[Page 311]

ODE to SPRING.

By Miss F.
1 HAIL, genial goddess, blooming Spring!
2 Thy blest return, O let me sing,
3 And aid my languid lays:
4 Let me not sink in sloth supine,
5 While all creation at thy shrine
6 Its annual tribute pays.
II.
7 Escap'd from Winter's freezing power
8 Each blossom greets thee, and each flower;
9 And, foremost of the train,
10 By Nature, (artless handmaid!) drest,
11 The snow-drop comes in lilly'd vest,
12 Prophetic of thy reign.
III.
13 The lark now strains his warbling throat,
14 While every loud and sprightly note
15 Calls Echo from her cell.
16 Be warn'd, ye fair, that listen round,
17 A beauteous maid became a sound,
18 A maid who lov'd too well.
IV.
19 The bright-hair'd sun with warmth benign
20 Bids tree, and shrub, and swelling vine
21 Their infant-buds display:
22 Again the streams refresh the plains,
23 Which Winter bound in icy chains,
24 And sparkling bless his ray.
[Page 312]
25 Life-giving Zephyrs breathe around,
26 And instant glows th' enamel'd ground
27 With Nature's vary'd hues:
28 Not so returns our youth decay'd,
29 Alas! nor air, nor sun, nor shade
30 The spring of life renews.
VI.
31 The sun's too quick-revolving beam
32 Will soon dissolve the human dream,
33 And bring th' appointed hour:
34 Too late we catch his parting ray,
35 And mourn the idly-wasted day
36 No longer in our power.
VII.
37 Then happiest he, whose lengthen'd sight
38 Pursues, by virtue's constant light,
39 A hope beyond the skies;
40 Where frowning Winter ne'er shall come,
41 But rosy Spring for ever bloom,
42 And suns eternal rise.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): ODE to SPRING.
Author: Martha Ferrar (later Peckard)
Themes: time; nature
Genres: ode
References: DMI 27778

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 311-312. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.005) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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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 Martha Ferrar (later Peckard)