Thus taste the feast, by nature spread, STELLA IN MOURNING WHEN lately Stella's form display'd The nymphs, who found their pow'r decline, "Fate! snatch away the bright disguise, And let the goddess trust her eyes. Since Stella still extends her reign, Th' adoring youth and envious fair, TO STELLA NOT the soft sighs of vernal gales, The murmurs of the crystal rill, Not all the gems on India's shore, Yet nature's charms allure my eyes, And, lovely Stella! thou art mine. VERSES WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN, TO WHOM A LADY HAD GIVEN A SPRIG OF MYRTLE". WHAT hopes, what terrours, does thy gift create! The myrtle (ensign of supreme command, ▾ These verses were first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1768, p. 439, but were written many years earlier. Elegant as they are, Dr. Johnson assured me, they were composed in the short space of five minutes.-N. In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain, TO LADY FIREBRACE*, AT BURY ASSIZES Ar length, must Suffolk beauties shine in vain, TO LYCE AN ELDERLY LADY YE nymphs, whom starry rays invest, Who shine, by lavish lovers drest, In all the pomp of heaven; *This lady was Bridget, third daughter of Philip Bacon, esq. of Ipswich, and relict of Philip Evers, esq. of that town. She became the second wife of sir Cordell Firebrace, the last baronet of that name, to whom she brought a fortune of £25,000, July 26, 1737. Being again left a widow, in 1759, she was a third time married, April 7, 1762, to William Campbell, esq. uncle to the late duke of Argyle, and died July 3, 1782. Engross not all the beams on high, Her silver locks display the moon, Strip'd rainbows round her eyes are seen, Her teeth the night with darkness dies, But some Zelinda, while I sing, Yet, spite of fair Zelinda's eye, ON THE DEATH OF MR. ROBERT LEVET', A PRACTISER IN PHYSICK CONDEMN'D to hope's delusive mine, These stanzas, to adopt the words of Dr. Drake, "are warm from the heart; and this is the only poem, from the pen of Johnson, that has been bathed with tears." Levet was Johnson's constant and attentive com By sudden blasts, or slow decline, Well try'd, through many a varying year, Of ev'ry friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills affection's eye, When fainting nature call'd for aid, The pow'r of art, without the show. In mis'ry's darkest cavern known, No summons, mock'd by chill delay, The modest wants of ev'ry day The toil of ev'ry day supply'd. panion, for near forty years; he was a practitioner in physic, among the lower class of people, in London. Humanity, rather than desire of gain seems to have actuated this single hearted and amiable being; and never were the virtues of charity recorded in more touching strains. “I am acquainted," says Dr. Drake, "with nothing superior to them in the productions of the moral muse." See Drake's Literary Life of Johnson; and Boswell, i. ii. iii. iv.-ED. |