Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.
Line 200.
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?
Line 294.
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.
Epistle ii. Line 1.
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.[11]
[Note 11: From Charron (de la Sagesse):--"La vraye science et
le vray etude de l'homme c'est l'homme."]
Line 217.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Line 231.
Virtuous and vicious every man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree.
Line 276.
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
Epistle iii. Line 305.
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
Epistle iv. Line 49.
Order is Heaven's first law.
Line 193.
Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part--there all the honor lies.
Line 203.
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.
Line 215.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
Line 247.
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Line 254.
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
Line 281.
Think how Bacon shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.
Line 310.
Virtue alone is happiness below.
Line 330.
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to nature's God.
Line 379.
Formed by thy converse happily to steer
Prom grave to gay, from lively to severe.
* * * * *
MORAL ESSAYS.
Epistle i. Line 135.
'Tis from high life high characters are drawn--
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
Line 149.
'Tis education forms the common mind:
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
Line 246.
Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke,
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
Epistle ii. Line 15.
Whether the charmers sinner it or saint it,
If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
Line 43.
Fine by defect and delicately weak.
Line 97.
With too much quickness ever to be taught,
With too much thinking to have common thought.
Line 215.
Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;
But every woman is at heart a rake.
Line 268.
And mistress of herself, though china fall.
Line 270.
Woman's at best a contradiction still.
Epistle iii. Line 1.
Who shall decide when doctors disagree?
Line 95.
But thousands die without or this or that,
Die, and endow a college or a cat.
Line 153.
The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still.
Line 161.
Extremes in nature equal good produce.
Line 250.
Rise, honest muse! and sing--The man of Ross.
Line 285.
Who builds a church to God, and not to fame,
Will never mark the marble with his name.
* * * * *
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.
Part i. Line 9.
'Tis with our judgments as our watches; none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Line 153.
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.
Part ii. Line 215.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
Line 232.
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise,
Line 297.
True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.
Line 357.
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
Line 362.
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
Line 365.
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Line 525.
To err is human: to forgive, divine.
Part iii. Line 625.
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
* * * * *
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF AN UNFORTUNATE LADY.
Line 54.
By strangers honored and by strangers mourned
* * * * *
And bear about the mockery of woe
To midnight dances and the public show.
* * * * *
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.
Canto ii. Line 7.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore.
Canto ii. Line 17.
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget them all.
Canto iii. Line 16.
At every word a reputation dies.
Line 21.
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang, that jurymen may dine.
* * * * *
SATIRES AND IMITATIONS OF HORACE
Prologue, Line 1.
Shut, shut the door, good John.
Line 12.
E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me.
Line 18.
Who pens a stanza when he should engross.
Line 127.
As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame,
I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.
Line 197.
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne,
Line 201.
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer.
Line 308.
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
Line 333.
Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.
Book ii. Satire i. Line 6.
Lord Fanny spins a thousand such a day.
Line 69.
Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run a muck, and tilt at all I meet.
Line 127.
Then St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,
The feast of reason and the flow of soul.
Book ii. Satire ii. Line 159.
For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best,
Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.[12]
[Note 12: See the Odyssey, Book xv. line 83.]
Book ii. Epistle i. Line 108.
The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease.
* * * * *
_Epilogue to the Satires_.
Dialogue i. Line 136.
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
_Epitaph on Gay_.
Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
In wit a man, simplicity a child.
* * * * *
THE DUNCIAD.
Book i. Line 54.
And solid pudding against empty praise.
Book iii. Line 158.
All crowd, who foremost shall be damned to fame.
Book iii. Line 165.
Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
And makes night hideous; answer him, ye owls.
Book iv. Line 614.
E'en Palinurus nodded at the helm.
* * * * *
ODYSSEY.
Book ii. Line 315.
Few sons attain the praise
Of their great sires, and most their sires disgrace.
Book xiv. Line 410.
Far from gay cities and the ways of men.
Book xv. Line 79.
Who love too much, hate in the like extreme.
Book xv. Line 83.
True friendship's laws are by this rule expressed,
Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.
* * * * *
_Windsor forest_.
Thus, if small things we may with great compare.
* * * * *
_Martinus Scriblerus on the Art of Sinking in Poetry_.
Chapter xi.
Ye Gods! annihilate but space and time,
And make two lovers happy.
* * * * *
_Epitaph on the Hon. S. Harcourt_.
Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide,
Or gave his father grief but when he died.
* * * * *
THOMAS TICKELL.
1686-1740.
_On the Death of Addison_. Line 45.
Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed
A fairer spirit, or more welcome shade.
Line 79.
There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high
The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.
_Colin and Lucy_.
I hear a voice you cannot hear,
Which says I must not stay,
I see a hand you cannot see,
Which beckons me away.
* * * * *
JOHN GAY.
1688-1732.
_What D'ye Call 't_.
Act ii. Sc. 9.
So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er,
The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.
* * * * *
_Beggars' Opera_.
Act i. Sc. 1.
O'er the hills and far away.
* * * * *
How happy could I be with either,
Were t'other dear charmer away.
FABLES.
_The Shepherd and the Philosopher_.
Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
* * * * *
_The Mother, the Nurse, and the Fairy_.
When yet was ever found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?
* * * * *
_The Sick Man and the Angel_.
While there is life there's hope, he cried.
* * * * *
_The Hare and Many Friends_.
And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.
* * * * *
_Epitaph on Himself_.
Life's a jest, and all things show it;
I thought so once, and now I know it.
* * * * *
LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE.
1690-1762.
_The Lady's Resolve_.
Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide--
In part she is to blame that has been tried;
He comes too near, that comes to be denied.
NICHOLAS ROWE.
1673-1718.
_The Fair Penitent_.
Act ii. Sc. 1.
Is she not more than painting can express,
Or youthful poets fancy when they love?
Act v. Sc. 1.
Is this that gallant, gay Lothario?
* * * * *
JOHN PHILIPS.
1676-1708.
_Splendid Shilling_.
Line 121.
My galligaskins, that have long withstood
The winter's fury and encroaching frosts,
By time subdued (what will not time subdue?)
A horrid chasm disclosed.
* * * * *
THOMAS PARNELL.
1679-1718.
_The Hermit_. Line 5.
Remote from men, with God he passed his days,
Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.
BARTON BOOTH.
1681-1733.
_Song_.
True as the needle to the pole,
Or as the dial to the sun.
* * * * *
MATTHEW GREEN.
1696-1737.
_The Spleen_. Line 93.
Fling but a stone, the giant dies.
* * * * *
JOHN BYROM.
1691-1763.
_'On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini_.[13]
Some say, compared to Bononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
Strange all this difference should be
'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
[Note 13: "Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and
Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine." Byrom's Remains (Cheltenham
Soc), Vol. I. p 173. The last two lines have been attributed to Switt
and Pope. _Vide_ Scott's edition of Swift, and Dyce's edition of Pope.]
* * * * *
_The Astrologer_.
As clear as a whistle.
* * * * *
_Epigram on Two Monopolists_.
Bone and skin, two millers thin,
Would starve us all, or near it;
But be it known to Skin and Bone
That Flesh and Blood can't bear it.
* * * * *
BISHOP BERKELEY.
1684-1753.
_On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America_.
Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last.
* * * * *
ROBERT BLAIR.
1699-1746.
_The Grave_. Part ii. Line 586.
The good he scorned,
Stalked off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,
Not to return; or if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.
* * * * *
EDWARD YOUNG.
1681-1765.
NIGHT THOUGHTS.
Night i. Line 1.
Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!
Night i. Line 55.
The bell strikes one. We take no note of time
But from its loss.
Night i. Line 154.
To waft a feather or to drown a fly.
Night i. Line 390.
Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer.
Night i. Line 393.
Procrastination is the thief of time.
Night i. Line 417.
At thirty man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.
Night i. Line 424.
All men think all men mortal but themselves.
Night ii. Line 376.
'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours,
And ask them what report they bore to heaven.
Night ii. Line 602.
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
Night ii. Line 633.
The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileged beyond the common walk
Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.
Night iii. Line 81.
Beautiful as sweet!
And young as beautiful! and soft as young!
And gay as soft! and innocent as gay!
Night iii. Line 104
Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay.
Night iv. Line 10.
The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave,
The deep, damp vault, the darkness, and the worm.
Night iv. Line 15.
Man makes a death, which nature never made.
Night iv. Line 118.
Man wants but little, nor that little long.
Night v. Line 775.
The man of wisdom is the man of years.
Night v. Line 1011.
Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.
Night vi. Line 309.
Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps.
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.
Night vi. Line 606.
And all may do what has by man been done.
Night vii. Line 496.
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.
Night ix. Line 771.
An undevout astronomer is mad.
Night ix. Line 1660.
Emblazed to seize the sight; who runs, may read.
* * * * *
LOVE OF FAME.
Satire i. Line 89.
Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.
Satire i. Line 238.
None think the great unhappy, but the great.
Satire ii. Line 207.
Where nature's end of language is declined,
And men talk only to conceal their mind.[14]
[Note 14: "Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour deguiser leurs
pensées "--_Voltaire_.]
Satire vii. Line 97.
How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun.[15]
[Note 15: Imitated by Crabbe in the Parish Register, Part I.,
Introduction, and taken originally from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,
Part III. Sec. 2. Mem. 1. Subs 2. "But to enlarge or illustrate this
power or effects of love is to set a candle in the sun."]
_Lines Written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield_.
Accept a miracle, instead of wit,
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.
* * * * *
HENRY CAREY.
1663-1743.
_God save the King_.[16]
God save our gracious king,
Long live our noble king,
God save the king.
[Note 16: The authorship both of the words and music of "God save the
King" has long been a matter of dispute, and is still unsettled, though
the weight of the evidence is in favor of Carey's claim.]
* * * * *
_Chrononhotonthologos_. Act i. Sc. 3.
To thee, and gentle Rigdum Funnidos,
Our gratulations flow in streams unbounded.
Act ii. Sc. 4.
Go call a coach, and let a coach be called,
And let the man who calleth be the caller;
And in his calling let him nothing call
But Coach! Coach! Coach! O for a coach, ye gods!
ISAAC WATTS.
1674-1748.
DIVINE SONGS.
To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, three in one,
Be honor, praise, and glory given,
By all on earth, and all in heaven.
* * * * *
Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber
Holy angels guard thy bed!
Heavenly blessings without number
Gently falling on thy head.
* * * * *
Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight.
For 'tis their nature too.
* * * * *
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day,
From every opening flower.
* * * * *
Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound.
'Tis the voice of the sluggard, I heard him complain,
"You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again."
SIR SAMUEL TUKE.
--1673.
_Adventures of Five Hours_. Act v. Sc. 3.
He is a fool who thinks by force or skill
To turn the current of a woman's will.
* * * * *
AARON HILL
1685-1750.
_Epilogue to Zara_.
First, then, a woman will, or won't--depend on 't;
If she will do 't, she will; and there's an end on 't.
But, if she won't, since safe and sound your trust is,
Fear is affront: and jealousy injustice.[17]
* * * * *
_Verses Written on a Window in Scotland_.
Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
[Note 17: The following lines are copied from the pillar erected on
the mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury:
"Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrent of a woman's will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on 't;
And if she won't, she won't; so there's an end on't."]
'Tis the same with common natures:
Use 'em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
* * * * *
RICHARD SAVAGE.
1698-1743.
_The Bastard_. Line 7.
He lives to build, not boast a generous race:
No tenth transmitter of a foolish face.
* * * * *
JAMES THOMSON.
1700-1748.
THE SEASONS.
_Spring_. Line 283.
Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Line 465.
But who can paint
Like Nature? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?
Line 1149.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,--
To teach the young idea how to shoot,--
Line 1158.
An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books.
Ease and alternate labor, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
* * * * *
_Summer_. Line 1188.
Sighed and looked unutterable things.
Line 1285.
A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate
Of mighty monarchs.
Line 1346.
So stands the statue that enchants the world.
* * * * *
_Autumn_. Line 204.
Loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorned, adorned the most.
Line 283.
For still the world prevailed, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn.
* * * * *
_Winter_. Line 393.
Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.
* * * * *
_Hymn_. Line 25.
Shade, unperceived, so softening into shade.
Line 114.
From seeming evil still educing good.
Line 118.
Come then, expressive silence, muse his praise.
* * * * *
_Castle of Indolence_. Canto i. St. 69.
A little round, fat, oily man of God.
* * * * *
_Alfred_. Act ii. Sc. 5.
Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
* * * * *
_Song, "Forever, Fortune."_
Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
An unrelenting foe to love;
And, when we meet a mutual heart,
Step rudely in, and bid us part?
* * * * *
_Sophonisba_. Act iii. Sc. 2.
O Sophonisba! Sophonisba, O![18]
[Note 18: This line was altered, after the second edition, to "O
Sophonisba! I am wholly thine."]
* * * * *
JOHN DYER.
1700-1758.
_Grongar Hill_. Line 163.
Ever charming, ever new,
When will the landscape tire the view.
Line 123.
As yon summits soft and fair,
Clad in colors of the air,
Which to those who journey near
Barren, brown, and rough appear.
* * * * *
PHILIP DODDRIDGE.
1702-1751.
_Epigram on his Family Arms_.
Live while you live, the epicure would say,
And seize the pleasures of the present day;
Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries,
And give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my views let both united be;
I live in pleasure, when I live to thee.
* * * * *
ROBERT DODSLEY
1703-1764.
_The Parting Kiss_.
One kind kiss before we part,
Drop a tear and bid adieu;
Though we sever, my fond heart
Till we meet shall pant for you.
* * * * *
SAMUEL JOHNSON.
1709-1784.
_Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre_.
Each exchange of many-colored life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new,
And panting time toiled after him in vain.
* * * * *
For we that live to please must please to live.
* * * * *
_Vanity of Human Wishes_.
Line 1.
Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind, from China to Peru.[19]
[Note 19: The Universal Love of Pleasure, line 1: "All human race,
from China to Peru, Pleasure, however disguised by art, pursue." _Rev.
Thos. Warton_.]
Line 159.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail--
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
Line 221.
He left the name, at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
Line 257.
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know
That life protracted is protracted woe.
Line 306.
Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage.
Line 318.
And Swift expires, a driveller and a show.
Line 346.
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate.
_London_. Line 166.
Of all the griefs that harass the distressed,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.
Line 176.
This mournful truth is everywhere confessed,
Slow rises worth by poverty depressed.
* * * * *
_Lines added to Goldsmith's Traveller_.
How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
* * * * *
_Line added to Goldsmith's Deserted Village_.
Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.
* * * * *
_From Dr. Madden's_ "_Boulter's Monument_."
_Supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson_. 1745.
Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.
_Basselas_. Chapter i.
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers
of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms
of hope; who expect that age will perform
the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies
of the present day will be supplied by
the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas,
Prince of Abyssinia.
* * * * *
_Epitaph on Robert Levett_.
In Misery's darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish poured his groan,
And lonely Want retired to die.
* * * * *
_Epitaph on Claudius Phillips, the Musician_.
Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distressed by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep, undisturbed, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
* * * * *
LORD LYTTELTON
1709-1773.
_Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus_.
For his chaste Muse employed her heaven-taught lyre
None but the noblest passions to inspire,
Not one immoral, one corrupted thought,
One line, which dying he could wish to blot.
_Epigram_.
None without hope e'er loved the brightest fair,
But love can hope where reason would despair.
* * * * *
_Soliloquy on a Beauty in the Country_.
Where none admire, 'tis useless to excel;
Where none are beaux, 'tis vain to be a belle.
* * * * *
_Song_.
Alas! by some degree of woe
We every bliss must gain;
The heart can ne'er a transport know,
That never feels a pain.
* * * * *
EDWARD MOORE.
1712-1757.
_Fable IX. The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat_.
Can't I another's face commend,
And to her virtues be a friend,
But instantly your forehead lowers,
As if _her_ merit lessened _yours_?
_Fable X. The Spider and the Bee_.
The maid who modestly conceals
Her beauties, while she hides, reveals;
Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws
Whate'er the Grecian Venus was.
* * * * *
But from the hoop's bewitching round,
Her very shoe has power to wound.
* * * * *
_The Happy Marriage_.
Time still, as he flies, adds increase to her truth,
And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.
* * * * *
_The Gamester_. Act iii. Sc. 4.
'Tis now the summer of your youth: time
has not cropt the roses from your cheek,
though sorrow long has washed them.
* * * * *
WILLIAM SHENSTONE.
1714-1763.
_Written on the Window of an Inn_.
Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
His warmest welcome at an inn.
_Jemmy Dawson_.
For seldom shall you hear a tale
So sad, so tender, and so true.
* * * * *
_The Schoolmistress_.
Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblems right meet of decency does yield.
* * * * *
JOHN BROWN.
1715-1766.
_Barbarossa_. Act. v. Sc. 3.
Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced
That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction,
That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour
Serves but to brighten all our future days.
* * * * *
DAVID GARRICK.
1716-1779.
_Prologue on Quitting the Stage in 1776, 10th of June_.
Their cause I plead--plead it in heart and mind;
A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.
_On the Death of Mr. Pelham_.
Let others hail the rising sun:
I bow to that whose race is run.
* * * * *
THOMAS GRAY.
1716-1771.
_On a Distant Prospect of Eton College_.
Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!
Ah, fields beloved in vain!
Where once my careless childhood strayed,
A stranger yet to pain!
* * * * *
Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play;
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day.
* * * * *
No more: where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
* * * * *
_Progress of Poesy_.
O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move
The bloom of young Desire, and purple light of Love.
* * * * *
Ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.
Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.
* * * * *
_The Bard_.
Give ample room, and verge enough.
* * * * *
Youth at the prow, and Pleasure at the helm.
* * * * *
_Elegy in a Country Churchyard_.
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
* * * * *
The short and simple annals of the poor.
* * * * *
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
* * * * *
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
* * * * *
Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
* * * * *
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
* * * * *
Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest.
And read their history in a nation's eyes.
* * * * *
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.
* * * * *
Along the cool, sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
* * * * *
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
* * * * *
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.
* * * * *
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind.
* * * * *
E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E'en in our ashes, live their wonted fires.
* * * * *
A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown.
* * * * *
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere.
* * * * *
He gave to misery (all he had) a tear.
* * * * *
The bosom of his Father and his God.
_Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude_.