Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Of fickness watch thee, and thy languid head
Whole nights on her unwearied arm sustain,
And charm away the fenfe of pain :

Nor did the crown your mutual flame

With pledges dear, and with a father's tender name.

XVI.

O belt of wives! O dearer far to me
Than when thy virgin charms

Were yielded to my arms,

How can my foul endure the lofs of thee?

How in the world, to me a defart

Abandon'd, and alone,

grown,

Without my fweet companion can I live?
Without thy lovely fmile,

The dear reward of every virtuous toil,

What pleafures now can pall'd Ambition give? Ev'n the delightful fenfe of well-earn'd praife, Unfhar'd by thee, no more my lifelefs thoughts could raise.

XVII.

For my diftracted mind

What fuccour can I find?

On whom for confolation fhall I call?
Support me every friend,

Your kind affiftance lend

To bear the weight of this oppreffive woe.
Alas! each friend of mine,

My dear departed love, fo much was thine,
That none has any comfort to bestow.
My books, my best relief

In every other grief,

Are now with your idea fadden'd all :
Each fav'rite author we together read

My tortur'd mem'ry wounds, and fpeaks of Luy

dead.

XVIII.

We were the happiest pair of human kind!
The rolling year its varying courfe perform'd
And back return'd again;
Another and another fmiling came,
And faw our happiness unchang'd remain ;
Still in her golden chain

Harmonious Concord did our wishes bind;
Our ftudies, pleafures, tafte, the fame.
O fatal, fatal stroke.

That all this pleasing fabric Love had rais'd
Of rare felicity,

On which ev'n wanton Vice with envy gaz'd,
And every scheme of bliss our hearts had form'd
With foothing hope, for many a future day,
In one fad moment broke !

Yet O my foul, thy rifing murmurs ftay,
Nor dare th' all wife Difpofer to arraign,
Or again his fupreme decree

With impious grief complain.

That all thy full-blown joys at once should fade Was his moft righteous will, and be that will obey'd.

XIX.

Would thý fond love his grace to her controul,
And in thefe low abodes of fin and pain

Her pure, exalted foul
Unjustly for thy partial good detain ?
No-rather ftrive thy grov'ling mind to raise
Up to that unclouded blaze,
That heav'nly radiance of eternal light,
In which enthron'd fhe now with pity fees
How frail, how infecure, how flight,
Is every mortal blifs;

Ev'n love itfelf if rifing by degrees

Beyond the bounds of this imperfect state, Whofe fleeting joys fo foon mult end, It does not too its fov'reign Good afcend. Rife then, my foul, with hope elate, And feek thofe regions of ferene delight, Whofe peaceful path and ever open gate Nor feet but those of harden'd guilt shall mifs. There death himself thy Lucy fhall restore, There yield up all his pow'r ne'er to divide us more.

VERSE S

Making PART of an

EPITAPH on the fame L AD Y.

MA

By the Same.

ADE to engage all hearts, and charm all eyes; Tho' meek, magnanimous, tho' witty, wife; Polite, as all her life in courts had been ; Yet good, as fhe the world had never seen ; The noble fire of an exalted mind, With gentle female tenderness combin'd. Her Speech was the melodious voice of Love, Her Song the warbling of the vernal Grove; Her Eloquence was fweeter than her Song, Soft as her Heart, and as her Reason strong; Her Form each beauty of her mind exprefs'd, Her Mind was Virtue by the Graces dress'd.

[blocks in formation]

OUD howls the ftorm! the vex'd Atlantic roars!

LOUD

Hears cries of horror wafted from afar,

And groans of Anguish, mid the fhrieks of War!
Hears the deep curfes of the Great and Brave,
Sigh in the wind, and murmur on the wave!
O'er his damp brow the fable crape he binds,
And throws his * victor garland to the winds;
Bids haggard Winter in the drear fojourn,
Tear the dim foliage from her drizzling urn;

[ocr errors]

*Victor garland.-Alluding to the conqueft by Lord Cornwallis.

« ПретходнаНастави »