The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne/79
TO THE
COUNTESS OF NEWBOURGH,
Inſiſting earneſtly to be told who I meant by Mira.
With Mira’s charms, and my extreme deſpair,
Long had my Muſe amuz’d the reader’s ear,
My friends with pity heard the mournful ſound,
And all inquir’d from whence the fatal wound;
Th’ aſtoniſh’d world beheld an endleſs flame,5
Ne’er to be quench’d, unknowing whence it came:
So ſcatter’d fire from ſcorch’d Veſuvius flies,
Unknown the ſource from whence thoſe flames ariſe.
Egyptian Nile ſo ſpreads its waters round,
O’erflowing far and near, its head unſound.10
Mira herſelf, touch’d with the moving ſong,
Would needs be told to whom thoſe plaints belong;
My tim’rous tongue, not daring to confeſs,
Trembling to name, would fain have had her gueſs:
Impatient of excuſe ſhe urges ſtill,15
Perſiſts in her demand; ſhe must, ſhe will:
If ſilent, I am threaten’d with her hate;
If I obey—ah! what may be my fate?
Uncertain to conceal or to unfold,
She ſmiles—the goddeſs ſmiles!—and I grow bold.20
My vows to Mira all were meant to thee,
The praiſe, the love, the matchleſs conſtancy.
’T was thus of old, when all th’ immortal dames
Were grac’d by poets each with ſev’ral names;
For Venus Cytherea was invok’d,25
Altars for Pallas to Tritonia ſmok’d:
Such names were theirs; and thou, the moſt divine,
Moſt lov’d, of heav’nly beauties—Mira ’s thine.28