254 FAMILIARITY. DANGEROUS. Arrived, the pensionary band, X. FAMILIARITY DANGEROUS. As in her ancient mistress' lap But strife ensues. Puss waxes warm, Ploughs all the length of Lydia's arm, Mere wantonness the cause. At once, resentful of the deed, She shakes her to the ground, With many a threat that she shall bleed With still a deeper wound. But, Lydia, bid thy fury rest; It was a venial stroke; For she that will with kittens jest, XI. INVITATION TO THE REDBREAST. SWEET bird, whom the winter constrainsAnd seldom another it can - To seek a retreat, while he reigns, In the well shelter'd dwellings of man, Who never can seem to intrude, That pierces the clouds of the east, To' inveigle thee every day My windows shall show thee a feast. For, taught by experience, I know Then, soon as the swell of the buds And shouldst thou, compell'd by a frost, Only pay as thou paidst me before. Thus music must needs be confess'd And who on the globe can be found, XII. STRADA'S NIGHTINGALE. THE shepherd touch'd his reed; sweet Philomel Essay'd, and oft essay'd to catch the strain, And treasuring, as on her ear they fell, The numbers echo'd note for note again. The peevish youth, who ne'er had found before And soon (for various was his tuneful store) She dared the task, and rising, as he rose, Thus strength, not skill prevail'd. O fatal strife, By thee, poor songstress, playfully begun; And O, sad victory, which cost thy life, And he may wish that he had never won! XIII. ODE ON THE DEATH OF A LADY, WHO LIVED ONE HUNDRED YEARS, AND DIED ON ANCIENT dame, how wide and vast, We, the herd of humankind, Death's delicious banquet-we Nourish'd but to feed the tomb. Seeds of merciless disease Lurk in all that we enjoy; And if life o'erleap the bourn, Fast as moons can wax and wane, VOL. II. Ꮓ If a few (to few 'tis given), Wherefore live they, but to see Oft was seen, in ages past, All that we with wonder view; Often shall be to the last; Earth produces nothing new. Thee we gratulate; content, Though but half the length of thine. XIV. THE CAUSE WON. Two neighbours furiously dispute ; The pleadings swell. Words still suffice; |