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TO THE BEAUTEOUS MISS H—L—D.

1 FAR distant from Brittannia's lofty Isle,
2 What shall I find to make the Genius smile?
3 The bubbling fountains lose the power to please,
4 The rocky cataracts, the shady trees,
5 The juicy fruitage of enchanting hue,
6 Whose luscious virtues England never knew;
7 The variegated Daughters of the Land,
8 Whose numbers Flora strows with bounteous hand;
9 The verdant vesture of the smiling fields,
10 All the rich pleasures Nature's store-house yields,
11 Have all their powers to wake the chorded string:
12 But still they're subjects that the Muse can sing.
13 H—l—d more beauteous than the God of Day,
14 Her name can quicken and awake the Lay;
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15 Rouse the soft Muse, from indolence and ease;
16 To live, to love, and rouse her powers to please.
17 In vain would Phoebus, did not H—l—d rise:
18 'Tis her bright eyes that gilds the Eastern skies;
19 'Tis she alone deprives us of the light;
20 And when she slumbers, then indeed 'tis night.
21 To tell the sep'rate beauties of her 'face
22 Would stretch Eternity's remotest space,
23 And want a more than man, to pen the line;
24 I rest; let this suffice, dear H—l—d's all divine.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): TO THE BEAUTEOUS MISS H—L—D.
Themes:
Genres: heroic couplet; address

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Source edition

Chatterton, Thomas, 1752-1770. A Supplement to the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton London: printed for T. Becket, in Pall-Mall; Bookseller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and Their Royal Highnesses the Princes. MDCCLXXXIV., 1784, pp. 3-4. [6],ii,88p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T48948; OTA K045459.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 696 (1)].)

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