O then retire, and weep! Their very woes
Solace the guiltless. Drop the pearly flood
On thy sweet infant, as the full-blown rose, [15]
Surcharg'd with dew, bends o'er its neighbouring bud.
And ah! that Truth some holy spell might lend
To lure thy Wanderer from the Syren's power;
Then bid your souls inseparably blend
Like two bright dew-drops meeting in a flower. [20]
1796.
FOOTNOTES:
[152:1] First published in the Monthly Magazine, September 1796, vol. ii, pp. 64-7, reprinted in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, Saturday, Oct. 8, 1796, and in the Poetical Register, 1806-7 [1811, vol. vi, p. 365]. First collected in P. and D. W., 1877, i. 187. The lines were sent in a letter to Estlin, dated July 4, 1796.
LINENOTES:
[Title]] To an Unfortunate Princess MS. Letter, July 4, 1796.
[[17]]
might] could MS. Letter, 1796.