 | Poems to Thespia |  |
172
XXXI. To J. P. TAYLOR, Esq.
Taylor, whose merits I have known, and prize!Who fostering qualities of noble kind,
Which from the nicest sense of honour rise,
With which the graces deck the chosen mind:
Hast cherish'd youthful learning's classic store,
(Too often from the soldier's precincts chaced)
Imagination's ever-pleasing lore
Soothing each anxious thought, and liberal taste,
And virtuous love whose pure ideal train
Still shielded thee from folly light and vain!
Accept this page; and to thy Charlotte's ear
Reading the impassion'd numbers, tell the maid
My Thespia no fictitious dress array'd;
Their's sister souls, my verse, like thine, sincere.
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