 | The poems (1969) |  |
29 To Simplicity
O Fancy, altered maid,
Who now, too long betrayed,
To toys and pageant wedd'st thy cheated heart,
Yet once with chastest thought
Far nobler triumphs sought,
Thrice gentle guide of each exalted art!
Who now, too long betrayed,
To toys and pageant wedd'st thy cheated heart,
Yet once with chastest thought
Far nobler triumphs sought,
Thrice gentle guide of each exalted art!
Too [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
No more, sweet maid, the enfeebling dreams prolong.
Return, sweet maid, at length
In all thy ancient strength
And bid our Britain hear thy Grecian song.
[OMITTED]
No more, sweet maid, the enfeebling dreams prolong.
547
In all thy ancient strength
And bid our Britain hear thy Grecian song.
For thee, of loveliest name,
That land shall ever claim
And laid an infant on her favoured shore,
Soft bees of Hybla's vale
To age attests the tale
To feed thy youth [OMITTED] their s[OMITTED] store.
That land shall ever claim
And laid an infant on her favoured shore,
Soft bees of Hybla's vale
To age attests the tale
To feed thy youth [OMITTED] their s[OMITTED] store.
From that [OMITTED] hour
Thou knew'st the gentle power
To charm her matrons chaste and virtuous youth;
For Wisdom learned to please
By thy persuasive ease
And simplest sweetness more ennobled Truth.
Thou knew'st the gentle power
To charm her matrons chaste and virtuous youth;
For Wisdom learned to please
By thy persuasive ease
And simplest sweetness more ennobled Truth.
Nor modest Picture less
Declined the wild excess,
Which frequent now distracts her wild design:
The modest Graces laid
Each soft, unboastful shade,
While feeling Nature drew the impassioned line!
Declined the wild excess,
Which frequent now distracts her wild design:
The modest Graces laid
Each soft, unboastful shade,
While feeling Nature drew the impassioned line!
O chaste, unboastful guide,
O'er all my heart preside
And, midst my cave in breathing marble wrought,
In sober musing near
With Attic robe appear
And charm my sight and prompt my temperate thought.
O'er all my heart preside
And, midst my cave in breathing marble wrought,
In sober musing near
548
And charm my sight and prompt my temperate thought.
And when soft maids and swains
Reward my native strains
With flowers that chastest bloom and sweetest breathe,
I, loveliest nymph divine,
Will own the merits thine
And round thy temples bind the modest wreath.
Reward my native strains
With flowers that chastest bloom and sweetest breathe,
I, loveliest nymph divine,
Will own the merits thine
And round thy temples bind the modest wreath.
| The poems (1969) | |