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[Page 52]
Pitfirren, September —
EVENING.
Begs of a Painter to do justice to the following Groupe: — The beautiful Maria** Lady H — tt. with her two Infants, a Boy and a Girl. — One of them clinging round her Mother's neck at bed-time, near falls from her keeper's arms.
1 PRoud thus to wait, — each colour to prepare,
2 But wants the art — to paint the blooming fair.
3 Around her neck, in innocence she smiles,
4 And fondly — hides herself in infant wiles.
5 The maid obsequious — scarcely in her arms,
6 Restrains the babe — her slender hold alarms.
7 Choose then this groupe, dispos'd by softest shades
8 And playful win them to their evening beds.
[Page 53]9 But how the mind — the mother to express?
10 Who fondly folds her infant to her breast.
11 A vain attempt — a figure far too fine —
12 A Raphael's hand could scarcely trace each line.
13 Steal fancy lightly — scarce the curtain by,
14 Nor breathe while sleep — the babes in slumber lie;
15 To the first cause let innocence my mind.
16 How moves the babe? — who forms the human kind.
17 They wake — the light — how joyfully he gues,
18 While fancy hovers as the two she views,
Source edition
Carstairs, Christian. Original Poems. By a Lady, Dedicated to Miss Ann Henderson. A Tribute to Gratitude and Friendships. Edinburgh: Andrew Shortrede, 1786, pp. 52-53. (ESTC T76883) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 680].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by ‘Christian Carstairs’
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- A DREAM. ()
- Earl of ELGIN's death. ()
- EPITAPH. ()
- EPITAPH. ()
- EPITAPH. For Alexander Wedderburn, Esq; St Germains. ()
- FALSEHOOD — TRUTH ()
- Impudence caressed — Merit neglected. ()
- [In a triumphal car] ()
- [IN shades! to pass the summer day] ()
- A Lady in the Character of a Nymph. To the Corsican Warrior at Shakespeare's Jubilee. ()
- A NEW YEAR's GIFT. ()
- On seeing Lady H— after the Death of a favourite Daughter. ()
- On the arrival of the Ship from Messina in the Island of Sicily, with the Corple of the late Earl of Morton. ()
- On the Death of André. ()
- [OUR Scottish dames for virtue still be fam'd;] ()
- PASTORAL. ()
- [QUEEN MARY.] ()
- [Scarce a breeze on the lake, with four oars to our boat;] ()
- A SONG, to the Tune of “Here awa, there awa.” ()
- SONG. ()
- The three following beautiful Stanzas by Miss A. H. to the Author. ()
- To a Brother of the Author's. ()
- To a young Lady who was going to India. ()
- To Lady H—n. ()
- To Miss A. H—. ()
- To Miss M— B. ()
- To — Esq; Member of the Capillaire Club. ()
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- Wrote as if repeated extempore by a Gentleman, occasioned by a Miniature Picture of a Lady being put up as a But to shoot at in Germany the time of the last war. ()
- Wrote some Months after the Accounts of my Brother's Death, who was killed in Action, July 1st 1763, near to Patna in Bengal. ()
- Wrote the week before my Father was to be informed of my Brother's death. ()