Tag Archives: tetrameter couplets

Anonymous, “[On Tobacco, a translation”]

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ANONYMOUS

 [“On Tobacco, a translation”]

Sweet charmer of my solitude,
Brilliant pipe, consuming tube,
Who clear’st the vapours from my brain,
And my mind from anxious pain!
Tobacco! source of my delight,                                      5
When I see thee quit my sight,
And vanish in the purer air,
Like the lightning’s quick career,
I see the image of my life below,
And whither soon my breath must go.                      10
By thee I trace, in colours strong,
That man is nothing but a song,
An animated heap of clay,
The jest and sport of but a day;
That as thy smoke I pass away,                                    15
An emblem of my own decay.

 NOTES:

Title This poem appears without a title in the Gentleman’s Magazine, but includes the following prefatory comment: “Mr. Urban, I send you the following French verses written by a Monk, with the translation. A.P.P.”

2 Consuming tube A reference to the reed stem pipe, which was developed in the eighteenth-century. These pipes were made with a natural reed stem, resembling a tube, which slips into a bowl.

 3-4 In the eighteenth-century, tobacco was used to treat anything from colic to vomit, hernia, rheumatic pains, and various infirmities including anxiety.

 Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (April, 1785), p. 308.

 Edited by Farnam Adelkhani

Anonymous, “Damon’s Complaint for Amynta’s absence. In the person of a despairing Shepherd”

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ANONYMOUS

 “DAMON‘s Complaint for AMYNTA‘s absence. In the person of a despairing Shepherd. By a young Lady”

 

AH, hapless fate, and luckless day,
That call’d my lovely nymph away!
O fairest fav’rite of the plain,
Desir’d by all, desir’d in vain;
O thou, my dear, my darling theme,                               5
My morning tho’t, my midnight dream;
Beneath what poplar, or what pine
Dost thou thy slumb’ring charms recline,
While whisp’ring breezes panting play,
And waft the sultry heats away?                                     10
O nymph, return to Damon‘s call,
See! floods of tears in torrents fall!
By which in silence are exprest
The struggling sorrows of my breast.
But ah! how vainly do I mourn,                                      15
And wish my absent Fair’s return!
Perhaps a more deserving swain
Detains her on a distant plain.
Charmer! was all the world my own,
I’d change that world for thee alone!                              20
Lord of my heart, thy love my crown,
With pity I’d on kings look down.
O, then return, no longer stay,
But haste, my fair one, haste away.
Here ev’ry bird, on ev’ry tree,                                         25
Fills ev’ry twig with harmony:
The primrose paints the bank around,
And vi’lets strew th’ impurpled ground:
The tow’ring larks, enchanting, sing,
And gayly smiles the glad’ning spring:                          30
While flocks compleat the rural scene,
And frisk, and ramble round the green.
Beneath yon oak’s expanding shade,
A lovely arbour I have made:
The woodbine, jes’mine, vine and rose,                         35
In various twines the parts compose;
And this I did, O fair ! for thee
To taste the noontide air with me.
Return, return ! thy charms disclose,
O, mistress of my soul’s repose.                                    40
No longer let they Damon sigh,
But songs of joy for tears supply.
Didst thou, my dear Amynta, know
The tort’ring griefs I undergoe,
Pity wou’d, sure, thy heart incline,                                 45
By sympathy to throb with mine.
O, may the Gods thy breast inspire
With some such sympathetic fire!
And, may’st thou then thy Damon bless
In one completed happiness!                                        50
Then shall our fates so close be ty’d,
That nothing can our joys divide:
Thy kisses shall my senses charm;
Thy bliss my breast with bliss shall warn:
Nor, shall I grieve thy griefs to share,                           55
O, fairest of ten thousands fair!

NOTES:

Title Damon’s Complaint for Amynta’s absence A possible reference to John Dryden’s poem, “The Tears Of Amynta, For the Death of Damon. A Song” (1684).

2 nymph “A young and beautiful woman” (OED).

17 swain “A man, youth. Also, esp. in pastoral poetry, a country gallant or lover, wooer, sweetheart” (OED).

27 primrose “A well-known plant bearing pale yellowish flowers in early spring” (OED).

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (February, 1748), p. 87. [Google Books]

Edited by Ben Koh

Stephen Duck, “On Music”

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STEPHEN DUCK

 “On MUSIC”

 I.

