[Page 257]

To a Child of Five Years old.

By the Same.
1 FAIREST flow'r, all flow'rs excelling,
2 Which in Eden's garden grew;
3 Flow'rs of Eve's' imbower'd dwelling
a Alluding to Milton's description of Eve's bower.
,
4 Are, my Fair-one, types of you.
5 Mark, my Polly, how the roses
6 Emulate thy damask cheek;
7 How the bud its sweets discloses,
8 Buds thy opening bloom bespeak.
9 Lilies are, by plain direction,
10 Emblems of a double kind;
11 Emblems of thy fair complexion,
12 Emblems of thy fairer mind.
13 But, dear girl, both flow'rs and beauty
14 Blossom, fade, and die away;
15 Then pursue good sense and duty,
16 Evergreens, that ne'er decay.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): To a Child of Five Years old.
Author: Nathaniel Cotton
Themes: parents; children; beauty
Genres: ballad metre
References: DMI 25833

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. IV. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], p. 257. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.004) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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