Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/99
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WINDSOR-FOREST.
63
Ye sacred Nine! that all my soul possess,
Whose raptures fire me, and whose visions bless,
Bear me, oh bear me to sequester'd scenes,
Of bow'ry mazes, and surrounding greens;
To Thames's banks which fragrant breezes fill,
Or where ye Muses sport on Cooper's hill.
(On Cooper's hill eternal wreaths shall grow,
While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow)
I seem thro' consecrated walks to rove,
And hear soft music dye along the grove;
Led by the sound I roam from shade to shade,
By god-like Poets venerable made:
Here his first lays majestic Denham sung;
There the last numbers flow'd from [1]Cowley's tongue.
O early lost! what tears the River shed,
When the sad pomp along his banks was led?
His drooping swans on ev'ry note expire,
And on his willows hung each Muse's lyre.
Whose raptures fire me, and whose visions bless,
Bear me, oh bear me to sequester'd scenes,
Of bow'ry mazes, and surrounding greens;
To Thames's banks which fragrant breezes fill,
Or where ye Muses sport on Cooper's hill.
(On Cooper's hill eternal wreaths shall grow,
While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow)
I seem thro' consecrated walks to rove,
And hear soft music dye along the grove;
Led by the sound I roam from shade to shade,
By god-like Poets venerable made:
Here his first lays majestic Denham sung;
There the last numbers flow'd from [1]Cowley's tongue.
O early lost! what tears the River shed,
When the sad pomp along his banks was led?
His drooping swans on ev'ry note expire,
And on his willows hung each Muse's lyre.
- ↑ Mr. Cowley died at Chertsey on the borders of the Forest, and was from thence convey'd to Westminster.
Since