Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes

Dodsley, Robert (1703-1764)

I.

II.

collapse section

III.

ON A GROTTO near the Thames, at Twickenham, Composed of Marbles, Spars, and Minerals.

HYMN on SOLITUDE.

An ODE ON ÆOLUS's HARP.

On the Report of a Wooden Bridge to be built at Westminster.

The Choice of HERCULES.

An ODE. TO THE People of GREAT BRITAIN.

PSYCHE: or the GREAT METAMORPHOSIS.

JOVI ELEUTHERIO.

AN EPISTLE FROM A Swiss Officer to his Friend at Rome.

LIFE burthensome, because we know not how to use it.

The Duty of Employing one's Self.

On SCRIBLING against GENIUS.

An EPISTLE from FLORENCE.

EPILOGUE to Tamerlane. On the Suppression of the Rebellion.

The ENTHUSIAST:

Stanzas written on taking the Air after a long Illness.

The Two Beavers. A Fable.

The Education of ACHILLES.

An EPISTLE from S. J. Esq; in the Country, to the Right Hon. the Lord Lovelace in Town.

To a LADY in Town, soon after her leaving the Country.

To the Right Hon. the Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, presented with a Collection of Poems.

CHLOE to STREPHON.

To the Right Honourable the Earl of CHESTERFIELD, on his being installed Knight of the Garter.

To a LADY, sent with a Present of Shells and Stones design'd for a Grotto.

To a LADY, in answer to a Letter wrote in a very fine Hand.

collapse section

The Art of DANCING. A Poem. Inscribed to the Rt. Hon. the Lady Fanny Fielding.

I.

II.

THE MODERN FINE GENTLEMAN.

THE MODERN FINE LADY.

AN ESSAY on VIRTUE. To the Honourable PHILIP YORKE, Esq;

The FEMALE DRUM: Or, The Origin of Cards. A Tale.

To Mr. FOX, written at Florence. In Imitation of Horace, Ode 4. Book 2.

To the Same. From Hampton-Court, 1731.

The POET's PRAYER.

An EPISTLE to a Lady.

GENIUS, VIRTUE, and REPUTATION.

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE.

An INSCRIPTION.

To a GENTLEMAN,

THE ESTIMATE of LIFE, IN THREE PARTS.

The PLEASURE of POETRY.

The POWER of POETRY.

To a Young Lady with Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds.

To the Author of the Farmer's Letters, which were written in Ireland in the Year of the Rebellion, by Henry Brooke, Esq; 1745.

VERSES written in a Book called, Fables for the Female Sex.

VERSES written in Sylvia's PRIOR.

Upon a LADY's Embroidery.

DEATH and the DOCTOR.

INSCRIPTIONS on a Monument to the Memory of a Lady's favourite Bullfinch.

The Trial of SELIM the PERSIAN.

The TROPHY, BEING SIX CANTATAS To the Honour of his Royal Highness Willliam, Duke of CUMBERLAND;

The Marriage of the Myrtle and the Yew.

On a BAY-LEAF, pluck'd from Virgil's Tomb near Naples. 1736.

To CHLOE. Written on my Birth-Day, 1734.

FASHION: A Satire.

NATURE and FORTUNE.

To the Earl of CHESTERFIELD.

HONOUR. A Poem.

ODE to a Water Nymph. By Mr. Mason.

AN ESSAY ON SATIRE,

A Character of Mr. POPE's Writings. BEING An Episode from the Poem call'd Sickness, Book II.

The Cave of Pope. A Prophecy.

IV.

V.

VI.

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

I.

[In a vale fring'd with woodland, where grottos abound]

In a vale fring'd with woodland, where grottos abound,
And rivulets murmur, and echoes resound,
I vow'd to the Muses my time and my care;
Since neither could win me the smiles of my fair.

341

As freedom inspir'd me, I rang'd and I sung;
And Daphne's dear name never fell from my tongue
And if once a smooth accent delighted my ear,
I should wish, unawares, that my Daphne might hear

With sairest ideas my bosom I stor'd;
Allusions to none but the nymph I ador'd;
And the more I with study my fancy refin'd,
The deeper impressions she made on my mind.

Ah! whilst I the beauties of nature pursue,
I still must my Daphne's fair image renew:
The Graces have chosen with Daphne to rove,
And the Muses are all in alliance with Love.