MUSIC the coldest Heart can warm,
The hardest melt, the fiercest charm;
Disarm the Savage of his Rage,
Dispel our Cares, and Pains assuage;
With Joy it can our Souls inspire,                                                  5
And tune our Tempers to the Lyre;
Our Passions, like the Notes, agree,
And stand subdu’d by Harmony.
This found the melancholy King,
When David tun’d the trembling String:                                     10
Sweet Music chas’d the fullen Spleen away,
And made his clouded Soul serenely gay.

II.

WHILE Music breathes in martial Airs,
The Coward dares forget his Fears;
Or, if the Notes to Pity sound,                                                     15
Revenge and Envy cease to wound:
The Pow’r of MUSIC has been known,
To raise or tumble Cities down:
Thus Theban Turrets, Authors say,
Were rais’d by MUSIC’s Magick Lay;                                            20
And antient Jericho’s Heav’n-hated Wall,
To sacred MUSIC, ow’d its destin’d Fall.

III.

NOR Mortals only MUSIC love;
It chears celestial Saints above:
Sweet Hallelujahs Angels sing                                                      25
Around their great Ethereal King;
CeaslessCeasless they sound the FATHER’S Praise,
The FATHER too approves their Lays;
For HE (as all Things) MUSIC made,
And SERAPHIMS before Him play’d:                                            30
When over Horeb’s Mount He came,
Array’d in Majesty and Flame;
After the sounding Trump, sublime, He rode;
The sounding Trump proclaim’d the’ approaching GOD.

IV.

MUSIC had Being, long before                                                     35
The solemn Organ learnt to roar:
When MICHAEL, o’er the heav’nly Plain,
Advanc’d, to fight the rebel Train;
Loud Trumpets did his Wrath declare,
In MUSIC, terrible to hear:                                                             40
And when the Universe was made,
On golden Harps the Angels play’d:
And when it falls, (as fall it must)
MUSIC shall penetrate the Dust;
The Trump shall sound with the Archangel’s Breath;                       45
And, sweetly dreadful! wake the Dead from Death.

NOTES:

6 Lyre “A stringed instrument of the harp kind, used by the Greeks for accompanying song and recitation” (OED).

9 melancholy King An allusion to King Saul in the Bible.

10 David tun’d the trembling String In the first book of Samuel, David would play the lyre to calm Saul when the evil spirit of God was upon him (1 Samuel 16:23).

11 Spleen “Excessive dejection or depression of spirits; gloominess and irritability.” (OED).

19 Theban Turrets A structure or tower belonging to Thebes, ancient capital of Boeotia in Greece.

20 Lay “A short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung” (OED).

21 Jericho’s Heav’n-hated Wall In the Bible Joshua is instructed to sound trumpets before taking over the city of Jericho (Joshua 6:20).

30 Seraphims Biblical angels.

31 Horeb’s Mount The mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

32 Majesty and Flame Allusion to the Burning bush that the Lord appeared as to give Moses the Ten Commandments.

37 MICHAEL, o’er the heav’nly Plain Michael was an archangel who fought the Devil in heaven.

45-46 The Trump shall sound with the Archangel’s Breath/…wake the Dead from Death Alludes to the literary tradition of the archangel Gabriel sounding a trumpet to welcome Christ back to Earth for the Last Judgement (see John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XI, ll. 72-76).  In the Biblical tradition, Gabriel is neither an archangel, not is it clear that he’s the trumpeter (see I Corinthians 15:52).

Source: Poems on Several Occasions, (3rd Edition) (London, 1753), pp. 49-51. [Google Books]

 Edited by Noelle Gallagher

[Charlotte Lennox], “A Song”

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                                 [CHARLOTTE LENNOX]

                                         “A Song”

I.

In Vain I strive with Female Art,
To hide the Motions of my Heart;
My Eyes my secret Flame declare,
And Damon reads his Triumph there.

II.

When from his fond, his ardent Gaze,                             5
With Frowns I turn aside my Face;
My Cheeks with conscious Blushes glow,
And all my Soul’s Disorder show.

III.

Or when with seeming Scorn I hear
The Youth his tender vows prefer;                                    10
From my fond Breast reluctant steals
A sign, and all the Truth reveal.

IV.

Oh, Love, all-powerful  o’er the Mind,
Art thou, to rigid rules confin’d?
And must the heart that owns thy sway,                          15
That Tyrant Customs Laws obey?

