Written by MRS. COWLEY, On Reading the Verses of Lady Manners to Solitude. Hannah Cowley (née Parkhouse) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T173070 Manners, Catherine Rebecca, Lady, 1766 or 1767-1852. Poems by Lady Manners. Second edition. London John Bell 1793 pp. []-126. 126p.

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Written by MRS. COWLEY , On Reading the Verses of Lady Manners to Solitude . ALL that polish'd Thought adores FLAMING MUSES ever bring ; Grant to Her your choicest Stores — Her who can so sweetly sing ! Pour before her vision'd eye Scenes which ye alone can give ; Bid all Earth-born troubles fly — Bid your Fascinations live ! Spread around her softest shades Where the mountain lours from high ; Where the glossy day-stream fades Place your lustres in the sky . Tip for her each starry gleam With a splendor not its own , Bidding your effulgence beam O'er the Night's dim opal throne . Rouse for her the slumb'ring notes Which the forest lately heard ; Touch the waken'd warblers throats , Tune a-new each sprightly bird . Not the moping Nightingale Wake to join its pensive moan — For its softest , tend'rest tale , MANNERS gives in sweeter tonc . Lead her where the distant Sea Clinging to its rocky shores , Slow , unwilling , seems to flee , And in Sorrow ceaseless roars . Where the tott'ring Abbey hangs , Bid the fair one musing rove — Pining , that Time's cruel fangs Tear the haunts of Faith and Love . Where the Castle's turrets swell 'Cross the black and barren moor , To the weeping Beauty tell " Days of chivalry are o'er . " There no more , in tourneys grand ; Break the lance shall steely Knight , Or dispute from foreign land Vaunted name of lady bright : — But there SOLITUDE is found — She the graceful Poet woos ; Seated lowly on the ground , Wet with ever-rising dews . She ponders on the mould'ring Walls , Marks where crumbled Arches lie ; Trembles , as the grey Mass falls — As the gothick wonders fly . SOLITUDE ! call forth thy smiles , On thy cheek let roses grow ; She , whose glance all care beguiles , Bids thy charms immortal glow . MANNERS strikes to thee her lyre , Decks a-new thy thoughtful mien , Sings thee with poetic fire — Bloom then , grateful , to her strain ! Dated from SOUTHAMPTON , October 4 , 1793.