Classic Poem

Ye blooming train who give despair or joy,
Bless with a smile, or with a frown destroy,
In whose fair cheeks destructive Cupids wait,
And with unerring shafts distribute fate,
Whose snowy breasts, whose animated eyes,
Each youth admires, tho' each admirer dies,
Whilst you deride their pangs in barb'rous play,
Unpitying see them weep and hear them pray,
And unrelenting sport ten thousand lives away;
For you, ye fair, I quit the gloomy plains,
Where sable night in all her horror reigns;
No fragrant bow'rs, no delightful glades,
Receive th'unhappy ghosts of scornful maids.
For kind, for tender nymphs the myrtle blooms,
And weaves her bending boughs in pleasing glooms,
Perennial roses deck each purple vale,
And scents ambrosial breathe in every gale;
Far hence are banish'd vapours, spleen, and tears,
Tea, scandal, ivory teeth, and languid airs;
No pug nor favourite Cupid there enjoys
The balmy kiss for which poor Thyrsis dies;
Form'd to delight, they use no foreign arms,
Nor tort'ring whalebones pinch them into charms;
No conscious blushes there their cheeks inflame,
For those who feel no guilt can know no shame;
Unfaded still their former charms they shew,
Around them pleasures wait, and joys for ever new.
But cruel virgins meet severer fates;
Expell'd and exil'd from the blissful seats,
To dismal realms, and regions void of peace,
Where furies ever howl and serpents hiss.
O'er the sad plains perpetual tempests sigh,
And pois'nous vapours, black'ning all the sky,
With livid hue the fairest face o'ercast,
And every beauty withers at the blast;
Where e'er they fly their lovers ghosts persue,
Inflicting all those ills which once they knew;
Vexation, Fury, Jealousy, Despair,
Vex every eye, and every bosom tear;
Their foul deformities by all descry'd,
No maid to flatter and no paint to hide.
Then melt, ye fair, while crouds around you sigh,
Nor let disdain sit low'ring in your eye;
With pity soften every awful grace,
And beauty smile auspicious in each face;
To ease their pains exert your milder power,
So shall you guiltless reign, and all mankind adore.