Gazette Of The United States

LINES,
Written at Santa Cruz, in the Island of Teneriffe, and sent to DONNA ANTONIETTA DE R——. a Spanish young Lady.

BY PETER PINDAR, ESQ.

In the manner of Spenser.

BEHOLD in these lorn shades a damsel dwell;
I ween the fairest amongst all the fair;
A while doth Virtue bid her sky farewell,
To live with Silvia passing vile compare:
Eke Innocence doth leave her gentle bower above,
To join her gentle Sister of the grove.
Yet what availeth, beauteous maid, thy mien,
To mortals driven from thy dark retreat?
Ah! what thy sparkling eyne of peerless sheen,
Sith lovers are forbidden from thy seat!
Soothly of little value is the rose,
Whose bell unseen in dreary desert blows.
Soothly! the balms of Araby the blest
Are nought, if unenjoy'd their fragrant stream!
What is fair Luna in her silv'ry vest,
If ne'er she sheweth to the world her beam?
Then break like Luna from her cloud of night,
And glad us, lovely virgin, with thy light.
For thee the Poet heaveth sighs how deep!
Yet, yet unheard, they mingle with the wind;
Ah! Virgin, well my artless lays may weep,
Sith Spenser hapless plain'd for Rosalind;
Spenser whose sweet Song far surpasseth mine,
As Rosalinda's beauties yield to thine.
Yet trust me, fair one, I will verse indite,
And thou the subject of, to bring me praise;
Tho' love be cruel, yet for laud I'll write,
And immortality must crown my lays;
For sith thy charms so much delighted fame,
She'll suffer nought to die that holds thy name.