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Poems to Thespia

To Which are Added, Sonnets, &c. [by Hugh Downman]
  

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INTRODUCTION.
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 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
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 XIV. 
 XV. 
 XVI. 
 XVII. 
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 XIX. 
 XX. 
 XXI. 
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 XXVII. 
 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
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 XXXIII. 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXV. 
 XXXVI. 
 XXXVII. 
 XXXVIII. 
 XXXIX. 
 XL. 
 XLI. 
 XLII. 
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 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 X. 
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 XII. 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
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 XIX. 
 XX. 
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 XXVII. 
 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
 XXXII. 
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1

INTRODUCTION.

Scorning with studied art to drag along
The doubled epithet of monstrous length,
Join in the quaint alliterative song,
Court feeble melody, and banish strength.
No labour'd, no fictitious strains I bring,
But unreserved pour forth my honest heart;
Nature and true affection bade me sing,
I felt the wound of no pretended dart.
Oh! may my pen desert my palsied hand,
When I survive to real sense a pest!
Or fix in nice array with order's wand
The hasty ebullitions of my breast!

2

My theme is chosen mid the British Fair,
No antique Bards for love-thoughts I explore,
No fabled Gods from Greece and Rome I bear,
No Nymphs or Dryads from the classic shore.
Such ornaments may please the shallow mind,
Exotic gewgaws twisted into rhime;
But elegance delights in chaplets twined
By nature's hand, and inmates of the clime.
Nor here hath Love disdain'd his gifts to shed,
The feeling soul is not unfrequent here;
And genuine rapture by the graces led,
Oft tunes the lyre, and thrills the listening ear.