Classic Poem

To Mira

The cottage-swains, how exquisitely blest
With sun-burnt virgins in the prime of years!
A sigh obtains the fairest and the best;
At most, the pleading eloquence of tears.

No stubborn honour parts the willing pair;
No maiden barters happiness for fame;
No prideful daemon whispers in her ear,
The long succession of a titled name.

O, had a turf-built hamlet's humble roof,
A soot-clad rafter caught your earliest view!
Or sternly rigid fortune scowl'd aloof,
Nor stampt with dignity a parent's brow!

Or had I (love demands the lowly boon)
Grown to maturity in splendor's ray!
In folly's tinsel tatters tript the town,
The pride of fops, and glitter of a day!

Had treasur'd gold improv'd my native worth,
Inglorious robb'd from A FRIC 's ebon suns;
A ruin'd castle claim'd a father's birth,
Where jack-daws nestle, and the howlet moans!

But money'd merit, and paternal fame,
The gods to poor A LEXIS never meant:
He lives unstory'd; lost, alas! to him,
The herald's blazon and the painter's tint.

A soul unsully'd by the thirst of gain,
A bosom rising at another's woe,
He boasts no more; — his cottage bounds the plain,
Where wild woods thicken, and where waters flow.

A mansion not unworthy of the fair:
Why blushes M IRA at the simple tale?
Can all the pomp of dirty cities dare
Vie with the fragrance of the vernal vale?

But, nurs'd amid the formulas of pride,
You want the heart to own the man you love,
Walk with feign'd pleasure by the fopling's side,
And praise the nonsense which you don't approve.

The very vale, you tread with willing feet,
You seem to scorn, and wantonly prefer
The dull rotation of a crouded street,
A shrill-pip'd actress, and a dancing bear.

Farewel, dear maid! some happier youth possess
The blooming beauties ne'er design'd for me;
May fruitful Hymen yield him every bliss,
And every joy I, hapless! hop'd in thee.

But, O, may none, invidious of your mirth,
Name lost A LEXIS on the bridal day!
For, could you, M IRA ! tho' obscure his birth,
Unpitying hear, a lifeless lump he lay?