ADDRESS TO TWO CANDLES. Hannah Cowley (née Parkhouse) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T90094 K073164.000 Cowley, Mrs. (Hannah), 1743-1809. The Poetry of Anna Matilda. London printed by John Bell, British Library, Strand, Bookseller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. M DCC LXXXVIII. 1788 pp. []-5. [8],139,[1]p.; 8⁰.

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ADDRESS TO TWO CANDLES . " No subject so mean , that Poetry cannot elevate , and render interesting . " ANON. At a Cottage on an eminence , ANNA MATILDA had ordered the Candles to be removed from the Window , but the Night was dark ; and recollecting the situation , she replaced , and thus addressed them : — BURN — lucid tapers ! fiercer burn ! Refine each ray to purer light , Pervade the circumambient air And pierce the closest robe of Night ! Why faintly glow your spiral fires , Whilst Charity invokes your beams ? Why , inauspicious to my prayer , — Still faint and fainter are your gleams ? Oh think , that on the distant heath , Whose canopy's a sombre sky , Some weary traveller may roam — No hut , no guide , no shelter nigh ! Perhaps , an aged parent tries To find amidst the thick'ning shades Her doubtful path ; — perhaps a child Bemoans , forlorn , in yonder glades . Your honest light they need not dread , No ignis false instructs your ray To guide amiss their trembling feet , Or lure them from th' intended way . No vapour gross your fulgence feeds ; From snowy wax your flame is drawn , By virgin bees extracted pure From ev'ry sweet that decks the lawn . The rose , the violet , and the thyme That scent the Morning's dewy shower , Combin'd their aromatic gifts , And form'd ye for the present hour . Then , gentle tapers ! brisker burn , Dart with new vigour thro' the night ; Tinge ev'ry ray with brighter hues , And pour them on the wand'rer's sight !