V.

Oh! let me break the cruel Chain,
And freely own my tender Pain:
By harsh Restraint no longer sway’d,
Confirm whate’er my Eyes have said.                                 20

NOTES:

 1 Female Art Artifice; “the action of an artificer; the making of something by art or skill (OED).

4 Damon A male figure from Greek mythology that represents a good friend, mate, or cherub (Johnson).

16 Tyrant Customs Laws Laws that are based on traditional, or customary practice; habitual behavior. Often personified by women poets in this period as a “tyrant” because oppressive to women generally.

Source: Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1747), pp. 56-60. [Google Books]

Edited by Larica Fantasia Jacko

[Mary Barber], “To a Lady, who invited the Author into the Country”

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[MARY BARBER]

“To a Lady, who invited the Author into the Country”

HOW gladly, Madam, would I go,
To see your Gardens, and Chateau;
From thence the fine Improvements view,
Or walk your verdant Avenue;
Delighted, hear the Thrushes sing,                                              5
Or listen to some bubbling Spring;
If Fate had giv’n me Leave to roam!
But Citizens must stay at Home.

WE’RE lonesome since you went away,
And should be dead –– but for our Tea;                                     10
That Helicon of female Wits;
Which fills their Heads with rhyming Fits!
This Liquor seldom heats the Brain,
But turns it oft, and makes us vain;
With Fumes supplies Imagination,                                              15
Which we mistake for Inspiration.
This makes us cramp our Sense in Fetters,
And teaze our Friends with chiming Letters.

I GRIEVE your Brother has the Gout;
Tho’ he’s so stoically stout,                                                            20
I’ve heard him mourn his Loss of Pain,
And wish it in his Feet again.
What Woe poor Mortals must endure,
When Anguish is their only Cure!

STREPHON is ill; and I perceive                                                      25
His lov’d Elvira grows so grave,
I fear, like Niobe, her Moan
Will turn herself and me to Stone.
Have I not cause to dread this Fate,
Who scarce so much as smile of late?                                         30

WHILST lovely landscapes you survey,
And peaceful pass your Hours away,
Refresh’d with various blooming Sweets;
I’m sick of Smells and dirty Streets,
Stifled with Smoke, and stunn’d with Noise                               35
Of ev’ry Thing —- but my own Boys;
Thro’ Rounds of plodding doom’d to run,
And very seldom see the Sun:
Yet sometimes pow’rful Fancy reigns,
And glads my Eyes with sylvan Scenes;                                      40
Where Time, enamour’d, slacks his Pace,
Enchanted by the warbling Race;
And, in Atonement for his Stay,
Thro’ Cities hurries on the Day.

O! WOULD kind Heav’n reverse my Fate,                                   45
Give me to quit a Life I hate,
To flow’ry Fields I soon would fly:
Let others stay —- to cheat and lye.
There, in some blissful Solitude,
Where eating Care should ne’er intrude,                                    50
The Muse should do the Country Right,
And paint the glorious Scenes you slight.

Dublin, 1728

NOTES:

2 Chateau A stately residence or estate.

8 Citizens In this context, city-dwellers.

11 Helicon “Name of a mountain once sacred to the Muses from Greek mythology, often used allusively in reference to poetic inspiration” (OED).

17 Fetters “Anything that confines, impedes, or restrains; a check, restraint” (OED).

19 Gout “A specific constitutional disease occurring in fits, usually hereditary and in male subjects; characterized by painful inflammation of the smaller joints” (OED).

25 Strephon Common masculine name used for male lover in pastoral poetry (Encyclopedia Britannica).

26 Elvira A proper feminine name of Germanic origin (Online Dictionary).

27 Niobe “Of ancient Greek origin refers to an inconsolably bereaved woman, a weeping woman” (OED).

40 sylvan Relating to a wood or woods (Johnson).

