The treach'rous critic's cover'd guile,
And yellow Envy's pallid smile.

Bursting with undiminished fires,
To his own mind the bard retires :-
Within himself the kingdom lies,
Which moves his heart and feasts his eyes:-
Umbrageous groves around him spring,
Sweet birds within their coverts sing,

Streams murmur, meadows smile, fair maids
Dance or breathe love within the shades,
And harps from fairy castles sound,
Where feast and revelry abound.
Alas! too soon the vision flies;

In distant air the music dies,

And leaves him with exhausted frame
To mourn the void of phantom Fame!
E'en now I sit with aching head,
And limbs in listless languor spread,

While trembling hand can scarce impart
The dictates of a sinking heart:
Yet thus I cheat the weary hours,
While sable Cafe incumbent lours;
And bring my life's o'erwhelming woes
A little nearer to the close.

The mark of Calumny and Wrong,

I stand Unkindness' sons among;
And they, who dare not insult show,
Where prosperous Fortune knits her brow,

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Dare heap, as with impunity,

Their contumelious wrongs on me:

the ties of blood undone !

Paternal acres, lov'd, ador'd, That could my infant days afford Such pure delights, as rise again, With rapture that amounts to dain; Is there...

Full many a year of blackest grief

I still have nurs'd the fond belief,

?

The time at last would come, when I,

Repaid for all my agony,

In age's hour should sit at ease

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Beneath hereditary trees,

And calmly should descend to death,
Where first I drew this hapless breath!
The stormy noon, when from the wave
I scarce the batter'd bark could save,
Thus by the contrast might diffuse
O'er my life's evening brighter hues.
O fond delusion! sabler spread

The shades that thicken round my head;
And, dark as was the storm of noon,
Still heavier may the tempest soon

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The vessel's weaken'd powers assail,
And whelm me headlong in the gale:,
Youth's vigour lost, Hope's anchor gone,
Then Fate itself must cry, " undone."
"There is a home," my friend will say,

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Shining beyond yon milky way,

Where, (if on earth no peace abound,)
Nor storms molest, nor cares surround;
There point thy hopes, and strive to win,
By that true monitor within,

Yon seat of rest, where seraphs blaze;
Encircled with perennial rays!"

'Tis true, dear friend; then I must close
This lengthen'd dreaming, feverish prose,
And you'll believe me, &c. &c.

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"COMPLAIN; for ever still complain !
O cease, my friend, the doleful strain!
No ills beyond the common fate
The future years, thou dread'st, await!
Then let your fancy dwell no more
On joys you never can restore,

Or storms, that in your fancy's eye
Are gathering in the distant sky!"

Well dost thou say: perchance no good

It is, o'er coming glooms to brood:
Then let me strive to while away

In present good the careless day,

Walk, ride, dig, saunter in the shade,

Or stray, where bards before have stray'd,
Along the meads, whose emerald green
To glow with new-sprung tints is seen;
pour along

Or sit at ease, and

My unpremeditated song,

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While varied visions play about
My mind in strange and motley rout.
They all are cheats, these charms of life
For which we make such fretful strife;
Wealth, honours, fame, and gaudy show,
Empty as bubbles that we blow
And he who can, the easiest way,
With innocence beguile the day,
And soonest reach life's feverish close,
Where all our passions will repose,
Is, after all, in reason's eyes,

The best, the happiest, and most wise.

Why should I vex my morbid frame With thoughts, that put me in a flame? With anger at the scoundrel's wiles, Whose infamy my pen defiles?''

With, scorn, that breaks its just control,

At the poor insults of a fool?

With Treachery's trick, and Falsehood's vow,

And chang'd Affection's alter'd brow?

While Competence will yet bestow

The little that we want below,

The frugal meal, the simple vest,

The roof, tho' straw-built; what's the rest?

Superfluous luxury, that ne'er

Could lull to sleep a single care!

Fortune, that jade, may on us frown,

And think to keep our spirits down ;

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