Mindful of her parent's nod, "Every month to them is May, "And a birth-day every day." ODE XV. ON BREAKING A CHINA QUART MUG. BELONGING TO THE SOCIETY OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD. BY AN UNDER-GRADUATE. AMPHORA NON MERUIT TAM PRETIOSA MORI. WHENE'ER the cruel hand of Death Untimely stops a fav'rite's breath, Muses in plaintive numbers tell How lov'd he liv'd-how mourn'd he fell : Catullus 'wail'd his sparrow's fate, And Gray immortaliz'd his cat. Thrice tuneful Bards! could I but chime so clever, My Quart, my honest Quart, should live for ever. How weak is all a mortal's pow'r, The master's wish, the bursar's pray'r! For when life's lengthen'd to its longest span, Can I forget how oft my Quart Has sooth'd my care, and warm'd my heart? And all its liquid charms display'd! When orange and the nut-brown toast The pleasing depth I view'd with sparkling eyes, The side-board, on that fatal day, Where are the flow'ry wreaths that bound The trees that on thy border grew, Trees, stars, and flow'rs, are scatter'd on the floor, Hadst thou been form'd of coarser earth, Had Nottingham but giv'n thee birth, Of Staffords' sable hue been dy'd, Thy stately fabric had been sound, Tho' tables tumbled on the ground.— The finest mould the soonest will decay; Hear this, ye Fair! for you yourselves are clay, ODE XVI. AN INVITATION TO THE FEATHERED RACE. WRITTEN AT CLAVERTON, NEAR BATH, BY THE REV. MR. GRAVES. AGAIN the balmy Zephyr blows, Ye gentle warblers, hither fly, Here freely hop from spray to spray, Or weave the mossy nest; Here rove, and sing, the live-long day, At night here sweetly rest. Amid this cool translucent rill, That trickles down the glade, Here bathe your plumes, here drink your fill, And revel in the shade. |