Source: Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1735), pp.135-38. [Hathi Trust]

Edited by Ashley-Nicole Cortez

Anonymous, “A Picture taken from the Life”

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ANONYMOUS

 “A PICTURE taken from the LIFE”

 NATURE and Fortune one day meeting
Each other hail’d with courteous greeting.
And Fortune first, “Where have you been,
Sister! that you’re so seldom seen?
What youth, or what romantic fair,                                              5
Is now the object of your care?”
Nature reply’d, with accent grave,
“A fav’rite charge indeed I have.
A maid with every virtue grac’d,
Is in a calm retirement plac’d.                                                      10
Her heart with goodness is replete,
Her wit is keen, her temper sweet.
Good-humour brightens ev’ry feature;
She is a most engaging creature.”
“Indeed, cries Fortune, with a sneer,                                  15
You know not what you say, my dear.
You cannot think, in these our days,
Virtue a modern female’s praise.
Send her to me, and I’ll engage
Three months shall fit her for the age.                                      20
The glare of dress, the charms of play,
Shall chace her sober thoughts away.
Wealth and ambition shall combine
To make this fair-one wholly mine.”
Says Nature, “You have my permission,                              25
But it must be on this condition:
If, as I trust, she shall refine,
And from temptation brighter shine,
To me henceforth you’ll quit the field,
And Fortune shall to Nature yield.”                                             30
Things thus agreed, th’ accomplish’d maid
To distant regions is convey’d.
Drawn from her scene of private life,
The virgin soon became a wife:
Her consort’s brow, with laurel crown’d,                                    35
In chains the vanquish’d Nabob bound:
Like Philip’s son in warlike state,
Thrice conquer’d India, owns him great.
Returning home, what triumphs rise!
Enough to dazzle female eyes:                                                    40
His riches Poland’s crown would buy,
His glories with his riches vie.
Fortune enrag’d, to Nature hies,
“I thought your paragon was wise;
Sure such a mother, such a wife,                                                45
Was never seen in courtly life.
When I bestow’d a son and heir,
I never dreamt ‘twould be her care,
That he not only should inherit
His father’s fortune, but his merit.                                              50
She’d rather wipe the widow’s tears,
Than wear a province at her ears.”
Nature reply’d, “The contest end,
Be Fortune once true Virtue’s friend:
And let it be our mutual care                                                        55
To bless thro’ life this matchless pair.
From us they must their joys derive:
Nature and Fortune join for CLIVE.”

NOTES:

36 Vanquished Nabob A reference to Indian vassals under British rule.

37 Philip’s son A reference to Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC), who ruled Macedonia and conquered a large amount of land stretching from eastern Europe into Asia.

38 Thrice conquer’d India Reference to the exploits of Robert Clive (1725-1774), known as “Clive of India,” who established British colonial power in India.

58 CLIVE This final statement implies that Robert Clive was the embodiment of all the best virtues given by Nature and Fortune.

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (February, 1780), p. 91.

Edited by Serena McNair

Mary Leapor, “The Genius in Disguise”

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MARY LEAPOR
“The Genius in Disguise”

As I Fidelia and my Sire,
Sat musing o’er a smoky Fire,
We heard a Knocking at the Door,
Rise, something is the Matter sure.
The little Turret seem’d to quake,                              5
The Shelves, the Chairs and Tables shake;
Fidelia cries, O, what’s the Matter?
And Mira’s Teeth began to chatter:
The frighted Door (as what could choose)
Flew open (pray believe the Muse)                           10
A hollow Voice for Entrance calls,
And soon – Although the dirty Walls
Were stain’d with Ignorance and Sin
Yet Mira’s Genius ventur’d in,
Not in a Cherub’s Form enshrin’d,                             15
Nor in the shape of human kind:
But Locks and Hinges round him glow,
In Figure like a neat Buroe;
Like Brambles in a thorny Gap
Stood Mira’s Hair beneath her Cap:                           20
Her frighted Senses gone astray,
She bent her Knees in act to pray;
But the presuming Priest drew near
As void of Piety as Fear,
And by its Side undaunted stood,                              25
And wou’d persuade us it was Wood:
With Rev’rence then we did presume
To place him in the little Room;
The Priest excluded with the rest,
The Stranger Mira thus address’d,                             30
(Tho’ shaking with Surprise and Fear)
‘O say what Power sent thee here,
‘Not Fortune, for I ne’er cou’d see
‘As yet her Favours bent on me:
‘Nor Chance although we often find                           35
‘She governs most of human kind;
‘Or can, against the Maid’s Desire,
‘Throw Madam’s Caudle in the Fire;
‘Can light a Candle, or can miss,
‘She never brought a thing like this.                            40

This said, pale Mira gazing stood,
And thus reply’d the seeming Wood;
‘Canst thou behold me and not find
‘The Picture of the Giver’s Mind?
‘Behold the Lock and shining Key,                            45
‘That ne’er its Mistress shall betray,
‘Not blemish’d with a Spot of Rust,
‘And always faithful to its Trust.

