The Bard, if e'er he feel at all, <br />Must sure be quickened by a call <br />Both on his heart and head, <br />To pay with tuneful thanks the care <br />And kindness of a lady fair <br />Who deigns to deck his bed. <br /> <br />A bed like this, in ancient time, <br />On Ida's barren top sublime, <br />(As Homer's Epic shows), <br />Composed of sweetest vernal flowers, <br />Without the aid of sun or showers, <br />For Jove and Juno rose. <br /> <br />Less beautiful, however gay, <br />Is that which in the scorching day <br />Receives the weary swain <br />Who, laying his long scythe aside, <br />Sleeps on some bank with daisies pied, <br />Till roused to toil again. <br /> <br />What labours of the loom I see! <br />Looms numberless have groaned for me! <br />Should every maiden come <br />To scramble for the patch that bears <br />The impress of the robe she wears, <br />The bell would toll for some. <br /> <br />And oh, what havoc would ensue! <br />This bright display of every hue <br />All in a moment fled! <br />As if a storm should strip the bowers <br />Of all their tendrils, leaves, and flowers,-- <br />Each pocketing a shred. <br /> <br />Thanks, then, to every gentle Fair, <br />Who will not come to peck me bare <br />As bird of borrowed feather, <br />And thanks to one, above them all, <br />The gentle Fair of Pertenhall, <br />Who put the whole together.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-mrs-king-on-her-kind-present-to-the-author-a-patchwork-counterpane-of-her-own-making/
