THE ORIGIN OF SONG-WRITING.
71
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;
Abandoned Dido's fruitless prayer;
And Eloisa's long despair;
The garland, blest with many a vow,
For haughty Sacharissa's brow;
And, washed with tears, the mournful verse
That Petrarch laid on Laura's herse.
But more than all the sister quire,
Music confessed the pleasing fire.
Here sovereign Cupid reigned alone;
Music and song were all his own.
Sweet, as in old Arcadian plains,
The British pipe has caught the strains:
