To a Lady who was libell'd. 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. 114-117. xlviii,283,[7]p.; 8⁰.

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To a Lady who was libell'd . When Cynthia , Regent of the Tides , Pale in meridian Pride presides ; A Sov'reign Pow'r the Goddess claims O'er Seas , and Sea-supplying Streams ; The River of the richest Source With Ease she turns , and checks his Course ; His crystal Clearness can defile With ev'ry Filth , and Salt as vile ; However strong , and smooth , and pure , Her Tyranny he must endure ; Till , her Dominion in the Wain , He clears , and is himself again . Thus , over black , benighted Brains , Fell Envy , baleful Goddess , reigns ; O'er mortal Passions , pale , presides ; Passions , the Soul's tumultuous Tides ; Which , in their fierce , resistless Sway , Invade all Merit in their Way ; With Ease the clearest Truths confute , With Ease the purest Worth pollute ; Check ev'ry Virtue in its Course , And taint , impetuous , to its Source , The Current of the fairest Fame , By forcing Filth into the Stream . So are you sully'd for a Season , Till Rage recoils , and yields to Reason : Then turns the Tide — your Credit clears , And all your real Worth appears .