SAMUEL BOYSE, Born 1708, died 1749. ON PLATONIC LOVE. PLATONIC Love !-a pretty name When souls confess a mutual flame, If this new doctrine once prove true, That lovers should each other view If spirits thus can live embraced, But, faith! 'tis hard the mind should feast, "Nature (says Horace) is in tears, When her just claim 's denied her;" And this platonic love appears To be a scrimp provider. SAMUEL JOHNSON, Born 1709, died 1785. SUMMER. O PHOEBUS! down the western sky, Come, gentle Eve, the friend of care, And cheer me with a lambent light. Lay me where o'er the verdant ground Improve the peaceful hour with wine, Come, Stella, queen of all my heart! Thy looks perpetual joy impart, Thy voice perpetual love inspires. Whilst all my wish and thine complete, Our murmurs-murmuring brooks return. Let me, when Nature calls to rest, Sink on the down of Stella's breast, EVENING ODE.TO STELLA. EVENING now from purple wings Lightly o'er the dewy way. Phoebus drives his burning car, Breasts that beat, and cheeks that glow; Let us now, in whisper'd joy, WILLIAM SHENSTONE, Born 1714, died 1763. THE LANDSCAPE. How pleased within my native bowers, Erewhile I pass'd the day! Was ever scene so decked with flowers? How sweetly smiled the hill, the vale, The river gliding down the dale, The hill with beeches crown'd! But now, when urged by tender woes, No more, since Daphne was my theme, That verdant hill and silver stream Divide my love and me. THE SCHOLAR'S RELAPSE. By the side of a grove, at the foot of a hill, Free I ranged like the birds, like the birds free I sung, And Delia's loved name scarce escaped from my tongue : But if once a smooth accent delighted my ear, I should wish, unawares, that my Delia might hear. With fairest ideas my bosom I stored, So long as of Nature the charms I pursue, |