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| III. |
 | Harvest-Home (1805) |  |
INVOCATION TO FORTUNE.
PRESENTED TO A YOUNG LADY, WITH A SHARE IN A LOTTERY-TICKET.
Why, Fortune, art thou painted blind,
Partial, deceptive, and unkind;
A false coquette, a fickle dame,
A jilt, and each opprobrious name?
It is because mankind agree,
Those are most blind who will not see.
Partial, deceptive, and unkind;
A false coquette, a fickle dame,
A jilt, and each opprobrious name?
It is because mankind agree,
Those are most blind who will not see.
Hence thy deluded votaries shower
Indignant curses on thy power:
Hence fools are creatures of thy smile;
Thy favourites oft the base and vile:
And oft thy prostituted wheel
Turns to enrich a heart of steel;
Or some unsocial, sordid elf,
Who has no idol but himself;
Or points the prize to some State knave,
Or Fashion's fool, or Passion's slave:
Yet when the Good thy help invoke,
That cruel wheel receives a spoke;
Or whirls from Virtue far away,
And leaves soft Beauty to decay.
Yes, Goddess! hence it is we shower
Indignant curses on thy power!
Indignant curses on thy power:
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Thy favourites oft the base and vile:
And oft thy prostituted wheel
Turns to enrich a heart of steel;
Or some unsocial, sordid elf,
Who has no idol but himself;
Or points the prize to some State knave,
Or Fashion's fool, or Passion's slave:
Yet when the Good thy help invoke,
That cruel wheel receives a spoke;
Or whirls from Virtue far away,
And leaves soft Beauty to decay.
Yes, Goddess! hence it is we shower
Indignant curses on thy power!
But if that curse thou wouldst remove,
And change it to a generous love,—
Make sweet Sophia now thy care,
And it shall soften to a prayer:
O henceforth be the Friend of Truth,
Of Beauty, Innocence, and Youth:
Then Bards shall pray that thou mayst see,
And twine their choicest bays for Thee.
And change it to a generous love,—
Make sweet Sophia now thy care,
And it shall soften to a prayer:
O henceforth be the Friend of Truth,
Of Beauty, Innocence, and Youth:
Then Bards shall pray that thou mayst see,
And twine their choicest bays for Thee.
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