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To Mrs. S. W.
I. ADIEU, New-England’s smiling meads, | |
| Adieu, the flow’ry plain: | |
| I leave thine op’ning charms, O spring, | |
| And tempt the roaring main. | |
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II. In vain for me the flow’rets rise, | 5 |
| And boast their gaudy pride, | |
| While here beneath the northern skies | |
| I mourn for health deny’d. | |
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III. Celestial maid of rosy hue, | |
| O let me feel thy reign! | 10 |
| I languish till thy face I view, | |
| Thy vanish’d joys regain. | |
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IV. Susannah mourns, nor can I bear | |
| To see the crystal show’r, | |
| Or mark the tender falling tear | 15 |
| At sad departure’s hour; | |
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V. Not unregarding can I see | |
| Her soul with grief opprest: | |
| But let no sighs, no groans for me, | |
| Steal from her pensive breast. | 20 |
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VI. In vain the feather’d warblers sing, | |
| In vain the garden blooms, | |
| And on the bosom of the spring | |
| Breathes out her sweet perfumes, | |
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VII. While for Britannia’s distant shore | 25 |
| We sweep the liquid plain, | |
| And with astonish’d eyes explore | |
| The wide-extended main. | |
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VIII. Lo! Health appears! celestial dame! | |
| Complacent and serene, | 30 |
| With Hebe’s mantle o’er her Frame, | |
| With soul-delighting mein. | |
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IX. To mark the vale where London lies | |
| With misty vapours crown’d, | |
| Which cloud Aurora’s thousand dyes, | 35 |
| And veil her charms around, | |
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X. Why, Phœbus, moves thy car so slow? | |
| So slow thy rising ray? | |
| Give us the famous town to view, | |
| Thou glorious king of day! | 40 |
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XI. For thee, Britannia, I resign | |
| New-England’s smiling fields; | |
| To view again her charms divine, | |
| What joy the prospect yields! | |
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XII. But thou! Temptation hence away, | 45 |
| With all thy fatal train | |
| Nor once seduce my soul away, | |
| By thine enchanting strain. | |
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XIII. Thrice happy they, whose heav’nly shield | |
| Secures their souls from harms, | 50 |
| And fell Temptation on the field | |
Of all its pow’r disarms!
Boston, May 7, 1773. | |
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