And fancies I fear they will seem― TO MY COUSIN ANNE BODHAM, ON RECEIVING FROM HER A NETWORK PURSE, MADE BY HERSELF. 1793. My gentle Anne, whom heretofore, I danced and fondled on my knee, Gold pays the worth of all things here; The best things kept within it. TO MRS. KING. ON HER KIND PRESENT TO THE AUTHOR, A PATCHWORK COUNTERPANE OF HER OWN MAKING. 1790. THE Bard, if e'er he feel at all, Must sure be quicken'd by a call To pay with tuneful thanks the care Who deigns to deck his bed. A bed like this, in ancient time, Composed of sweetest vernal flowers, Less beautiful, however gay, Receives the weary swain, Who, laying his long scythe aside, Sleeps on some bank with dasies pied, Till roused to toil again. What labours of the loom I see! Looms numberless have groan'd for me! Should every maiden come To scramble for the patch that bears The impress of the robe she wears, And oh, what havoc would ensue ! As if a storm should strip the bowers Thanks then, to every gentle fair, Who put the whole together. TO LADY AUSTEN. 1781. DEAR ANNA-between friend and friend, To' express the' occurrence of the day; What walks we take, what books we choose; But when a poet takes the pen, And this is what the World, who knows And tell them truths divine and clear, Which, couch'd in prose, they will not hear; Who labour hard to' allure and draw The loiterers I never saw, Should feel that itching, and that tingling, With all my purpose intermingling, Το your intrinsic merit true, When call'd to' address myself to you. And marks the bounds of our abode. Thus we were settled when you Το * An obscure part of Olney, adjoining to the residence of Cowper, which faced the market-place. + Lady Austen's residence in France. |