ODE TO HEALTH. WRITTEN ON A RECOVERY FROM THE SMALL-POX. Joseph Warton Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T116245 1135 K093079.002 Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. II. [The second edition]. London printed for G. Pearch 1770 pp. 246-248. 4v. ; 8⁰.

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ODE TO HEALTH . WRITTEN ON A RECOVERY FROM THE SMALL-POX . BY THE SAME . O Whether with laborious clowns In meads and woods thou lov'st to dwell , In noisy merchant-crouded towns , Or in the temperate Brachman's cell ; Who from the meads of Ganges' fruitful flood , Wet with sweet dews collects his flowery food ; In Bath , or in Montpellier's plains , Or rich Bermudas' balmy isle , Or the cold North , whose fur-clad swains Ne'er saw the purple Autumn smile , Who over Alps of snow , and desarts drear , By twinkling star-light drive the flying deer ; O lovely queen of mirth and ease , Whom absent , beauty , banquets , wine , Wit , music , pomp , nor science please , And kings on ivory couches pine ; Nature's kind nurse , to whom by gracious heaven To sooth the pangs of toilsome life 'tis given ; To aid a languid wretch repair , Let pale-ey'd Grief thy presence fly , The restless demon gloomy Care , And meagre Melancholy die ; Drive to some lonely rock the giant Pain , And bind him howling with a triple chain ! O come , restore my aking sight , Yet let me not on Laura gaze , Soon must I quit that dear delight , O'erpower'd by Beauty's piercing rays ; Support my feeble feet , and largely shed The oil of gladness on my fainting head . How nearly had my spirit past , Till stopt by Metcalf's skilful hand , To Death's dark regions wide and wast , And the black river's mournful strand ; Or to those vales of joy and meadows blest , Where sages , heroes , patriots , poets rest ; Where Maro and Musaeus sit Listening to Milton's loftier song , With sacred silent wonder smit ; While , monarch of the tuneful throng , Homer in rapture throws his trumpet down , And to the Briton gives his amaranthine crown .