So pass my days, But when Nocturnal Shades This World invelop, and th'inclement Air Perfwades Men to repel benumming Frosts, With pleasant wines,andcrackling blaze of wood Me lonely fitting, nor the glimmering Light Of make-weight Candle, nor the joyous talk Of lovely friend delights; diftrefs'd, forlorn, Amidst the horrors of the tedious Night, Darkling I figh, and feed with difmal Thoughts My anxious Mind; or fometimes mournful Verse Indite, and fing of Groves and Myrtle Shades, Or desperate Lady near a purling stream, Or Lover pendent on a Willow tree: Mean while I labour with eternal drought, And restless wish, in vain, my parched Throat
Finds no Relief, nor heavy Eyes Repose:
But if a Slumber haply do's invade
My weary Limbs, my Fancy ftill awake,
Longing for Drink, and eager in my Dream,
Tipples Imaginary Pots of Ale.
Awake, I find the settled Thirst
Still gnawing, and the pleasant Phantom curfe.
Thus do I live, from Pleasure quite debarr'd,
Nor taste the Fruits that the Sun's genial Rays
Mature, John Apple, nor the Downy Peach,
Nor Walnut in rough-furrow'd Coat fecure,
Nor Medlar Fruit delicious in decay;
Afflictions great, yet greater ftill remain,
My Galligaskins that have long withstood
The Winter's Fury, and encroaching Frofts,
By time fubdu'd, (what will not time fubdue!)
A horrid Chaẩm difclofe, with Orifice
Wide difcontineous; at which the Winds
Eurus and Aufter, and the dreadful force
Of Boreas, that congeals the Cronian Waves,
Tumultuous enter with dire chilling Blafts,
Portending Agues. Thus a well-fraught Ship
Long fail'd fecure, or through the Egean Deep,
Or the Ionian, till Crufing near
The Lilybean Shoar, with hideous Crush
On Scylla or Charibdis dangerous Rocks
She strikes rebounding, whence the fhatter'dOak,
So fierce a Shock unable to withstand,
Admits the Sea, in at the gaping Sidė
The crowding Waves gufh with impetuous Rage,
Resistless overwhelming; Horrors seize
The Mariners, Death in their eyes appears,(pray:
They stare,they lave,they pump,they swear,they
Vain Efforts, ftill the battering Waves rush in
Implacable, till delug'd by the foam,'
The Ship finks found'ring in the vast Abyss.
Hat! put off with One Denial?
And not make a Second Tryal?
You might see my Eyes confenting,
All about me was relenting:
Women oblig'd to dwell in Forms,
Forgive the Youth who boldly storms.
Lovers, when you Sigh and Languish;
When you tell us of your Anguish;
To the Nymph you'll be more pleafing,
When those Sorrows you are eafing
We love to try how far Men dare,
And never wish the Foe fhould spare.
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