.

SINCE the refinement of this polish'd age

Has swept immoral raillery from the stage ;
TO EMMA.I

Since taste has now expunged licentious wit,

Which stamp'd disgrace on all an author writ; SINCE now the hour is come at last,

Since now to please with purer scenes we seek, When you must quit your anxious lover ; Nor dare to call the blush from Beauty's cheek; Since now our dream of bliss is past,

Oh! let the modest Muse some pity claim, One pang, my girl, and all is over.

And meet indulgence, though she find not fame.

Still, not for her alone we wish respect, Alas! that pang will be severe,

Others appear more conscious of defect: Which bids us part to meet no more, To-night no veteran Roscii you behold, Which tears me far from one so dear,

In all the arts of scenic action old; Departing for a distant shore.

No Cooke, no KEMBLE, can salute you here,

No Siddons draw the sympathetic tear; • Mis Parker.

To-night you throng to witness the debut To these stanzas, which are from the private volume, the following note www attached : " The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for Of embryo actors, to the Drama new: this piece than, perhaps, any other in the collection ; but as it was written af Here, then, our almost unfledged wings we try; an earlier period than the rest being composed at the age of hurten,) and Clip not our pinions ere the birds can fly: his first essay, he preferred subunitting it to the indulgence of his friends in present state, to making either addition or alteration."

Failing in this our first attempt to soar, • This poem is inserted from the private volume.

Drooping, alas! we fall to rise no more.

a

419

But when our cheeks with anguish glow'd, Let us pass round the cup of love's bliss in fub
When thy sweet lips were join'd to mine,

measure, The tears that from my eyelids flow'd

And quaff the contents as our nectar below. Were lost in those which fell from thine.

1805.

Was my eye 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes TO CAROLINE.

bright'ning,

Would my lips breathe a flame which no stream WHEN I hear you express an affection so warm,

could assuage, Ne'er think, my beloved, that I do not believe ; On our foes should my glance launch in vengeance For your lip would the soul of suspicion disarm,

its lightning,
And your eye beams a ray which can never de- With transport my tongue give a loose to its rage.
ceive.

Bat now tears and curses, alike unavailing,
Yet still, this fond bosom regrets while adoring, Would add to the souls of our tyrants delight,

That love, like the leaf, must fall into the sear, Could they view us our sad separation bewailing.
That age will come on, when remembranco, de-

Their merciless hearts would rejoice at the sight ploring, Contemplates the scenes of her youth with a tear; Yet still, though we bend with a feign'd resigna

tion, That the time must arrive, when no longer retaining

Life beams not for us with one ray that can cheer; Their auburn, those locks must wave thin to the Love and hope upon earth bring no more consolabreeze,

tion, When a few silver hairs of those tresses remaining,

In the grave is our hope, for in life is our fear. Prove nature a prey to decay and disease. "Tis this, my beloved, which spreads gloom o'er my

Oh! when, my adored, in the tomb will they place

me,
features,

Since in life, love and friendship for ever are fled?
Though I ne'er shall presume to arraign the decree
Which God has proclaimed as the fate of his crea-

If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee,
tures,

Perhaps they will leave unmolested the dead.

1805. In the death which one day will deprive you of me.

Then read, dear girl ! with feeling read,

TO MARY.
For thou wilt ne'er be one of those;
To thee in vain I shall not plead

OH! did those eyes, instead of fire,
In pity for the poet's woes.

With bright but mild affection shine,

Though they might kindle less desire, He was in sooth a genuine bard;

Love, more than mortal, would be thine. He was no faint fictitious flame Like his, may love be thy reward,

For thou art form'd so heavenly fair,
But not thy hapless fate the same.

Howe'er those orbs may wildly beam,
We must admire, but still despair ;

That fatal glance forbids esteem.

Your shepherds, your flocks, those farftastical

themes,
Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move :
Arcadia displays but a region of dreams;
What are visions like these to the first kiss of

love?

WOMAN! experience might have told me
That all must love thee who behold thee;
Surely experience might have taught
Thy firmest promises are nought;
But placed in all thy charms before me,
All I forget but to adore thee.
Oh, Memory thou choicest blessing
When join'd with hope, when still possessing,
But how much cursed by every lover
When hope is filed and passion's over.
Woman, that fair and fond deceiver,
How prompt are striplings to believe her!
How throbs the pulse when first we view
The eye that rolls in glossy blue,
Or sparkles black, or mildly throws
A beam from under hazel brows!
How quick we credit every oath,
And hear her plight the willing trotn
Fondly we hope 'twill last for aye
When, lo! she changes in a day.
This record will for ever stand,
“Woman, thy vows are traced in sand." .

When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are

pastFor years fleet away with the wings of the dove The dearest remembrance will still be the last,

Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.

These stanzaa were printed in the private volume, and in the first edition Hoon of Ileness, but omitted in the second. "Those tissues of fancy Moriah. haa wove."-Private volume.

"Your shepherds, your pipes, &c.—Private volume. { "Ob I cease to affirm that man, from his birth," &c.-Private volume.

• "Moriah, the Goddess of Folly."

• The last line is almost a literal tmpslation from a Spanish provesti