 | Original Poems and Translations |  |
46
To LAURA.
1742.
With generous wishes let me greet your ear,
Wishes which Laura may with safety hear.
Wishes which Laura may with safety hear.
May all the blessings to your portion fall,
The wise can want, for you deserve them all:
Soft joy, sweet ease, and ever-blooming health,
Calmness of mind, and competence of wealth;
Whate'er th' Almighty Father can bestow,
To crown the happiness of man below.
And when with all those virtues, all those charms,
You deign to bless some happy husband's arms;
May he in every manly grace excel,
To glad the virgin who deserves so well:
Bless'd with plain sense, with native humour gay,
To rule with prudence, and with pride obey;
To kindness fashion'd, with mild temper fraught,
And form'd, if possible, without a fault.
Long may ye live, of mutual love possess'd,
Like streams uniting, in each other bless'd;
Till Death shall gently call you hence away
From life's vain business to the realms of day;
May Death unfelt the common summons give,
And both, like righteous Enoch, cease to live;
Cease from a life beset with cares and pain,
And in eternal glories meet again.
The wise can want, for you deserve them all:
Soft joy, sweet ease, and ever-blooming health,
Calmness of mind, and competence of wealth;
Whate'er th' Almighty Father can bestow,
To crown the happiness of man below.
And when with all those virtues, all those charms,
You deign to bless some happy husband's arms;
May he in every manly grace excel,
To glad the virgin who deserves so well:
Bless'd with plain sense, with native humour gay,
To rule with prudence, and with pride obey;
To kindness fashion'd, with mild temper fraught,
And form'd, if possible, without a fault.
47
Like streams uniting, in each other bless'd;
Till Death shall gently call you hence away
From life's vain business to the realms of day;
May Death unfelt the common summons give,
And both, like righteous Enoch, cease to live;
Cease from a life beset with cares and pain,
And in eternal glories meet again.
| Original Poems and Translations | |