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A simple toy! yet may it prove
A spell to shield the child I love!
Each bliss in that dear breast to guard!
Each feeling soothe, each evil ward!
And while its spotted surface shows
Refulgent on thy bosom's snows,
May never direr pressure pain,
May never dearer blood-drops stain,
Nor care, nor woe, nor ill betide
The highland flower, the hero's bride!

SONG.

FROM THE FRENCH OF QUINAULT.

REIGN here, sweet sleep! o'er all extend thy reign;
Here shed thy drowsiest poppies round:
The senses calm; calm every care and pain;
And wrap each heart in peace profound.

Flow ye pellucid streams; but as ye flow
Let no rude wave a clamour make;

For nought save your clear waters, murmuring low,
The silence of this spot may break.

R. A. DAVENPORT.

IMPROMPTU.

WHAT IS BEAUTY? THE QUESTION.

INSCRIBED TO LUCY IRWIN. BY EYLES IRWIN, ESQ. 1809.

WHAT is beauty? Muses! tell us,
For your votaries' credit jealous.
Be the charm confin'd to sight,
Artist! bring it quick to light.
By the pencil's roseate test,
Azure eye, and snowy breast:
By the chisel's waving line,
Faultless form, and air divine:
Traits, which all of mortal giving,
In TITIAN'S Works, and PHIDIAS' living!
Be the spell by numbers bound,
Poet! all its marvels sound.
Thou! or Fancy can conceive
More, than reasoning minds believe;
Of ambush'd loves and speaking graces,
Such as old GREECE in VENUS traces;
Can estimate the mental mine,
Where rival gems in contrast shine.
Here, Modesty, of ruby dies,
There, opal Genius, changeful, flies;
And emerald Truth, whose native rays
Unite with Virtue's brilliant blaze:
Tho' these, and more, attest her reign,
Will Beauty grace the Poet's strain ?→→→→

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Not all the Muse's art affords
From pastoral reed, or lyric chords;
Responsive to her ANNA's strings,
Or WILMOT, borne on Fancy's wings;
The tuneful talent of GLANMIRE,
Whose valley, shelters Phoebus' quire
If tax'd, this beauty to unfold,
Could, unalloy'd, extract the gold.
Tho' definition flows the while
From Lucy's step, and Lucy's smile;

And, from her lips, in nameless shapes,
The lovely fugitive escapes:

Still, setting copies at defiance,

Proves, but in life, there's no reliance!

IMPROMPTU

ON READING SOME OF MY DEAR FATHER'S POEMS, 1811. BY A GIRL OF FOURTEEN.

COMMUNICATED BY EYLES IRWIN, ESQ.

ENCHANTING Bard! round whose lov'd brows the Nine
Their blooming bays and laurel garlands twine.
Whose melting verse improves, with graceful art,
Pure, as it flows, the language of the heart:
Ah! heedless poet! fear impending fate-
Neglect the lyre, nor wear the envy'd bay;
PAN, luckless hind! once prov'd APOLLO's hate,
Then shun the dangerous path, and cease the lay.

THE FAIR REAPER.

BY R. P. GILLIES, ESQ.

SHE scarcely seemed of mortal birth,
But like a visionary form,
That came to bless our lowly earth ;-
Unmindful of the storm,

She stood, and oft her golden hair
Did float in the perturbed air.

Her voice was soothing to my heart,
And could celestial joy dispense ;-
For, still it sweetly seemed to impart
"No storms will injure Innocence,"
As, bending o'er the golden grain,
She sung the wildly plaintive strain.

Thus, while to mark the moonlight pale,
I seek the crystal streams,
Her beauteous form is seen to sail
In Fancy's airy dreams,

And hovers in the silvery ray
The guardian spirit of my way!

THE BASIL TREE OF SALERNUM.

FROM BOCCACIO,

BY SIR BROOKE BOOTHBY, BART.

WHERE Messina's proud battlements glitter in air,
On Sicily's beautiful coast,

Young Lizabette dwelt; a maiden more fair,
More modest, no city could boast.

As the rose-blossom, fresh with the dews of the night,
So pure and so lovely she seem'd;

Her eyes with mild lustre enchanted the sight
Where soft sensibility beam'd.

In the care of three brothers this damsel was left;
They were merchants, right wealthy and proud;
Of a parent's affections in childhood bereft,
To their will with submission she bow'd.

Their commerce to aid, they a youth entertain❜d,
From Pisa, Lorenzo his name;

The good will of all his docility gain'd,
Well-learn'd and of excellent fame.

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