Poems on Several Occasions :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Go, Anna! (Nature said) to Oxford go:
(Anna! the fairest Form and Mind below,
Blest with each Gift of Nature and of Art
To charm the Reason, or to fix the Heart.)
Go with a sprightly Wit and easy Mien,
To prove the Graces four, the Muses Ten.
I see the Wits adore, the Wise approve,
Ev'n Fops themselves have almost Sense to love.
When Poets wou'd describe a Lip or Eye,
They'll look on Thee and lay their Ovids by.
I see a love-sick Youth, with Passion fir'd,
Hang on thy charms, and gaze to be inspir'd.
With asking Eyes explain his silent Woes,
Glow as he looks, yet tremble as he glows:
Then drunk with Beauty, with a warmer Rage,
Pour thy soft Graces through the Tragic-Page.

114

He sighs;—He bleeds;—to twilight Shades He flies:
Shakespear He drops, and with his Otway dies.
This Pomp of Charms you owe to Me alone,
The Charms which scarce six thousand Years have known.
That Face, illumin'd softly by the Mind;
That Body, almost to a Soul refind;
That Sweetness, only to an Angel giv'n;
That Blush of Innocence, and Smile of Heav'n!
I bade thy Cheeks with Morning-Purple glow;
I bade thy Lips with Nectar-Spirit flow;
I bade the Diamond point thy azure Eyes,
Turn'd the fine Waist, and taught the Breast to rise.
Whether thy Silver Tides of Musick roul,
Or Pencil on the Canvass strikes a Soul,
Or curious Needle pricks a Band or Heart,
At once a Needle, and at once a Dart!
All own that Nature is alone thy Art.
Why thus I form'd thy Body and thy Mind
With sumless Graces, prodigally kind,
The Reason was,—but you in Time will know it;—
One is, but that's the least—to make a Poet.

Written in a Window at the Three-Tuns Tavern, Oxford; May 29th.