'Reav'd of their sire, my babes, alas! must sigh, For grief obstructs the anxious widow's care; This wasted form, this ever-weeping eye,

And the deep note of destitute despair,—

All load this bosom with a fraught so sore,
Scarce can I cater for the daily food!
Where'er I search, my husband search'd before,
And soon my nest will hold an orphan brood!

For Elusino lost then pour the strain,
Waft the sad note on ev'ry ev'ning gale;
And as the length'ning shades usurp the plain,
The silent moon shall listen to the tale.

THE PARTRIDGES :

AN ELEGY.

WRITTEN ON THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST.

HARD by yon copse, that skirts the flowery vale,
As late I walk'd to taste the evening breeze,
A plaintive murmur mingled in the gale,

And notes of sorrow echo'd thro' the trees.

Touch'd by the pensive sound, I nearer drew;

But my rude steps increas'd the cause of pain: Soon o'er my head the whirling partridge flew,, Alarm'd, and with her flew an infant train.

But short the excursion ;-for, unus'd to play,
Feebly the unfledg'd wings th' essay could make:
The parent, shelter'd by the closing day,

Lodg'd her lov'd covey in a neighb'ring brake.

Her cradling pinions there she amply spread,
And hush'd the affrighted family to rest ;
But still the late alarm suggested dread,

As closer to their feathery friend they press'd.

She, wretched parent, doom'd to various woe,
Felt all a mother's hope, a mother's fear;
With grief foresaw the dawn's impending blow,
And, to avert it, thus preferr'd her prayer :

"O Thou! who even the sparrow dost befriend,
"Whose providence protects the harmless wren;
"Thou GOD of birds! these innocents defend
"From the vile sports of unrelenting men!

"For, soon as dawn shall dapple yonder skies,
"The slaught'ring gunner, with the tube of fate,
"While the dire dog the faithless stubble tries,
"Shall persecute our tribe with annual hate.

"O may the sun, unfann'd by cooling gale,
"Parch with unwonted heat th' undewy ground!
"So shall the pointer's wonted cunning fail,

"So shall the sportsman leave my babes unfound.

"Then may I fearless guide them to the mead;
"Then may I see with joy their plumage grow;

"Then

"Then may I see (fond thought!) their future breed, "And every transport of a parent know.

"But if some victim must endure the dart, "And fate marks out that victim from my race, "Strike, strike the leaden vengeance thro' this heart! "Spare, spare my babes, and I the death embrace."

LINES,

BY A LADY, ON SEEING SOME WHITE HAIRS ON HER LOVER'S HEAD.

THOU to whose pow'r reluctantly we bend,
Foe to life's fairy dreams, relentless Time!
Alike the dread of Lover and of Friend,

Why stamp thy seal on Manhood's rosy prime?
Already twining 'midst my Thyrsis' hair

The snowy wreaths of age, the monuments of care,

Through all her forms though Nature owns thy sway,
That boasted sway thou 'lt here exert in vain ;
To the last beam of life's declining day

Thyrsis shall view unmov'd thy potent reign:
Secure to please while Goodness knows to charm,
Fancy and Taste delight, and Sense and Truth inform.

Tyrant!

Tyrant! when from that lip of crimson glow,
Swept by thy chilling wind, the rose shall fly;
When thy rude scythe indents his polish'd brow,
And quench'd is all the lustre of his eye;
When ruthless Age disperses ev'ry grace,

Each smile that beams from that enchanting face:

Then through her stores shall active Mem❜ry rove,
Teaching her various charms to bloom anew,
And still the raptur'd eye of hopeless Love
Shall bend on Thyrsis its delighted view;
Still shall he triumph with resistless pow'r,

Still rule the conquer'd heart to life's remotest hour.

TIME'S ANSWER.

SWEET flow thy numbers, O ingrateful Fair!
And tuneful error marks thy polish'd rhyme;
But know, though mine to give the silver hair,
'Twas thy own Thyrsis begg'd the boon of Time:
Thyrsis, high glowing yet in manhood's hour,

Who prematurely sought an earnest of my pow'r.

Mov'd by his pray'r, those wintry wreaths I wove,
Twisting my snow-drops with the rose of youth;
But still 'twas Thyrsis' gentle fraud to prove

His Daphne's friendship and his Daphne's truth:
Oh, strew thy partial whiteness (thus he said),
"Oh, let thy snowy symbols straight invest my head!

"So shall I see, if, chill'd by thy advance,

"She with life's summer moments shall recede ; "So shall I see, if, with youth's fleeting glance, "From age's menace Daphne too shall speed: "So shall I triumph, if I find the Fair

Defy the snowy wreaths, the monuments of care.”

Then wherefore tyrant? Fair ingrate, 't is mine,
When falls man's short-liv'd blossom of an hour,
To touch Affection with a bloom divine,

And proud expand Truth's never-dying flower;
To lift fair Constancy to seats sublime,

E'en 'bove myself,-above the pow'rs of Time.

Ah! then let Mem'ry and the Muses know,
Thou, lovely satirist, shouldst bless my reign;
My pow'rs alone could deathless charms bestow,
Which prov'd the fondness that inspir'd thy strain,
Since, but for those white omens of my sway,
The world had wanted Daphne's faithful lay.

TO MISS C. BRACKENBURY

OF COPTFOLD-HALL, IN ESSEX.

Invoking Fortune, yet losing the raffle.

As Fortune from her birth was blind,

We should not call the dame unkind;

* Now Mrs, Baddeley, of Chelmsford, in the above-named county.

When