Classic Poem

Oh stay! illustrious Wonder of our Kind!
And let soft Pity move your noble Mind.
(Pity the Attribute of Powers above,
And kind Absolver of aspiring Love.)
See with what Sorrow we lament our Fate;
How many Fears your Absence does Create;
How many weeping Eyes upon your Chariot wait.
Stay! stay, thou great Exemp'ar of our Isle!
Once more bestow a kind suspicious Smile:
Tho' Pity can't your fix'd Resolves subdue,
What may'nt we hope your Charity will do?
For, prous Fair, shou'd all the Good and Great
Conceal their Virtues in a close Retreat;
What must we poor unthinking Mortals do,
Left uninstruded by the Godlike Fere.
Where shou'd we learn those Principles divine,
Which with such Lustre in your Actions shine?

Oh! would you quit your Thoughts of parting hence,
And bless us still with present Influence;
To what exalted Height might Vertue rise,
Since ev'ry conquer'd Vice your Presence flies?
To what great Glories might our Sex arrive,
While they by your Example learn to live.
Kindly encourag'd, and led on by you,
How shou'd we all Impediments subdue?
And led thro' Virtues narrow Paths to Fame,
Devote our Praise to your auspicious Name.
But soon as our instructive Pattern's gone,
And we are left to find our Ways alone,
How we shall want you, how your Absence mourn,
And with our Wishes hasten your Return!

So when bright Cynthia leaves our Hemisphere,
Forsaking the benighted Traveller;
He who before went forwards with Delight,
Now lost in gloomy Horrors of the Night,
Walks pensively, with wand'ring Steps and slow,
Not knowing which uncertain Way to go.
Let glow-worm Lights, to country Shades retire,
Whose sickly Glare the Darkness does require:
But Oh! may you appear in open Day,
Whose genuine Splendour shines with such a Ray,
As needs no Foil, admitts of no Allay.