Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

To Miss ---,

who reliev'd a soldier fainting, in
his march to New-York.

When the faint warrior sigh'd and bow'd his head,

Stay fleeting life-- the lovely Sappho said,

This silver charm, brave youth, accept, arise,

While tears of pity veil'd her gen'rous eyes.--

Twas well the soft suffusion hid from sight

Those eyes that shine with such a dang'rous light,

Else, whom the sounds reviv'd, the looks had slain,

And e'en Apollo had prescrib'd in vain.

But now, new life the quick'ning sounds impart,

Unwonted vigour swells his glowing heart ;

The blood obedient to the mandate moves,

Strong beats each pulse, and firm the hero moves.

Yet here, fair nymph, without thy pow'r to save,

The force of art might disappoint the grave;

Oft from rich balms a cure the languid find,

Each part is free to med'cine, but the mind ;

Departed health salubrious herbs restore,

And pining sickness knows to waste no more,

But ills there are which you alone can cure,

And yet these ills, despairing, I endure ;

And shall thy bounty still refuse to heal

The wounds thy eyes have giv'n, the wounds I feel ?

In vain for aid to other charms I fly,

Still flows the silent tear, still heaves the sigh,

That tear a tear, that sigh a sigh succeeds,

And my fond soul to death, unpity'd, bleeds,

Oh ! form'd to bless, and grac'd with heav'nly charms,

Whose bosom thus a partial pity warms,

Say, whence, dear Sappho, this strange turn of mind ?

Say, why at once so cruel and so kind ?

Unask'd to give. and courted, to deny;

To bid the stranger live, the lover die !