University of Virginia Library

To Cynthia

When Cynthia's crescent I behold
A luster shedding 'round her brow,
I'm half convinced when I am told,
That Art can vie with Nature, now.
But when her beauteous eyes I view,
That sparkle with a ray divine,
I feel the ancient maxim's true,
That Art cannot, like Nature, shine.
O! Were I suffered to descry
Those other orbs that swell below,
Where fancy sets before my eye,
Two rosebuds, peeping through the snow;
Transported at the sight, I'd swear,
Art ne'er can rival Nature, there.
Then Cynthia, deign to smile upon
And make me, thy Endymion.
Mar. 10, 1799