Gay France fhall make the fan her artist's care,
And with the coftly trinket arm the fair.
As learned orators that touch the heart,
With various action raise their foothing art,
Both head and hand affect the lift'ning throng,
And humour each expreffion of the tongue ;
So fhall each paffion by the fan be seen,
From noify anger to the fullen fpleen.
While Venus fpoke, joy fhone in Strephon's eyes: Proud of the gift, he to Corinnna flies.
But Cupid (who delights in am'rous ill,
Wounds hearts, and leaves them to a woman's will)
With certain aim a golden arrow drew,
Which to Leander's panting bofom flew :
Leander lov'd; and to the sprightly dame
In gentle fighs reveal'd his growing flame;
Sweet fmiles Corinna to his fighs returns,
And for the fop in equal paffion burns.
Lo Strephon comes! and with a fuppliant bow,
Offers the prefent, and renews his vow.
When the the fate of Niobe beheld,
Why has my pride against my heart rebell'd?
She fighing cry'd: difdain forfook her breast,
And Strephon now was thought a worthy guest.
In Procris' bofom when the faw the dart;
She justly blames her own fupicious heart,
Imputes her difcontent to jealous fear,
And knows her Strephon's conftancy fincere.
When on Camilla's fate her eye fhe turns,
No more for fhow and equipage the burns:
She learns Leander's paffion to defpife,
And looks on merit with difcerning eyes.
Narciffus' change to the vain virgin fhows,
Who trufts to beauty, trufts the fading rofe.
Youth flies apace, with youth your beauty flies,
Love then, ye virgins, ere the blossom dies.
Thus Pallas taught her. Strephon weds the dame,
And Hymen's torch diffus'd the brightest flame.
Addrefs'd to the DUKE of DORSE T.
ROM frozen climes, and endless tracts of snow,
From ftreams that northern winds forbid to flow;
What present shall the mufe to Dorfet bring,
Or how, fo near the pole, attempt to fing?
The hoary winter here conceals from fight,
All pleasing objects that to verfe invite.
The hills and dales, and the delightful woods,
The flow'ry plains, and filver ftreaming floods,
By fnow difguis'd in bright confufion lie,
And with one dazzling waste fatigue the eye.
No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the defart region fing.
The ships unmov'd the boift'rous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vaft leviathan wants room to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day,
The starving wolves along the main fea prowl,
And to the moon in icy vallies howl.
For many a fhining league the level main
Here spreads itself into a glaffy plain :
There folid billows of enormous fize,
Alps of green ice in wild disorder rise.
And yet but lately have I feen ev'n here,
The winter in a lovely drefs appear.
E'er yet the clouds let fall the treafur'd fnow,
Or winds begun through hazy skies to blow.
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose;
And the defcending rain unfully'd frozę.
Soon as the filent fhades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn difclos'd at once to view
The face of nature in a rich disguise,
And brighten'd ev'ry object to my eyes:
For ev'ry shrub, and every lade of grass,
And ev'ry pointed thorn, feem'd wrought in glafs,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show,
While through the ice the crimson berries glow.
The thick-fprung reeds the wat'ry marshes yield,
Seem polish'd lances in a hoftile field.
The ftag in limpid currents with furprize,
Sees cryftal branches on his forehead rife.
The spreading oak, the beach, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches fhun,
That wave and glitter in the diftant fun.
When, if a fudden guft of wind arife,
The brittle foreft into atoms flies:
The crackling wood beneath the tempeft bends,
And in a fpangled show'r the prospect ends.
Or, if a fouthern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wint'ry charm,
The traveller a miry country fees,
And journies fad beneath the dropping trees.
Like fome deluded peafant, Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and through delicious meads;
While here inchanted gardens to him rife,
And airy fabricks there attract his eyes,
His wand'ring feet the magick paths pursue;
And, while he thinks the fair illufion true,
The trackless scenes difperfe in fluid air,
And woods and wilds, and thorny ways appear:
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And as he goes, the tranfient vision mourns.
Copenhagen,
March 9, 1709.
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