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TO LADY ANNE FITZPATRICK, WHEN ABOUT FIVE YEARS OLD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O nymph, compar'd with whose young bloom / hebe's herself an ancient fright
Last Line: —and some years hence he'll send the rest.
Alternate Author Name(s): Orford, 4th Earl Of
Subject(s): Children; Mothers; Sea; Shells; Toys; Youth; Childhood; Ocean; Conchology


O NYMPH, compared with whose young bloom
Hebe's herself an ancient fright;
May these gay shells find grace and room
Both in your baby-house and sight!
'Shells! What are shells?' you ask, admiring
With stare half pleasure half surprise;
And fly with nature's art, enquiring
In dear mamma's all-speaking eyes.
Shells, fairest Anne, are playthings, made
By a brave god called Father Ocean,
Whose frown from pole to pole's obeyed,
Commands the waves, and stills their motion.
From that old sire a daughter came,
As like mamma as blue to blue;
And, like mamma, the sea-born dame
An urchin bore, not unlike you.
For him fond grand-papa compels
The floods to furnish such a state
Of corals and of cockleshells,
Would turn a little lady's pate.
The chit has tons of baubles more;
His nurs'ry's stuffed with doves and sparrows;
And littered is its azure floor
With painted quivers, bows and arrows.
Spread, spread your frock; you must be friends;
His toys shall fill your lap and breast:
Today the boy this sample sends,
—And some years hence he'll send the rest.





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