[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.

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Title (in Source Edition): To a LADY, With some painted FLOWERS.
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.)

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