A Collection of Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ye charming Pair, permit your Friend to tell
Those Joys, the Muse forbids him to conceal!
She sees the Crowd approach on ev'ry Side.
To hail the Bridegroom, and acclaim the Bride.
Fir'd at the View, she tours above the Throng,
And modulates her Raptures into Song:
For thee, my Silvius! shall her Numbers rise,
To wish thee Health, and long-continued Joys.
I saw the Day, and rapt I was to see,
When charming Delia gave her Hand to thee;

101

How bright did Phebus o'er the Ocean rise,
And fill'd with Light, the Concave of the Skies;
The Skies, as mark of Pleasure, deign'd to show
Their azure Bosom on the World below;
The World below its Gratulations shed,
And the light Hours on easy Pinions fled.
Be this an Omen of a long Delight,
Be all your Days so cloudless and so bright;
Without a Ruffle, ev'ry Moment flow,
More gentle than the softest Breezes blow:
And thou, the gentlest Deity, O Love!
Still either Breast with tender Passion move;
Still Silvius, with his matchless Delia, charm;
And ever Delia, with her Silvius, warm.
It shall be so, if right the Muse foresee,
And thus propitious Fates for you decree,
“Still in the Front of Merit, full confest,
“Shall Silvius stand, applauded, hail'd and blest;
“Still Delia bloom in all the Sexes Charms,
“Wit, Truth, good Humour, Beauty's beaming Arms;
“Round both, shall Bliss intense, forever glow,
“With all that Earth can give and Heav'n bestow.

102

And be you Parents of a num'rous Race,
Enrich'd with ev'ry Good and ev'ry Grace;
Whose Wit, and Charms, and Innocence, and Truth,
May be true Copies of their Parents Youth;
And may your Happiness augment from theirs,
Joy of your Age, and Comfort of your Years:
'Till peaceful Slumbers close at last your Eyes,
And call you from the Earth, to mount the Skies.