ODE, to a LADY in LONDON. Elizabeth Carter 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. T131163 K104099.005 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 309-310. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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ODE , to a LADY in LONDON . By Miss C*** WHILE soft through water earth , and air The vernal spirits rove , From noise , my dear , and giddy crowds To rural scenes remove . The mountain snows are all dissolv'd , And hush'd the blust'ring gale , While fragrant Zephyrs gently breathe Along the flowery vale . The circling planets' constant rounds The wintry wastes repair , And still from temporary death Renew the verdant year . But ah ! when once our transient bloom , The spring of life , is o'er , That rosy season takes its flight , And must return no more . Yet judge by Reason's sober rules , From false Opinion free , And mark how little pilfering years Can steal from you or me . Each moral pleasure of the heart , Each smiling charm of truth , Depends not on the giddy bud Of wild fantastic youth . The vain coquet , whose empty pride A fading face supplies , May justly dread the wintry gloom Where all its glory dies . Leave such a ruin to deplore To fleeting forms confin'd ; Nor age , nor wrinkles , discompose One feature of the mind . Amidst the universal change , Unconscious of decay , It views unmov'd the scythe of Time Sweep all besides away . Fix'd on its own eternal frame Eternal are its joys , While borne on transitory wings Each mortal pleasure flies . While every short-liv'd flower of sense Destructive years consume , Through friendship's fair enchanting walks Unfading myrtles bloom . Nor with the narrow bounds of time Its beauteous prospect ends , But lengthen'd through the vale of death To paradise extends .