TO THE

MEMORY of Mr. OLDHAM.

F

AREWEL, too little, and too lately known,

Whom I began to think, and call my own: For fure our fouls were near allied, and thine Caft in the fame poetic mould with mine. One common note on either lyre did strike, And knaves and fools we both abhorr'd alike. To the fame goal did both our studies drive; The last set out, the fooneft did arrive.

Thus Nifus fell upon the flipp'ry place,

Whilft his young friend perform'd, and won the

race.

O early ripe! to thy abundant store

What could advancing age have added more?
It might (what nature never gives the young)
Have taught the smoothness of thy native tongue,
But fatire needs not those, and wit will shine
Thro the harsh cadence of a rugged line.
A noble error, and but feldcm made,
When poets are by too much force betray'd,

Thy gen'rous fruits, tho gather'd ere their prime, Still fhew'd a quicknefs; and maturing time. But mellows what we write, to the dull fweets of rhyme.

Once more, hail, and farewel; farewel, thou young, But ah too fhort, Marcellus of our tongue!

;

Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound
But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around.

Mrs. ANNE KILLIGREW,

Excellent in the Two SISTER-ARTS of POESY and PAINTING.

AN O D E.

I.

HOU youngest virgin-daughter of the skies, Made in the last promotion of the blest; Whofe palms, new pluck'd from paradife, In fpreading branches more fublimely rife,

Rich with immortal green above the reft:
Whether, adopted to fome neighb'ring ftar,
Thou roll'st above us, in thy wand'ring race,
Or, in proceffion fix'd and regular,
Mov'd with the heaven's majestic pace;
Or, call'd to more fuperior bliss,

Thou tread'st, with feraphims, the vast abyss :
Whatever happy region is thy place,

Cease thy celestial song a little space;

Thou wilt have time enough for hymns divine,

Since heaven's eternal

year is thine.

Hear then a mortal muse thy praise rehearse,
In no ignoble verse

;

But fuch as thy own voice did practise here,
When thy first fruits of Poefy were given;
To make thyself a welcome inmate there :
While yet a young probationer,

And candidate of heaven.

II.

If by traduction came thy mind,
Our wonder is the lefs to find
A foul fo charming from a flock so good;
Thy father was transfus'd into thy blood:
So wert thou born into a tuneful ftrain,
An early, rich, and inexhausted vein.

But if thy pre-existing foul

Was form'd, at firft, with myriads more, It did thro all the mighty poets roll,

Who Greek or Latin laurels wore,

And was that Sappho laft, which once it was before.

If fo, then ceafe thy flight, O heaven-born mind!

Thou haft no drofs to purge from thy rich ore
Nor can thy foul a fairer mansion find,

Than was the beauteous frame fhe left behind: Return to fill or mend the choir of thy celestial kind.

IH.

May we prefume to fay, that, at thy birth, New joy was fprung in heaven, as well as here on earth.

For fure the milder planets did combine

On thy aufpicious horofcope to fhine,

And e'en the most malicious were in trine.
Thy brother-angels at thy birth

Strung each his lyre, and tun'd it high,
That all the people of the sky

Might know a poetess was born on earth.
And then, if ever, mortal ears

Had heard the mufic of the fpheres.

And if no cluft'ring fwarm of bees

On thy fweet mouth diftill'd their golden dew,

'Twas that fuch vulgar miracles

Heaven had not leisure to renew: For all thy bleft fraternity of love Solemniz'd there thy birth, and kept thy holy-day

above.

IV.

O gracious God! how far have we
Prophan'd thy heavenly gift of poefy?
Made proftitute and profligate the Muse,
Debas'd to each obfcene and impious ufe,
Whose harmony was firft ordain'd above
For tongues of angels, and for hymns of love?
O wretched we! why were we hurry'd down
This lubrique and adult'rate age,

(Nay added fat pollutions of our own)
T'increase the streaming ordures of the stage?
What can we say t'excuse our second fall?
Let this thy veftal, heaven, atone for all ;
Her Arethufian ftream remains unfoil'd,
Unmix'd with foreign filth, and undefil'd;

Her wit was more than man, her innocence a

child.