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A collection of poems on various subjects

including the theatre, a didactic essay; in the course of which are pointed out, the rocks and shoals to which deluded adventurers are inevitably exposed. Ornamented with cuts and illustrated with notes, original letters and curious incidental anecdotes [by Samuel Whyte]

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THE REMONSTRANCE. TO THREE YOUNG LADIES, Miss J. P. Trench, Miss Ann Trench, and Miss Nugent,
  
  
  
  
  
  
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178

THE REMONSTRANCE. TO THREE YOUNG LADIES, Miss J. P. Trench, Miss Ann Trench, and Miss Nugent,

WHO DECLARED THEMSELVES DYING, FROM THE FATIGUE OF A BALL, AND INSISTED UPON SOME VERSES TO THEIR MEMORY.

MDCCLXXI.
For mercy's sake, ladies!—how can you impose
A task of this nature on me?
'Tis clear past a doubt, and what every one knows,
I hold not the Muses in fee.
I have courted them sometimes, 'tis true, but in vain,
They ne'er would indulge my request;
They mock'd my addresses, derided my pain,
And turn'd all my prayers to a jest.
The subject too, truly! supposing you dead
An elegy I must indite!
The town would all swear, I was turn'd in my head;
The town, at least, once would be right.

179

But grant me dispos'd with your wish to agree,
I deal not in fiction nor art;
How then could I furnish description for three,
Where each is supreme in desert?
Of goddesses, graces, and many such more
Trite fancies 'twere easy to speak;
And roses, and lilies, and dimples good store,
And Cupid's bedecking each cheek.
The sex, tho' I stripp'd, as most sonneteers do,
And all in your persons combin'd,
Tho' I, and some others, might feel it full true,
Yet you would continue still blind.
Admit now sweet Nancy's perfections I sung,
What more could for Fanny be writ?
And, Jenny! thy praises must die on my tongue,
Unless I could borrow thy wit.
'Mongst brothers and beauties, affection is rare,
All ages and nations attest;
But concord and friendship, this let me declare,
Here mutually glow in each breast.

180

Long blessing and bless'd then, O! may you survive,
Still greater enjoyments to prove;
New pleasures from yours, my fond heart shall derive,
Then take me a fourth in your love.