[Page 247]

THE NATURAL BEAUTY.

TO STELLA.

1 WHETHER STELLA's eyes are found
2 Fix'd on earth, or glancing round,
3 If her face with pleasure glow,
4 If she sigh at others woe,
5 If her easy air express
6 Conscious worth, or soft distress,
7 STELLA's eyes, and air, and face,
8 Charm with undiminish'd grace.
9 If on her we see display'd
10 Pendant gems, and rich brocade;
[Page 248]
11 If her chintz, with less expence,
12 Flows in easy negligence;
13 Still she lights the conscious flame,
14 Still her charms appear the same;
15 If she strikes the vocal strings,
16 If she's silent, speaks, or sings,
17 If she sit, or if she move,
18 Still we love, and still approve.
19 Vain the casual, transient glance,
20 Which alone can please by chance;
21 Beauty, which depends on art,
22 Changing with the changing heart,
23 Which demands the toilet's aid,
24 Pendant gems, and rich brocade;
25 I those charms alone can prize,
26 Which from constant Nature rise,
27 Which nor circumstance nor dress
28 E'er can make or more or less.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 50K / ZIP - 5.4K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.0K / ZIP - 688 )

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.790].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 3.0M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): THE NATURAL BEAUTY. TO STELLA.
Themes: beauty
Genres: ode
References: DMI 32596

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. III. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 247-248. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1136; OTA K093079.003) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.790].)

Editorial principles

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.