Introductory
*
"Sappho and Phaon", by Mary Robinson, [1796],
\"Flendus" amor meus est; elegeia flebile carmen; non facit ad lacrymas barbitos ulla meas"." Ovid.
"Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow, And tund my heart to elegies of woe"." Pope.
I. Introductory.
Favourd by Heavn are those, ordaind to taste
The bliss supreme that kindles fancys fire;
Whose magic fingers sweep the muses lyre,
In varying cadence, eloquently chaste!
Well may the mind, with tuneful numbers gracd,
To Fames immortal attributes aspire,
Above the treachrous spells of low desire,
That wound the sense, by vulgar joys debasd.
For thou, blest Poesy! with godlike powrs
To calm the miseries of man wert givn;
When passion rends, and hopeless love devours,
By memry goaded, and by frenzy drivn,
Tis thine to guide him midst Elysian bowrs,
And shew his fainting soul,--a glimpse of Heavn.
"Sappho and Phaon", by Mary Robinson, [1796],
\"Flendus" amor meus est; elegeia flebile carmen; non facit ad lacrymas barbitos ulla meas"." Ovid.
"Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow, And tund my heart to elegies of woe"." Pope.
I. Introductory.
Favourd by Heavn are those, ordaind to taste
The bliss supreme that kindles fancys fire;
Whose magic fingers sweep the muses lyre,
In varying cadence, eloquently chaste!
Well may the mind, with tuneful numbers gracd,
To Fames immortal attributes aspire,
Above the treachrous spells of low desire,
That wound the sense, by vulgar joys debasd.
For thou, blest Poesy! with godlike powrs
To calm the miseries of man wert givn;
When passion rends, and hopeless love devours,
By memry goaded, and by frenzy drivn,
Tis thine to guide him midst Elysian bowrs,
And shew his fainting soul,--a glimpse of Heavn.
