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To the Snow Drop.

1

Fear thou no more the wintry storm, Sweet Flowret, blest by LAURA'S song: She gaz'd upon thy slender form, The mild Enchantress gaz'd so long; That trembling as she saw thee droop, Poor Trembler! o'er thy snowy bed, With imitation's sympathy She too inclin'd her head.

2

She droop'd her head, she stretch'd her arm, She whisper'd low her witching rhymes: A gentle Sylphid heard the charm, And bore thee to Pierian climes! Fear thou no more the sparkling Frost, The Tempest's Howl, the Fog-damp's gloom: For thus mid laurels evergreen Immortal thou shalt bloom!

3 [Stanza 2]

With eager [*feelings*] unreprov'd With [*steady eye and brooding thought*] Her eye with tearful meanings fraught, [*My Fancy saw her gaze at thee*] She gaz'd till all the body mov'd [*Till all the moving body caught,*] Interpreting, the Spirit's sympathy-- The Spirit's eager sympathy Now trembled with thy trembling stem, And while thou drooped'st o'er thy bed, With sweet unconscious sympathy Inclin'd { her [*portraiture*] { the drooping head. First draft of Stanzas 1-3. MS. S. T. C.

[357:1] The second stanza of Mrs. Robinson's ('Perdita') 'Ode to the Snow-drop' runs thus:

All weak and wan, with head inclin'd, Its parent-breast the drifted snow, It trembles, while the ruthless wind Bends its slim form; the tempest lowers, Its em'rald eye drops crystal show'rs On its cold bed below.

The Poetical Works of the late Mrs. Mary Robinson, 1806, i. 123.