A Celebration of Women Writers

"Verses Written in an Alcove." by Anna Lætitia Barbauld (1743 - 1825)

Publication: Poems. by Anna Lætitia Aikin. London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1773. (Third edition, corrected.) pp. 33-36.

Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom

[Page 33]

VERSES written in an Alcove.

Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus imminente Luna.
                                HORAT.
NOW the moon-beam's trembling lustre
  Silvers o'er the dewy green,
And in soft and shadowy colours
  Sweetly paints the chequer'd scene.

Here between the opening branches
  Streams a flood of soften'd light;
There the thick and twisted foliage
  Spreads the browner gloom of night.

[Page 34]

This is sure the haunt of fairies,
  In yon cool alcove they play;
Care can never cross the threshold,
  Care was only made for day.

Far from hence be noisy clamour,
  Sick disgust and anxious fear;
Pining grief and wasting anguish
  Never keep their vigils here.

Tell no tales of sheeted spectres
  Rising from the quiet tomb;
Fairer forms this cell shall visit,
  Brighter visions gild the gloom.

Choral songs and sprightly voices
  Echo from her cell shall call;
Sweeter, sweeter than the murmur
  Of the distant water-fall.

[Page 35]

Every ruder gust of passion
  Lull'd with music dies away,
Till within the charmed bosom
  None but soft affections play:

Soft, as when the evening breezes
  Gently stir the poplar grove;
Brighter than the smile of summer,
  Sweeter than the breath of love.

Thee, th' inchanted Muse shall follow,
  LISSY! to the rustic cell,
And each careless note repeating
  Tune them to her charming shell.

Not the Muse who wreath'd with laurel
  Solemn stalks with tragic gait,
And in clear and lofty vision
  Sees the future births of fate;

[Page 36]

Not the maid who crown'd with cypress
  Sweeps along in sceptr'd pall,
And in sad and solemn accents
  Mourns the crested hero's fall;

But that other smiling sister,
  With the blue and laughing eye,
Singing, in a lighter measure,
  Strains of woodland harmony:

All unknown to fame and glory,
  Easy, blithe and debonair,
Crown'd with flowers, her careless tresses
  Loosely floating on the air.

Then, when next the star of evening
  Softly sheds the silent dew,
Let me in this rustic temple,
  LISSY! meet the Muse and you.

[Page 37]

Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom