Anna Laetitia Barbauld - Characters lyrics

OH! born to sooth distress, and lighten care; Lively as soft, and innocent as fair; Blest with that sweet simplicity of thought So rarely found, and never to be taught; Of winning speech, endearing, artless, kind, The loveliest pattern of a female mind; Like some fair spirit from the realms of rest With all her native heaven within her breast; So pure, so good, she scarce can guess at sin, But thinks the world without like that within; Such melting tenderness, so fond to bless, Her charity almost becomes excess. Wealth may be courted, wisdom be rever'd, And beauty prais'd, and brutal strength be fear'd; But goodness only can affection move; And love must owe its origin to love. OF gentle manners, and of taste refin'd, With all the graces of a polish'd mind; Clear sense and truth still shone in all she spoke, And from her lips no idle sentence broke. Each nicer elegance of art she knew; Correctly fair, and regularly true : Her ready fingers plied with equal sk** The pencil's task, the needle, or the quill. So pois'd her feelings, so compos'd her soul, So subject all to reason's calm controul, One only pa**ion, strong, and unconfin'd, Disturb'd the balance of her even mind: One pa**ion rul'd despotic in her breast, In every word, and look, and thought confest; But that was love, and love delights to bless The generous transports of a fond excess.