Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Volume 1, The Ninth Edition/Sonnet XIX
SONNET XIX.
TO MR. HAYLEY,
ON RECEIVING SOME ELEGANT LINES FROM HIM.
FOR me the Muse a simple band design'd
Of 'idle' flowers that bloom the woods among,
Which, with the cypress and the willow join'd,
A garland form'd as artless as my song.
And little dared I hope its transient hours
So long would last; composed of buds so brief;
'Till Hayley's hand among the vagrant flowers
Threw from his verdant crown a deathless leaf.
For high in Fame's bright fane has Judgment placed
The laurel wreath Serena's poet won,
Which, woven with myrtles by the hands of Taste,
The Muse decreed for this her favorite son.
And those immortal leaves his temples shade,
Whose fair, eternal verdure—shall not fade!