To ETHELINDA, On her doing my Verses the honour of wearing them in her bosom. Written at Thirteen. Christopher Smart 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. T42626 K041581.000 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.

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To ETHELINDA , On her doing my Verses the honour of wearing them in her bosom . Written at Thirteen . I. HAppy verses ! that were prest In fair Ethelinda's breast ! Happy muse , that didst embrace The sweet , the heav'nly-fragrant place ! Tell me , is the omen true , Shall the bard arrive there too ? II . Oft thro' my eyes my soul has flown , And wanton'd on that ivory throne : There with extatic transport burn'd , And thought it was to heav'n return'd . Tell me , is the omen true , Shall the body follow too ? III . When first at nature's early birth , Heav'n sent a man upon the earth , Ev'n Eden was more fruitful found , When Adam came to till the ground : Shall then those breasts be fair in vain , And only rise to fall again ? IV . No , no , fair nymph — for no such end Did heav'n to thee its bounty lend ; That breast was ne'er design'd by fate , For verse , or things inanimate ; Then throw them from that downy bed , And take the poet in their stead .