Poems on Various Subjects With Introductory Remarks on the present State of Science and Literature in France |
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TO MRS. K---,
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 | Poems on Various Subjects |  |
256
TO MRS. K---,
ON HER SENDING ME AN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS PLUMB-CAKE, AT PARIS.
What crowding thoughts around me wake,What marvels in a Christmas-cake!
Ah say, what strange enchantment dwells
Enclos'd within its od'rous cells?
Is there no small magician bound
Encrusted in its snowy round?
For magic surely lurks in this,
A cake that tells of vanish'd bliss;
A cake that conjures up to view
The early scenes, when life was new;
When mem'ry knew no sorrows past,
And hope believ'd in joys that last!—
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Life's calendar of bliss and pain;
That speaks of friends for ever fled,
And wakes the tears I love to shed.
Oft shall I breathe her cherish'd name
From whose fair hand the off'ring came:
For she recalls the artless smile
Of nymphs that deck my native Isle;
Of beauty that we love to trace,
Allied with tender, modest grace;
Of those who, while abroad they roam,
Retain each charm that gladdens home,
And whose dear friendship can impart
A Christmas banquet for the heart!
| Poems on Various Subjects | |