[Page 132]

To a Lady, who invited the Author into the Country.

1 How gladly, Madam, would I go,
2 To see your Gardens, and Chateau;
3 From thence the fine Improvements view,
4 Or walk your verdant Avenue;
5 Delighted, hear the Thrushes sing,
6 Or listen to some bubbling Spring;
7 If Fate had giv'n me Leave to roam!
8 But Citizens must stay at Home.
9 We're lonesome since you went away,
10 And should be dead but for our Tea;
11 That Helicon of female Wits,
12 Which fills their Heads with rhyming Fits!
[Page 133]
13 This Liquor seldom heats the Brain,
14 But turns it oft, and makes us vain;
15 With Fumes supplies Imagination,
16 Which we mistake for Inspiration.
17 This makes us cramp our Sense in Fetters,
18 And teaze our Friends with chiming Letters.
19 I grieve your Brother has the Gout;
20 Tho' he's so stoically stout,
21 I've heard him mourn his Loss of Pain,
22 And wish it in his Feet again.
23 What Woe poor Mortals must endure,
24 When Anguish is their only Cure!
25 STREPHON is ill; and I perceive
26 His lov'd Elvira grows so grave,
27 I fear, like Niobe, her Moan
28 Will turn herself and me to Stone.
29 Have I not cause to dread this Fate,
30 Who scarce so much as smile of late?
[Page 134]
31 Whilst lovely Landscapes you survey,
32 And peaceful pass your Hours away,
33 Refresh'd with various blooming Sweets;
34 I'm sick of Smells and dirty Streets,
35 Stifled with Smoke, and stunn'd with Noise
36 Of ev'ry Thing but my own Boys;
37 Thro' Rounds of plodding doom'd to run,
38 And very seldom see the Sun:
39 Yet sometimes pow'rful Fancy reigns,
40 And glads my Eyes with sylvan Scenes;
41 Where Time, enamour'd, slacks his Pace,
42 Enchanted by the warbling Race;
43 And, in Atonement for his Stay,
44 Thro' Cities hurries on the Day.
45 O! would kind Heav'n reverse my Fate,
46 Give me to quit a Life I hate,
47 To flow'ry Fields I soon would fly:
48 Let others stay to cheat and lye.
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49 There, in fome blissful Solitude,
50 Where eating Care should ne'er intrude,
51 The Muse should do the Country Right,
52 And paint the glorious Scenes you slight.
Dublin, 1728.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): To a Lady, who invited the Author into the Country.
Author: Mary Barber
Themes: rural life; city
Genres: epistle
References: DMI 11558

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Source edition

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. 132-135. xlviii,283,[7]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T42622; DMI 519; Foxon p. 45) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 3644].)

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Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. 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 Mary Barber