HORACE, LIB. 1, ODE 5. TRANSLATED BY E. L. SWIFT, ESQ. TO PYRRHA. 1. WHAT slender youth, all-odor'd, presses Thee, Pyrrha, in the roseate shade? For whom thine auburn-flowing tresses, Simply becoming, dost thou braid? 2. How oft, alas, by thee forsaken, 3. Who now enjoys, too fond believer, 4. Ah wretch, by whom untried thy beauty! My votive tablet on his fane Shews my dank weeds, with grateful duty Hung to the Ruler of the Main. 1802. VERSES ADDRESSED, IN 1782, TO MR. WRIGHT, OF DERBY. BY ANNA SEWARD. 1. THOU, in whose breast the gentle Virtues shine; 2. And shou'd in vain my feeble arm extend, Yet thy bright tablet, with unfading hues, ** 4. Brought every gem the mines of Knowledge hide, Cull'd roseate wreaths from Fancy's flowery plains, And with their mingled stores new bands supplied, That bind the Sister-Arts in closer chains. Mr. Hayley celebrated Mr. Wright's talent in his first work EPISTLES ON PAINTING. 5. What living lights, ingenious Artist! stream 6. * Charm'd, as we mark, beneath thy magic hand, What sweet repose surrounds the sombrous scene, Where, fring'd with wood, yon moon-bright cliffs expand, The curl'd waves twinkling, as they wind between, 7. Start, as on high thy red Vesuvius glares, 8. Sigh, where, 'mid twilight shades, yon pile sublime, 9. Or weep for Julia in her sea-girt cave, Exil'd from love in beauty's splendid morn, "Mr. Wright's MOONLIGHT VIEWS OF MATLOCK;"-his "VESUVIUS;"his" VIRGIL'S TOMB ;"-and his "JULIA," banished to a desert Island by her Grandfather, Augustus Cesar, for her amours with Ovid, 10. Now, ardent Wright, from thy creative hand, 1J. O, when his Urn shall drink my falling tears, ON WIT *. BY ANNA SEWARD. WIT must at once be vigorous, light, and gay, *Pope thus defines wit True wit is nature to advantage drest, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest. This by no means appears an accurate definition. Wit, to deserve its name, must in some degree strike and surprise, and to produce those effects novelty of idea is even more necessary than felicity of expression; tho' to the perfection of that rare faculty, both are necessary. ODE, ON THE 4th OF NOVEMBER, THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION, 1688. A COLLEGE EXERCISE. IN IMITATION OF ALCEUS. σε Ον λιθοι εδε ξυλα.” WHAT constitutes the Bard? Not silver sounds, nor numbers that compel Not the sweet witchery of Fancy's fpell, The captive sense, and bid the charmed soul, To faery measures dance: No-but an energy that spurns controul, An intellectual fire, That fann'd by Freedom, to sublimest heights Impels us to aspire, And from base earth the spirit disunites : This constitutes the Bard. Then in the shouts that "ring from side to side" Loud o'er the rest be heard, The Muse's hail! which at this season wide May pour the patriot rage, She, Freedom's best ally, whose voice alone Prevailing, mocks the thunders of the throne. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXON. T. P. |