TO HER GRACE The Duchess Dowager of PORTLAND. Ann Yearsley (née Cromartie) 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. N22108 Yearsley, Ann, 1753-1806. Poems, on several occasions. By Ann Yearsley, a milkwoman of Bristol [poems only]. The second edition. London printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand 1785 pp. 97-100. xxxii, 127p.

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TO HER GRACE The Duchess Dowager of PORTLAND Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), a friend of Elizabeth Montagu's. . Nature ! thou active Principle , whose depths The curious mind wou'd willingly explore ; Thou , who in universal order sway'st The jarring atoms of a various world ! The Sceptic's Deity ! whose wilder'd soul Ne'er reach'd , by Faith , thy first stupendous cause . Immediate emanation of a God ! O , swell the untaught rapture ; bid it rise Spontaneous in my bare uncultur'd mind ! Thou shalt aspire , when Gratitude assists , To nobler heights than Science ever dar'd . Then found with extacy a Portland's name , And bid it live beyond the wreck of worlds . For her let Fancy pierce the deep abyss , Dart thro' the liquid element , and tread The shelly pavement , dazzling with the glare Of varied hues ; the lively coral here , Here the pale pearl ; the lovely vivid green Of brilliant onyx , and the sapphire's blue . The Tritons sporting in their oozy grots , Forget to heave the tempest-loving wave ; The huge Leviathan , which late had'scap'd Norwegian toils , and , stung by Fear , descends More swift than eagles mount meridian heights , Feels rapture added to the joy of life , Whilst Neptune , from his floating couch , thus speaks : " Portland my deep dominions dares explore , " Nor here alone the Naturalist pursues " Those hidden gems by vulgar souls ne'er priz'd ; " For her the bold adventurer shall dare " The golden serpent in Arabian wilds , " Asphaltites , and the venerable Nile , " Pluck the fair apple which Gomorrah's flame " Has fill'd with sulphur ; tread once hallow'd earth " Where ancient Sion stood ; those heights ascend " Which pious Noah , oft Deucalion call'd , " First hail'd with grateful joy , and fearless press " The Caspian wave : for her the rover seeks " The scatter'd remnants of a ruin'd world . " But that the surge yon planet wou'd o'erwhelm , " The roots of Ocean wou'd I throw to land , " And all my gems shou'd meet her generous eye ; " — It must not be ; great Jove's indignant frown " Wou'd shrink each coward wave beneath his fellow . " This boon refus'd , I give a nobler still " In sweet exchange ; magnificently good , " Her godlike soul the wanderer shall sooth , " Chace the sad gloom from Sorrow's woe-sunk eye , " And bid each future minute fly in peace . " Thus spake the God , the list'ning surges catch The potent sounds , and wast them to the shore ; Echo to Mantuan groves the strain prolong'd ; But Tityrus had long forsook the shade ; And , since his absence , Melody has mourn'd .