Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/300

290 The duke is author of two volumes of poems, of which we ſhall ſelect the following as a ſpecimen.

Say, ſov’reign queen of awful night,
 * Dread tyrant ſay!

Why parting throes this lab’ring frame diſtend,
 * Why dire convulſions rend,

And teeming horrors wreck th’ aſtoniſh’d ſight?
 * Why ſhirks the trembling ſoul,
 * Why with amazement full

Pines at thy rule, and ſickens at thy ſway?
 * Why low’rs the thunder of thy brow,
 * Why livid angers glow,
 * Miſtaken phantom, ſay?

Far hence exert thy awful reign, Where tutelary ſhrines and ſolemn bulls
 * Incloſe the hallow’d duſt:

Where feeble tapers ſhed a gloomy ray,
 * And ſtatues pity feign;

Where pale ey’d griefs their waſting vigils keep, There brood with ſullen ſtate, and nod with downy ſleep.

Advance ye lurid miniſters of death!
 * And ſwell the annals of her reign:

Crack every nerve, ſluice every vein;
 * And choak the avenues of breath.

Freeze, freeze, ye purple tides!
 * Or ſcorch with ſeering flames,

Where nature flows in tepid ſtreams,
 * And life’s mæanders glide.

Let keen deſpair her icy progreſs make,
 * And ſlacken’d nerves their talk forſake;
 * Years damp the vital fire.

Yawn