University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
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]

collapse section 
  
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse section 
 I. 
 II. 
  
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse section 
 III. 
 IV. 
 VIII. 
  
  
collapse section 
 I. 
 III. 
 IV. 
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse section 
  
  
  
collapse section 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
SONNET V. ON READING MRS. DOBSON'S LIFE OF PETRARCH, IN THE COTTAGE AT FURNACE,
collapse section 
  
  
  
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse section 
  
  
  
  


213

SONNET V. ON READING MRS. DOBSON'S LIFE OF PETRARCH, IN THE COTTAGE AT FURNACE,

THE SEAT OF RICHARD NEVILL, ESQ.

JANUARY VITH, MDCCLXXVI.
Cease then, illiberal, vain, short-sighted tribe!
Cease to depreciate and degrade the fair;
Know ye, when wisdom's lore you there prescribe,
What bootless self-delusion marks your care?
On Mersey's laurel'd banks, abash'd you'll find
That worth you envy and affect to scorn,
Imbuing Laura's unelated mind,
Pure as the dewy spangles of the morn.
Away! your social feelings all debas'd,
You scan their beauties with a jaundic'd eye,
By culture deck'd, and elegance of taste—
On leaves of brass your penitence enrol,
Nor quit, to wallow in a sensual stye,
“The feast of reason and the flow of soul.”