2813 LYRIC POEMS. For sin, and shame, and this waste wilderness Of briers, and nine hundred years of pain. The wishing muse now dresses the fair garden Amid this desart-world, with budding bliss, And evergreens, and balms, and flow'ry beauties Without one dang'rous tree.; there heav'nly dews Nightly descending shall impearl the grass And verdant herbage ; .drops of fragrancy Sit trembling on the spires : The spicy vapours Rise with the dawn, and thro' the air diffus'd Salute your waking senses with perfume : While vital fruits with their ambrosial juice Renew life's purple flood and fountain, pure From vicious taint ; and with your innocence Immortalize the structureof your clay, , On this new paradise the cloudless skies Shall.smile perpetual, while the lamp of day With flames unsullied, (as the fabled torch Of Hymen) measures out your golden hours Along his azure road. The nuptial moon In milder rays serene, should nightly rise Full orb'd (if heaven and nature will indulge So fair an emblem) big with silver joys, And still forget her wane. The feather'.d choir Warbling their Maker's praise on early wing, Or perch'd on evening- bough, shall join your worship, Join your sweet vespers, and the morning song. O sacred symphony ! Hark, thro' the grove 1 hear the sound divine ! I'm all attention, All ear, all ecstasy ; unknown delight! And the fair muse proclaims the heav'n below. Not the seraphic minds of high degree Disdain converse with men : Again returning I see th' ethereal host on,downward wing. Lo, at the eastern gate young cherubs stand Guardians, commissioned to convey their joys To earthly lovers. Go, ye happy pair, Go taste their banquet, learn the nobler pleasures Supernal, and from brutal dregs refin'd. Raphael shall teach thee, friend, exalted thoughts And intellectual bliss. 'Twas Raphael taught The patriarch of our progeny th' affairs Of heaven! (So Milton sings, enlightened bard ! Nor miss'd his eyes, when in subliment swain The angel's greatnarration he repeats To Albion's sons high- favour'd.) Thoushalt learn Celestial lessons from his awful tongue; And with soft grace and interwoven loves (Grateful digression) all his words rehearse To thy Charissa's ea -, and charm her soul. Thus, with divine discourse, in shady bowers Of Eden, our first father entertain'd Eve his sole auditress; and deep dispute With conjugal caresses on her lip Solved easy, andabstrusest thoughts reveal'd. Now the day wears apace, now Mitio conies From his bright tutor, and finds out his mate.
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