| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. To Anna Louisa, on Her Ode to Fancy | | By Robert Treat Paine (1773–1811) |
| | | SAY, child of Phœbus and the eldest Grace, | |
| Whose lyre melodious, and enchanting face, | |
| The blended title of thy birth proclaim; | |
| Say, lovely Naiad of Castalia’s streams, | |
| Why thus thy Muse on Fiction’s pillow dreams, | 5 |
| And fondly wooes the rainbow-mantled Dame? | |
| When stern Misfortune, with her Gorgon frown, | |
| Congeals the fairy face of Bliss to stone, | |
| Hope to the horns of Fancy’s altar flies; | |
| But what gay nun would seek asylum there, | 10 |
| When Beauty, Love, and Fortune crown the fair, | |
| And Hymen’s temple greets her raptured eyes? | |
| Then haste, sweet Nymph, to bless the ardent youth; | |
| Then, Fancy, “blush to be excelled by Truth.” | | | | |
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