From Love, from angry Love's inclement reign <br />I pass awhile to Friendship's equal skies; <br />Thou, generous Maid! reliev'st my partial pain, <br />And cheer'st the victim of another's eyes. <br /> <br />'Tis thou, Melissa, thou deserv'st my care; <br />How can my will and reason disagree? <br />How can my passion live beneath despair? <br />How can my bosom sigh for aught but thee? <br /> <br />Ah! dear Melissa! pleased with thee to rove, <br />My soul has yet survived its dreariest time <br />Ill can I bear the various clime of Love! <br />Love is a pleasing, but a various clime. <br /> <br />So smiles immortal Maro's favourite shore, <br />Parthenope, with every verdure crown'd; <br />When straight Vesuvio's horrid cauldrons roar, <br />And the dry vapour blasts the regions round. <br /> <br />Oh, blissful regions, oh, unrivall'd plains, <br />When Maro to these fragrant haunts retired! <br />Oh, fatal realms, and oh, accursed domains, <br />When Pliny, 'mid sulphureous clouds, expired! <br /> <br />So smiles the surface of the treacherous main, <br />As o'er its waves the peaceful halcyons play; <br />When soon rude winds their wonted rule regain, <br />And sky and ocean mingle in the fray. <br /> <br />But let or air contend, or ocean rave, <br />Even Hope subside, amid the billows tost; <br />Hope, still emergent, still contemns the wave, <br />And not a feature's wonted smile is lost.<br /><br />William Shenstone<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/elegy-v-he-compares-the-turbulence-of-love-with-the-tranquillity-of-friendship/
