Fugitive Verses
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LINES FOR A FRIEND'S ALBUM.
― _____ ―
LINES, in addition to the treasure | |
Of poesy, culled for the pleasure | |
Of beau and belle and gentle dame, | |
When seated round the evening flame, | |
What time the social hour is waning, | |
And tardy coachman guests detaining,— | |
A courteous friend hath bid me write | |
Upon her Album's pages white. |
But age the easy grace hath lost | |
That would become such pages most, | |
While of a quondam rhymester's skill, | |
Scarce aught is extant but the will; | |
And sober, stinted age must use | |
The school-girl's worn and stale excuse, | |
When, long her correspondent's debtor, | |
The apology becomes the letter. |
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Apologies for those who need 'em! | |
An Album is a thing of freedom, | |
Receiving all with right good will | |
That fortune sends from many a quill, | |
And then displays like scaly store | |
Which fisher's net brings to the shore: | |
The herring sheathed in silvery green, | |
The whiting in its pearly sheen, | |
The lithe and wavy eel that glides | |
Athwart the mackerel's tabbied sides; | |
John Dory with his dolphin head, | |
Where amber fins like horns are spread, | |
And flounder, sole, and thornback, all | |
In turn on some observer call | |
To mark each varied form and tint; | |
And from this simile a hint | |
Of some encouragement I take, | |
And humbly this my offering make, | |
Which if received with favour, truly | |
Will shew that I have reckoned duly | |
On what might homelier things commend,— | |
On the good nature of a friend. |
About this text
Courtesy of University of California, Davis. General Library. Digital Intitiatives Program.; http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt567nb8xt&brand=oac4
Title: Fugitive Verses
By: Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851, creator, British Women Romantic Poets Project
Date: 2001 (issued)
Contributing Institution: University of California, Davis. General Library. Digital Intitiatives Program.; http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp
Copyright Note:
Courtesy of University of California, Davis. General Library. Digital Intitiatives Program.; http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt567nb8xt&brand=oac4
Title: Fugitive Verses
By: Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851, creator, British Women Romantic Poets Project
Date: 2001 (issued)
Contributing Institution: University of California, Davis. General Library. Digital Intitiatives Program.; http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp
Copyright Note:
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