University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The works of Anna Lætitia Barbauld

(1743-1825)
  
[epigraph]

collapse section 
[section]
  
CORSICA.
  
THE INVITATION.
  
THE GROANS OF THE TANKARD.
  
ON THE BACKWARDNESS OF THE SPRING 1771.
  
VERSES WRITTEN IN AN ALCOVE.
  
THE MOUSE'S PETITION .
  
TO MRS. P********,
collapse section 
CHARACTERS.
  
[O born to soothe distress and lighten care]
  
[Of gentle manners, and of taste refined]
  
[Happy old man! who stretched beneath the shade]
  
[Such were the dames of old heroic days]
  
[Is there whom genius and whom taste adorn]
  
[Champion of Truth, alike through Nature's field]
  
AN INVENTORY OF THE FURNITURE IN DR. PRIESTLEY'S STUDY.
  
ON A LADY'S WRITING.
  
ON THE DESERTED VILLAGE.
  
HYMN TO CONTENT.
  
TO WISDOM.
  
THE ORIGIN OF SONG-WRITING .
expand section 
SONGS.
  
DELIA.
  
OVID TO HIS WIFE.
  
TO A LADY.
  
ODE TO SPRING.
  
EPITHALAMIUM .
  
VERSES ON MRS. ROWE.
  
TO A DOG.
  
TO MISS R****,
  
ON THE DEATH OF MRS. JENNINGS .
  
AN ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.
  
A SUMMER EVENING'S MEDITATION.
  
THE EPIPHANY.
  
TO MR. BARBAULD,
  
TO MR. BARBAULD,
  
LOVE AND TIME.
  
TO MISS F. B.
  
TOMORROW.
  
LINES
  
WRITTEN ON A MARBLE.
  
A SCHOOL ECLOGUE.
  
WHAT DO THE FUTURES SPEAK OF?
  
AUTUMN,
  
TO THE BARON DE STONNE,
  
TO THE BARON DE STONNE,
  
TO THE MISS WEBSTERS,
  
EPISTLE TO DR. ENFIELD,
  
EPISTLE TO WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Esq.
  
ON THE EXPECTED GENERAL RISING OF THE FRENCH NATION, IN 1792.
  
TO DR. PRIESTLEY,
  
THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN.
  
INSCRIPTION FOR AN ICE-HOUSE.
  
AN AUTUMNAL THOUGHT:
  
TO THE POOR.
  
HYMN.
  
TO A LITTLE INVISIBLE BEING
  
WASHING-DAY.
expand section 
VERSES
  
TO MR. S. T. COLERIDGE:
  
PEACE AND SHEPHERD.
  
ON THE DEATH OF MRS. MARTINEAU, Senr.
  
ON A PORTRAIT.
  
WEST END FAIR.
  
DIRGE:
  
THE UNKNOWN GOD.
  
ETERNITY.
  
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND ELEVEN.
  
ODE TO REMORSE.
  
LIFE.
  
ON THE KING'S ILLNESS:
  
A THOUGHT ON DEATH:
  
STANZAS:
  
TO MISS T.
  
THE FIRST FIRE.
  
THE CATERPILLAR.
  
ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
  
THE WAKE OF THE KING OF SPAIN.
  
THE BABY-HOUSE.
  
LOGOGRIPH.
  
RIDDLE.
  
ENIGMA.
  
RIDDLE.
  
PROLOGUE TO A DRAMA,
  
LINES
  
TO A FRIEND.
  
DEJECTION.
  
TO MRS. MARISSAL:
  
EPITAPH ON THE SAME.
  
TO MR. BOWRING,
  
FRAGMENT.
  
OCTOGENARY REFLECTIONS.
  
THE DEATH OF THE VIRTUOUS.
expand section 
HYMNS.

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section The works of Anna Lætitia Barbauld
next section
294

ENIGMA.

TO THE LADIES.

Hard is my stem and dry, no root is found
To draw nutritious juices from the ground;
Yet of your ivory fingers' magic touch
The quickening power and strange effect is such,
My shrivelled trunk a sudden shade extends,
And from rude storms your tender frame defends:
A hundred times a day my head is seen
Crowned with a floating canopy of green;
A hundred times, as struck with sudden blight,
The spreading verdure withers to the sight.
Not Jonah's gourd by power unseen was made
So soon to flourish, and so soon to fade.
295

Unlike the Spring's gay race, I flourish most
When groves and gardens all their bloom have lost;
Lift my green head against the rattling hail,
And brave the driving snows and freezing gale;
And faithful lovers oft, when storms impend,
Beneath my friendly shade together bend,
There join their heads within the green recess,
And in the close-wove covert nearer press.
But lately am I known to Britain's isle,
Enough—You 've guessed—I see it by your smile.
previous section The works of Anna Lætitia Barbauld
next section