Essex Register, 1802.
Specimens of old time newspaper poetry.
To a LADY who admired dancing.
MAY I presume in humble lays,
My dancing fair, thy steps to praise?
While this grand maxim I advance,
That all the world is but a dance,
That human-kind, both man and woman,
Do dance is evident and common.
David himself, that God-like king,
We know could dance, as well as sing.
Folks who at court would keep their ground,
Must dance the year attendance round.
All nature is one ball, we find:
The water dances to the wind;
The sea itself at night and noon
Rises and capers to the moon;
The moon around the earth does tread
A Cheshire round in buxom red;
The earth and planets round the sun
Dance, nor will their dance be done
'Till nature in one mass is blended;
Then we may say the ball is ended.
Salem Mercury, July 29, 1788.
THE FOUNT.
☞ THE following—from the pen of a fair correspondent—cannot be read without PLEASURE and IMPROVEMENT.