Poems on Several Occasions

Have left on long record of woman's rife,
What morals teach it, and what fables hide,
What Author wrote it, how that Author dy'd,
All thefe I fing. In Greece they fram'd the tale;
(In Greece 'twas thought, a woman might be frail)
Ye modern Beauties! where the Poet drew
His fofteft pencil, think he dream'd of you;
And warn'd by him, ye wanton pens, beware
How heav'n's concern❜d to vindicate the Fair.
The cafe was Hefiod's; he the fable writ;
Some think with meaning, fome with idle wit:

B 5

Perhaps

Perhaps 'tis either, as the Ladies please ;
I wave the contest, and commence the lays.

In days of yore, (no matter where or when,
'Twas ere the low creation fwarm'd with men)
That one Prometheus, fprung of heavenly birth,
(Our Author's fong can witness) liv'd on earth.
He carv'd the turf to mold a manly frame,
And ftole from Jove his animating flame.
The fly contrivance o'er Olympus ran,
When thus the monarch of the stars began.

Oh vers'd in arts! whofe daring thoughts aspire,
To kindle clay with never-dying fire!
Enjoy thy glory past, that gift was thine;

The next thy creature meets, be fairly mine:
And fuch a gift, a vengeance so defign'd,
As fuits the counsel of a God to find ;
A pleafing bofom-cheat, a specious ill,
Which felt they curse, yet covet still to feel.
He said, and Vulcan strait the Sire commands,
To temper mortar with etherial hands;

In such a shape to mold á rifing Fair,
As virgin goddesses are proud to wear ;
To make her eyes with diamond-water fhine,
And form. her organs for a voice divine.
'Twas thus the Sire ordain'd; the Pow'r obey'd;
And work'd, and wonder'd at the work he made ;
The faireft, fofteft, fweeteft frame beneath,
Now made to feem, now more than seem to breathe.

As Vulcan ends, the chearful Queen of charms.
Clafp'd the new-panting creature in her arms;
From that embrace à fine complexion spread,
Where mingled whitenefs glow'd with softer red.
Then in a kifs fhe breath'd her various arts,
Of trifling prettily with wounded hearts;
A mind for love, but still a changing mind;
The lifp affected, and the glance defign'd;
The sweet confusing blush, the secret wink,
The gentle-swimming walk, the courteous fink,
The ftare for ftrangenefs fit, for fcorn the frown,
For decent yielding, looks declining down,

The

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