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TRANSLATIONS, &c.
THE DREAM.
IMITATED FROM PROPERTIUS, B. III. ELEGY 3.
To green retreats, that shade the Muses' Stream,
My fancy lately bore me in a Dream;
Fir'd with ambitious zeal, my harp I strung,
And Blenheim's field and fam'd Ramillia sung;
Fast by that spring where Spenser sat of old, 5
And great exploits in lofty numbers told.
Phœbus, in his Castalian grotto laid,
O'er which a laurel cast her silken shade,
Spy'd me, and hastily when first he spy'd,
Thus, leaning on his golden lyre, he cry'd: 10
"What strange ambition has misplac'd thee there?
"Forbear to sing of arms, alas! forbear;
"Form'd in a gentler mould, henceforth employ
"Thy pen to paint the softer scenes of joy:
"Thy Works may thus the myrtle garland wear, 15
"Preferr'd to grace the toilets of the fair:
"When their lov'd youths at night too long delay,
"In reading thee they'll pass the hours away;
"And when they'd make their melting wishes known,
"Repeat thy passion to reveal their own. 20
"Then haste the safer shallows to regain,
"Nor dare the stormy dangers of the main."
Ceasing with this reproof, the friendly god
A mossy path, but lightly beaten, show'd:
My fancy lately bore me in a Dream;
Fir'd with ambitious zeal, my harp I strung,
And Blenheim's field and fam'd Ramillia sung;
Fast by that spring where Spenser sat of old, 5
And great exploits in lofty numbers told.
Phœbus, in his Castalian grotto laid,
O'er which a laurel cast her silken shade,
Spy'd me, and hastily when first he spy'd,
Thus, leaning on his golden lyre, he cry'd: 10
"What strange ambition has misplac'd thee there?
"Forbear to sing of arms, alas! forbear;
"Form'd in a gentler mould, henceforth employ
"Thy pen to paint the softer scenes of joy:
"Thy Works may thus the myrtle garland wear, 15
"Preferr'd to grace the toilets of the fair:
"When their lov'd youths at night too long delay,
"In reading thee they'll pass the hours away;
"And when they'd make their melting wishes known,
"Repeat thy passion to reveal their own. 20
"Then haste the safer shallows to regain,
"Nor dare the stormy dangers of the main."
Ceasing with this reproof, the friendly god
A mossy path, but lightly beaten, show'd:
