Fugitive Pieces | Page 5

hard a fate,?And seat Pomposus_, where your _Probus sate.?Of narrow brain, but of a narrower soul,?Pomposus, holds you in his harsh controul;?Pomposus, by no social virtue sway'd,?With florid jargon, and with vain parade;?With noisy nonsense, and new fangled rules,?(Such as were ne'er before beheld in schools,)?Mistaking pedantry_, for _learning's laws,?He governs, sanctioned but by self applause.?With him, the same dire fate attending Rome,?Ill-fated IDA! soon must stamp your doom;?Like her o'erthrown, forever lost to fame,?No trace of science left you, but the name.
HARROW, July, 1805.

EPITAPH ON A BELOVED FRIEND.
Oh Boy! forever lov'd, for ever dear,?What fruitless tears have wash'd thy honour'd bier;?What sighs re-echoed to thy parting breath,?Whilst thou wert struggling in the pangs of death.?Could tears have turn'd the tyrant in his course,?Could sighs have check'd his dart's relentless force;?Could youth and virtue claim a short delay,?Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey.?Thou still had'st liv'd, to bless my aching sight,?Thy comrade's honour, and thy friend's delight:?Though low thy lot, since in a cottage born,?No titles did thy humble name adorn,?To me, far dearer, was thy artless love,?Than all the joys, wealth, fame, and friends could prove. For thee alone I liv'd, or wish'd to live,?(Oh God! if impious, this rash word forgive)?Heart broken now, I wait an equal doom,?Content to join thee in thy turf-clad tomb;?Where this frail form compos'd in endless rest,?I'll make my last, cold, pillow on thy breast;?That breast where oft in life, I've laid my head,?Will yet receive me mouldering with the dead;?This life resign'd without one parting sigh,?Together in one bed of earth we'll lie!?Together share the fate to mortals given,?Together mix our dust, and hope for Heaven.
HARROW, 1803.

ADRIAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL, WHEN DYING.
Animula! vagula, Blandula,?Hospes, comesque, corporis,?Quoe nunc abibis in Loca??Pallidula, rigida, nudula,?Nec ut soles dabis Jocos.
TRANSLATION.
Ah! gentle, fleeting, wav'ring sprite!?Friend and associate of this clay,?To what unknown region borne,?Wilt thou now wing thy distant flight??No more with wonted humour gay,?But pallid, cheerless, and forlorn.
1806.

TO MARY.
Rack'd by the flames of jealous rage,?By all her torments deeply curst,?Of hell-born passions far the worst,?What hope my pangs can now assuage?
2.
I tore me from thy circling arms,?To madness fir'd by doubts and fears,?Heedless of thy suspicious tears,?Nor feeling for thy feign'd alarms.
3.
Resigning every thought of bliss,?Forever, from your love I go,?Reckless of all the tears that flow,?Disdaining thy polluted kiss.
4.
No more that bosom heaves for me,?On it another seeks repose,?Another riot's on its snows,?Our bonds are broken, both are free.
5.
No more with mutual love we burn,?No more the genial couch we bless,?Dissolving in the fond caress;?Our love o'erthrown will ne'er return.
6.
Though love than ours could ne'er be truer,?Yet flames too fierce themselves destroy,?Embraces oft repeated cloy,?Ours_ came too _frequent, to endure.
7.
You quickly sought a second lover,?And I too proud to share a heart,?Where once I held the whole_, not _part,?Another mistress must discover.
8.
Though not the first one, who hast blest me,?Yet I will own, you was the dearest,?The one, unto my bosom nearest;?So I conceiv'd, when I possest thee.
9.
Even now I cannot well forget thee,?And though no more in folds of pleasure,?Kiss follows kiss in countless measure,?I hope you sometimes will regret me.
10.
And smile to think how oft were done,?What prudes declare a sin to act is,?And never but in darkness practice,?Fearing to trust the tell-tale sun.
11.
And wisely therefore night prefer,?Whose dusky mantle veils their fears,?Of this_, and _that, of eyes and ears,?Affording shades to those that err.
12.
Now, by my foul, 'tis most delight?To view each other panting, dying.?In love's extatic posture lying,?Grateful to feeling_, as to _sight.
13.
And had the glaring God of Day,?(As formerly of Mars and Venus)?Divulg'd the joys which pass'd between us,?Regardless of his peeping ray.
14.
Of love admiring such a sample,?The Gods and Goddesses descending,?Had never fancied us offending,?But wisely_ followed _our example.

When to their airy hall, my father's voice,?Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice,?When pois'd upon the gale, my form shall ride,?Or dark in mist, descend the mountain's side;?Oh! may my shade behold no sculptur'd urns,?To mark the spot, where earth to earth returns.?No lengthen'd scroll of virtue, and renown,?My epitaph, shall be my name alone;?If that with honour fails to crown my clay,?Oh! may no other fame my deeds repay;?That_, only _that, shall single out the shot,?By that remember'd, or fore'er forgot.--
1803.

TO ----
1.
Oh! when shall the grave hide forever my sorrow??Oh! when shall my soul wing her flight from this clay??The present is hell! and the coming to-morrow,?But brings with new torture, the curse of to-day.
2.
From my eye flows no tear, from my lips fall no curses,?I blast not the fiends, who have hurl'd me from bliss,?For poor is the soul which bewailing rehearses,?Its querulous grief, when in anguish like this--
3.
Was my eye, 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes bright'ning. Would my lips breathe a flame, which no stream could assuage, On our foes should