For all that pleas'd in wood or lawn, While Peace posses'd these silent bow'rs, Her animating smile withdrawn, Has lost it's beauties and it's pow'rs. The saint or moralist should tread They seek like me the secret shade, Me fruitful scenes and prospects waste These tell me of enjoyments past, And those of sorrows yet to come. 24 THE WINTER NOSEGAY. WHAT Nature, alas! has denied To the delicate growth of our isle, Art has in a measure supplied, And Winter is deck'd with a smile. See, Mary, what beauties I bring From the shelter of that sunny shed, Where the flow'rs have the charms of the spring, Though abroad they are frozen and dead. "Tis a bow'r of Arcadian sweets, Where Flora is still in her prime, A fortress, to which she retreats From the cruel assaults of the clime. While Earth wears a mantle of snow, These pinks are as fresh and as gay As the fairest and sweetest, that blow On the beautiful bosom of May. 10 See how they have safely surviv'd The charms of the late-blowing rose The truth of a friend such as you. 20 MUTUAL FORBEARANCE NECESSARY TO THE HAPPINESS OF THE MARRIED STATE. THE lady thus address'd her spouse What a mere dungeon is this house! By no means large enough; and was it, Those hangings with their worn-out graces, Long beards, long noses, and pale faces, They overwhelm me with the spleen. And shall expect him at the door, Precisely when the clock strikes four. You are so deaf, the lady cried, (And rais'd her voice, and frown'd beside) You are so sadly deaf, my dear, What shall I do to make you hear? Dismiss poor Harry! he replies; Some people are more nice than wise, 10 20 Well, I protest 'tis past all bearing— Yes, truly-one must scream and bawl, Alas! and is domestic strife, To gratify a fretful passion, The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear; And something, ev'ry day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive. But if infirmities, that fall In common to the lot of all, A blemish or a sense impair'd, 30 40 |