Scorn'd in a world, indebted to that scorn For evils daily felt and hardly borne,
Not knowing thee, we reap with bleeding hands Flow'rs of rank odour upon thorny lands, And, while Experience cautions us in vain, Grasp seeming happiness, and find it pain. Despondence, self-deserted in her grief, Lost by abandoning her own relief, Murmuring and ungrateful Discontent, That scorns afflictions mercifully meant, Those humours, tart as wines upon the fret,
Which idleness and weariness beget;
These, and a thousand plagues, that haunt the breast,
Fond of the phantom of an earthly rest,
Divine communion chases, as the day
Drives to their dens th' obedient beasts of prey.
See Judah's promis'd king bereft of all, Driv'n out an exile from the face of Saul, To distant caves the lonely wand'rer flies, To seek that peace a tyrant's frown denies. Hear the sweet accents of his tuneful voice, Hear him, o'erwhelm'd with sorrow, yet rejoice; No womanish or wailing grief has part, No, not a moment, in his royal heart; 'Tis manly musick, such as martyrs make, Suff'ring with gladness for a Saviour's sake; His soul exults, hope animates his lays, The sense of mercy kindles into praise, And wilds, familiar with a lion's roar, Ring with ecstatick sounds unheard before: 'Tis love like his, that can alone defeat The foes of man, or make a desert sweet.
Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumber'd pleasures harmlessly pursued; To study culture, and with artful toil
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands
The grain, or herb, or plant that each demands; To cherish virtue in an humble state,
And share the joys your bounty may create; To mark the matchless workings of the pow'r That shuts within its seed the future flow'r, Bids these in elegance of form excel,
In colour these, and those delight the smell, Sends Nature forth the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes To teach the canvass innocent deceit, Or lay the landscape on the snowy sheet- These, these arts pursued without a crime, That leave no stain upon the wing of Time. Me poetry (or rather notes that aim Feebly and vainly at poetick fame) Employs, shut out from more important views, Fast by the banks of the slow winding Ouse; Content if thus sequester'd I may raise A monitor's though not a poet's praise, And while I teach an art too little known, To close life wisely, may not waste my own.
TITHING TIME AT STOCK, IN ESSEX
Verses addressed to a country clergyman complaining of the disagreeableness of the day annually appointed for receiving the dues at the parsonage.
COME, ponder well, for 'tis no jest, To laugh it would be wrong, The troubles of a worthy priest, The burthen of my song.
This priest he merry is and blithe Three quarters of a year, But oh! it cuts him like a scythe, When tithing time draws near.
He then is full of fright and fears, As one at point to die, And long before the day appears He heaves up many a sigh.
For then the farmers come jog, jog, Along the miry road,
Each heart as heavy as a log,
To make their payments good.
In sooth the sorrow of such days
Is not to be express'd,
When he that takes and he that pays Are both alike distress'd.
Now all unwelcome at his gates The clumsy swains alight, With rueful faces and bald pates He trembles at the sight.
And well he may, for well he knows Each bumpkin of the clan, Instead of paying what he owes, Will cheat him if he can
So in they come each makes his leg, And flings his head before, And looks as if he came to beg,
And not to quit a score.
"And how does miss and madam do,
"The little boy and all ?"
"All tight and well. And how do you, "Good Mr. What-d'ye-call ?"
The dinner comes, and down they sit : Were e'er such hungry folk? There's little talking, and no wit; It is no time to joke
One wipes his nose upon his sleeve, One spits upon the floor,
Yet, not to give offence or grieve, Holds up the cloth before.
The punch goes round, and they are dull And lumpish still as ever;
Like barrels with their bellies full, They only weigh the heavier.
At length the busy time begins.
"Come, neighbours, we must wag The money chinks, down drop their chins, Each lugging out his bag.
One talks of mildew and of frost,
And one of storms of hail,
And one of pigs that he has lost
By maggots at the tail.
"A rarer man than you
"In pulpit none shall hear :
"But yet, methinks, to tell you true, "You sell it plaguy dear."
O why are farmers made so coarse, Or clergy made so fine?
A kick, that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine.
Then let the boobies stay at home;
"Twould cost him, I dare say, Less trouble taking twice the sum, Without the clowns that pay.
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