The Toast

Fill me with the rosy wine;
Call a toast, a toast divine;
Give the Poet's darling flame;
Lovely Jessie be her name:
Then thou mayest freely boast
Thou hast given a peerless toast.

The Menagerie
1.
Talk not to me of savages
From Afric's burning sun!
No savage e'er can read my heart
As, Jessie, thou has done.
2.
But Jessie's lovely hand in mine
A mutual faith to plight -
Not even to view the heavenly choir
Would be so blest a sight.

Jessie's Illness

Say, sages, what's the charm on earth
Can turn Death's dart aside?
It is not purity and worth,
Else Jessie had not died!

Her Recovery

But rarely seen since Nature's birth
The natives of the sky!
Yet still one seraph's left on earth,
For Jessie did not die.

Fill me with the rosy wine;
Call a toast, a toast divine;
Give the Poet's darling flame;
Lovely Jessie be her name:
Then you may freely boast
You have given a peerless toast.



Talk not to me of savages
From Africa's burning sun!
No savage ever can read my heart
As, Jessie, you have done.

But Jessie's lovely hand in mine
A mutual faith to plight (pledge) -
Not even to view the heavenly choir
Would be so blessed a sight.



Say, sages, what is the charm on earth
Can turn Death's dart aside?
It is not purity and worth,
Else Jessie had not died!




But rarely seen since Nature's birth
The natives of the sky!
Yet still one seraph is left on earth,
For Jessie did not die.