Classic Poem

Presents may buy B ELINDA 's venal kiss,
And venal kisses charm the tasteless tribe;
My delicacy calls for cheaper bliss,
And patriot distance scorns a paltry bribe;

The hill, that midway rears it's lordly brow,
The torrent, headlong from it's bosom roll'd;
A gift, with reckless eye, like Mausam, view,
And frown, forbidding, on the proser'd gold.

S TREPHON may con with care the flatt'ring lay,
With blushing roses vermile T RULLA 's cheek;
Bid unheaven'd graces on her bosom play,
And paint a goddess: for the girl is weak.

But other, M IRA ! were A LEXIS ' strains;
No heav'n-bred virgin stuff'd his dreaming head;
Thy beauties, such as daily haunt our plains,
He sung; the graces of a mortal maid.

When lonesome with thee in the silent hour,
He hail'd no goddess, but a girl embrac'd;
Prostrated low, ador'd no heav'nly pow'r,
But clung transported to thy maiden waist.

And should the gods restore thee to my arms,
No fulsome flatt'ry should exalt my phrase;
No epithetic nonsense daub thy charms,
Good sense thy beauty, constancy thy praise.

But vain the thought—I'll never see thee more;
The gods decree it, and the gods are just:
For ever doom'd thy absence to deplore,
Till grief, slow-sapping, crumble me to dust.