Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/96

 Farewel! Ye gleamings of departing peace, Shine out your last! the yellow-tinging plague Internal vision taints, and in a night Of livid gloom imagination wraps. Ah then; instead of-love enliven'd cheeks, Of funny features, and of ardent eyes With flowing rapture bright, dark looks succeed, Suffus'd, and glaring with untender fire; A cloudy aspect, and a burning cheek, Where the whole poison'd soul, malignant, sits, And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms For which he melts in fondness, eat him up With fervent anguish, and consuming rage. In vain reproaches lend their idle aid, Deceitful pride, and resolution frail, Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours, Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought, Her first endearments, twining round the soul, With all the witchcraft of ensnaring love. Strait the fierce storm involves his mind anew, Flames thro' the nerves, and boils along the veins: While anxious doubt distracts the tortur'd heart; For even the sad assurance of his fears Were peace to what he feels. Thus the warm youth, Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds, Thro' flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care; His brightest flames extinguish'd all, and all His brightest moments running down to waste.

happy they! the happiest of their kind! Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. 'Tis