OF TEMPER.
115
From the rent earth dark demons force their way,
And make the sportive revellers their prey.
Here gloomy Terror, with a shadowy rope,
Seems, like a Turkish mute, to strangle Hope;
There jealous Fury drowns in blood the fire
That sparkled in the eye of young Desire;
And lifeless Love lets merciless Despair
From his crush'd frame his bleeding pinions tear.
But pangs more cruel, more intensely keen,
Wound and distract their sympathetic queen:
With fruitless tears she o'er their misery bends;
From her sweet brow the thorny rose she rends,
And, bow'd by grief's insufferable weight,
Frantic she curses her immortal state:
The griev'd Serena, as this curse she hears,
Feels her bright eye suffus'd with kindred tears;
And her kind breast, where quick companion swell'd,
Shar'd in each bitter suffering she beheld.
The guardian Power survey'd her lovely grief,
And spoke in gentle terms of mild relief:
And make the sportive revellers their prey.
Here gloomy Terror, with a shadowy rope,
Seems, like a Turkish mute, to strangle Hope;
There jealous Fury drowns in blood the fire
That sparkled in the eye of young Desire;
And lifeless Love lets merciless Despair
From his crush'd frame his bleeding pinions tear.
But pangs more cruel, more intensely keen,
Wound and distract their sympathetic queen:
With fruitless tears she o'er their misery bends;
From her sweet brow the thorny rose she rends,
And, bow'd by grief's insufferable weight,
Frantic she curses her immortal state:
The griev'd Serena, as this curse she hears,
Feels her bright eye suffus'd with kindred tears;
And her kind breast, where quick companion swell'd,
Shar'd in each bitter suffering she beheld.
The guardian Power survey'd her lovely grief,
And spoke in gentle terms of mild relief:
