The first, will probably remind you of Shakspeare’s description of the
wounded stag in _As you like it_; which it may do, and not suffer by
the comparison. The second, is very original in the expression—the
circumstance of
——thinks _every shade_ doth part
Her absent love and her——
is I believe new, and exquisitely tender. There are others not much
inferior to these.
The following verses allude to the print prefixed, where a bubble is
represented as heavier than the globe. It is necessary to observe, that
the prints were designed first, and the poems are in a great measure
explanatory of them.
Lord! what a world is this, which day and night
Men seek with so much toil, with so much trouble,
Which weigh’d in equal scales is found so light,
So poorly overbalanc’d with a bubble?
Good God! that frantic mortals should destroy
Their higher hopes, and place their idle joy
Upon such airy trash, upon so light a toy!
* * * * *
Thrice happy he, whose nobler, thoughts despise
To make an object of so easy gains;
Thrice happy he, who scorns so poor a prize
Should be the crown of his heroic pains:
Thrice happy he, that ne’er was born to try
Her frowns or smiles: or being born, did lie
In his sad nurse’s arms an hour or two, and die.