To Miss Godfrey

Here, from that excellence of mind and heart
Which seated MILTON high in Honour’s fane,
From genius, piety, and lyric art,
Recedes injustice’ dark but transient stain.

Thou, gentle Maid, whose kindred spirit shares
Each virtue thy fair sister’s life displays,
Wilt joy to see expos’d the sophist snares
That wilder judgment in their artful maze.

And O! to each more bright these leaves will shine,
Their truth, their eloquence, more welcome prove,
Viewing the Bard, whose songs ye feel divine,
Given back to Glory by the Friend ye love.