately Troy;
Nor she, on Latmos' top who raped the boy;
Nor yet sweet Enna's pride, (grim paramour!)
Whom griesly Orcus bore from upper air,
Might with this nymph for sovranty compare.

Her sunny ringlets, wove in cunning braid,
Formed for her lily front a coronet;
Her persant eyes two precious gems betraid
In living alabaster featly set,

Arch'd with their graceful brows of shiny jet;

Her swelling bosom through its slender shade Leap'd to be seen; her round and dimply chin Would tempt a frozen eremite to sin.

A silken samite slightly did enfold

Her luscious limbs, girt with a starry zone, Its colour heavenly blue, bedropt with gold, And crimson, gorgeous as the proud pavone; A lambent glory on her temples shone:

In sooth, she look'd not one of Nature's mold, But some gay creature whom the minstrel sees Aerial floating on the evening breeze.

Scarce my dazed eye could I uplift to trace
The' insufferable splendence of her frame;
Much less could loiter on each rising grace
Insinuating soft a subtile flame.

I wist not how the fond infection came,

When, sudden (while a gracious smile her face With modest blush most amiably arraid), Thus spoke in tuneful words the mystic maid : 'Thy fond intreaty, youth of bold design!

Is heard, and sanctified thy wayward prayer; My soul in unison accords with thine;

Henceforth, initiate, thou shalt be my care. Thou shalt not grieve for any mundane fair,

Ne for the daughters of frail clay repine: Celestial quintessence thou shalt embrace; No mortal I, but of the sylphid race!

'Deem not this airy texture too refined

The sacred energies of love to feel: True love is seated in the dureful mind,

Which aught of fleshy converse ne'er can heal;
True love is a sublimed nectareous meal,
Where the pure sense can never surfeit find;
Which time in vain may labour to destroy,
Fed on eternal flowres of blooming joy.

In swinish riotise, his bouzing-can
The debochee may round the table move,
Trolling lewd madrigal, mistaken man,
To his imperious dear, and call it love;
But 'tis not so: the leven-brond of Jove,
Since first its forked function it began,
Such ruinous dismay and baleful fire
Did ne'er elance as his profane desire.