ORIGIN OF SONG-WRITING.
63
And guide his young unpractis'd feet
To reach coy learning's lofty ſeat.
Ah, luckleſs hour! miſtaken maids!
When Cupid ſought the Muſe's ſhades:
Of their ſweeteſt notes beguil'd,
By the fly inſidious child,
Now of power his darts are found
Twice ten thouſand times to wound.
Now no more the ſlacken'd ſtrings
Breathe of high immortal things,
But Cupid tunes the Muſe's lyre
To languid notes of ſoft deſire.
In every clime, in every tongue,
'Tis love inſpires the poet's ſong:
Hence Sappho's ſoft infectious page;
Monimia's woe; Othello's rage;
Abandon'd Dido's fruitleſs prayer;
