A RAVEN, while with glossy breast Shook the young leaves about her ears, 'Tis over, and the brood is safe; For ravens, though as birds of omen They teach both conjurors and old women To tell us what is to befall, Can't prophesy themselves at all.) The morning came when neighbour Hodge, Who long had marked her airy lodge, And destined all the treasure there A gift to his expecting fair, Climbed liked a squirrel to his dray, MORAL. "Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours: Α COMPARISON. THE lapse of time and rivers is the same, And a wide ocean swallows both at last. A difference strikes at length the musing heart; ANOTHER. ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY. SWEET stream, that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid-- Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng; THE POET'S NEW YEAR'S GIFT. TO MRS. (NOW LADY) THROCKMORTON. For thee wished many a time, To wish thee fairer is no need, In wedded love already blest, None here is happy but in part: That wish, on some fair future day, ODE TO APOLLO. ON AN INK-GLASS ALMOST DRIED IN THE SUN. PATRON of all those luckless brains, Ah why, since oceans, rivers, streams, Why stooping from the noon of day, Too covetous of drink, Apollo, hast thou stolen away A poet's drop of ink? Upborne into the viewless air, It floats a vapour now, Impelled through regions dense and rare, By all the winds that blow. 164 PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED. Illustrious drop! and happy then Phoebus, 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 Rousseau ('Tis clear that they were always able To hold discourse, at least, in fable ;) A story of a cock and bull, Must have a most uncommon skull. But warm and bright, and calm as May, To forestal sweet St. Valentine, In many an orchard, copse, and grove, Assembled on affairs of love, And with much twitter and much chatter, * It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philosopher, 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? At length a bulfinch, who could boast My friends! be cautious how ye treat A finch, whose tongue knew no control, By his good-will would keep us single 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 expressed, Influenced mightily the rest, All paired, and each pair built a nest. But though the birds were thus in haste, The leaves came on not quite so fast, And destiny, that sometimes bears An aspect stern on man's affairs, Not altogether smiled on theirs. The wind, of late breathed gently forth, Now shifted east and east by north; Bare trees and shrubs but ill, you know, Could shelter them from rain or snow, Stepping into their nests, they paddled, Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled; Soon every father bird and mother Grew quarrelsome, and pecked each other, |