The snow, dissolv’d, no more is seen,The fields and woods, behold! are green;The changing year renews the plain,The rivers know their banks again;The sprightly nymph and naked graceThe mazy dance together trace;The changing year’s successive planProclaims mortality to man;Rough winter’s blasts to spring give way,Spring yields to summer’s sov’reign ray;Then summer sinks in autumn’s reign,And […]

PARAPHRASE OF PROVERBS, CHAP. VI.VERSES 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. “Go to the ant, thou sluggard[A].” Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes,Observe her labours, sluggard, and be wise:No stern command, no monitory voice,Prescribes her duties, or directs her choice;Yet, timely provident, she hastes away,To snatch the blessings of the plenteous day;When fruitful […]

EPITAPHIUM[a]INTHOMAM HANMER, BARONETTUM. Honorabilis admodum THOMAS HANMER,Baronnettus, Augustus still survives in Maro’s strain,And Spenser’s verse prolongs Eliza’s reign;Great George’s acts let tuneful Gibber sing;For nature formed the poet for the king. Wilhelmi Hanmer armigeri, e Peregrina HenriciNorthDe Mildenhall, in Com. Suffolciae, baronetti sororeet haerede,Filius;Johannis Hanmer de Hanmer baronettiHaeres patruelisAntiquo gentis suae et titulo et patrimonio […]

TO MISS HICKMAN[A],PLAYING ON THE SPINET. Bright Stella, form’d for universal reign,Too well you know to keep the slaves you gain;When in your eyes resistless lightnings play,Aw’d into love our conquer’d hearts obey,And yield reluctant to despotick sway:But, when your musick sooths the raging pain,We bid propitious heav’n prolong your reign,We bless the tyrant, and […]

EPITAPH ON CLAUDE PHILLIPS,AN ITINERANT MUSICIAN[a]. Phillips! whose touch harmonious could removeThe pangs of guilty pow’r, and hapless love,Rest here, distress’d by poverty no more,Find here that calm thou gay’st so oft before;Sleep, undisturb’d, within this peaceful shrine,Till angels wake thee, with a note like thine. NOTES:[a] These lines are among Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies: they […]

ON THE DEATH OFMR. ROBERT LEVET[a],A PRACTISER IN PHYSICK. Condemn’d to hope’s delusive mine,As on we toil, from day to day,By sudden blasts, or slow decline,Our social comforts drop away. Well try’d, through many a varying year,See Levet to the grave descend,Officious, innocent, sincere,Of ev’ry friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills affection’s eye,Obscurely […]

TO LADY FIREBRACE[a].AT BURY ASSIZES. At length, must Suffolk beauties shine in vain,So long renown’d in B–n’s deathless strain?Thy charms, at least, fair Firebrace, might inspireSome zealous bard to wake the sleeping lyre;For, such thy beauteous mind and lovely face,Thou seem’st at once, bright nymph, a muse and grace. NOTE:[a] This lady was Bridget, third […]

Ye nymphs, whom starry rays invest,By flatt’ring poets given;Who shine, by lavish lovers drest,In all the pomp of heaven; Engross not all the beams on high,Which gild a lover’s lays;But, as your sister of the sky,Let Lyce share the praise. Her silver locks display the moon,Her brows a cloudy show,Strip’d rainbows round her eyes are […]

Not the soft sighs of vernal gales,The fragrance of the flow’ry vales,The murmurs of the crystal rill,The vocal grove, the verdant hill;Not all their charms, though all unite,Can touch my bosom with delight. Not all the gems on India’s shore,Not all Peru’s unbounded store,Not all the power, nor all the fame,That heroes, kings, or poets […]

VERSES,WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN, TO WHOM A LADY HAD GIVEN A SPRIGOF MYRTLE [a]. What hopes, what terrours, does thy gift create!Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate!The myrtle (ensign of supreme command,Consign’d by Venus to Melissa’s hand)Not less capricious than a reigning fair,Oft favours, oft rejects, a lover’s pray’r.In myrtle shades oft sings […]

