Classic Poem

SAY , dear B ETHIA , can thy gentle mind,
In hurrying crowds a genuine pleasure find?
Amidst those scenes the giddy world admires,
That whim directs, and levity inspires?
Where Folly each revolving hour employs
In one mad circle of unsettled joys:
Her bells she jingles and her tinsel spreads,
To please deluded hearts, and flutt'ring heads:
With baubles arm'd, her trifling race are taught,
To kill that foe to human quiet, Thought.
With vanity's fantastic colours gay,
In youth's warm sun the glitt'ring insects play,
Careless how soon the wintry blast must come
That sweeps their useless beings to the tomb.

Tir'd with unmeaning sounds and painted shows,
Which this vain theatre of life compose;
Let peaceful thought to happier scenes remove,
And seek the lov'd retreat of K——— N grove;
Where nature sheds her vernal sweets around,
And fancy wanders o'er E LYSIAN ground.
Ye flow'rs that bright in living colours glow,
Ye gales which sweet o'er op'ning roses blow,
Ye lawns enliven'd by the solar beam,
Ye groves that wave o'er contemplation's dream,
How aptly were your peaceful joys design'd
To match the temper of B ETHIA'S mind,
Which here, from cares and busy crowds remov'd,
Enjoy'd the calm retirement that it lov'd.

But now, no more these blooming scenes excite
The finer sense of elegant delight:
The vernal pride of drooping nature fades,
No more B ETHIA'S smiles illume the shades;
No more with music's soft prevailing art
The beauteous harmonist inchants the heart,
Nor zephyr wafts along the vocal grove
Such sounds as lift'ning angels might approve,
While her prevailing lyre directs our choice
To “long eternity and purer joys.”

Ah! dear B ETHIA , how perverse the fate
That drives thee far from this congenial state!
Why were these once transporting pleasures known!
Or why, alas! irreparably flown!
Thus the vain impotence of reasoning pride
Arraigns the present, blind to all beside.

Yet heav'n all wise, indulgently severe,
Which makes our truest happiness it's care,
These cross events of varying life design'd,
To prove the latent forces of the mind:
Let human bliss an equal tenor boast,
And half our nature's excellence is lost.
V IRTUE , by fortune lull'd in soft repose,
Is wak'd to action by alarming woes:
When in the beam of fate's unclouded day,
She walks with P LEASURE , thro' the flow'ry way,
She only shares a weak divided fame,
Our erring senses think their form the same;
O'er sorrow's night her rays distinguished shine,
And heav'n and earth confess her charms divine.

Still may her aid each absent good supply,
Prompt the bright hope, and check the rising sigh:
Tho' now the dark inclement seasons low'r,
Immortal virtue mocks their feeble pow'r:
Secur'd by heav'n, her fair possession lies
Beyond the gloom of sublunary skies.
There smiles the spring in endless verdure gay,
While K——— N'S flow'ry prospects fade away;
And all my lov'd B ETHIA loses here,
The blooming walks of E DEN shall repair.