BY HER HUSBAND. The only wish for them I form, A wish sincere and true; May they possess an home like mine, 143 A SONNET. "Oft the young and giddy say, "Yet this I know, without being told, "And wisely manage my last stake." Cowley. WHENCE is it the beauties so blooming and young, Whence is it the dinner at B * *, and W **, Appears in each winter less gay; That the ball, or the gala, no longer delights, And we steal to our pillow away A SONNET. 145 Whence is it, less deeply, and pensive we grieve, Or with angry emotions we foam, Should a Statesman, his long-cherish'd principles leave, In the paths of promotion to roam? Or should Monarchs combine, with the scymeter girt, To render despotic their laws; Or some artful Demagogue reason pervert, (Profaning fair Liberty's cause!) Our spirit and buoyancy, Time has subdued, A lesson inflicted from gravity's mood, That robs the bright scene of its hue. Then ye! who have travers'd the mazes of life, Encounter'd of fortune the versatile strife, Or cross'd the wide ocean for gain. Has the friend you entrusted, the nearest your heart, Each trouble on whom could repose; Ever wing'd at your bosom, Ingratitude's dart, That bitter, and deadly of blows? VOL. II. L Have you follow'd a Parent's remains to the grave, The refuge and guide of your youth? Have you wept when no medical effort could save, (A tribute to Nature, and Truth ?) Has the female, you fondly imagin'd, your own, The anguish what mortal can tell? From her vows and her promises shamefully flown, While Angels have blush'd as she fell. What cheer'd up the spirits, and brighten'd the soul, With sorrow when ready to break? It was Sympathy's voice, and the mirth-stirring bowl, Which neither betray nor forsake. From shipwreck, old Noah, preserv'd in the Ark, Rejoicing each wave to escape; Dispatch'd (as his courier)—a pigeon or lark, "And then began planting the Grape." The Grape that enlivens both Hero and Sage, Great Bacchus !—thy charms are not least. A SONNET. Tho' banish Silenus and Comus's crew, With all that is gross or obscene, Keep taste and decorum for ever in view, While we worship the Muse for our Queen. Yet her mandates reject, nor acknowledge supreme, Let her empire be shar'd and illum'd by a beam Of Venus the lovely and kind. And gratefully viewing the pleasures now past, Admire the gay visions of life while they last, 147 |