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. "