To AQUILA ROSE, on Lamenting, in Sickness, to his Friend, of being separated from his Friends and Companions…

To thee, sweet Bard, my Muse attempts to sing; To thee she owes the Practice of her Wing: Great the Example; but the Fault is mine, She cannot bound in Flights so high as thine: For in dejected Fancy thou canst soar To loftiest Scenes, to the remotest Shore; The widest Stretch of Thought thy Numbers show, Immortal Springs in thy smooth Cadence flow. Thy soft Complaints affect my Heart with Grief, While in the self same Words I find Relief: A pleasing Sorrow agitates my Veins, When such a melting Israelite complains: I sympathize; for I have known the same, And felt in Absence (of the Cause) the Flame; Have been sequest'red from my native Soil, (Tho' less susceptible of such a Toil) Enough to guess the Burthen thou dost bear, And, like a Friend, participate a Share. But in such Phrase thy Story is display'd, In Colours beauteous by an Artist laid; That while I pity, Joy alternate steals On all the Sentiments thy Pen reveals, Ev'n to a Crime: Because they please so well, I'm almost glad for what has thee befel. Were I to taste like Ills, and have the Muse That tells my Friend what moving Words to chuse, I'd not the Curse for such a Bliss refuse.

Go on, relate the Troubles thou hast past; And tho' I weep, pray dole me out the last. So Dido, while Aeneas sung his Woes, With pleasing Sadness her full Bosom rose; Her brimfull Heart found Passage at her Eyes, Where Love return'd to symphonize her Sighs. I bring a Female Simile, to shew The ductile State thy Song reduc'd me to.

But let us rouse the manly Will, my Friend; Where shall this soft delusive Story end? Resolve, resume thy wonted Strength, and try If thou or thy Adversities must die: Forget 'em all, or wave them for a while, (Ah, why must Rhime renew the blissful Isle!) Wise T—r, and facetious F—h, will strive, And I, depend, to keep our Friend alive. If Recreations, of a rustick Kind, Can help his Body, or restore his Mind; Or any Means (excepting Verse like thine) Command thy Friend whose Love will ne'er decline.