Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend
In measured verse I’ll now rehearse The charms of lovely Anna: And, first, her mind is unconfined Like any vast savannah. Ontario’s lake may fitly speak Her fancy’s ample bound: Its circuit may, on strict survey Five hundred miles be found. Her wit descends on foes and friends Like famed Niagara’s fall; And travellers gaze in wild amaze, And listen, one and all. Her judgment sound, thick, black, profound, Like transatlantic groves, Dispenses aid, and friendly shade To all that in it roves. If thus her mind to be defined America exhausts, And all that’s grand in that great land In similes it costs -- Oh how can I her person try To image and portray? How paint the face, the form how trace, In which those virtues lay? Another world must be unfurled, Another language known, Ere tongue or sound can publish round Her charms of flesh and bone.
Jane Austen’s other poems:
