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[Page 95]
To a LADY, With some painted FLOWERS.
— tibi lilia plenis
Ecce ferunt nymphae calathis.
VIRGIL.
1 FLOWERS to the fair: To you these flowers I bring,
2 And strive to greet you with an earlier spring.
3 Flowers sweet, and gay, and delicate like you;
4 Emblems of innocence, and beauty too.
5 With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair,
6 And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear.
[Page 96]7 Flowers, the sole luxury which nature knew,
8 In Eden's pure and guiltless garden grew.
9 To loftier forms are rougher tasks assign'd;
10 The sheltering oak resists the stormy wind,
11 The tougher yew repels invading foes,
12 And the tall pine for future navies grows;
13 But this soft family, to cares unknown,
14 Were born for pleasure and delight alone.
15 Gay without toil, and lovely without art,
16 They spring to cheer the sense, and glad the heart.
17 Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these;
18 Your best, your sweetest empire is — to please.
About this text
Themes:
Genres:
heroic couplet
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Source edition
Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. Poems. London: printed for Joseph Johnson, 1773, pp. 95-96. vi,138p. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T236; OTA K019955.000) (Page images digitized by New York Public Library.)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin)
- An ADDRESS to the DEITY. ()
- CHARACTERS. ()
- CORSICA. ()
- DELIA, AN ELEGY. ()
- The GROANS of the TANKARD. ()
- HYMN I. ()
- HYMN II. ()
- HYMN III. For EASTER-SUNDAY. ()
- HYMN IV. ()
- HYMN to CONTENT. ()
- HYMN V. ()
- The INVITATION: To MISS B—. ()
- The MOUSE's PETITION, Found in the TRAP where he had been confin'd all Night. ()
- ODE to SPRING. ()
- On a LADY's WRITING. ()
- ON THE Backwardness of the SPRING 1771. ()
- ON THE DEATH OF MRS. JENNINGS. ()
- THE ORIGIN OF SONG-WRITING. ()
- OVID to his WIFE: Imitated from different Parts of his TRISTIA. ()
- SONG II. ()
- SONG III. ()
- SONG IV. ()
- SONG V. ()
- SONG VI. ()
- [SONG] I. ()
- A Summer Evening's Meditation. ()
- To MISS R—, On her Attendance on her Mother at BUXTON. ()
- To MRS. P—, With some Drawings of BIRDS and INSECTS. ()
- To WISDOM. ()
- VERSES on MRS. ROWE. ()
- VERSES written in an Alcove. ()