Clipt in some harlot's captivating twine, As erst the champion who at Gaza fell, His sinews lose their wonted strength divine, His passions rude for mastery rebel: Ne can his prowess their combustion quell, Ne will they their obdurate hold resign, Till quite distraught, discomfited, forlore, His powre, and gallant portaunce, are no more. 'With me far other shall thy pleasures be, If thou abjure (as meet) each terrene thought; Thy beastly wassail, loathsome revelrie, Ravine, and painful covetise forgot.

Thou must the earth's broad bosom hold as nought, Poudred with orient pearl; nay 'sdain to see Kesars or kings who wrest a transient throne, Frail pomp if paragoned with me alone!

6 Thy penance is but small, thy guerdon great: Ne sorrow shalt thou know, ne drerihead; In some deep cave of cloud, a bland retreat, Myself will, duteous, delve thy bridal bed; Trust me, thy wishes are completely sped. Now silent list, while briefly I repeat

How goblin, elf, and gnome, and sylphid fare,
Rightly yclept the denizen of air.

'Shouldering the beach when angry billows rave,
Some in the bitter blast for plunder yell,
And plunge the drowning wight beneath the wave;
Some in the dire volcano love to dwell,
Oft laying cities waste with fury fell;

Some torture the designing, murderous knave,
His palsied nerves with stony glare awake,
And round his pillow sulphurous torches shake.

Some, when the night-dog bays the whistling

wind

(Boding sure ill), and strange sad voices shriek; When the lone pilgrim often looks behind, And the blood freezes in his ghastful cheek; Gigantic rising, from day's durance break, Incest, or rape, or parricide, to find;

Then savage tear his breast with scorpion whip, Or hurl the caitiff down the craggy steep.

< Some, dapper imps and swart, the mine attend, And thrid, with agile step, its glistering maze; The gnarled oak some from the mountain rend, And, ere cock-crowing, in the valley place; Some in one night a flinty fabric raise,

And to its base, the next, its turrets bend; While some the dolorous servants of Despair, With headless steeds the car of Death prepare. 'Four skeletons the coal-black coursers stride; With flamy fingers four direct the way; A windingsheet so white, distended wide, Dabbled in blood, the coffin doth array: Four hideous urchins at the corners play, And in quaint gambol, shift from side to side; Meanwhile, the thrice-repeated groan severe Smites the expiring sinner's closing ear. 'Less fearful pranks befit the merry fays: By the trim margent of some huddling stream, To revel in the pale moon's tremulous rays; To prompt the doting nurse's idle dream; Or lure the muttering carl with wanton gleam; Yet oft some ouphe malign in cradle slays The slumbering babe, then sucks his flowing gore, And, grinning, leaves him strangled on the floor.

Some, mounted on a butterfly's pied wing,
In imitative turnay dare advance,

Armed with the sullen hornet's desperate sting,
Or proudly on a mailed beetle prance,
Trusting their quarrel to chivalrous chance.
Others quick bounding in the tiny ring,
Trip to an humblebee's melodious drone,
More for their courtesy than valour known.

'Some, on the glossy surface of a lake,

In hazel nut, their little pinnace, swim; Some their deep thirst from acorn-goblet slake, Then slily o'er the misty meadow skim, To pinch the beldame on return from wake; Some to the river side their course betake,

And mournful pour a melancholy scream; Some, rattling mischievous mid charnel-bones, Mimic the dreadful mandrake's nightly moans. 'But such low mockery, like thee, I scorn, Averting thence, in ire, my sullied sight; In yon ethereal groves of amaranth born, Nurtured by streams of intellectual light From the Great Spirit emanating bright, Superior orbs my sister train adorn, Whom beatific visions still inspire; Though fallen, coeval with the' angelic quire. 'Some in the halo's humid circle play, What time the pale-eyed moon is faintly seen; Some o'er the beauteous lunar rainbow stray, Shifting their checquer'd change of colours sheen, Better to grace their silver-shafted queen;

And sometimes more irregularly gay, Portentous, in the glowing north they rise, And wave their boreal banners o'er the skies.

'Some the refulgent chariot of the sun

Pursue, descending to its western goal; Some, courierlike, from distant planets run; Some the huge comet's fiery wonder roll; Some patient sentry keep at either pole;

And others, by harmonious witchery won, All heaven responsive to the dulcet sound, Turn the smooth spheres on tuneful axis round. 'In every twinkling star serenely shine

Those white-robed ministers of placid bliss; Important is their toil, more pleasing mine;— To point the transport of the thrilling kiss, Ne'er known the maiden's throbbing heart to miss; To anneal the drop that falls on feeling's shrine; To soothe the lover's soul when frenzy-fraught; Or lift sublime the poet's towering thought.

'Arise! arise! do not thy pulses beat

More lively marches, to forego thy lot?
Feels not thy breast a more exalted heat,
Loosed from mortality, and yon dim spot?
Surpassing joys, beyond conception wrought,
In my embrace thy purer sense await.'-
Embayed in ecstacies, my humil head
I reared; and lo! the fair phantasma fled.

And now, dank-seething from the dewy earth,
The vaporous exhalation stole away;
The faggot blazed upon the cottage hearth;
And Palmer Twilight, clad in amis gray,
Resign'd to ebon Night his shadowy sway.
Musing on descant high, whose future birth
Haply may not my humble name abase,
Homeward I bent my desultory pace.

DERMODY.

FLORA.

REMOTE from scenes where the o'erwearied mind
Shrinks from the crimes and follies of mankind,
From hostile menace and offensive boast,

Peace and her train of home-born pleasures lost;
To Fancy's reign who would not gladly turn,
And lose awhile the miseries they mourn
In sweet oblivion? Come then, Fancy! deign,
Queen of ideal pleasure, once again

To lend thy magic pencil, and to bring
Such lovely forms as in life's happier spring,
On the green margin of my native Wey,
Before mine infant eyes were wont to play;
And with that pencil teach me to describe
The enchanting goddess of the flowery tribe,
Whose first prerogative it is to chase
The clouds that hang on languid beauty's face;
And, while advancing suns and tepid showers
Lead on the laughing Spring's delicious hours,
Bid the wan maid the hues of health assume,
Charm with new grace, and blush with fresher
bloom.

The vision comes!-while slowly melt away
Night's hovering shades before the eastern ray,
Ere yet declines the morning's humid star,
Fair Fancy brings her; in her leafy car
Flora descends to dress the' expecting earth,
Awake the germs, and call the buds to birth;
Bid each hybernacle its cell unfold,
And open silken leaves and eyes of gold!

Of forest foliage of the firmest shade, Enwove by magic hands, the car was made;

VOL. II.

DD