Читать книгу English Poets of the Eighteenth Century - Various - Страница 61

Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain,

The sun first rises o'er the purpled main,

Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams

Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.

Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone,

But every eye was fixed on her alone.

On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,

Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.

Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,

Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those;

Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;

Oft she rejects, but never once offends.

Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,

And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,

Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide;

If to her share some female errors fall,

Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,

Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind

In equal curls, and well conspired to deck

With shining ringlets the smooth ivory neck.

Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,

And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.

With hairy springes, we the birds betray,

Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare,

And beauty draws us with a single hair.

Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admired;

He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.

Resolved to win, he meditates the way,

By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;

For when success a lover's toil attends,

Few ask if fraud or force attained his ends.

For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored

Propitious Heaven, and every power adored,

But chiefly Love; to Love an altar built,

Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.

There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,

And all the trophies of his former loves;

With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre,

And breathes three amorous sighs to raise the fire.

Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes

Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize.

The powers gave ear, and granted half his prayer;

The rest the winds dispersed in empty air.

But now secure the painted vessel glides,

The sunbeams trembling on the floating tides;

While melting music steals upon the sky,

And softened sounds along the waters die;

Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,

Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.

All but the sylph—with careful thoughts oppressed,

Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast.

He summons straight his denizens of air;

The lucid squadrons around the sails repair;

Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe,

That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.

Some to the sun their insect wings unfold,

Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;

Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,

Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light.

Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,

Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew,

Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,

Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes,

While every beam new transient colours flings,

Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.

Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,

Superior by the head, was Ariel placed;

His purple pinions opening to the sun,

He raised his azure wand, and thus begun:

'Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear!

Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear!

Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned

By laws eternal to th' aërial kind.

Some in the fields of purest aether play,

And bask and whiten in the blaze of day.

Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,

Or roll the planets through the boundless sky.

Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale light

Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,

Or suck the mists in grosser air below,

Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,

Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,

Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;

Others on earth o'er human race preside,

Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:

Of these the chief the care of nations own,

And guard with arms divine the British throne.