X. Thus sang the sweet sequester'd bird, A FABLE. A RAVEN, while with glossy breast As ever swept a winter sky, Shook the young leaves about her ears, Lest the rude blast should snap the bough, And all her fears were hush'd together: And now, quoth poor unthinking Ralph, "Tis over, and the brood is safe ; (For ravens, though as birds of omen They teach both conj'rers and old women, To tell us what is to befall, Can't prophesy themselves at all ;) The morning came, when neighbour Hodge Who long had mark'd her airy lodge, And destin'd all the treasure there MORAL. "Tis Providence alone secures A COMPARISON. THE lapse of time and rivers is the same, And a wide occan swallows both at last. A diff'rence strikes at length the musing heart; Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound, ANOTHER. ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY. SWEET stream, that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng; With gentle, yet prevailing force, THE POET'S NEW-YEAR'S GIFT. TO MRS. (NOW LADY) THROCKMORTON. MARIA! I have ev'ry good For thee wish'd many a time, To wish thee fairer is no need, More prudent, or more sprightly, What favour then not yet possess'd In wedded love already blest, To thy whole heart's desire? None here is happy but in part. There dwells some wish in ev'ry heart, That wish on some fair future day, ODE TO APOLLO. On an Inkglass almost dried in the sun PATRON of all those luckless brains, And why, since oceans, rivers, streams, Pay tribute to thy glorious beams, Why, stooping from the noon of day, Too covetous of drink, Upborne into the viewless air, It floats a vapour now, Impell'd through regions dense and rare, Ordain'd, perhaps, ere summer flies, To form an Iris in the skies, Illustrious drop! and happy then Phœbus, if such be thy design, To place it in thy bow, Give wit, that what is left may shine PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED. A FABLE. I SHALL not ask Jean Jaques Rosseau,* If birds confabulate or no; * It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philoso pher, that all fables, which ascribe reason and speech to animals, should be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception. But what child was ever deceived by them, or can be, against the evidence of his senses? |