When lately Stella’s form display’dThe beauties of the gay brocade,The nymphs, who found their pow’r decline,Proclaim’d her not so fair as fine.“Fate! snatch away the bright disguise,And let the goddess trust her eyes.”Thus blindly pray’d the fretful fair,And fate malicious heard the pray’r;But, brighten’d by the sable dress,As virtue rises in distress,Since Stella still extends […]

Ev’ning now from purple wingsSheds the grateful gifts she brings;Brilliant drops bedeck the mead,Cooling breezes shake the reed;Shake the reed, and curl the stream,Silver’d o’er with Cynthia’s beam;Near the checquer’d, lonely grove,Hears, and keeps thy secrets, love.Stella, thither let us stray,Lightly o’er the dewy way.Phoebus drives his burning carHence, my lovely Stella, far;In his stead, […]

Whether Stella’s eyes are foundFix’d on earth, or glancing round,If her face with pleasure glow,If she sigh at others’ woe,If her easy air expressConscious worth, or soft distress,Stella’s eyes, and air, and face,Charm with undiminish’d grace.If on her we see display’dPendent gems, and rich brocade;If her chints with less expenseFlows in easy negligence;Still she lights […]

TO MISS **** ON HER PLAYING UPON THE HARPSICHORD, IN A ROOM HUNG WITH FLOWER-PIECESOF HER OWN PAINTING [a]. When Stella strikes the tuneful string,In scenes of imitated spring,Where beauty lavishes her pow’rsOn beds of never-fading flow’rs,And pleasure propagates aroundEach charm of modulated sound;Ah! think not, in the dang’rous hour,The nymph fictitious as the flow’r;But […]

Behold, my fair, where’er we rove,What dreary prospects round us rise;The naked hill, the leafless grove,The hoary ground, the frowning skies!Nor only through the wasted plain,Stern winter! is thy force confess’d;Still wider spreads thy horrid reign,I feel thy pow’r usurp my breast.Enliv’ning hope, and fond desire,Resign the heart to spleen and care;Scarce frighted love maintains […]

Though gold and silk their charms uniteTo make thy curious web delight,In vain the varied work would shine,If wrought by any hand but thine;Thy hand, that knows the subtler artTo weave those nets that catch the heart. Spread out by me, the roving coinThy nets may catch, but not confine;Nor can I hope thy silken […]

Alas! with swift and silent pace,Impatient time rolls on the year;The seasons change, and nature’s faceNow sweetly smiles, now frowns severe,‘Twas spring, ’twas summer, all was gay,Now autumn bends a cloudy brow;The flow’rs of spring are swept away,And summer-fruits desert the bough.The verdant leaves, that play’d on high,And wanton’d on the western breeze,Now, trod in […]

No more tire morn, with tepid rays,Unfolds the flow’r of various hue;Noon spreads no more the genial blaze,Nor gentle eve distils the dew.The ling’ring hours prolong the night,Usurping darkness shares the day;Her mists restrain the force of light,And Phoebus holds a doubtful sway.By gloomy twilight, half reveal’d,With sighs we view the hoary hill,The leafless wood, […]

Stern winter now, by spring repress’d,Forbears the long-continued strife;And nature, on her naked breast,Delights to catch the gales of life.Now o’er the rural kingdom rovesSoft pleasure with the laughing train,Love warbles in the vocal groves,And vegetation plants the plain.Unhappy! whom to beds of pain,Arthritick [A] tyranny consigns;Whom smiling nature courts in vain,Though rapture sings, and […]

O Phoebus! down the western sky,Far hence diffuse thy burning ray,Thy light to distant worlds supply,And wake them to the cares of day.Come, gentle eve, the friend of care,Come, Cynthia, lovely queen of night!Refresh me with a cooling air,And cheer me with a lambent light:Lay me, where o’er the verdant groundHer living carpet nature spreads;Where […]