Classic Poem

RECOVERY AT BATH .

Where Thames with pride beholds Augusta's charms,
And either India pours into her arms;
Where Liberty bids honest arts abound,
And pleasures dance in one eternal round;
High-thron'd appears the laughter-loving dame,
Goddess of Mirth, Euphrosyne her name;
Her smile more cheerful than a vernal morn,
All life! all bloom! of Youth and Fancy born:
Touch'd into joy what hearts to her submit!
She looks her sire, and speaks her mother's wit.
O'er the gay world the sweet inspirer reigns;
Spleen flies, and Elegance her pomp sustains.
Thee, Goddess! thee the fair and young obey,
Wealth, Wit, Love, Music, all confess thy sway.
In the bleak wild ev'n Want by thee is blest,
And pamper'd Pride without thee pines for rest,
The rich grow richer while in thee they find
The matchless treasure of a smiling mind.
Science by thee flows soft in social case,
And Virtue, losing rigour, learns to please.
The goddess summons each illustrious name,
Bids the gay talk, and forms th' amusive game.
She whose fair throne is fix'd in human souls,
From joy to joy her eye delighted rolls.
" But where, " she cry'd, " is she, my fav'rite: she
" Of all my race the dearest far to me!
" Whose life's the life of each refin'd delight? "
She said — but no Tyrconnel glads her sight:
Swift sunk her laughing eyes in languid fear;
Swift rose the swelling sigh and trembling tear;
In kind low murmurs all the loss deplore;
Tyrconnel droops, and pleasure is no more!
The goddess, silent, paus'd in museful air,
But Mirth, like Virtue, cannot long despair;
Celestial-hinted thoughts gay hope inspir'd,
Smiling she rose, and all with hope were fir'd.
Where Bath's ascending turrets meet her eyes,
Straight wafted on the tepid breeze she flies,
She flies, her elder sister Health to find,
She finds her on the mountain-brow reclin'd;
Around her birds in earliest concert sing,
Her cheek the semblance of the kindling spring,
Fresh-tinctur'd like a summer-ev'ning sky,
And a mild sun sits smiling in her eye:
Loose to the wind her verdant vestments flow,
Her limbs yet recent from the springs below;
There oft she bathes, then peaceful sits secure,
Where ev'ry gale is fragrant, fresh, and pure;
Where flow'rs and herbs their cordial odours blend,
And all their balmy virtues fast ascend.
" Hail, Sister! hail, " the kindred goddess cries,
" No common suppliant stands before your eyes.
" You, with whose living breath the morn is fraught,
" Flush the fair cheek, and point the cheerful thought!
" Strength, vigour, wit, depriv'd of thee, decline!
" Each finer sense that forms delight is thine!
" Bright suns by thee diffuse a brighter blaze,
" And the fresh green a fresher green displays!
" Without thee pleasures die, or daily cloy,
" And life with thee, howe'er depress'd, is joy.
" Such thy vast pow'r! " — The deity replies;
" Mirth never asks a boon which Health denies;
" Our mingled gifts transcend imperial wealth:
" Health strengthens Mirth, and Mirth inspirits Health.
" These gales, yon springs, herbs, flow'rs, and sun are mine;
" Thine is their smile! be all their influence thine. "
Euphrosyne rejoins — " Thy friendship prove:
" See the dear sick'ning object of my love!
" Shall that warm heart, so cheerful ev'n in pain,
" So form'd to please, unpleas'd itself remain?
" Sister! in her my smile anew display,
" And all the social world shall bless thy sway. "
Swift as she speaks Health spreads the purplewing,
Soars in the colour'd clouds, and sheds the spring:
Now bland and sweet she floats along in air,
Air feels, and soft'ning owns, th' ethereal fair!
In still descent she melts on op'ning flow'rs,
And deep impregnates plants with genial flow'rs;
The genial show'rs, new-rising to the ray,
Exhale in roseate clouds, and glad the day:
Now in a Zephyr's borrow'd voice she sings,
Sweeps the fresh dews, and shakes them from her wings,
Shakes them embalm'd; or, in a gentle kiss,
Breathes the sure earnest of awak'ning bliss:
Sapphira feels it, with a soft surprise,
Glide thro' her veins, and quicken in her eyes!
Instant in her own form the goddess glows,
Where, bubbling warm, the min'ral water flows;
Then, plunging, to the flood new virtue gives,
Steeps ev'ry charm, and as she bathes it lives!
As from her locks she sheds the vital show'r,
" 'Tis done! " she cries, " these springs possess my pow'r!
" Let these immediate to thy darling roll
" Health, vigour, life, and gay-returning soul,
" Thou smil'st, Euphrysone! and conscious see,
" Prompt to thy smile, how Nature joys with thee.
" All is green life! all beauty rosy bright,
" Full Harmony, young Love, and dear Delight!
" See vernal Hours lead circling Joys along!
" All sun, all bloom, all fragrance, and all song!
" Receive thy case! now Mirth and Health combine,
" Each heart shall gladden, and each virtue shine.
" Quick to Augusta bear thy prize away,
" There let her smile, and bid a world be gay. "