LADY THROCKMORTON'S BULFINCH.

He, entering at the study-door,

Its ample area 'gan explore;

And fomething in the wind

Conjectured, fniffing round and round,
Better than all the books he found,
Food chiefly for the mind.

Juft then, by adverse fate impreffed,
A dream disturbed poor Bully's reft;
In fleep he seemed to view

A rat, faft-clinging to the cage,
And screaming at the fad prefage,
Awoke and found it true.

For, aided both by ear and fcent,
Right to his mark the monfter went-
Ah, mufe! forbear to speak

Minute the horrors that enfued; ·

His teeth were ftrong, the cage was wood-
He left poor Bully's beak.

He left it but he fhould have ta'en;
That beak, whence iffued many a strain
Of fuch mellifluous tone,

Might have repaid him well, I wote,

For filencing fo sweet a throat,

Faft fet within his own.

261

Maria weeps the Mufes mourn—
So, when by Bacchanalians torn,
On Thracian Hebrus' fide

The tree-enchanter Orpheus fell;
His head alone remained to tell
The cruel death he died.

THE ROSE.

THE rofe had been washed, juft washed in a shower,
Which Mary to Anna conveyed,

The plentiful moisture incumbered the flower,
And weighed down its beautiful head.

The cup was all filled, and the leaves were all wet,

And it seemed to a fanciful view,

To weep for the buds it had left with regret,
On the flourishing bush where it grew.

I haftily feized it, unfit as it was,

For a nofegay, so dripping and drown'd,
And swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas!
I fnapped it, it fell to the ground.

And fuch, I exclaimed, is the pitiless part
Some act by the delicate mind,
Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart
Already to forrow refigned.

This elegant rofe, had I fhaken it less,

Might have bloomed with its owner a while, And the tear, that is wiped with a little address, May be followed perhaps by a smile.

THE DOVES.

I.

REASONING at every ftep he treads,

Man yet miftakes his way,

While meaner things, whom inftinct leads,

Are rarely known to ftray.

II.

One filent eve I wandered late,

And heard the voice of love;

The turtle thus addreffed her mate,

And foothed the liftening dove;

III.

Our mutual bond of faith and truth

No time fhall difengage,

Those bleffings of our early youth

Shall cheer our lateft age:

IV.

While innocence without disguise,
And conftancy fincere,

Shall fill the circles of thofe eyes,

And mine can read them there;

V.

Thofe ills, that wait on all below,

Shall ne'er be felt by me,

Or gently felt, and only fo,

As being shared with thee.

VI.

When lightnings flash among the trees, Or kites are hovering near,

I fear left thee alone they feize,

And know no other fear.

VII.

'Tis then I feel myself a wife,
And prefs thy wedded fide,
Refolved an union formed for life
Death never fhall divide.

VIII.

But oh! if fickle and unchafte, (Forgive a tranfient thought)

Thou could become unkind at last, And fcorn thy present lot,

IX.

No need of lightnings from on high, Or kites with cruel beak;

Denied the endearments of thine eye, This widowed heart would break.

X.

Thus fang the fweet fequeftered bird,

Soft as the paffing wind, And I recorded what I heard, A leffon for mankind.