Here, freed from pain, secure from misery, liesA child, the darling of his parents’ eyes:A gentler lamb n’er sported on the plain,A fairer flower will never bloom again:Few were the days allotted to his breath;Now let him sleep in peace his night of death.
Who keep long vigils by the silentdust and weep.For my sake turn to life and smileNerving thy heart and tremblinghand to comfort weaker souls than thee.Complete these unfinished tasks of mineAnd I perchance may therein comfort thee.
Give ample room, and verge enoughThe characters of hell to trace.Mark the year, and mark the night,When Severn shall re-echo with affrightThe shrieks of death, thro’ Berkley’s roofs that ring,Shrieks of an agonizing King!She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,That tear’st the bowels of thy mangled mate,From thee be born, who o’er thy country hangsThe scourge…
With vermeil cheek, and whisper softShe woos the tardy Spring:Till April starts, and calls aroundThe sleeping fragrance from the ground;And lightly o’er the living sceneScatters his freshest, tenderest green.New-born flocks, in rustic dance,Frisking ply their feeble feet;Forgetful of their wintry tranceThe birds his presence greet:But chief, the skylark warbles highHis trembling thrilling ecstasy;And, lessening from…
3 The birds in vain their amorous descant join;4 Or cheerful fields resume their green attire;5 These ears, alas! for other notes repine,6 A different object do these eyes require;7 My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine;8 And in my breast the imperfect joys expire.9 Yet Morning smiles the busy race to cheer,10 And…
Whose iron scourge and tort’ring hourThe Bad affright, afflict the Best!Bound in thy adamantine chainThe Proud are taught to taste of pain,And purple Tyrants vainly groanWith pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.When first thy Sire to send on earthVirtue, his darling child, designed,To thee he gave the heav’nly Birth,And bade to form her infant mind.Stern…
The birds in vain their amorous descant join;Or cheerful fields resume their green attire:These ears, alas! for other notes repine,A different object do these eyes require:My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine;And in my breast the imperfect joys expire.Yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer,And new-born pleasure brings to happier men:The fields to…
Where grateful ScienceÊ still adoresHer Henry’sÊ holy shade;And yeÊ that from the stately browOf Windsor’s height th’ expanse belowOf grove, of lawn, of mead survey,Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers amongWanders the hoary Thames alongHis silver-winding way. 10Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade,Ah fields beloved in vain,Where once my careless childhood strayed,A stranger yet to…
Iron-sleet of arrowy showerHurtles in the darkened air.Glittering lances are the loom,Where the dusky warp we strain,Weaving many a soldier’s doom,Orkney’s woe and Randver’s bane.See the grisly texture grow,(‘Tis of human entrails made!)And the weights that play below,Each a gasping warrior’s head.Shafts for shuttles, dipped in gore,Shoot the trembling cords along.Sword, that once a monarch…
From Helicon’s harmonious springsA thousand rills their mazy progress take:The laughing flowers that round them blowDrink life and fragrance as they flow.Now the rich stream of Music winds along,Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,Thro’ verdant vales, and Ceres’ golden reign;Now rolling down the steep amain,Headlong, impetuous, see it pour;The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the…
