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[Page 35]
ODE.
I.
1 IF rightly tuneful bards decide,
2 If it be six'd in love's decrees,
3 That beauty ought not to be tried
4 But by its native power to please,
5 Then tell me, youths and lovers, tell,
6 What fair can Amoret excell?
II.
7 Behold that bright unsullied smile,
8 And wisdom speaking in her mien:
9 Yet (she so artless all the while,
10 So little studious to be seen)
11 We nought but instant gladness know,
12 Nor think to whom the gift we owe.
III.
[Page 36]13 But neither music, nor the powers
14 Of youth and mirth and frolick cheer,
15 Add half that sunshine to the hours,
16 Or make life's prospect half so clear,
17 As memory brings it to the eye
18 From scenes where Amoret was by.
IV.
19 Yet nor a satirist could there
20 Or fault or indiscretion find;
21 Nor any prouder sage declare
22 One virtue, pictur'd in his mind,
23 Whose form with lovelier colours glows
24 Than Amoret's demeanor shows.
V.
25 This sure is beauty's happiest part:
26 This gives the most unbounded sway:
27 This shall inchant the subject heart
28 When rose and lily fade away;
29 And She be still, in spite of time,
30 Sweet Amoret in all her prime.
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About this text
Author: Mark Akenside
Themes:
virtue; vice; beauty
Genres:
ode
References:
DMI 27809
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Source edition
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 35-36. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.006) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)
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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.
Other works by Mark Akenside
- HYMN TO THE NAIADS. ()
- [Inscription] I. For a GROTTO. ()
- [Inscription] II. For a Statue of CHAUCER at WOODSTOCK. ()
- [Inscription] III. ()
- [Inscription] IV. ()
- [Inscription] VI. For a Column at RUNNYMEDE. ()
- ODE I. Allusion to HORACE. ()
- ODE II. On the WINTER-SOLSTICE, M. D.CC.XL. (); ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE. M. D.CC.XL. ()
- ODE III. Against SUSPICION. ()
- ODE IV. To a GENTLEMAN whose MISTRESS had married an old Man. ()
- ODE To the Right Honourable FRANCIS Earl of HUNTINGDON. MDCCXLVII. ()
- ODE To the Right Reverend BENJAMIN Lord Bishop of WINCHESTER. ()
- ODE V. Hymn to CHEARFULNESS. The Author Sick. ()
- ODE VI. On the Absence of the Poetic Inclination. ()
- ODE VII. To a FRIEND, on the hazard of falling in LOVE. ()
- ODE VIII. On leaving HOLLAND. ()
- ODE IX. To SLEEP. ()
- ODE X. On LYRIC Poetry. ()
- [THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. A POEM.] ()