Читать книгу The Biggest Curiosities of Literature - Disraeli Isaac - Страница 82

ADDRESSED TO LAURA, ENTREATING HER NOT TO PAINT, TO POWDER, OR TO GAME, BUT TO RETREAT INTO THE COUNTRY.

Ah, Laura! quit the noisy town,

And Fashion's persecuting reign:

Health wanders on the breezy down,

And Science on the silent plain.

How long from Art's reflected hues

Shalt thou a mimic charm receive?

Believe, my fair! the faithful muse,

They spoil the blush they cannot give.

Must ruthless art, with tortuous steel,

Thy artless locks of gold deface,

In serpent folds their charms conceal,

And spoil, at every touch, a grace.

Too sweet thy youth's enchanting bloom

To waste on midnight's sordid crews:

Let wrinkled age the night consume,

For age has but its hoards to lose.

Sacred to love and sweet repose,

Behold that trellis'd bower is nigh!

That bower the verdant walls enclose,

Safe from pursuing Scandal's eye.

There, as in every lock of gold

Some flower of pleasing hue I weave,

A goddess shall the muse behold,

And many a votive sigh shall heave.

So the rude Tartar's holy rite

A feeble MORTAL once array'd;

Then trembled in that mortal's sight,

And own'd DIVINE the power he MADE.68