What introduces long-tailed similes; A preposition that to place agrees; A stately animal in forests bred, A tree that lifts on high its lofty head; What best unbinds the weary student's mind A beauteous fish in northern lakes we find; A grateful blemish on a soldier's breast:All these are in my single name exprest. RIDDLE. FROM rosy bowers we issue forth, From east to west, from south to north, Abroad we take our airy way : We foster love and kindle strife, The bitter and the sweet of life: Piercing and sharp, we wound like steel; Now, smooth as oil, those wounds we heal: Not strings of pearl are valued more, Or gems enchased in golden ore; Yet thousands of us every day, Worthless and vile, are thrown away. Ye wise, secure with bars of brass The double doors through which we pass; For, once escaped, back to our cell No human art can us compel. ENIGMA. TO THE LADIES. HARD is my stem and dry, no root is found The quickening power and strange effect is such, And from rude storms your tender frame defends: A hundred times, as struck with sudden blight, The spreading verdure withers to the sight. So soon to flourish, and so soon to fade. Unlike the Spring's gay race, I flourish most When groves and gardens all their bloom have lost; Lift my green head against the rattling hail, And brave the driving snows and freezing gale; Beneath my friendly shade together bend, And in the close-wove covert nearer press. But lately am I known to Britain's isle, Enough-You've guessed-I see it by your smile. RIDDL E. THIS creature, though extremely thin, In shape is almost square ; Has many heads, on which ne'er grew One single lock of hair. Yet several of their tribe there are, Of whom in truth it may be said In purer times, ere vice prevailed, The wholesome counsels that they gave, With reverence were heard. |