POEMS:

ADDRESSED TO, AND IN MEMORY OF,

MR. GRAY.

[EXCEPT THE SECOND AND SIXTH, NONE OF THESE WERE EVER BEFORE COLLECTED.]

M

ΤΟ

MR. GRAY, UPON HIS ODES.

BY DAVID GARRICK, ESQ.

REPINE not, Gray, that our weak dazzled eyes

Thy daring heights and brightness shun; How few can trace the eagle to the skies, Or, like him, gaze upon the sun!

Each gentle reader loves the gentle Muse,
That little dares, and little means;
Who humbly sips her learning from Reviews,
Or flutters in the Magazines.

No longer now from Learning's sacred store
Our minds their health and vigour draw;
Homer and Pindar are rever'd no more,

No more the Stagyrite is law.

Tho' nurst by these, in vain thy Muse appears
To breathe her ardours in our souls;
In vain to sightless eyes and deaden'd ears,
The lightning gleams, the thunder rolls:

Yet droop not, Gray, nor quit thy heaven-born art, Again thy wondrous powers reveal;

Wake slumbering Virtue in the Briton's heart, And rouse us to reflect and feel!

With ancient deeds our long chill'd bosoms fire,
Those deeds that mark Eliza's reign!
Make Britons Greeks again, then strike the lyre,
And Pindar shall not sing in vain.

ODE TO MR. GRAY,

ON

THE BACKWARDNESS OF SPRING.

BY THE LATE MR. RICHARD WEST.

DEAR Gray, that always in my heart

Possessest far the better part,

What mean these sudden blasts that rise
And drive the Zephyrs from the skies?
O join with mine thy tuneful lay,
And invocate the tardy May.

Come, fairest Nymph, resume thy reign!
Bring all the Graces in thy train!
With balmy breath and flowery tread,
Rise from thy soft ambrosial bed;
Where, in elysian slumber bound,
Embow'ring myrtles veil thee round.