When Jove lay bless'd in his Alcm'na's charms, Three nights in one he press'd her in his arms; The sun lay set, and conscious nature strove To shade her god, and to prolong his love....
Pastor and Patriot! at whose bidding rise These modest walls, amid a flock that need, For one who comes to watch them and to feed, A fixed Abode, keep down presageful sighs....
Indeed, my Phaedra, if to find That wealth can female wishes gain Had e'er disturb'd your thoughtful mind, Or cost one serious moment's pain, I should have said that all the rules,...
The greatest monarch may be stabb'd by night And fortune help the murderer in his flight; The vilest ruffian may commit a rape, Yet safe from injured innocence escape; And calumny, by working under ground,...
Nay, more than violets These thoughts of thine, friend! Rather thy reedy brook-- Taw's tributary-- At midnight murmuring, Descried them, the delicate Dark-eyed goddesses,...
Now all the truth is out, Be secret and take defeat From any brazen throat, For how can you compete, Being honour bred, with one Who, were it proved he lies, Were neither shamed in his own...
Kind Sir, I've read your paper through, And, faith, to me 'twas really new! How guess'd ye, Sir, what maist I wanted? This mony a day I've grain'd and gaunted, To ken what French mischief was brewin';...
Fair Lady! can I sing of flowers That in Madeira bloom and fade, I who ne'er sate within their bowers, Nor through their sunny lawns have strayed? How they in sprightly dance are worn...
What's fame with men, by custom of the nation, Is call'd, in women, only reputation: About them both why keep we such a pother? Part you with one, and I'll renounce the other.
The seed that wasteful autumn cast To waver on its stormy blast, Long o'er the wintry desert tost, Its living germ has never lost. Dropped by the weary tempest's wing,...
Was it for nothing in the years gone by, O my love, O my friend, You thrilled me with your noble words of faith? - Hope beyond life, and love, love beyond death! Yet now I shudder, and yet you did not die,...
Oh flower-sweet face and bended flower-like head! Oh violet whose purple cannot pale, Or forest fragrance ever faint or fail, Or breath and beauty pass among the dead! Yea, very truly has the poet said,...
Francesca's life that was a limpid flame Agleam against the shimmer of a sword, Which falling, quenched the flame in blood outpoured To free the house of Rimino from shame,...
What prays the poet of enshrined Apollo? What is he asking for with lifted hands, Pouring a fresh libation from his flagon? - Not fertile crop from rich Sardinian lands, -...
God knows it, I am with you. If to prize Those virtues, priz'd and practis'd by too few, But priz'd, but lov'd, but eminent in you, Man's fundamental life: if to despise The barren optimistic sophistries...
God knows it, I am with you. If to prize Those virtues, priz'd and practis'd by too few, But priz'd, but lov'd, but eminent in you, Man's fundamental life: if to despise The barren optimistic sophistries...