 | Poems on several occasions |  |
136
TO A LADY.
Yes; Wedlock's sweet bands were too blest, in her lover
If Virtue her likeness could find,
What Plato has fabled, could Julia recover
Her lost other half, from mankind.
If Virtue her likeness could find,
What Plato has fabled, could Julia recover
Her lost other half, from mankind.
What joy to receive all the good you impart,
Thy cares on another recline,
Another's fond bosom, and feel that his heart
Beats all the same measures with thine!
Thy cares on another recline,
Another's fond bosom, and feel that his heart
Beats all the same measures with thine!
137
The features, the virtues of both, in your race,
How sweet the confusion, enjoy!
Yet more of thyself in the daughter still trace,
And more of thy lord in the boy.
How sweet the confusion, enjoy!
Yet more of thyself in the daughter still trace,
And more of thy lord in the boy.
Such bliss rivals Heaven—yet what grief, what disgrace,
Were Riot's low follower thy lot,
Were he whose loud pleasures are wine and the chace,
All Love's silent pleasures forgot!
Were Riot's low follower thy lot,
Were he whose loud pleasures are wine and the chace,
All Love's silent pleasures forgot!
What misery to hear, without daring reply,
All folly, all insolence speaks;
Still calling the tear of reproach to thy eye,
The flush of disdain to thy cheeks!
All folly, all insolence speaks;
Still calling the tear of reproach to thy eye,
The flush of disdain to thy cheeks!
Would soft Macaronies have judgment to prize,
Whom arts and whom virtues adorn,
Who learnt every virtue and art to despise,
Where Catos and Scipios were born?
Whom arts and whom virtues adorn,
Who learnt every virtue and art to despise,
Where Catos and Scipios were born?
138
Would Wealth's drowsy heir, without spark of Heaven's fire,
Enshrin'd in his dullness completely,
Awake to the charmer, her voice, and her lyre,
Ah! charm they tho' ever so sweetly?
Enshrin'd in his dullness completely,
Awake to the charmer, her voice, and her lyre,
Ah! charm they tho' ever so sweetly?
But what with the gamester, ah! what were thy fate,
What Fortune's caprices thy share!
To sleep upon down under canopied state,
To wake on the straw of Despair!
What Fortune's caprices thy share!
To sleep upon down under canopied state,
To wake on the straw of Despair!
The timid free-thinker, that only defies
Those bolts which his Maker can throw;
Would he, when blaspheming the Lord of the skies,
Yet rev'rence his image below?
Those bolts which his Maker can throw;
Would he, when blaspheming the Lord of the skies,
Yet rev'rence his image below?
Would slaves to a court, or to Faction's banditti,
Thy temperate spirit approve;
So proud in their chains of the court and the city,
Disdaining no chains, but of Love?
Thy temperate spirit approve;
So proud in their chains of the court and the city,
Disdaining no chains, but of Love?
139
O! mild as the Zephyr, like Zephyr that throws
Its sweets on the sweet-breathing May;
But not on the lap of cold Winter bestows,
What Winter will never repay.
Its sweets on the sweet-breathing May;
But not on the lap of cold Winter bestows,
What Winter will never repay.
So turn thee from Folly's cold aspect, ah! turn
From Vice's hard bosom away;
The wise and the virtuous thy sweets will return,
As warm and as grateful as May.
From Vice's hard bosom away;
The wise and the virtuous thy sweets will return,
As warm and as grateful as May.
| Poems on several occasions | |