The poetical works of William Falconer ... / With the life of the author. Cooke's ed. ... Embellished with superb engravings.

  • Falconer, William, 1732-1769
Date:
[1798?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poetical works of William Falconer ... / With the life of the author. Cooke's ed. ... Embellished with superb engravings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    They o er Caftalian plains diffufe perfunie, Where o’er the vales perennial laurels blccm. Here, with immortal harps, the facred Mine Exalt to ecftacy their fongs divine; In vocal melody their notes decay, And melt, to fofteft love, the dying lay. Their numbers every mental ftorm controul, Ai^ lull to harmony th’ afflifted foul; With heavenly balm the tortur’d breall compofe. And footh the agony of latent woes. The verdant lhadcs that Helicon lurround. On rofy gales, leraphic tunes refound : Perpetual fummers crown the happy hours, S.vect as the breach that fans Elyfian flowers : Here pltafure dances in an endlefs round. And love and joy ineflablo abound. Adieu, ye flow’ry vales, and fragrant fcencs, iDeiightful bow’rs, and ever-vcrnal greens ! e winds that o’er Aonian vallies blow, 'Yc lucid breams chat round Picria flow : Ac virgin-daughters of the Sun, wtio dwell lln bl- ll Bceotian realms, a long farewcl ! IFroni happy realms, reluaant now I go To raging elements, and fcencs of woe. ’Our .-Author leeras, in many of his reprefentations, nave an eye to Virgil ; indeed, he wilhes for e powers ot the Roman Bard to deferibe the Trors of a tempclluous ocean, and the dire fate of pfe •Y- ho, on the verge of death, in vain deplore Impervious dangers on a lec-ward Ihore. B'-veral judicious and candid critics have offered las there opinion, that many of the deferiptive fts in Falconer’s Shipwreck are by no means (erior to paflages on the lam,c fubjedts which •nr in the Third and Fifth Bocks of the iEncid ; lie, indeed, have gone fo far as to alfcrt, that his P- ajipcars to much greater advantage .than the imurus of Virgil,