![[frontispiece]](/images/authors/colour-portraits/banner-frontispiece.jpg)
![[section of text]](/images/screenshots/ECPA-snippet5.jpg)
![[poet writing]](/images/authors/colour-portraits/banner-poet.jpg)
[Page 19][Page 20]
ODE to INDOLENCE,
1750.
1 AH! why for ever on the wing
2 Persists my weary'd soul to roam?
3 Why, ever cheated, strives to bring
4 Or pleasure or contentment home?
5 Thus the poor bird, that draws his name
6 From paradise's honour'd groves,
7 Ceaseless fatigues his little frame;
8 Nor finds the resting place he loves.
9 Lo! on the rural mossy bed
10 My limbs with careless ease reclin'd;
11 Ah, gentle Sloth! indulgent spread
12 The same soft bandage o'er my mind.
13 For why should lingering thought invade,
14 Yet every worldly prospect cloy?
15 Lend me, soft Sloth, thy friendly aid,
16 And give me peace, debarr'd of joy.
17 Lov'st thou yon calm and silent flood,
18 That never ebbs, that never flows;
19 Protected by the circling wood
20 From each tempestuous wind that blows?
21 An altar on its bank shall rise,
22 Where oft thy votary shall be found;
23 What time pale Autumn lulls the skies,
24 And sickening verdure fades around.
25 Ye busy, race, ye factious train,
26 That haunt Ambition's guilty shrine;
27 No more perplex the world in vain,
28 But offer here your vows with mine.
29 And thou, puissant Queen! be kind:
30 If e'er I shar'd thy balmy pow'r;
31 If e'er I sway'd my active mind,
32 To weave for Thee the rural bow'r;
33 Dissolve in sleep each anxious care;
34 Each unavailing sigh remove;
35 And only let me wake to share
36 The sweets of Friendship and of Love.
Text
- TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 68K / ZIP - 8.0K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
- Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.3K / ZIP - 958 )
Facsimile (Source Edition)
(Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)
Images
All Images (PDF - 1.1M)
About this text
Author: William Shenstone
Themes:
rural life; contentment; virtue; vice
Genres:
ode
References:
DMI 27210
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 19-20. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.005) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)
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.
Other works by William Shenstone
- ANACREONTIC, 1738. ()
- ANSWER. ()
- A BALLAD. ()
- The Beau to the Virtuosos; alluding to a Proposal for the Publication of a Set of BUTTERFLIES. ()
- CANDOUR. ()
- The CEREMONIAL. ()
- CLOE to LYSANDER. ()
- The DYING KID. ()
- The EVER-GREEN. ()
- The EXTENT of COOKERY. ()
- In a shady Valley, near a running Water. ()
- Inscription near a Sheep-cote. 1745. ()
- An irregular ODE after SICKNESS, 1749. ()
- LYSANDER to CLOE. ()
- NANCY of the VALE. A BALLAD. ()
- ODE to a Young Lady, Somewhat too sollicitous about her Manner of Expression. ()
- ODE to HEALTH, 1730. ()
- ODE to MEMORY. 1748. ()
- ODE. Written 1739. ()
- On a ROOT-HOUSE. ()
- On a small Building in the Gothick Taste. ()
- A Pastoral BALLAD, in Four Parts. Written 1743. ()
- The PRICE of an EQUIPAGE. ()
- The Princess ELIZABETH: A Ballad, alluding to a Story recorded of her, when she was a Prisoner at Woodstock, 1554. ()
- The Progress of ADVICE. A common Case. ()
- The Rape of the TRAP, a BALLAD; written at College, 1736. ()
- RURAL ELEGANCE: An ODE to the late Duchess of SOMERSET. Written 1750. ()
- THE SCHOOL-MISTRESS. A POEM, In Imitation of Spenser. ()
- A SIMILE. ()
- SLENDER's GHOST. ()
- SONG I. ()
- SONG II. The LANDSKIP. ()
- SONG III. ()
- SONG IV. The SKY-LARK. ()
- SONG V. ()
- SONG VI. The Attribute of VENUS. ()
- [Song] I. ()
- [Song] II. DAPHNE'S Visit. ()
- [Song] III. The ROSE-BUD. ()
- [Song] IV. Written in a Collection of Bacchanalian Songs. ()
- [Song] V. Imitated from the FRENCH. ()
- To a LADY of QUALITY, Fitting up her LIBRARY, 1738. ()
- To the Memory of an agreeable LADY bury'd in Marriage to a Person undeserving her. ()
- UPON A VISIT to the same in Winter, 1748. ()
- Upon RIDDLES. ()
- VERSES to a FRIEND. ()
- VERSES written towards the close of the Year 1748, to WILLIAM LYTTELTON, Esq; ()
- Written at an INN on a particular Occasion. ()