MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

THE GIFT.

TO IRIS, IN BOW STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

My heart, a victim to thine eyes,
Should I at once deliver,

Say, would the angry fair one prize
The gift, who slights the giver?

A bill, a jewel, watch, or toy,
My rivals give and let 'em ;
If gems or gold impart a joy,
I'll give them-when I get 'em.

I'll give but not the full-blown rose,
Or rose-bud, more in fashion;
Such short-lived off rings but disclose
A transitory passion.

I'll give thee something yet unpaid,
Not less sincere than civil;

I'll give thee—ah, too charming maid!
I'll give thee--to the devil.

I

VERSES IN REPLY TO AN INVITATION TO

DINNER AT DR. BAKER'S.

"This is a poem! This is a copy of verses!

YOUR

You may all go to pot;

Had your senses been right,
You'd have sent before night;
As I hope to be saved,
I put off being shaved ;
For I could not make bold,
While the matter was cold,
To meddle in suds,

Or to put on my duds;
So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,
And Baker and his bit,
And Kauffman beside,
And the Jessamy bride,*
With the rest of the crew,
The Reynoldses two,

Little Comedy's + face,

And the captain in lace.‡

(By the bye you may tell him,

I've something to sell him;

Of use I insist,

When he comes to enlist.

Your worships must know

That a few days ago,

An order went out,

For the foot guards so stout

"

* Miss Mary Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Gwyn.
+ Miss Catherine Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Bunbury.
Ensign (afterwards General) Horneck.

To wear tails in high taste
Twelve inches at least ;
Now I've got him a scale
To measure each tail,
To lengthen a short tail,
And a long one to curtail.)

Yet how can I when vext,
Thus stray from my text?
Tell each other to rue
Your Devonshire crew,
For sending so late
To one of my state.
But 'tis Reynolds's way
From wisdom to stray,
And Angelica's whim
To be frolic like him,

But alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser,
When both have been spoiled in to-day's Advertiser ?

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

LETTER, IN PROSE AND VERSE, TO

MRS. BUNBURY.

[A reply to a rhyming letter, asking the poet to pay them a visit at Barton, their country seat in Suffolk.]

MADAM :

I read your letter with all that allowance which critical candour could require, but after all find so much to object to, and so much to raise my indignation, that I cannot help giving it a serious answer. I am not so ignorant, Madam, as not to see there are many sarcasms contained in it, and solecisms also, (solecism is a word that comes from the town of Soleis, in Attica, among the Greeks, built by Solon, and applied