New-York, Nov. 9th, 1796.
[[The quoted words “her ample page” are from Gray’s _Elegy_.]]
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THE SEASON OF DELIGHT,
A SONG.
Recitative.
Once, happy as the playful fawn,
Which tastes no sorrow, knows no care,
Fair Mira’s heart was pleasure’s throne,
Till love usurp’d dominion there:
Then oft its cares employ’d her tongue,
And thus the alter’d Mira sung.
Air.
In youth, gay season of delight!
How sweetly glide the hours along;
Joy, mirth, and innocence unite,
To prompt the care-untainted song.
Yet e’en in youth a danger lies,
For then the tend’rest passions move,
Destructive to our sportive joys,
Which fly before the cares of love.
Thus oft beneath the smoothest seas,
Where scarce an eddy plays around;
Obedient to the flutt’ring breeze,
The unsuspected rock is found.
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SONNET
TO HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.
Enchanting Williams! Nature’s darling child,
Foster’d by Genius, and matur’d by Taste,
Who kindly on thy earliest efforts smil’d,
And with their choicest gifts thy fancy grac’d:
Gave thee a pow’r to steal upon the soul,
Mild as descend the evening’s dewy stores,
And yet resistless as the waves that roll
O’er ocean’s bed, when loud the tempest roars.
Taught thee to form, beyond the pow’r of art,
The tale that, as it melts, amends the heart--
The tale that, spite of Envy’s self shall live,
Blest with th’ approving Critic’s smile benign;
For O! dear maid, ’tis thine alone to give
To energetic force a grace divine.
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