POEMS, CHIEFLY SCOTTISH, PART II. DESPONDENCY. AN ODE. I. OPPRESS'D with grief, oppress'd with care, A burden more than I can bear, I sit me down and sigh: O life! thou art a galling load, To wretches such as I! Dim backward as I cast my view, Too justly I may fear! Still caring, despairing, My woes here shall close ne'er, But with the closing tomb! II. Happy, ye sons of busy life, Ev'n when the wished end's deny'd, Find every prospect vain. III. How blest the Solitary's lot, The cavern wild with tangling roots, Or, haply, to his ev'ning thought, The ways of men are distant brought, A faint-collected dream: While praising, and raising His thoughts to heav'n on high, As wand'ring, meand'ring, He views the solemn sky. IV. Than I, no lonely hermit plac'd The lucky moment to improve, The Solitary can despise, Can want, and yet be blest! He needs not, he heeds not, V. Oh! enviable, early days, When dancing thoughtless pleasure's maze, How ill exchang'd for riper times, Of others, or my own! Ye tiny elves that guiltless sport, Of dim-declining age! WINTER. A DIRGE. I. THE wintry west extends his blast, And hail and rain does blaw; Or, the stormy north sends driving forth While, tumbling brown, the burn comes down, And pass the heartless day. II. "The sweeping blast, the sky o'ercast'," The joyless winter-day, Let others fear, to me more dear Than all the pride of May: The tempest's howl, it soothes my soul, My griefs it seems to join; The leafless trees my fancy please, Their fate resembles mine! III. Thou Pow'r Supreme, whose mighty scheme These woes of mine fulfil, Because they are Thy Will! Then all I want (Oh! do thou grant This one request of mine!) Since to enjoy thou dost deny, Assist me to resign. 1 Dr. Young. |