THE WINTER NOSEGAY. WHAT Nature, alas! has denied And Winter is deck'd with a smile. From the shelter of that sunny shed, Where the flowers have the charms of the spring, Though abroad they are frozen and dead. "Tis a bower of Arcadian sweets, Where Flora is still in her prime, A fortress, to which she retreats From the cruel assaults of the clime. While Earth wears a mantle of snow, These pinks are as fresh and as gay As the fairest and sweetest, that blow On the beautiful bosom of May. See how they have safely survived TO THE NIGHTINGALE. WHICH THE AUTHOR HEARD SING ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1792. WHENCE is it, that amazed I hear From yonder wither'd spray, The melody of May? And why, since thousands would be proud Of such a favour shown, Am I selected from the crowd, To witness it alone? Sing'st thou, sweet Philomel, to me, Have practised in the groves like thee, Or sing'st thou rather under force Thrice welcome then! for many a long And joyless year have I, As thou to-day, put forth my song Beneath a wintry sky. But thee no wintry skies can harm, THE POPLAR FIELD. THE poplars are fell'd, farewell to the shade, Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view The blackbird has fled to another retreat, My fugitive years are all hasting away, The change both my heart and my fancy employs, THE SHRUBBERY. WRITTEN IN A TIME OF AFFLICTION. Он, happy shades-to me unbless'd! This glassy stream, that spreading pine, But fix'd unalterable Care Foregoes not what she feels within, For all that pleased in wood or lawn, Has lost its beauties and its powers. The saint or moralist should tread Me fruitful scenes and prospects waste And those of sorrows yet to come. HUMAN FRAILTY. WEAK and irresolute is man; The bow well bent, and smart the spring, But Passion rudely snaps the string, And it revives again. Some foe to his upright intent Virtue engages his assent, But Pleasure wins his heart. "Tis here the folly of the wise Through all his art we view; And, while his tongue the charge denies, Bound on a voyage of awful length A stranger to superior strength, But oars alone can ne'er prevail, The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, |