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The Poems of St. George Tucker of Williamsburg, Virginia 1752-1827

Tucker, St. George (1752-1827)

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POEMS AMONG FRIENDS
  
Written on Miss Cocke's Wedding Day.
  
The Belles of Williamsburg
  
A Dream on Bridecake
  
A Second Dream on Bridecake
  
Christmas Verses for the Printer's Devil, 1784
  
To Sleep
  
To Mr. Page on His Marriage
  
To Mr. Page On His Marriage to Miss Lowther
  
Hymn to the Creator
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Riddles
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[1 A pearl in Latin speech shall be my first]
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[2 My first a mighty kingdom shall portray]
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3 Charade
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4 Charade
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5 To Mrs. Pope
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Epigrams
 1. 
[1 The charge to battle should Bellona sound]
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[2 God's! To Elysium what a passport's here]
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[3 A subject to write a farce on]
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[4 Columbia's flag displays an emblem bright]
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[7 Quoth Jed to Tim, where did our John]
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[13 When lovely Sappho on the guitar plays]
  
To William Nelson Esq., of Charles-City
  
To Miss Fanny Currie
  
To Cynthia
  
Resignation
  
Burletta
  
Song
  
To Mrs. Page
  
The Sick Man's Return for a Kiss
  
A Fable
  
The Reflections of a Man in His Grand Climacteric
  
Lines, Supposed to Have Been Found Upon the Palace Green at Williamsburg On May Day, 1816
  
Occasioned by Some Remarks on the Word “Prancing,” in the Preceding by Three Scrupulous Ladies
  
Bacchanalian
  
Be Merry and Wise
  
Anacreontic
  
On Mrs. Lucy Nelson (the General's Widow) Attending the Communion Table at Church on a very Cold Day
  
Woman
  
Written on Christmas Day, 1820
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SATIRES
  
The Alarm
  
Parody
  
A Proclamation
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THE PROBATIONARY ODES
  
A Dedicatory Ode To a Would-be Great Man
 1. 
Ode I
 2. 
Ode II
 3. 
Ode III
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Ode IV
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Ode V
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Ode VI
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Ode VII
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Ode VIII
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Ode IX
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Ode X
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Ode XI
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Ode XII
  
A Supplementary Ode
  
A Trip to St. James's, 1794
  
For the Washington Federalist A New Federal Song
  
A New Song
  
On Reading a Letter From a Very Sprightly Lady, Disclaiming All Ideas of Love, and Matrimony, to a Particular Friend
  
The Virginia Patriot's Invitation to His Customers
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PATRIOTIC POEMS
  
On General Washington
  
On General Arnold
  
The Progress of Cornwallis An Irregular Ode
  
Ode to Peace
  
On Hearing of the Attack Made by the British Captain Douglas, of the Navy, on the Chesapeake, Commanded by Commodore Barron, in June, 1807, Near Cape Henry
  
Ode For the new year—1809
  
Union March
  
Lines Written Soon After the Declaration of War Against Great Britain, in June, 1812, When Congress Passed an Act for Raising Troops.
  
Invocation Addressed to Every Friend of His Country; September 1814
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TALES
  
Humps and Robin
  
The Tobacco Pipe
  
The Faithful Mastiff
  
The Author's Muse to the Reader
  
The Cynic
  
The Ass Turned Witness
  
The Impossibility, or, Old Nick Outwitted
  
The Discontented Student
  
The Judge With the Sore Rump

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73

Be Merry and Wise

Of all the enjoyments on earth that we prize
Be mine the choice gift, to be merry, and wise;
Mirth enlivens the heart, and the blood in each vein,
'Tis the province of wisdom excess can restrain.
Mirth delights in the bottle, and smiles on the glass,
And invites to the arms of the love-breathing lass:
While wisdom, with caution a bumper declines,
And love with the chaplet of Hymen entwines.
Mirth and wisdom united will drive away care,
And an antidote prove to remorse and despair;
Then, of all the enjoyments on earth that we prize,
Be mine the choice gift to be merry and wise.
June 8, 1817
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