LET this acquaint my dearest friend,
That I to make a glove intend,
Or pair of gloves; and, therefore, I
For your directions must apply,
Hoping, you will to me impart
Some portion of your far-fam’d art.
Your charitable disposition,
I trust, will favour my petition.
You have been told it over and over,
Charity doth much evil cover;
And, where no virtue is amissing,
It surely is a double blessing.
Besides, what pleasure ’twill supply
To favour honest industry.
If fair Eliza do consent
Her aid, she shall it not repent,
For ’tis my wish and warm desire
To let my quill requite her wire,*
And, in the deathless rolls of fame,
Inscribe her merits and her name.
You startle at my enterprize,
Thinking, beyond my reach it lies;
Yet, in my plan, I will persist,
Wiles sometimes do the weak assist.
A favouring moment I will watch,
Some stray poetic spark to catch,
Which, when I feel begin to glow,
My tuneful pilgrimage I’ll go.
And I intend, before I stop,
To climb renown’d Parnassus’ top;
How many authors are, alas!
Content with visiting its base;
When to a point I set my face,
I love to do it with a grace.
I’ll gather all the choicest flowers
Which bloom in the Parnassian bowers.
I’ll drain Pieria’s sacred spring,
(By halves I hate to do a thing,)
What, though it leave the channel dry
To the next comer, what care I;
We must our own occasions catch,
Let them look out who have the watch.
And while my flowery search thus leads
Amid the verdant, fragrant meads;
To you, I frankly do confess
(Friendship should mutual trust possess)
I’m not without a secret hope,
Which will my grateful efforts prop,
That, if in luck, chance in my way
May throw some straggling sprig of bay;
This for my own account I mean,
To show the world where I have been.
This gain’d, I may with you advise,
(You know I your opinion prize)
Whether you think it most becoming
(If that would not be too assuming)
Around the temples ’twere entwin’d;
Yet this, to those who are inclin’d
To censure, might a field present;
I, therefore, should be quite content
To give it o’er to time and chance,
Who often do the weak advance,
And may, the triumph to complete,
Yet bid it grace my statue’s feet .
But here your prudence will suggest
Our native adage, that ’twere best
To let be fairly caught the fish,
Ere we divide it in the dish.*
It so may happen, that the Nine
To favour me may not incline,
For, I am told, they do not chuse,
At least none but the comic muse,*
To part with any of their skill,
I’ll therefore lurk about the hill,
Until some fair occasion chance,
When, warily, I shall advance,
And, of their art, pick some small share,
‘Tis what I want, and they can spare.
Could I a happy moment catch,
Apollo’s Lyre I fain would snatch,
And if I could my fear surmount,
Pegasus gladly would I mount;
But, being of a timid nature,
I do not chuse to trust this creature,
Who is, I’m told, a fiery steed,
And should he take it in his head
Adown the steepy hill to fly,
‘Tis ten to one but I should cry,
Which might, perhaps, alarm Apollo,
Who, missing of his Lyre, would follow;
And should it rouse the angry Nine,
‘Twere to be fear’d the worst were mine.
Melpomene takes back her tears,
Urania her fight avers,
And Thalia, tho’ a lively lass,
I dont expect would let me pass,
But would re-take her sports and smiles,
With all her store of comic wiles;
And thus, when each their skill withdraw,
Your Poetess, like
(Margaret Chalmers)
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Based on Topics: World Poems, Nature Poems, Faces Poems, Fairness Poems, Friendship Poems, Name Poems, Cry Poems, Hope Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Happiness Poems, Smiling PoemsBased on Keywords: charitable, steepy, entwin, adage, poetess, enterprize, far-fam, avers, pieria, re-take