Poems by the Late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock Together with an Essay on the Education of the Blind. To Which is Prefixed A New Account of the Life and Writings of the Author |
ODE, on Melissa's Birth-day. |
Poems by the Late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock | ||
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ODE, on Melissa's Birth-day.
I
Ye nymphs and swains, whom love inspiresWith all his pure and faithful fires,
Hither with joyful steps repair;
You who his tenderest transports share!
For lo! in beauty's gayest pride,
Summer expands her bosom wide;
The sun no more in clouds inshrin'd,
Darts all his glories unconfin'd;
The feather'd choir from every spray
Salute Melissa's natal day.
II
Hither ye nymphs and shepherds haste,Each with a flow'ry chaplet grac'd,
With transport while the shades resound,
And nature spreads her charms around;
While ev'ry breeze exhales perfumes,
And Bion his mute pipe resumes;
With Bion long disus'd to play,
Salute Melissa's natal day.
III
For Bion long deplor'd his painThro' woods and devious wilds in vain;
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The swain preferr'd his ardent pray'r;
His ardent pray'r Melissa heard,
And every latent sorrow chear'd,
His days with social rapture blest,
And sooth'd each anxious care to rest.
Tune, shepherds, tune the festive lay,
And hail Melissa's natal day.
IV
With nature's incense to the skiesLet all your fervid wishes rise,
That heav'n and earth may join to shed
Their choicest blessings on her head;
That years protracted, as they flow,
May pleasures more sublime bestow;
While by succeeding years surpast,
The happiest still may be the Iast;
And thus each circling sun display,
A more auspicious natal day.
Poems by the Late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock | ||