Edition of "From Mrs Wilmot to her Daughter"
From Mrs Wilmot to her Daughter Elizabeth Sarah Wilmot in answer to some Verses
My Dearest Child my much loved Treasure
Your lines I read with rap’trous1 pleasure
To see the sacred sisters2 thus inspire
Your early mind with their poetic fire
Oh may you catch their bright their heav’nly fame
And caroll sweet four Virtues3 hallow’d name
Then shall you feel haste that she alone
Gives joy & grace for truth & beauty still are one
1 A feeling of great pleasure, being delighted.
2“sacred sisters” refers to the nine Muses. Daughters of Zeus and the goddess Mnemosyne, they represented epic poetry, romantic poetry, history, music, tragedy, hymns, dance, comedy, and astronomy.
3From classical antiquity and adapted to Christian theology, the four virtues are prudence, courage, temperance, and justice.