TO THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF LADY **. Au! why with tell-tale tongue reveal * What most her blushes would conceal? And feel for us, if not for her. For this presumption, soon or late, Know thine shall be a kindred fate. Another shall in vengeance rise— Sing Harriet's cheeks, and Harriet's eyes; -Trace all the mother in the child! * Alluding to some verses which she had written on an elder sister. AN EPITAPH * ON A ROBIN-REDBREAST. TREAD When piping winds are hushed around, With ruffled wing and faded breast, His friendless, homeless spirit roves; -Gone to the world where birds are blest! Where never cat glides o'er the green, Or school-boy's giant form is seen; But Love, and Joy, and smiling Spring * Inscribed on an urn in the flower-garden at Hafod. TO THE GNAT. WHEN by the green-wood side, at summer eve, And fairy-scenes, that Fancy loves to weave, -Ah now thy barbed shaft, relentless fly, Unsheaths its terrors in the sultry air! No guardian sylph, in golden panoply, Lifts the broad shield, and points the glittering spear. Now near and nearer rush thy whirring wings, Thy dragon-scales still wet with human gore. A WISH. MINE be a cot beside the hill, A bee-hive's hum shall sooth my ear; The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch, Around my ivy'd porch shall spring Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew; And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing In russet-gown and apron blue. The village-church, among the trees, And point with taper spire to heaven. WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT. 1786. WE HILE thro' the broken pane the tempest sighs, And my step falters on the faithless floor, Shades of departed joys around me rise, With many a face that smiles on me no more; With many a voice that thrills of transport gave, Now silent as the grass that tufts their grave! |