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To ETHELINDA, On her doing my Verses the honour of wearing them in her bosom.

Written at Thirteen.

I.
1 HAppy verses! that were prest
2 In fair Ethelinda's breast!
3 Happy muse, that didst embrace
4 The sweet, the heav'nly-fragrant place!
5 Tell me, is the omen true,
6 Shall the bard arrive there too?
II.
7 Oft thro' my eyes my soul has flown,
8 And wanton'd on that ivory throne:
9 There with extatic transport burn'd,
10 And thought it was to heav'n return'd.
11 Tell me, is the omen true,
12 Shall the body follow too?
III.
13 When first at nature's early birth,
14 Heav'n sent a man upon the earth,
15 Ev'n Eden was more fruitful found,
16 When Adam came to till the ground:
17 Shall then those breasts be fair in vain,
18 And only rise to fall again?
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IV.
19 No, no, fair nymph for no such end
20 Did heav'n to thee its bounty lend;
21 That breast was ne'er design'd by fate,
22 For verse, or things inanimate;
23 Then throw them from that downy bed,
24 And take the poet in their stead.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): To ETHELINDA, On her doing my Verses the honour of wearing them in her bosom. Written at Thirteen.
Themes: love
Genres: ode

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Source edition

Smart, Christopher, 1722-1771. Poems on several occasions: By Christopher Smart, A. M. Fellow of Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge. London: printed for the author, by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCLII., 1752, pp. 30-31. [16],230p.,plates; 4⁰. (ESTC T42626; OTA K041581.000) (Page images digitized from microfilm of a copy in the Bodleian Library [2799 d 134].)

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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.

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