Love and Gratitude: Or, The Paralell; A Lyrical ODE, taken from a Chapter in the famous Italian Boccace.
IN Old Italian Tales we read
A Youth, by Riot, and fond Love undone,
Had yet a Faulcon left of famous Breed,
His sole Companion in his fatal Need,
And chief Diversion when he left the Town.
The Saint that did his Soul possess,
Touch'd with a generous Sense of his Distress,
Made him a Visit at his poor Retreat,
Whom his Heart nobly feasted, but alas,
His empty Purse could get;
Nothing was good enough for her to eat:
'Till rack'd with shame, and a long fruitless Search;
He, more to make his perfect Love appear,
His darling Hawk snatch'd from the Pearch,
And dress'd it for his Dear;
Which generous Act did so entirely gain her,
She gave him all her Love and Wealth,
And nobly paid her Entertainer.
PARALELL.
So when my Love, with Fate at Strife,
In hope was lost to gain the Fair,
And Nature's darling Hawk, my Life,
Was doom'd a Feast for sad Despair.
Divine Olympia chang'd the sad Decree,
And with infallible Divinity,
Gave a new Being to my Soul and me.
