Constantia[33]

[On a Project of Retiring to Bethlehem]

Sick of the world, in prime of days Constantia took a serious fit-- Resolved to shun all balls and plays And only read what saints had writ-- To Convent Hall she would repair And be a pensive sister there.

"What are they all--this glare of things, These insects that around me shine; These beaux and belles on silken wings-- Indeed their pleasures make not mine-- My happiness is all delayed-- I'll go, and find it in the shade."

A sailor, loitering from his crew, As chance would have it, passed along-- She told him what she had in view, And he replied--"Fair maid you're wrong, "Let faded nymphs to cloisters go, "Where kisses freeze and love is snow.

"The druids' oak and hermits' pine "Afford a gloomy, sad delight; "But why that blush of health resign, "The mingled tint of red and white? "In moistening cells the flowers expire "That, on the plain, all eyes admire.

"With such a pensive, pious train "Who, but a hermit, could agree-- "Ah, rather stay to grace the plain, "Or wander on the wave with me: "For you the painted barque shall wait "And I would die for such a freight."

"No wandering stranger (she replied) "Can tempt me to forego my plan; "No barque that wafts him o'er the tide, "Nor many a better looking man: "Go, wanderer, plough your gloomy sea, "Constantia must a sister be.

"To gain so fair a flower as you, "(The Tar returned) who would not plead? "Nor shall you, nymph, to convents go "While love can write what you must read: "Come, to yon' meadow let us stray, "I have some handsome things to say."

"Love has its wish when reason fails-- "In vain he sighed, in vain he strove: "Forsake (said she) those swelling sails "If you would have me--think of love: "Great merit has your sailing art, "But absence would distract my heart."

What else was said, we secret keep;-- The Tar, grown fonder of the shore, Neglects his prospects on the deep, And she of convents talks no more:-- He slyly quits the coasting trade She pities her--who seeks the shade.

both in the Freeman's Journal and in the National Gazette. Text from the 1809 edition.