Sagacious listeners to the sound,

They flock from all the fields around,
To reach the hospitable hall,

None more attentive to the call.
Arrived, the pensionary band,
Hopping and chirping, close at hand,
Solicit what they soon receive,
The sprinkled, plenteous donative.
Thus is a multitude, though large,
Supported at a trivial charge :
A single doit would overpay
The expenditure of every day,
And who can grudge so small a grace
To suppliants, natives of the place?

FAMILIARITY DANGEROUS.

As in her ancient mistress' lap
The youthful tabby lay,

They gave each other many a tap,
Alike disposed to play.

But strife ensues.

Puss waxes warm,

And with protruded claws

Ploughs all the length of Lydia's arm,

Mere wantonness the cause.

At once, resentful of the deed,

She shakes her to the ground

With many a threat that she shall bleed With still a deeper wound.

But, Lydia, bid thy fury rest:
It was a venial stroke:

For she that will with kittens jest
Should bear a kitten's joke.

INVITATION TO THE REDBREAST.

SWEET bird, whom the winter constrainsAnd seldom another it can

To seek a retreat while he reigns

In the well shelter'd dwellings of man,

Who never can seem to intrude,

Though in all places equally free,

Come, oft as the season is rude,

Thou art sure to be welcome to me.

At sight of the first feeble ray

That pierces the clouds of the east,

To inveigle thee every day

My windows shall show thee a feast. For, taught by experience, I know

Thee mindful of benefit long; And that, thankful for all I bestow,

Thou wilt pay me with many a song.

Then, soon as the swell of the buds

Bespeaks the renewal of spring,

Fly hence, if thou wilt, to the woods,

Or where it shall please thee to sing:

And shouldst thou, compell'd by a frost,
Come again to my window or door,
Doubt not an affectionate host,

Only pay as thou paid'st me before.

Thus music must needs be confess'd
To flow from a fountain above;
Else how should it work in the breast

Unchangeable friendship and love?
And who on the globe can be found,
Save your generation and ours,

That can be delighted by sound,

Or boasts any musical powers?

STRADA'S NIGHTINGALE.

THE shepherd touch'd his reed; sweet Philomel
Essay'd, and oft essay'd to catch the strain,

And treasuring, as on her ear they fell,
The numbers, echo'd note for note again.

The peevish youth, who ne'er had found before
A rival of his skill, indignant heard,

And soon (for various was his tuneful store)
In loftier tones defied the simple bird.

She dared the task, and, rising as he rose,
With all the force that passion gives inspired,
Return'd the sounds awhile, but in the close
Exhausted fell, and at his feet expired.

Thus strength, not skill prevail'd. O fatal strife,
By thee, poor songstress, playfully begun;
And, O sad victory, which cost thy life,
And he may wish that he had never won!

ODE ON THE DEATH OF A LADY,

WHO LIVED ONE HUNDRED YEARS, AND DIED ON HER BIRTHDAY, 1728.

ANCIENT dame, how wide and vast
To a race like ours appears,

Rounded to an orb at last,

All thy multitude of years!

We, the herd of human kind,

Frailer and of feebler powers; We, to narrow bounds confined, Soon exhaust the sum of ours.

Death's delicious banquet—we
Perish even from the womb,

Swifter than a shadow flee,

Nourish'd but to feed the tomb.

Seeds of merciless disease

Lurk in all that we enjoy ; Some that waste us by degrees,

Some that suddenly destroy.

And, if life o'erleap the bourn
Common to the sons of men,
What remains, but that we mourn,
Dream, and dote, and drivel then?

Fast as moons can wax and wane
Sorrow comes; and while we groan,
Pant with anguish, and complain,
Half our years are fled and gone.

If a few (to few 'tis given),

Lingering on this earthly stage, Creep and halt with steps uneven To the period of an age,

Wherefore live they, but to see
Cunning, arrogance, and force,
Sights lamented much by thee,
Holding their accustom'd course?

Oft was seen, in ages past,

All that we with wonder view;

Often shall be to the last ;

Earth produces nothing new.

Thee we gratulate, content

Should propitious heaven design

Life for us as calmly spent,

Though but half the length of thine.