[Page 54]
October 1769.
[OUR Scottish dames for virtue still be fam'd;]
Whose virtue charm'd him.
Pope's Homer.
1 OUR Scottish dames for virtue still be fam'd;
2 With Trojan, or with Roman matrons nam'd.
3 Still to despise — the man who can betray;
4 And, mask'd in friendship, leads our minds astray!
5 Still to admire the brother's braver arms;
6 Still to despise a Paris' meaner charms.
7 Arm'd in his country's — and his kindred's cause —
8 Behold great Hector — issue from the walls.
9 As each bold Briton who aspires to fame,
10 Still in his eye, some brave some honour'd name,
11 But if great Hector on that fatal day
12 The gods foredoom'd his life — should dearly pay;
13 Tho' in his breast his brother's deeds despise,
14 Behold for him a sacrifice he lies;
15 Behold him stretch'd — dragg'd at Achilles' car,
16 Fat'lly engag'd for a deluded fair:
17 Who does not Paris' beauteous form despise?
18 See Hector dead — who envies Helen's eyes?
19 Who strays from virtue, ever sure to find
20 Some dire disaster lags not far behind.
Source edition
Carstairs, Christian. Original Poems. By a Lady, Dedicated to Miss Ann Henderson. A Tribute to Gratitude and Friendships. Edinburgh: Andrew Shortrede, 1786, p. 54. (ESTC T76883) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 680].)
Editorial principles
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 ‘Christian Carstairs’
- Addressed to a BEECH TREE, on observing that some of its Leaves were tinged by the Smoke of a Fire that had been kindled under it. ()
- A BALLAD. ()
- BASKET of FLOWERS. SONG. ()
- A DREAM. ()
- Earl of ELGIN's death. ()
- EPITAPH. ()
- EPITAPH. ()
- EPITAPH. For Alexander Wedderburn, Esq; St Germains. ()
- EVENING. ()
- FALSEHOOD — TRUTH ()
- Impudence caressed — Merit neglected. ()
- [In a triumphal car] ()
- [IN shades! to pass the summer day] ()
- A Lady in the Character of a Nymph. To the Corsican Warrior at Shakespeare's Jubilee. ()
- A NEW YEAR's GIFT. ()
- On seeing Lady H— after the Death of a favourite Daughter. ()
- On the arrival of the Ship from Messina in the Island of Sicily, with the Corple of the late Earl of Morton. ()
- On the Death of André. ()
- PASTORAL. ()
- [QUEEN MARY.] ()
- [Scarce a breeze on the lake, with four oars to our boat;] ()
- A SONG, to the Tune of “Here awa, there awa.” ()
- SONG. ()
- The three following beautiful Stanzas by Miss A. H. to the Author. ()
- To a Brother of the Author's. ()
- To a young Lady who was going to India. ()
- To Lady H—n. ()
- To Miss A. H—. ()
- To Miss M— B. ()
- To — Esq; Member of the Capillaire Club. ()
- To —. ()
- Wrote as if repeated extempore by a Gentleman, occasioned by a Miniature Picture of a Lady being put up as a But to shoot at in Germany the time of the last war. ()
- Wrote some Months after the Accounts of my Brother's Death, who was killed in Action, July 1st 1763, near to Patna in Bengal. ()
- Wrote the week before my Father was to be informed of my Brother's death. ()