 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
86
To Mrs. Barker of York,
On some ingenious Letters wrote by her (to me) in an advanc'd Age.
How am I pleas'd to read your charming Lines!Where Manly Strength with Female Sweetness joins;
Where the just Thoughts are drest in Language fit,
In all the flowing Elegance of Wit.
Strange at your Age such steady Sense to find!
Such Indications of the clearest Mind!
When we alas! too often may observe
That Reason totters with the slacken'd Nerve.
But if the Setting-Sun such Beams display,
How dazling was its bright Meridian Ray!
When Health and Youth invigorate the Thought,
And Fancy is with strong Ideas fraught.
87
Nor dreads the blasting Season still to come.
But your's, like Italy's fam'd Gardens fair,
Brings Flow'rs and Fruits thro' all the various Year;
In spight of Time, a gay Production shows,
And buds and bears amidst the Winter Snows.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |