[Page 253]

ODE AGAINST DESPAIR.

BY THE SAME.
1 FArewell thou dimpled cherub Joy,
2 Thou rose-crown'd, ever-smiling boy,
3 Wont thy sister Hope to lead
4 To dance along the primrose mead!
5 No more, bereft of happy hours,
6 I seek thy lute-resounding bowers,
7 But to yon ruin'd tower repair,
8 To meet the God of groans, Despair;
9 Who, on that ivy-darken'd ground,
10 Still takes at eve his silent round,
11 Or sits yon new-made grave beside,
12 Where lies a frantic Suicide:
13 While labouring sighs my heart-strings break,
14 Thus to the sullen Power I speak:
15 "Haste, with thy poison'd dagger, haste,
16 " To pierce this sorrow-laden breast;
17 "Or lead me at the dead of night,
18 " To some sea-beat mountain's height,
19 "Whence with headlong haste I'll leap
20 " To the dark bosom of the deep;
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21 "Or shew me far from human eye,
22 " Some cave to muse in, starve, and die,
23 "No weeping friend or brother near,
24 " My last fond, faultering words to hear? "
25 'Twas thus with weight of woes opprest,
26 I sought to ease my bruised breast:
27 When straight more gloomy grew the shade,
28 And lo! a tall majestic maid!
29 Her limbs, not delicately fair,
30 Robust, and of a martial air;
31 She bore of steel a polish'd shield,
32 Where highly-sculptur'd I beheld
33 Th' Athenian
a Socrates.
martyr smiling stand,
34 The baleful goblet in his hand;
35 Sparkled her eyes with lively flame,
36 And Patience was the seraph's name;
37 Sternly she look'd, and stern began —
38 "Thy sorrows cease, complaining man,
39 " Rouse thy weak soul, appease thy moan,
40 "Soon are the clouds of sadness gone;
41 " Tho' now in Grief's dark groves you walk,
42 "Where griesly fiends around you stalk,
43 " Beyond, a blissful city lies,
44 "Far from whose gates each anguish flies:
45 " Take thou this shield, which once of yore
46 "Ulysses and Alcides wore,
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47 " And which in later days I gave
48 "To Regulus and Raleigh brave;
49 " In exile or in dungeon drear
50 "Their mighty minds could banish fear;
51 " Thy heart no tenfold woes shall feel,
52 "'Twas Virtue temper'd the rough steel,
53 " And, by her heavenly fingers wrought,
54 "To me the precious present brought."

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): ODE AGAINST DESPAIR.
Author: Joseph Warton
Themes: grief; sadness; melancholy
Genres: ode
References: DMI 32522

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Source edition

Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. II. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 253-255. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1135; OTA K093079.002) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.789].)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.