title: Rebus (Deity)
author: Henry Livingston Jr.
date: undated (MS book, c. 1785; printed Oct 1788)
source: Henry Livingston's manuscript poetry book (Thomas Collection; scans and transcription on henrylivingston.com), p. 21; also printed anonymously in the American Magazine (New York), Oct 1788, p. 815. URL: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/deity.htm (fetched via https://web.archive.org/web/20250213180556/http://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/deity.htm)
form: anapestic tetrameter
lines: 20
attribution: certain
notes: Light rebus on a young lady's name (site solution: Anne?). MS version kept; printed version noted by the site. MS scan: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/doublepages/doublepage20-21.htm

Take the name of the Deity lovers obey
And the golden tress'd God whose bright car gives the day;
The beveridge by gentle & simple most taken
And the colour maids wear when they think they're forsaken.
Add the flow'r whose odours unremittingly please us
And the chief who at Troy seiz'd the horses of Rheses.
The Goddess refulgent whose far-beaming rays
Can pour upon error meridian blase.
What makes the fair ladies and honey regarded,
Or the looks of poor Stephon by Phyllis discarded.
The name of a Lady who never was born;
And that period of day between evening and morn.

The initials of these if properly placed
Will discover a damsel angelicly faced:
Health dwells on her cheeks - Love laughs in her eye
And plays round her bosom -- to gase is to die.
The shepherds in love press fondly about her
All swearing by Cupid they can't live without her.
Impell'd by her merit, not less than her charms,
With the pinions of rapture I fly to her arms.