THE INVITATION TO A ROBIN

D

RED-BREAST.

OMESTIC bird, whom wintry blasts To seek for human aid compel, To me for warmth and shelter fly, Welcome beneath my roof to dwell: Supplies, thy hunger to relieve,

I'll daily at my window lay, Assured that daily those supplies With grateful song thou wilt repay.

Soon as the new-returning spring

Shall call thee forth to woods and groves,

Freely revisit then the scene,

Which notes as sweet as thine approves :

But if another winter's blast

Should bring me back my guest again,

Again with music come prepared
Thy friendly host to entertain.

AD RUBECULAM, INVITATIO.*

HOSPH

OSPES avis, conviva domo gratissima cuivis,

Quam bruma humanam quærere cogit opem, Huc O! hyberni fugias ut frigora cœli, Confuge, et incolumis sub lare vive meo: Unde tuam esuriem releves, alimenta fenestræ Apponam, quoties itque reditque dies; Usu etenim edidici, quòd grato alimenta rependes Cantu, quæ dederit cunque benigna manus.

Vere novo, tepidæ spirant cum molliter auræ,
Et 1suus in quavis arbore vernat honos,
Pro libitu ad lucos redeas, sylvasque revisas,
Læta quibus resonat musica parque tuæ:
Sin iterum, sin forte iterum, inclementia brumæ
Ad mea dilectam tecta reducat avem,

Esto, redux, grato memor esto rependere cantu

Pabula, quæ dederit cunque benigna manus.

* This Poem first appeared in the Appendix to ed. 3. 1743, p. 241.

1 Novus. Ed. 3.

62

ROBIN-RED-BREAST'S INVITATION.

The sacred power of harmony

In this its best effect appears,
That friendship in the strictest bands
It both engages and endears.
In music's ravishing delights

You feather'd race with men agree;

Of all the animated world

The only harmonists are we.

AD RUBECULAM INVITATIO.

63

Vis hinc harmoniæ, numerorum hinc sacra po

testas

Conspicitur, nusquam conspicienda magis; Vincula quòd stabilis firmissima nectit amoris, Vincula vix longâ dissocianda die.

Captat et incantat blando oblectamine musa Humanum pariter pennigerumque genus; Nos homines et aves, quotcunque 1animalia vi

vunt,

Nos soli, harmoniæ gens

studiosa sumus.

1 Animantia. Ed. 3.

THE SNOWDROP.

ITH head reclined, the snowdrop see;

WIT

The first of Flora's progeny,

In virgin modesty appear,

To hail and welcome in the year!

Fearless of winter, it defies
The rigour of inclement skies,
And early hastens forth to bring
The tidings of approaching spring.

Though simple in its dress and plain,
It ushers in a beauteous train;
And claims, how gaudy e'er they be,
The merit of precedency.

All that the gay or sweet compose,
The pink, the violet, and the rose,
In fair succession as they blow,
Their glories to the snowdrop owe.