Miscellanies (1785) :: :: University of Virginia Library

Benignant Laura! to the Muses dear,
Thy virtuous mind with bright amibition glow'd,
To tune the lyre, the votive shrine to rear,
By Science hallow'd in their fair abode;
From sterling wit to clear each base alloy,
And fill with purest fires the crystal lamp of Joy.

Wide thro' the murky shades by Malice shed
To shroud its blossoms, and its foliage blight,
With rising strength thy verdant altar spread,
And bards of loftiest spirit join'd its rite;
And with their oaken, and their laurel crown
Inwove thy myrtle buds, fair wreathe of fair Renown!

Tho' all unknown to Fame its artless reed,
My trembling hand, at thy kind bidding, tried
To crop the blossoms of the uncultur'd mead,
The primrose pale, the briar's blushing pride,
And on thy vase with true devotions laid
The tributary flow'rs—too soon, alas! to fade.

Safe thro' thy gentle ordeal's lambent flame,
My Muse, aspiring dar'd the fiercer blaze,
Which Judgment lights before the hill of Fame,
With calm determin'd hand and searching gaze;
But for thy lib'ral praise, with awful dread,
Far from those burning bars my trembling feet had fled.

Clad in the fine Asbestos light attire,
By Elegance inwove with nicest care,
Of pow'r to pass unhurt the public fire,
Where critic Wit bids all his beacons glare,
The sprightly Winford, at her Laura's fane,
Pass'd thro' its milder flames, amid th' applauding train.

The Nymph of Dronfield there with snowy hand,
To gay Thalia swept the silver wires;
The frolic Muse attends her soft command,
And the free strain with many a charm inspires;
Long be it hers in lettered scenes to please,
By quick Invention's fire, and Nature's graceful ease.

Dear to the parent-source from whence I drew
The spark of life, and all that life endears,
Time honour'd Graves! with duteous joy I view
Thy hollies blushing thro' the snow of years;
Their wintry colours the chaste shrine adorn,
Vivid as genius blends in Life's exulting morn.

Triumphant youth fann'd the poetic flame
Of noble Fielding, whose energic soul
So early wing'd him up the steeps of Fame,
And gain'd, e'er manhood's dawn, the distant goal;
Still in his lays the wounded breast shall find
A charm, that sooths to rest each Vulture of the mind.

From Woodland scenes, in Stamford's flow'ry vale,
With Learning, Peace, and Virtue fond to dwell,
And ring his wild harp to the passing gale,
While Dryden's spirit hovers o'er the shell,
Invention led her musing son among
Sweet Laura's delphic shades, that crown'd his mystic song.

And graceful Jerningham, benignly brought
His gentle Muse, of Bigot-Rage the foe;
And skill'd to blend the force of reasoning Thought
With Sensibility's enamour'd glow;
Skill'd o'er frail Love to draw the sacred veil,
Whose mournful texture floats on Fancy's boyant gale.

There tender Whalley struck his silver lyre
To Love and Nature struck—as mingled flows
With elegiac sweetness epic fire,
In the soft story of his Edwy's woes;
Its beauteous page shall prompt, thro' distant years,
The thrill of generous joy, the tide of pitying tears.

Near him a Bard, of many a fair design,
On the crown'd Vase the varied treasure pil'd,
And Oh! let moral Truth, and Fancy join,
To grace sweet Sympathy's poetic Child!
That his rich chaplet with that verse may vie,
Which throws the roseat ray on Nature's social tie!

Anstey himself would join the sportive band,
Anstey, enlivener of the serious earth!
At the light waving of whose magic wand,
New fountains rose, and flow with endless mirth;
Pouring on Fancy's soul a glow as warm,
As Bath's rich springs impart to Health's reviving form.

Immortal Truth, for his salubrious song,
Pluck'd the unfading laurel from her fane;
Since oft' amid the laugh of Momus's throng,
Wisdom has gravely smil'd, and prais'd the strain;
Pleas'd to behold the Fools of Fashion hit
By new, unrival'd shafts of Ridicule and Wit.

Bright glows the list of many an honour'd name,
Whom Taste in Laura's votive throng surveys,
While Hayley flashes in a type of flame,
Trac'd by a sun-beam the broad letters blaze!
Rapt Britain reads the long-recorded fire,
Claps her triumphant hands, and bids her realms admire!

The above is an exact drawing, engraved from the Tuscular Vase wherein the poems were deposited.

Lady Millar.

The Reviewers.

See Miss Winford's elegant Poem The Hobby Horse, printed in the fourth volume of Poetical Amusements at Bath Easton.

See Miss Rogers's Invocation to the Comic Muse, fourth volume of Poetical Amusements.

Rev. Mr. Graves, of Claverton, author of the Spiritual Quixotte, Enphrosyne, Columella, &c. and the well-known friend of Mr. Shenstone.

Alluding to the Chorus ex Prometheo, presented to the Vase by the Hon. Charles Fielding, then of Harrow School. See fourth volume of Poetical Amusements.

Rev. Mr. Butt, Rector of Stamford in Worcestershire. His Verses on the Pythagorean System had a wreath. See fourth volume of Poetical Amusements.

Mr. Jerningham, though a Roman Catholic, has ably combated monastic enthusiasm, in his ingenious Poem, The Nun.

See Mr. Jerningham's Funeral of Aribert.

Rev. Mr. Whalley of Langford Court, near Bristol, author of that interesting Love Poem, Edwy and Edilda—ingenious as a Poet, and incomparable as a Man.

Author of Sympathy, Emma Corbett, &c. &c. &c.

Author of The New Bath Guide.

See Essay on History—Epic Poetry—Triumphs of Temper, &c. &c.