The Rolliad, in Two Parts / Probationary Odes for the Laureatship & Political Eclogues

O! green-rob'd Goddess of the hallow'd shade,

Daughter of Jove, to whom of yore

Thee, lovely maid, Latona bore,

Chaste virgin, Empress of the silent glade!

Where shall I woo thee?-Ere the dawn,

While still the dewy tissue of the lawn

Quivering spangles to the eye,

And fills the soul with Nature's harmony!

Or 'mid that murky grove's monastic night,

The tangling net-work of the woodbine's gloom,

Each zephyr pregnant with perfume--

Or near that delving dale, or mossy mountain's height,

When Neptune struck the scientific ground.