ODE L. CONTRAST To the Foregoing ODE TO WISDOM. Now see my Goddess, earthly born, With smiling looks, and sparkling eyes, And with a bloom that shames the morn New risen in the eastern skies! Furnish'd from Nature's boundless store, She proves all far-sought knowledge vain, Untaught as Venus, when she found And unaccomplish'd all as Eve In the first morning of her life, Yet there is something in her face, Tho' she's unread in Plato's lore, Might bring even Plato to disgrace, For leaving precepts taught before: And there is magic in her eye, Tho' she's unskill'd to conjure down The pale moon from th' affrighted sky, Would draw Endymion from the moon : And there are words that she can speak, More sweet than all the heathen Greek And she has raptures in her power, Let me but kiss her soft warm hand, What Knowledge would not understand, And let her listen to my tale, And let one smiling blush arise, Best omen that my vows prevail ! I'll scorn the scorn of all the wise. |