The sons of Nature they alike delight When the red ligtnings thro' the ether fly, And when untouch'd by Nature's living fires By the blue taper's melancholy light Whilst all around the midnight torrents pour, And awful glooms beset the face of night They wear the silent solitary hour. Ah then, how sweet to pass the night away Or Reason listens to the Athenian sage. To scan the laws of Nature, to explore Ah! who can paint what raptures fill the soul Bids the loud thunders of the battle roll And drives the Tyrant trembling from her shore? From these pursuits the Sons of Genius scan By science calm'd, over the peaceful soul, Virtue, the daughter of the skies supreme, Directs their life, informs their glowing lays,. A steady friend, her animating beam Sheds its soft lustre o'er their latter days.. G When Life's warm fountains feel the frost of time, When the cold dews of darkness close their eyes, She shows the parting soul uprais'd sublime, The brighter glories of her kindred skies. Thus the pale moon whose pure celestial light Has chased the gloomy clouds of heaven away, Rests her white cheek with silver radiance bright On the soft bosom of the western sea. Lost in the glowing wave her radiance dies, To the bright azure of the orient skies, Like the tumultuous billows of the sea Some in oblivious silence pass away And leave no vestige of their lives behind. Others, like those proud waves which beat the shore But soon their transient glories are no more, Like yon proud rocks amidst the sea of time For those exist whose pure etherial minds Scorn all terrestrial cares, all mean designs, Theirs is the glory of a lasting name And theirs the sweetness of the Muses lyres. D. 1795 The EBB TIDE. Slowly thy flowing tide Came in, old Avon! scarcely did mine eyes, With many a stroke and strong The labouring boatmen upward plied their oars, And yet the eye beheld them labouring long Between thy winding shores. Now down thine ebbing tide The unlaboured boat falls rapidly along, The solitary helms-man sits to guide And sings an idle song. Now o'er the rocks, that lay So silent late, the shallow current roars; |