THE POET'S NEW-YEAR'S GIFT. To MRS. (now LADY) THROCKMORTON. MARIA! I have ev'ry good For thee wish'd many a time, Both sad, and in a cheerful mood, But never yet in rhime. To wish thee fairer is no need, More prudent, or more sprightly, Or more ingenious, or more freed From temper-flaws unsightly. What favour then not yet possess'd, Can I for thee require, In wedded love already blest, To thy whole heart's desire? None here is happy but in part: There dwells some wish in ev'ry heart, And doubtless one in thine. That wish, on some fair future day, ODE TO APOLLO. ON AN INKGLASS ALMOST DRIED IN THE SUN. PATRON of all those luckless brains, That, to the wrong side leaning, Ah why, since oceans, rivers, streams, Why, stooping from the noon of day, Too covetous of drink, Apollo, hast thou stol'n away A poet's drop of ink? Upborne into the viewless air It floats a vapour now, Impell'd through regions dense and rare, Combin'd with millions more, To form an Iris in the skies, Phœbus, if such be thy design, To place it in thy bow, Give wit, that what is left may shine PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED. A FABLE. I SHALL, not ask Jean Jacques Rosseau*, If birds confabulate or no; 'Tis clear, that they were always able And e'en the child, who knows no better Must have a most uncommon skull. To forestal sweet St. Valentine, In many an orchard, copse, and grove, And with much twitter and much chatter, Began to agitate the matter. At length a Bulfinch, who could boast * It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philoso pher, that all fables which ascribe reason and speech to animals should be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception. But what child was ever deceived by them, or can be, against the evidence of his senses? 226 PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED. And, silence publickly enjoin'd, Deliver'd briefly thus his mind: My friends! be cautious how ye treat A Finch, whose tongue knew no control, By his good will would keep us single Till death exterminate us all. My dear Dick Redcap, what say you? Dick heard, and tweedling, ogling, bridling, Turning short round, strutting and sideling, Attested, glad, his approbation Of an immediate conjugation. Their sentiments so well express'd Influenc'd mightily the rest, All pair'd, and each pair built a nest. But though the birds were thus in haste, The leaves came on not quite so fast, PAIRING TIME ANTICAPATED. 227 Bare trees and shrubs but ill, you know, Grew quarrelsome, and peck'd each other, |