‘The rest may be to you consign’d,
‘For in this narrow Space you’ll find                           50
‘No Emblem large enough to fit
‘Her Bounty, Judgment, and her Wit.

‘But, Mira, since I have begun,
‘The Thread of my Discourse shall run,
‘Explaining how I am to you                                      55
‘A Monitor and Table too.
‘My hollow Spaces you may fill
‘With all your Verses good and ill;
‘One small one for your Wit may do,
‘But then your Faults will take up two.                     60
‘And from the rest I pray exclude
‘One sacred Place for Gratitude:
‘And what our Patron yours and mine
‘Shall to my trusty Care consign,
‘For those lov’d Strangers I’ll secure                          65
‘The Closest with its tiny Door.

‘And now I’ve prattl’d long, my Dear,
‘Yet you are list’ning still to hear,
‘Expecting that I shou’d supply
‘At once Advice and Prophesy;                                 70
‘But that’s not right for me nor you
‘To dive so deeply – tho’, ‘tis true,
‘Without Divining I can see
‘You’ll ne’er deserve the Gift of me:
‘More wou’d you know – why, may be then            75
‘Within these Mornings nine or ten,
‘Propitious Jet may trudge before,
‘And lead his Mistress to your Door;
‘And when the Sun (whose distant Wheels
‘But faintly warm the icy Fields)                               80
‘Shall gild your Cot with brighter Ray,
‘I hope to see her ev’ry Day.

‘But turn away thy stedfast Eyes,
‘That stare so ghastly with Surprise:
‘Go seek your Pillow and be still,                              85
‘And dream of me or what you will.

‘This said (which Mira hop’d was true)
‘The Lid shut up, and cries Adieu.”
Then gave a Crack, and spoke no more,
And all was silent as before.                                      90

 

NOTES:

5 Turret  A room or chamber (OED).

8 Mira Mary Leapor’s poetic name for herself.

15 Cherub’s Form A winged being or symbolic representations often mentioned throughout the Bible (OED).

18 Buroe A chest of drawers (OED).

26 Wood “A Hebrew word which designates a certain type of idol throughout the context of the Bible” (OED).

38 Caudle A warm drink of thin gruel usually mixed with wine, often given to sick people, usually women (OED).

51 Emblem Heroic device or symbolic object (OED).

62 sacred Place for Gratitude Biblical allusion centered on finding light amidst the darkness (Oxford Scholarship Online).

77 Jet Name for a dog (OED).

81 Cot A small house (OED).

88 Adieu To take one’s leave (OED).

Source: Poems Upon Several Occasions (1748), 131-135. [Google Books]

Edited by Magdalena Becerra

Anonymous, “A Simile for the contending Poets at Dublin”

ANONYMOUS

“A Simile for the contending Poets at Dublin”

 

So, in the streets, when trollops jar,
Contending high in wordy war;
With burning ire their venom fries,
Reproach and clamour rend the skies,
The hubbub fell, is heard aloud,                                       5
And round them rakes a blackguard crowd;
With scornfull hiss, the list’ning rabble,
And laughter loud, foment the squabble,
With fiercer rage, their sound inspire
To keener lust of vengeance fire;                                      10
Fresh peals of spite tumultuous rise,
New Billingsgate in vollies flies,
Foul on each other’s fame, they fall,
‘Till each leaves either, none at all.
And when th’inglorious rout expires,                                 15
Hiss’d, rail’d, and laught at, each retires.

NOTES:

1 trollops A “morally loose woman,” especially suggesting slovenly dress and manners (OED).

2 Jar To make unpleasantly loud and inharmonious noises. To abruptly and violently effect, as in a fight.

6 blackguard A person, generally a man, who behaves in a dishonorable or otherwise despicable way (OED).

8 foment To encourage, incite or instigate.

12 Billingsgate Originally a fish market in London infamous for the vitriolic language of its fishmongers, at some point the term came to denote verbal abuse in general (OED). 

16 rail’d Verbally attacked.

Source: The Gentlemen’s Magazine, Vol. 5 (January 1735), p. 48.

Edited by Joseph Watkins