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TO FANNY RUNDLE.
  
  

TO FANNY RUNDLE.

You bid me versify on you,
Which now I shall attempt to do;
But first I wish that you shou'd know,
Why I've not written long ago:—
It is because a hundred times,
You've been already in my rhimes.
Whene'er in Prose or Verse I drew
A Friend, on all occasions true,
Fanny was foremost in the throng,
Of faithful Friends to grace the Song.
Or when Good-nature charm'd the Muse,—
Good-nature that could ne'er refuse

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The succour it but ill could spare—
I copied Fanny's Likeness there:
And oft as Worth inspir'd my Lay,
The same to-morrow as to day,
And Constancy to Faith allied,
It was but you personified.
Thus then, my Friend, you needs must own,
I often have your picture shown;
In short, whate'er was good and true
Found an Original in you:
And tho' I tell it you again,
'Tis but the Echo of my Strain.