Works

The Verses to my Husband preceded the following to my Daughter but three or four Years: at three or four Years old She could read & write and do a hundred Tricks; thanks to my own Fatigue & my Mother’s Assistance, we were both Indefatigable, that we were: I had however one Week gone to Town with M^r Thrale leaving the Child at Streatham with my Mother; when I went to visit them— Hetty gave me a Rose from the Hothouse, it was February 1767: & a great Snow on the Ground: at Night I wrote the following little Poem

You love a Fable, this may do
To pass away an hour or two;
The Rose you gave inspired the Strain
    Another Time perhaps you’ll know it,
Roses were never given in vain
    To one that call’d himself a Poet;
    No Rhymist e’er the Bait resisted
    Since Rhymes and Roses have existed.

        Offspring of Artifice and Care,
        By Contrast only seeming Fair,
        Factitious Thing, by Folly bred,
        Thus to th’ insulted Flow’r I said,
        Are these the Sweets that you disclose?
        The Beauties of a Hothouse Rose?

And is it worth our Toil and Pain
Such languid Charms at length t’obtain ?
Back to your narrow Cell retire,
And flourish o’er your Charcoal Fire;
Ill form’d the Breath of heav’n to bear,
A Hot House is Your proper Sphere.

While yet I spoke the Rose appear’d,
To feel the force of what She heard;
Then seem’d to blush a deeper dye
And form’d indignant this Reply.
Before you hastily condemn,
My feeble Stalk my slender Stem;
Think on Your Daughter’s early Bloom
Nor longer scorn my faint perfume:
When with Attention Care and Skill,
You mould her Infant Mind at will,
With pains the frigid Soil prepare,
And force th’ unwilling Tree to bear;
Beneath Your fost’ring Hand she grows,
And blooms at length—a hothouse Rose:
Assisted too I’m told in Town
By hands much abler than your own;
If this be all Your Arts have gain’d
Let me no longer live disdained,
Tho’ still confess’d a forward Plant,
My Leaves no teizing Insects haunt;
Let her like me her Sweets dispense
With Purity and Innocence
Content from dangerous Crowds retire,
And cheat the Safe Domestick Fire;
There, should her Prattle once beguile
Judicious Johnson of a Smile;
You’d soon confess your Cares repaid,
And wonder at the progress made.