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Thus the wild flood with deaf'ning roar
Bursts dreadful from on high;

But soon its empty rage is o'er,
And leaves the channel dry:

While the pure stream, which still and slow
Its gentler current brings,
Through every change of time shall flow
With unexhausted springs.

EPIGRAM ON TWO MONOPOLISTS.

FROM THE SAME.

Two butchers thin, call'd Bone and Skin,
Would starve the town, or near it;
But be it known to Skin and Bone,
That flesh and blood won't bear it.

JOHN CUNNINGHAM.

BORN 1729.-DIED 1773.

JOHN CUNNINGHAM was the son of a wine-cooper in Dublin. Having written a farce, called "Love in a Mist," at the age of seventeen, he came to Britain as a strolling actor, and was for a long time a performer in Digges's company in Edinburgh, and for many years made his residence at Newcastle upon Tyne. He died at that place, in the house of a benevolent printer, whose hospitality had for some time supported him.

CONTENT.

A PASTORAL.

O'er moorlands and mountains, rude, barren, and

bare,

As wilder'd and wearied I roam,

A gentle young shepherdess sees my despair,
And leads me-o'er lawns-to her home:

Yellow sheaves from rich Ceres her cottage had

crown'd,

Green rushes were strew'd on her floor,

Her casement sweet woodbines crept wantonly

round,

And deck'd the sod seats at her door.

We sate ourselves down to a cooling repast,
Fresh fruits! and she cull'd me the best;
While thrown from my guard by some glances she

cast,

Love slily stole into my breast!

I told my soft wishes; she sweetly replied,

(Ye virgins, her voice was divine!) I've rich ones rejected, and great ones denied, But take me, fond shepherd-I'm thine.

Her air was so modest, her aspect so meek;
So simple, yet sweet, were her charms!
I kiss'd the ripe roses that glow'd on her cheek,
And lock'd the dear maid in my arms.
Now jocund together we tend a few sheep,
And if, by yon prattler, the stream,
Reclin'd on her bosom, I sink into sleep,
Her image still softens my dream.

Together we range o'er the slow-rising hills,
Delighted with pastoral views,

Or rest on the rock whence the streamlet distils,
And point out new themes for my Muse.
To pomp or proud titles she ne'er did aspire,
The damsel's of humble descent;

The cottager, Peace, is well known for her sire,
And shepherds have nam'd her Content.

MAY-EVE; OR, KATE OF ABERDEEN.

THE silver moon's enamour'd beam
Steals softly through the night,
To wanton with the winding stream,
And kiss reflected light.
To beds of state go, balmy sleep,
('Tis where you've seldom been)
May's vigil while the shepherds keep
With Kate of Aberdeen.

Upon the green the virgins wait,
In rosy chaplets gay,
Till Morn unbar her golden gate,
And give the promis'd May.
Methinks I hear the maids declare,
The promis'd May, when seen,
Not half so fragrant, half so fair,
As Kate of Aberdeen.

Strike up the tabor's boldest notes,
We'll rouse the nodding grove;

The nested birds shall raise their throats,

And hail the maid I love:

And see-the matin lark mistakes,

He quits the tufted green :

Fond bird! 'tis not the morning breaks, 'Tis Kate of Aberdeen.

Now lightsome o'er the level mead,
Where midnight fairies rove,

Like them, the jocund dance we'll lead,
Or tune the reed to love :

For see the rosy May draws nigh;
She claims a virgin queen;

And hark, the happy shepherds cry,
'Tis Kate of Aberdeen.

GEORGE LORD LYTTLETON. BORN 1709.-DIED 1773.

THIS nobleman's public and private virtues, and his merits as the historian of Henry II. will be remembered when his verses are forgotten. By a felicity very rare in his attempts at poetry, the kids and fawns of his Monody do not entirely extinguish all appearance of that sincere feeling with which it must have been composed. Gray, in a letter to Horace Walpole, has justly remarked the beauty of the stanza beginning "In vain I look around." "If it were all like this stanza," he continues, " I " could be pleased." Nature, and sorrow, and tenderness are the true genius of such things (monodies). Poetical ornaments are foreign to the purpose, for they only shew a man is not sorry, and devotion

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