Poems on Several Occasions :: :: University of Virginia Library

To your lov'd Bosom pleas'd Marissa flies;
That place where sacred Friendship gives a Right,
And where ten thousand Charms invite.
Let others Pow'r and awful Greatness prize;

Let them exchange their Innocence and Fame
For the dear Purchase of a mighty Name:
Let greedy Wretches hug their darling Store,
The tempting Product of their Toils adore,
And still with anxious Souls, desire and grasp at more:
While I disdain to have my Bliss confin'd
To things which Fortune can bestow, or take,
To things so foreign to the Mind,
And which no part of solid Pleasure make:
Those Joys of which I am possest,
Are safely lodg'd within my Breast,
Where like deep Waters, undisturb'd they flow,
And as they pass, a glassy smoothness show:
Unmov'd by Storms, or by th' Attacks of Fate,
I envy none, nor wish a happier State.

2.

When all alone in some belov'd Retreat,
Remote from Noise, from Bus'ness, and from Strife,
Those constant curst Attendants of the Great;
I freely can with my own Thoughts converse,
And cloath them in ignoble Verse,
'Tis then I tast the most delicious Feast of Life:
There, uncontroul'd I can my self survey,
And from Observers free,
My intellectual Pow'rs display,
And all th' opening Scenes of beauteous Nature see:
Form bright Ideas, and enrich my Mind,
Enlarge my Knowledge, and each Error find;
Inspect each Action, ev'ry Word dissect,
And on the Failures of my Life reflect:
Then from my self, to Books, I turn my Sight,
And there, with silent Wonder and Delight,

Gaze on th' instructive venerable Dead,
Those that in Virtue's School were early bred,
And since by Rules of Honour always led;
Who its strict Laws with nicest Care obey'd,
And were by calm unbyass'd Reason sway'd:
Their great Examples elevate my Mind,
And I the force of all their Precepts find;
By them inspir'd, above dull Earth I soar,
And scorn those Trifles which I priz'd before.

3.

Next these Delights Love claims the chiefest Part,
That gentle Passion governs in my Heart:
Its sacred Flames dilate themselves around,
And like pure Æther no Confinement know:
Where ever true Desert is found,
I pay my Love and Wonder too:
Wit, when alone, has Pow'r to please,
And Virtue's Charms resistless prove;
But when they both combine,
When both together shine,
Who coldly can behold a Glory so Divine?
Since you, Clorissa, have a Right to these,
And since you both possess,
You've, sure, a double Title to my Love,
And I my Fate shall bless,
For giving me a Friend, in whom I find
United, all the Graces of the Female kind.

4.

Accept that Heart your Merit makes your own,
And let the Kindness for the Gift attone:

Love, Constancy, and spotless Truth I bring,
These give a Value to the meanest Thing.
O! let our Thoughts, our Interests be but one,
Our Griefs and Joys, be to each other known:
In all Concerns we'll have an equal Share,
Enlarge each Pleasure, lessen ev'ry Care:
Thus, of a thousand Sweets possest,
We'll live in one another's Breast:
When present, talk the flying Hours away,
When absent, thus, our tender Thoughts convey:
And, when by the Decrees of Fate
We 're summon'd to a higher State,
We'll meet again in the blest Realms of Light,
And in each other there eternally delight.