Classic Poem

IN THE ASSEMBLY .

While crown'd with radiant charms divine,
Unnumber'd beauties round thee shine;
When Erskine leads her happy man,
And Johnstone shakes the fluttering fan;
When beauteous Pringle shines confest,
And gently heaves her swelling breast,
Her raptur'd partner still at gaze,
Pursuing through each winding maze:
Say, youth, and canst thou keep secure
Thy heart from conquering Beauty's pow'r?
Or, hast thou not, how soon! betray'd
The too-believing country maid?
Whose young and unexperienc'd years
From thee no evil purpose fears;
And, yielding to love's gentle sway,
Knows not that lovers can betray.
How shall she curse deceiving men!
How shall she e'er believe again?
For me, my happier lot decrees
The joys of love that constant please;
A warm, benign, and gentle flame,
That clearly burns, and still the same;
Unlike those fires that fools betray,
That fiercely burn, but swift decay;
Which warning passions hourly raise,
A short and momentary blaze.
My Hume, my beauteous Hume! constrains
My heart in voluntary chains;
Well-pleas'd, for her my voice I raise;
For daily joys claim daily praise.
Can I forsake the fair, complete
In all that's soft, and all that's sweet;
When Heav'n has in her form combin'd
The scatter'd graces of her kind?
Has she not all the charms that lie,
In Gordon's blush, and Lockhart's eye;
The down of lovely Haya's hair,
Killochia's shape, or Cockburn's air?
Can time to love a period bring
Of charms, for ever in their spring?
'Tis death alone the lover frees,
Who loves so long as she can please.