To the Right Honourable the Lady Sarah Cowper. Written when the Author was sick at Tunbridge-Wells. Mary Barber 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. T42622 519 p. 45 Barber, Mary, ca. 1690-1757. Poems on Several Occasions [poems only]. London Printed for C. Rivington, at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1734 pp. 65-66. xlviii,283,[7]p.; 8⁰.

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To the Right Honourable the Lady Sarah Cowper "Lady Sarah Cowper, daughter of William, first Earl Cowper; friend of Pope. She died unmarried in 1758." (Tucker [1992], 212) . Written when the Author was sick at Tunbridge-Wells . Let me the Honour soon obtain , For which I long have hop'd in vain ; Since I , alas ! am now confin'd , Your Visit would be doubly kind . What Sorrows have I not to fear , Ty'd to the Bed of Sickness here ? When all that's human , quits the Place , And Winter shews his horrid Face ; Whilst Desolation proudly stalks Along the dull , deserted Walks . Methinks the Skies already lour ; Loud , from the Hills , the Torrents pour ; The Shops are shut ; the Days are dark ; And scarce a Dog is left to bark . O , shield me from the dreadful Storms , Which my distemper'd Fancy forms ! The thoughtless Fair the Toilet prize , There practise Smiles , and point their Eyes : But Cowper , negligent of Art , Chose , early wise , the better Part . Yet from your Mind some Moments spare ; The Stranger be a-while your Care , Who now beneath Affliction bends , Far from her Country , and her Friends . Come , and my anxious Heart relieve : For in your Presence who could grieve ?