ROACH'S BEAUTIES OF THE POETS NXXIL

WINDSOR FOREST.
by Mex Pope Esq..

Select Extracts from Leonidas.

by Glover.

ECSTACY.. by Thomas Parnell.

On Liberty and in Praise of M. Howard. by Comper. Sc. Sc.

LONDON,

Printed by & for I. Roach, at the Britannia Printing Office. Woburn Street New Drury Theatre Royal May 1.1795,

T

WINDSOR FOREST.

By ALEXANDER POPE.

T

To the Rt. Hon. George Lord Lansdown.

HY forefls, Windfor! and thy green retreats,
At once the Monarch's and the Muses seats,

Invite my lays. Be present, sylvan maids !
Unlock your springs, and open all your shades.
Granville commands; your aid, O Muses, bring!
What Muse for Granville can refuse to fing?

The groves of Eden, vanish'd now so long,
Live in description, and look green in song;
These, were my breast inspir'd with equal flame,
Like them in beauty, should be like in fame.
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,
Here earth and water seem to skrive again!
Not chaos-like, together crush'd and bruis'd,
But, as the world, harmoniously confus'd:
Where order in variety we see,

And where, tho' all things differ, all agree.
Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display,

And part admit, and part exclude the day;

Vol. VI. 22.

A

As

As fome coy nymph her lover's warm address
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress.
There, interspers'd in lawns and op'ning glades,
Thin trees arife that shun each other's shades:
Here in full light the ruffet plains extend
There, wrapt in clouds, the bluish hills ascend.
Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyess br
And 'midft the desart fruitful fields arife,

That crown'd with tufted trees and fringing corn, atu
Like verdant ifles, the sable wafle adornd
Let India boaft her plants, nor envy web ba
The weeping amber or the balmy treabaw
While by our oaks the precious loads are borne גו
And realms commanded which those trees adorn, do
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,phnek
Tho' gods affembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here,
Where, in their blessings, all those gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'da;
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamell'd ground;
Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand;
Rich Industry fits smiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a Stuart reigns.
Not thus the land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary defart, and a gloomy waste;
To savage beafts and savage laws a prey;
And kings more furious and severe than they;

Whe

Who claim'd the skies, difpeopled air and floods,
The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods:

Cities laid wafte, they ftorm'd the dens and caves,
(For wifer brutes were backward to be flaves).
What could be free, when lawless beafts obey'd,
And ev'n the elements a tyrant sway'd ?
In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs diftill'd, and suns grew warm in vain ;
The fwain with tears his fruftrate labour yields,
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
What wonder then, a beaft or fubject flain
Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign P
Both doom'd alike for sportive tyrants bled;
But while the subject slarv'd, the beast was fed,
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began;.
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man;
Our haughty Norman boasts that barb'rous name,
And makes his trembling flaves the royal game.
The fields are ravished from th' industrious swains,
From men their cities, and from gods their fanes:
The levell'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er;...
The hollow winds thro' naked temples roar
Round broken columns clafping ivy twin'd;
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind';
The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires;
And favage howlings fill the facred quires,
Aw'd by his nobles, by his commons curst,
Th' oppreffor rul'd tyrannic where he durst ;

A 2

Stretch'd