ODE TO THE CUCKOO. HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove! Thou messenger of spring! Now heaven repairs thy rural seat, What time the daisy decks the green, Hast thou a star to guide thy path, Delightful visitant! with thee I hail the time of flowers; Of birds among the bowers. The school-boy, wand'ring through the wood, What time the pea puts on the bloom, An annual guest in other lands, Another spring to hail. Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear; O, could I fly, I'd fly with thee! Logan. RESPICE FINEM. To be as wise as Cato was, And rich as Cræsus in his life; To have the strength of Hercules, The rich may well the poor relieve; But mark the end of this my song: The happiest end in these our days, A good beginning oft we see, But seldom standing at one stay; For few do like the mean degree, Then praise at parting, some men say The thing whereto each wight is thrall, The happy end exceedeth all. The mean estate, that happy life, Who seeks no hate, nor breeds no strife, His happy end exceedeth all. The longer life that we desire, The more offence doth daily grow; The greater pain it doth require, Except the judge some mercy show: Wherefore I think, and ever shall, The happy end exceedeth all. Paradise of Dainty Devises. TO THE LADIES. On Davison's Palmyrene, or violet-scented Soap. A DAVISON once urg'd his queen to sign. Yet, sure, that victim's face, ador'd by all, To keep awhile such graces from the tomb, His bright restorative of beauty drains. For this Palmyra's gloomy vaults explor'd, A long lost treasure yields its ample hoard; And Davison, exulting, joys to bear Zenobia's arts to grace the British fair. No pois'nous unguent here, with styptic power, Shrinks the parch'd forehead like a rivell'd flower; No acid wash, with treach'rous skill prepar'd, Corrodes the bosom it pretends to guard; For tints more chaste to Davison repair, There health resides, and Hymen triumphs there. His safe cosmetics genial force retain, And tinge her cheeks with salutary red; If wealth like this your Davison imports, Ye British dames, to you his hope resorts! Let your soft voice his eastern stores proclaim, Exalt their merits, and protect their fame: Nor think your praise the living only knowIts magic influence rules the world below. While Syria's spoils your growing charms adorn, Her vanquish'd heroine shall no longer mourn : Palmyra thus shall think her wrongs repaid, And added glory crown Zenobia's shade In the wrapper of Davison's Soap. ON A FOP TURNED EPICURE. SAVING, you say, Jack Selfish grows, A selfish spendthrift still is Jack, And that which lately vamp'd his back, |