[Page 236]

AN ODE.

BY S—L J—N, L. L. D.
1 STERN Winter now by Spring repress'd,
2 Forbears the long-continued strife,
3 And Nature on her naked breast
4 Delights to catch the gales of Life.
5 Now, o'er the rural kingdom roves
6 Soft Pleasure, with her laughing train,
7 Love warbles in the vocal groves,
8 And Vegetation plants the plain.
9 Unhappy! whom to beds of pain
10
y The author being ill of the gout.
Arthritic Tyranny consigns,
11 Whom smiling Nature courts in vain,
12 Tho' Rapture sings, and Beauty shines.
[Page 237]
13 Yet tho' my limbs Disease invades,
14 Her wings Imagination tries,
15 And bears me to the peaceful shades,
16 Where —'s humble turrets rise.
17 Here stop, my Soul, thy rapid flight,
18 Nor from the pleasing groves depart,
19 Where first great Nature charm'd my sight,
20 Where Wisdom first inform'd my heart.
21 Here let me thro' the vales pursue
22 A guide, a father, and a friend;
23 Once more great Nature's work renew,
24 Once more on Wisdom's voice attend.
25 From false caresses, causeless strife,
26 Wild hope, vain fear, alike remov'd;
27 Here let me learn the use of life,
28 When best enjoy'd, when most improv'd.
29 Teach me, thou venerable bower,
30 Cool Meditation's quiet seat,
31 The generous scorn of venal power,
32 The silent grandeur of retreat.
33 When Pride by guilt to greatness climbs,
34 Or raging Factions rush to war;
35 Here let me learn to shun the crimes
36 I can't prevent, and will not share.
[Page 238]
37 But, lest I fall by subtler foes,
38 Bright Wisdom, teach me Curio's art,
39 The swelling passions to compose,
40 And quell the rebels of the heart.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 77K / ZIP - 8.5K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.5K / ZIP - 1.0K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.790].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 4.5M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): AN ODE.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Themes: joyfulness; happiness; nature
Genres: ode
References: DMI 28646

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. III. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 236-238. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1136; OTA K093079.003) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.790].)

Editorial principles

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.