Verses Occasioned By A Present Of A Moss Rose-Bud, From Miss Jackson Of Southgate.

VERSES OCCASIONED BY A PRESENT OF A MOSS ROSE-BUD, FROM MISS JACKSON OF SOUTHGATE.

BY THE SAME.

THE slightest of favours bestow'd by the fair With rapture we take, and with transport we wear; But a MOSS-WOVEN ROSE-BUD, Eliza, from thee, A well-pleasing gift to a monarch would be: — Ah! that illness, too cruel, forbidding should stand, And refuse me the gift from thine own lovely hand!

With joy I receive it, with pleasure will view, Reminded of thee by its odour and hue; "Sweet rose! let me tell thee, tho' charming thy bloom, " Tho' thy fragrance exceeds Saba's richest perfume: "Thy breath to Eliza's hath no fragrance in't; " And thy bloom is but dull to her cheeks blushing tint.

"Yet alas! my fair flower, that bloom will decay, " And all thy fine beauties soon wither away; "Tho' pluck'd by her hand, to whose touch thou must own " Harsh and rough is the cygnet's most delicate down: "Thou too, snowy hand; — nay, I mean not to preach; " But the Rose, lovely moralist! suffer to teach. "

"Extol not, fond maiden, thy beauties o'er mine, " They too are short-liv'd, and they too must decline; "And small in conclusion, the difference appears " In the bloom of few days, or the bloom of few years! "But remember a virtue the Rose hath to boast, " — Its Fragrance remains, when its Beauties are lost. "