University of Virginia Library

TO MISS SARAH HOWARD.

I asked the muse to breathe a name
Which Mercy loved the dearest;
The brightest on the roll of fame,
To perfect worth the nearest;
Whose heart would bleed, but never shrink,
When gloom and danger lowered,
Who dared destruction's awful brink,
To save the wretch about to sink—
She smiled and whispered—“Howard.”

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I asked her then to name a fair,
Whose thousand traits of beauty,
Derive the sweetest grace they wear
From virtue, love, and duty:
Who, when her parents helpless lay,
By fell disease o'erpowered,
With tearless, sleepless eye, would stay
To watch their couches, night and day,
The pangs of sickness to allay—
The muse still whispered—“Howard.”