To a LADY, With some painted FLOWERS. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T236 K019955.000 Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. Poems. London printed for Joseph Johnson 1773 pp. 95-96. vi,138p. ; 4⁰.

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To a LADY , With some painted FLOWERS . — tibi lilia plenis Ecce ferunt nymphae calathis . VIRGIL . FLOWERS to the fair : To you these flowers I bring , And strive to greet you with an earlier spring . Flowers sweet , and gay , and delicate like you ; Emblems of innocence , and beauty too . With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair , And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear . Flowers , the sole luxury which nature knew , In Eden's pure and guiltless garden grew . To loftier forms are rougher tasks assign'd ; The sheltering oak resists the stormy wind , The tougher yew repels invading foes , And the tall pine for future navies grows ; But this soft family , to cares unknown , Were born for pleasure and delight alone . Gay without toil , and lovely without art , They spring to cheer the sense , and glad the heart . Nor blush , my fair , to own you copy these ; Your best , your sweetest empire is — to please .