In nervous strains, lo! Madan's polish'd taste
Has poetry's successive progress trac'd,
From antient Greece, where first she fix'd her reign,
To Italy, and Britain's happier plain.
Praise well-bestow'd adorns her glowing lines,
And manly strength with female softness joins.
So female charms and manly virtues grace,
By her example form'd, her blooming race,
And, fram'd alike to please our ears and eyes,
There new Cornelias and new Gracchi rise.
O that you now, with genius at command,
Would snatch the penc l from my artless hand,
And give your sex's portraits, bold and true,
In colours worthy of themselves and you!