On a FRIEND. Mary Robinson (née Darby) 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. T100118 Robinson, Mary, 1758-1800. Poems by Mrs. Robinson [poems only]. London Printed for C. Parker, the Upper Part of New Bond-Street 1775 pp. 63-67. [8],134p.,plate; 8⁰.

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On a FRIEND . I A gentle soul , a beauteous form , A voice the coldest breast to warm , A heart with love and pity fraught , A mind by ev'ry virtue taught , With matchless truth , and grace divine , O ! Corydon , this praise be thine . II Deign to accept my grateful song , To thee alone these lays belong , Thy worth my trembling pen inspires , Thy eloquence my soul admires , And pleas'd I bend before the shrine , To sing such wond'rous charms as thine . III Thou pattern to the human race , Thou son of eloquence and grace , To thee all elegance belong , To thee I chaunt the rustic song , Of thee alone my voice I'll raise , And still proclaim my Shepherd's praise . IV A genius matchless and divine , Ordain'd above all men to shine , A soul unknowing how to feign , A heart unus'd to giving pain , To sing of thee , the task be mine , To praise such matchless charms as thine . V Ye muses grant me this request , May Corydon be ever bless'd , May peace propitious smile on thee , From every pain and trouble free , And may just heaven for ever shine , Indulgent o'er such worth as thine . VI Polite and generous to excess , Whose only pleasure is to bless , Whose greatest joy is to impart , Warm comfort to the bleeding heart , Free from base art , or dark design , These virtues , Corydon , are thine . VII In sense , unequal'd , sound and clear , In friendship steady , and sincere , In actions just , in pity , kind , An angel's form , an angel's mind , Endow'd with every grace divine , O ! Corydon , this praise be thine . VIII In thy fond artless breast I find , There's honor , truth , and courage join'd , A tongue unwilling to offend , Warm to protect an injur'd friend ; I mean to sing in simple rhyme , Such worth , O ! Corydon , as thine . IX To tell the world thy wond'rous fame , To celebrate thy heavenly name , To do that justice you demand , From every true impartial hand , That you above each swain may shine , For virtues matchless , and divine .