No brazen records kept the crowd in awe, No conscious guilt disturbed each peaceful bower, But The world reposed, secure from all alarms; Supplied the daily wants of all mankind. Unceasing spring breathed fragrance round their bowers, The earth untilled, with smiling fruitage glowed, The heavenly nectar from the skies was showered; Addressed to Harriot, who presented the author with a bunch of roses, saying, she had preserved them a long while, and that they were the fairest of the season. SUCH bounteous flowerets from so fair a hand, The bloom they copied of celestial grace, The lovely pictures of thy lovelier face. Thine are those tints, which charm the admiring eye; On the free bounty of thy smile they live, And to the world their borrowed splendour give. Thus planets glitter on the robe of night, And from the sun receive their silver light. The flower, which blooms beneath the vernal ray, For though the lily boasts its spotless form, Claim all those plaudits, which the rose has won. Then, Rapture, cease on Harriot's gift to gaze, VERSES TO A YOUNG LADY, LATELY RECOVERED FROM SICKNESS. WITH gloomy clouds of dismal dread, The horizon sullenly is bound; The sun, obscured, weeps through the shade; The zephyrs mourn along the ground, Where Darkness reigns, Where Woe's sad strains Wind o'er the plains. Vaulted with Terror's sable veil, Fringed with the sunbeam's glossy hue, Deep lies the solitary vale, Where round the grove a rural crew, In smiling throng, With sweetest song, Thus seated in the breezy shade, From Health's abode, Misfortune's road. From her sad eye the tear of grief, Saw, in disguise, One from the skies. Lovely, as Morn, who weeps in dews; Mild as the fragrant breath of Even; Though streams of woe her eyes suffuse, She shone the silver queen of heaven. Dian her guide, Fair Beauty's pride In sense outvied. While thus the swains, in rapture's trance, That e'en the skies One of the seraphs thus began: "My name is Fame; on earth I sway; "The glory, pride, and boast of man, "The world's proud kings my voice obey. "From pole to pole, "My glories roll; "I rule the whole. "Long have I made yon fair my pride, "The brightest gem my crown adorned; "Her name Oblivion's power defied, "And all his low attempts has scorned. "Forbear your claim, "Ne'er will her name "Descend from Fame. "But say, if you can boast to share "The affections of yon turtle dove, "Why, with the storms of bleak despair, "Do you afflict her from above? "To force is vain; "Where'er I reign, "No slaves complain." The angel sent from heaven replied; "We doom the fair to Mercy's road, "To wean her love from mortal pride, "To bliss supreme in heaven's abode. "To heaven restore, "A mind too pure "For earth's wild shore. |