TO MISS CREUZÉ, ON HER BIRTHDAY. How many between east and west Not so when Stella's natal morn GRATITUDE. ADDRESSED TO LADY HESKETH. THIS cap that so stately appears, rears Ambitious of brushing the sky: This сар to my cousin I owe, She gave it, and gave me beside, Wreathed into an elegant bow, The ribbon with which it is tied. This wheel-footed studying chair, In which I both scribble and dose, These carpets, so soft to the foot, Caledonia's traffic and pride, This table and mirror within, Secure from collision and dust, This moveable structure of shelves, The gayest I had to produce; Where, flaming in scarlet and gold, This china, that decks the alcove, Has ne'er been revealed to us yet: warm Or cool, as the season demands, Those stoves that for pattern and form Seem the labour of Mulciber's hands: All these are not half that I owe To One, from our earliest youth To me ever ready to shew Benignity, friendship, and truth; For time, the destroyer declared And foe of our perishing kind, If even her face he has spared, Much less could he alter her mind. Thus compass'd about with the goods Poet's goods are not often so fine; STANZAS SUBJOINED TO THE YEARLY BILL OF MORTALITY OF THE PARISH OF Pallida Mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, Pale Death with equal foot strikes wide the door HORACE. WHILE thirteen moons saw smoothly | The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen, I pass'd,--and they were gone. run The Nen's barge-laden wave, Was man (frail always) made more Than in foregoing years? That so much death appears ? Nor plague nor famine came; Read, ye No present health can health insure And oh! that humble as my lot, I may not teach in vain. * In the following extract, from a letter of the poet's to Lady Hesketh, Cowper explains how he came to write on such a subject. "On Monday morning last, Sam brought me word that there was a man in the kitchen who desired to speak with me. I ordered him in. A plain, decent, elderly figure made its appearance, and, being desired to sit, spoke as follows: Sir, I am clerk of the parish of All Saints, in Northampton; brother of Mr. C. [Cox,] the upholsterer. It is customary for the person in my office to annex to a bill of mortality, which he publishes at Christmas, a copy of verses. You will do me a great favour, sir, if you will furnish me with one.' To this I replied, Mr. C., you have several men of genius in your town, why have you not applied to some of them? There is a namesake of yours in particular, C―, the statuary, who, everybody knows, is a first-rate maker of verses. He surely is the man of all the world for your purpose.' 'Alas! sir, I have heretofore borrowed help of him, but he is a gentleman of so much reading that the people of our town cannot understand him.' I confess to you, my dear, I felt all the force of the compliment implied in this speech, and was almost ready to answer, 'Perhaps, my good friend, they may find me unintelligible too for the same reason.' But, on asking him whether he had walked over to Weston on purpose to implore the assistance of my muse, and on his replying in the affirmative, I felt my mortified vanity a little consoled, and, pitying the poor man's distress, which appeared to be considerable, promised to supply him. The waggon has accordingly gone this day to Northampton loaded in part with my effusions in the martuary style. A fig for poets who write epitaphs on individuals! I have written one that serves two hundred persons." D D COULD I, from Heaven inspired, as sure presage How each would trembling wait the mournful sheet On which the press might stamp him next to die; And, reading here his sentence, how replete With anxious meaning, heavenward turn his eye! Then doubtless many a trifler, on the brink Ah self-deceived! Could I prophetic say Observe the dappled foresters, how light They bound and airy o'er the sunny glade: Had we their wisdom, should we, often warn'd, A thousand awful admonitions scorn'd, Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones! Learn then, ye living! by the mouths be taught ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1789. -Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit. There calm at length he breathed his soul away. "O MOST delightful hour by man "Worlds should not bribe me back Again life's dreary waste, The bosom of his God. He was a man among the few VIRG. And all his strength from Scripture drew, To hourly use applied. That rule he prized, by that he fear'd, But when his heart had roved. And evil felt within; And loathed the thought of sin. Call'd up from earth to heaven, The gulf of death triumphant pass'd, By gales of blessing driven. "His joys be mine," each reader cries, "When my last hour arrives;" They shall be yours," my verse replies, "Such only be ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne.-BUCHANAN. HE who sits from day to day Hardly knows that he has sung. your lives." Where the watchman in his round So your verse-man I, and Clerk, And the foe's unerring aim. Oft repeated in your ears, Grow, by being oft impress'd, Death and judgment, heaven and hell These alone, so often heard, No more move us than the bell When some stranger is interr'd. Oh then, ere the turf or tomb Cover us from every eye, Spirit of instruction! come, Make us learn that we must die. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!—VIRG. Happy the mortal who has traced effects To their first cause, cast fear beneath his feet, THANKLESS for favours from on high, | Whence has the world her magic Man thinks he fades too soon; Though 'tis his privilege to die, To ages in a world of pain, To ages, where he goes Gall'd by affliction's heavy chain, And hopeless of repose. Strange fondness of the human heart, Enamour'd of its harm! Strange world, that costs it so much smart, And still has power to charm. |