Images de page
PDF
ePub

My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,

Though a friend I am never to see.

VI.

How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compar'd with the speed of it's flight, The tempest itself lags behind,

And the swift-winged arrows of light. When I think of my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there; But alas! recollection at hand

Soon hurries me back to despair.

VII.

But the seafowl is gone to her nest,
The beast is laid down in his lair;
Even here is a season of rest,

And I to my cabin repair.

There's inercy in every place,
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,

And reconciles man to his lot.

ON THE PROMOTION OF

EDWARD THURLOW, Esq.,

TO THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLORSHIP

OF ENGLAND.

I.

ROUND Thurlow's head in early youth,
And in his sportive days,

Fair Science pour'd the light of truth,

And Genius shed his

rays.

II.

See! with united wonder cried

Th' experienc'd and the sage,

Ambition in a boy supplied
With all the skill of age?

III.

Discernment, eloquence, and grace
Proclaim him born to sway

The balance in the highest place,

And bear the palm away.

IV.

The praise bestow'd was just and wise;
He sprang impetuous forth
Secure of conquest, where the prize
Attends superior worth.

V.

So the best courser on the plain
Ere yet he starts is known,
And does but at the goal obtain
What all had deem'd his own.

ODE TO PEACE.

I.

COME, peace of mind, delightful guest!

Return and make thy downy nest

Once more in this sad heart:

Nor riches I nor pow'r pursue,
Nor hold fobidden joys in view;

We therefore need not part.

II.

Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,

From av'rice and ambition free,

And pleasure's fatal wiles?

For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that I was wont to share,

The banquet of thy smiles?

III,

The great, the gay, shall they partake The Heav'n that thou alone canst make? And wilt thou quit the stream,

That murmurs through the dewy mead, The grove and the sequester'd shed,

To be a guest with them?

IV.

For thee I panted, thee I priz'd,
For thee I gladly sacrific'd

Whate'er I lov'd before;

And shall I see thee start away,

And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say

Farewell! we meet no more?

HUMAN FRAILTY.

I.

WEAK and irresolute is man;
The purpose of to day,

Woven with pains into his plan,
To morrow rends away.

II.

The bow well bent, and smart the spring,

Vice seems already slain;

But Passion rudely snaps the string,

And it revives again.

III.

Some foe to his upright intent

Finds out his weaker part;

Virtue engages his assent,

But Pleasure wins his heart.

IV.

"Tis here the folly of the wise

Through all his art we view;

And, while his tongue the charge denies, His conscience owns it true.

« PrécédentContinuer »