BIRTH-DAY ODE,

  1793.

    Small is the new-born plant scarce seen

    Amid the soft encircling green,

      Where yonder budding acorn rears,

    Just o'er the waving grass, its tender head:

      Slow pass along the train of years,

    And on the growing plant, their dews and showers they shed.

      Anon it rears aloft its giant form,

      And spreads its broad-brown arms to meet the storm.

    Beneath its boughs far shadowing o'er the plain,

  From summer suns, repair the grateful village train.

      Nor BEDFORD will my friend survey

    The book of Nature with unheeding eye;

      For never beams the rising orb of day,

      For never dimly dies the refluent ray,

    But as the moralizer marks the sky,

  He broods with strange delight upon futurity.

    And we must muse my friend! maturer years

    Arise, and other Hopes and other Fears,

      For we have past the pleasant plains of Youth.

    Oh pleasant plains! that we might stray

      For ever o'er your faery ground—

      For ever roam your vales around,

    Nor onward tempt the dangerous way—

    For oh—what numerous foes assail

    The Traveller, from that chearful vale!

    With toil and heaviness opprest

    Seek not the flowery bank for rest,

    Tho' there the bowering woodbine spread

    Its fragrant shelter o'er thy head,

  Tho' Zephyr there should linger long

  To hear the sky-lark's wildly-warbled song,

  There heedless Youth shalt thou awake

  The vengeance of the coiling snake!

  Tho' fairly smiles the vernal mead

  To tempt thy pilgrim feet, proceed

    Hold on thy steady course aright,

  Else shalt thou wandering o'er the pathless plain,

    When damp and dark descends the night

  Shivering and shelterless, repent in vain.

  And yet—tho' Dangers lurk on every side

  Receive not WORLDLY WISDOM for thy guide!

    Beneath his care thou wilt not know

    The throb of unavailing woe,

    No tear shall tremble in thine eye

    Thy breast shall struggle with no sigh,

    He will security impart,

    But he will apathize thy heart!

    Ah no!

    Fly Fly that fatal foe,

  Virtue shall shrink from his torpedo grasp—

    For not more fatal thro' the Wretches veins

    Benumb'd in Death's cold pains

  Creeps the chill poison of the deadly asp.

    Serener joys my friend await

    Maturer manhood's steady state.

    The wild brook bursting from its source

    Meanders on its early course,

    Delighting there with winding way

    Amid the vernal vale to stray,

    Emerging thence more widely spread

    It foams along its craggy bed,

    And shatter'd with the mighty shock

    Rushes from the giddy rock—

    Hurl'd headlong o'er the dangerous steep

    On runs the current to the deep,

      And gathering waters as it goes

      Serene and calm the river flows,

      Diffuses plenty o'er the smiling coast,

  Rolls on its stately waves and is in ocean lost.

  BIRTH-DAY ODE,

  1796.

    And wouldst thou seek the low abode

      Where PEACE delights to dwell?

    Pause Traveller on thy way of life!

    With many a snare and peril rife

      Is that long labyrinth of road:

    Dark is the vale of years before

      Pause Traveller on thy way!

    Nor dare the dangerous path explore

  Till old EXPERIENCE comes to lend his leading ray.

    Not he who comes with lanthorn light

    Shall guide thy groping pace aright

      With faltering feet and slow;

    No! let him rear the torch on high

    And every maze shall meet thine eye,

      And every snare and every foe;

    Then with steady step and strong,

    Traveller, shalt thou march along.

    Tho' POWER invite thee to her hall,

    Regard not thou her tempting call

      Her splendors meteor glare;

    Tho' courteous Flattery there await

    And Wealth adorn the dome of State,

      There stalks the midnight spectre CARE;

      PEACE, Traveller! does not sojourn there.

    If FAME allure thee, climb not thou

    To that steep mountain's craggy brow

      Where stands her stately pile;

    For far from thence does PEACE abide,

      And thou shall find FAME'S favouring smile

  Cold as the feeble Sun on Heclas snow-clad side,

  And Traveller! as thou hopest to find

    That low and loved abode,

    Retire thee from the thronging road

  And shun the mob of human kind.

  Ah I hear how old EXPERIENCE schools,

  "Fly fly the crowd of Knaves and Fools

    "And thou shalt fly from woe;

  "The one thy heedless heart will greet

  "With Judas smile, and thou wilt meet

    "In every Fool a Foe!"

  So safely mayest thou pass from these,

  And reach secure the home of PEACE,

    And FRIENDSHIP find thee there.

  No happier state can mortal know,

  No happier lot can Earth bestow

    If LOVE thy lot shall share.

  Yet still CONTENT with him may dwell

    Whom HYMEN will not bless,

  And VIRTUE sojourn in the cell

    Of HERMIT HAPPINESS.