As hopes and fears alternately prevail,Painful the conflict in a lover's mind!Jocund, we drive before some flatt'ring gale,Now mourn the fury of some adverse wind!What if her friends, less partial to my vows,Have sought some rival in my humble stead?What if some greater rival they espouse,And she be meant to grace some richer bed?What if---how torturing, alas, that doubt!---Some other youth have made his passion known,What if some luckier youth have found her out,And plead with merit equal to her own?Wild, at the racking thought, I snatch my pen,Resolv'd, at length, my secret to disclose,Tell her my story, o'er and o'er again,The unaffected story of my woes.

"Enough my son! I've heard full oft (he cry'd)"Th' endearing virtues that inform her breast,'Your friend, already, may she prove your bride"---The gushing tear my gratitude expresss'd.But though a father, with indulgence kind,Afford a sanction to my heart's desire,Remains no task more delicate behind?No further warrant does my love require?How am I sure, that e'er Amanda'seyesHave read that purpose I could ne'er reveal,That they have pierc'd through all the thin disguise?So oft assum'd that purpose to concealWhen at her face the side-long glance I've stole,Did glances, then, my view responsive meetWhen inward pangs have swell'd my lab ring soul,Did her dear bosom, sympathetic, beat?

bride"

ure, 'twas some being of th' angelic sphereThat at the throne of heav'n my suit preferr'd,And whisper'd, gracious, in my ravish'd ear---"The virtuous wishes of thy soul are heard."Blest, as thou art, in a fond father's love,"A better father never bore the name!"Boldy avow a passion he'll approve,"Nor that alone, he will applaud thy flame."Fraught with the glad advice, at once I flew,To him, at once, my passion I declar'd,Began recital of Amandathrough,

Elegy IVHe cannot resolve to quit her.But, wherefore, say, must black despair corrode,And mildew, thus, affection’s promis’d fruit?What tho’ with thorns my path of love be strew’d,Why must I cease, at once, the sweet pursuit?Say, why must prudence, with her matron-brow,Check the gay sallies of impatient youth?Severely rigid, not one claim allowTo the warm vows of undissembling truth?Why must discretion’s chilling voice pronounceA final sentence on my luckless love?And with compulsive hand break thro’, at once,The pleasing web industrious fancy wove?Why14 Love Elegies.Why must it prove, at last, an idle dream?Vague as those forms that mock our curtain’d eyes,When, thro’ the night, enwrapt in joys we seem,‘Till, with the morn, each joy, delusive flies.An idle dream! And was it then no more?Amanda’s converse I’ve so oft enjoy’d?An idle dream? Each kiss, that, o’er and o’er,The silent intervals of talk employ’d?Was it a dream, when parted from her sight,I chid the minutes ‘till we met again?Was it a dream, as oft, with fond delight,I’ve read the traces of her absent pen?How did her understanding mark each line?What artless ease in ev’ry period flow?What wit and humour did her stile refine?In ev’ry sentiment, what friendship glow?InveiglngLove Elegies. 15Inveigling charmer! Under friendship’s veil,Well did’st thou play an unsuspected part,On ev’ry sense impose a specious tale,And win thy passage to my guardless heart!No, no---a dream?---it must not, cannot be---Almighty love forbids a lot so hardStill has he found a votary in me,Still have his altars witness’d my regard.Ne’er can he suffer, thus, an early flame,Nurtur’d beneath his auspice, to expire,Concerns it not the honour of his name,As well to cherish, as create the fire?That genial fire! Whose soft progressive heat,Insensibly, through all my bosom stole,Fann’d by her breath anew, whene’er we meet,And guiding, still, each movement of my soul.Let16 Love Elegies.Let cold discretion threaten as she may,Let matron-prudence harsh correction try,Their phantoms let them raise to bar my way,They vanish all, if dear Amanda’s by!What do these peevish monitors advice?What is the system sage they recommend?A mercenary system I despise--------Glare without meaning riches without end.Deaf to such tenets may I still remain!Attentive, still, to virtue’s call alone,Virtue with my Amanda leaves her train,And heav’n itself her fav’rite cause will own.Then let me droop no more, but patient wait,Heav’n may some happier moment have design’d,Some happier moment in the stores of fate,To crown my wishes I at length may find.Elegy

But,

Curse on the maxims of a venal world,That force me, ruthless, from each chance of joy!While peace, lost inmate! From my bosom hurl’d,Yields to a fire that burns but to destroy.Weak-minded man! Shall wayward maxims aweThe graceful purpose of the freeborn soul?Shall insolent caprice impose a law,The birth-right of our being to controul?Not such, the notions of the golden age!When sterling minds were all the treasur’d store,When native merit could the heart engage,And spotless innocence was all the dow’r.C2TheLove Elegies 12The sex were, then, unlesson’d in the task,To mock, or trifle with a lover’s smart,Unborrow’d, then, was affectation’s mask,To hide the genuine feelings of the heart.The guileless swain no sooner felt the wound,And told his fair the empire of her charms,When the lov’d maid a mutual passion own’d,And, unreluctant, flew to meet his arms.Sweet interchange of thought the day beguil’d,Chaste ecstacy entranc’d the fleeting night,The circling year upon their union smil’d,And heav’n, complacent, crown’d their pure delight.Might I but follow this primaeval lore,Soon would I quit the fashion-blinded train,Then—did Amanda but my suit approve—I’d live, with her, a golden age again!

Curse

Love Elegies 9Elegy III.He despairs of obtaining her.Fast by the side of yon’ meand’ring stream,Dwells the dear nymph that causes all my pain,Well might each poet choose her for his theme,And, choosing her, might well forget to feign.For ne’er did nature, in a lavish hour,More gifts to charm the raptur’d sense bestow,Nor e’er did art unite a happier pow’r,To make each gift with doubled luster shew.Yet, was it far unlike that rebel art,Compelling nature foreign chains to wear,For nature still presides o’er every part,And art is only nature’s handmaid there.cOh! that I ne’er those beauteous eyes had seen,Whose cherub-softness beams with mildest ray;Or to those lips I had a stranger been,Whose syren-tale dissolv’d my soul away!Oh! that I ne’er heavenly shape had view’d,Which all the graces did conspire to form;Nor in the dance those mazy steps pursu’d,Which love contriv’d th’ incautious breast to warm.What do those beauteous eyes to me avail,If on those eyes to gaze be all my bliss?Or what those lips, where hung the syren-tale,If from those lips I ne’er must claim the kiss?In vain, for me, that shape the graces form’d,If in my arms that shape I ne’er must twine;In vain the mazy dance my breast has warm’d,If in life’s maze I ne’er must call her mine.

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ling glafs would heart, Hi, in the midst, his idol, pow’r he heart; Pale av’rice, now, would shake his bags of heart, And whisper R “ ‘twas to pow’r the surest heart.

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prefent

thofe

Hear me not as thy lover, but thy friend;

My heart's so full, I wish, but cannot speak.

Where now's my boasted liberty and rest!

From place to place I solitary roam,Abroad uneasy, nor content at home