Elegy V. He compares the turbulence of love with the tranquillity of friendship. To Melissa his friend

FROM Love, from angry Love's inclement reign
I pass a while to Friendship's equal skies;
Thou, gen'rous Maid! reliev'st my partial pain,
And cheer'st the victim of another's eyes.

'Tis thou, Melissa, thou deserv'st my care;
How can my will and reason disagree?
How can my passion live beneath despair?
How can my bosom sigh for aught but thee?

Ah! dear Melissa! pleas'd with thee to rove,
My soul has yet surviv'd its dreariest time;
Ill can I bear the various clime of Love!
Love is a pleasing but a various clime.

So smiles immortal Maro's fav'rite shore,
Parthenope, with ev'ry verdure crown'd;
When straight Vesuvio's horrid caldrons roar,
And the dry vapour blasts the regions round.

Oh! blissful regions! oh! unrivall'd plains!
When Maro to these fragrant haunts retir'd!
Oh! fatal realms! and, oh! accurs'd domains!
When Pliny 'mid sulphureous clouds expir'd!

So smiles the surface of the treach'rous main,
As o'er its waves the peaceful halcyons play,
When soon rude winds their wonted rule regain,
And sky and ocean mingle in the fray.

But let or air contend or ocean rave;
Ev'n Hope subside, amid the billows tost;
Hope, still emergent, still contemns the wave,
And not a feature's wonted smile is lost.